I bought a Space Station from this dealer some years back... same sort of listing.. unknown working condition etc.
Machine was in great condition and I had one minor fix to get the playfield to light up green.. other than that it worked perfectly.
Was a great buy!
ok then this leads me to my next point which is, why the would a customer pay premium prices from a dealer if their tech expertise would seem pretty ordinary. I thought buying from a dealer is to give a customer confidence in their purchase or again am I missing something? Why pay top dollar if the seller is guessing like a non tech home seller.
Customer confidence that you speak of does not stretch beyond DMD machines. I'm generalizing here, but from my experience, dealers focus their market on DMDs because the profit margin is high and the the technical expertise on pre DMD machines is very poor. It has been this way for many years. A key point to remember is that older games need more work and traditionally, the profit margin is not economically viable. It makes business sense from the dealer's point of view. It is interesting to note that some importers like to dabble in the older games, but quickly find out that it is very difficult to justify spending the extra time and money for a low return.
The Black Hole in the auction appears to be in VERY good cosmetic condition, and that's what would have appeared in the supplier's photos. The technical issues will only be discovered once the game lands, and the in-house tech can evaluate it. If the in-house tech is not technically proficient in this platform, then it gets passed on as a "project". That's the key here - is it listed as a project. So it could be a 5 minute fix or a badly corroded boardset.
Do your homework and you may end up with a bargain. There are Pascal boards and Gottlieb parts available from the local supplier at
www.rtbb.com.au There's a place in the market for project machines. It is a "win" for both the sellers and buyers.
