Share your positive experiences

[spacejam0]

I love this forum and have had so much help and advice from members who at times are complete strangers who have given me there time and experience for free with no motivation other than our common love of pinball.

Sadly of late it's becoming a bit of a broken record of shit fighting and bagging and its starting to wear a bit thin to the point where I'm asking myself why I keep coming back.

Anyway inspired by a positive story from Gavin (retropin)I thought I'd start a thread where you can only share positive experiences and memories of members and experiences that you have had on the forum or in the pinball world in general.

I'll start with a few of my experiences and I have many more and invite everyone to join in with the only rule being no negativity. This is not a suck job I believe these people deserve recognition for there efforts.

1-Steve2010. I purchased my first pin Jungle Princess from Steve in 2010 and he introduced me to this forum. Steve was so helpful and honest with all aspects of the sale a true gentleman..thank you Steve.

2-Niño. Shortly after joining the forum I met Niño when he came to my house to pick up my Flash that I had sold to another member in SA. I was very impressed that Niño had come over on his own time to pick up a machine and take home to pack and send to SA purely out of kindness and not self gain.

In the early days I would contact Niño for all my pinball advice and although I must have been a real pain in the arse it never seemed to phase him. I ended up buying a reconditioned Flash from Niño and after 3 years of heavy use it has never missed a beat I hope to own a few more of Nino's restorations in the future...thank you Niño.

3-Beaky. I had a board problem early on and a member suggested I send it to Andrew. I contacted him and he talked me through the process of sending the board to him. A short time later my board arrived back to me professionally repaired and at what I considered a bargain price. I have since sent other boards and displays to Andrew for the same result....thank you Beaky.

4-DDToys...What can I say what a fantastic service man has gone out of his way to help me out with top notch servicing and helps me and many others out with those hard to get parts from his comprehensive private stash...thanks Dan.

5-Too the many members who have helped me out on the technical advise forum when I have a question and have helped me sort out an issue. Off the top of my head these members include Niño,Marty,Pinsanity,Beaky,RetroPin and there are many more that there names escape me. Thank you all.

6-Thanks to the mods for all your work.

7-Lastly too the many people I have brought and sold pins too through this forum not a single bad experience. I have met many great people through these experiences.

That's my ramble for now so please let's try to get this great forum back on the track of helping and being civil to one another after all isn't that what it's all about?

[Strangeways]

I would not know where to start, and I'd miss some people or events and I'd hate to leave them out. But I will share the most heart warming story to this date, in my life - and it is related to pinball.

The passing of our friend, Greg Berry, has had a profound effect on my life. I think most people know that he cared very much for his "friends with pinballs". It was a sad time, but out of sadness came an act by three friends that I can never forget. Theo (Pinball), Marty (MartyJ) and Marco (Pinfan). These guys dropped EVERYTHING and made themselves available to the family in any capacity. The way these guys helped the family through a very tough time is something I will never forget. The bond between us now is something I am very proud to have. Greg would have expected our help, and the family NOW know how many of us were close to Greg and recognized his achievements.

My point being - I know these guys because of AP. I met them prior to AP, but we became mates on AP through Greg.

There are other stories I'd like to share..

[Homepin]

When I have needed some assistance with measurements or details about a certain board to make it easier to re-create many members have been happy to assist. This assistance made some boards possible and without it they simply would never have been made. These members helped the entire pinball community by helping me. Greg Berry was one of them and there are too many others to mention individually.

[oldskool1969]

Encouragement-almost EVERYONE on this site cheers you on when attempting new experiences and offers help. I TRY to do the same in return, good feeling.
I only know a few crew outside of WA and here in WA with PPCR and IOPA and can honestly say that we are all freaks from all different walks of life and love playing with our balls! silver ones I mean.
Life is short=play nice.

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Being invited to go to a fellow pinheads house and get to play a variety of games

No two collections the same

Usually do more talking than playing , but have met some great guys

[Caveoftreasures]

I have purchased machines from almost every commercial seller in every state over the last 7 years.
Every person I was told to stay away from, I meaningly went and met to make up my own mind and am glad I did.
All the different people were fun and honest and top blokes with great families.
Travelled Australia looking at many collections and got to meet some friendly people.

One of the best times I had was hosting a pinball party with 4 dozen machines and similar amount of people. Watching others faces light up playing all the different titles they had never played before was the best experience yet.
Handing out trophies was fun. Meeting a lot of new people at the various pinball parties is great too.

Getting messages a lot from many pinhead friends from all over Australia regularly is heartwarming because most of us have similar lives and enjoy touching base on everything from family to pinball.
Getting new messages from new people and being able to send someone in the right direction is also rewarding.

Having a good friend who bought in many containers from all over Europe and Japan was a pleasure to be invited to the days where I could see all the treasures.
Pinball is full of good people and fun historic pieces of man made mechanical artwork at its best.

Wondering what machine is coming out next is always very exciting to me.
Watching my 5 year old son play pinball is awesome.

[McKie1]

My Wife and I are only new to this scene but have been very welcomed by those we have had an opportunity to communicate. Brett thank you for your generosity with the decals and Pete for the conversations :) trying to meet more as we can. Thank you

[Steve2010]

Hey Tim, thanks firstly for sharing a thread with this in mind, it is always good to reflect on the good things in life.  Too easy to complain and see the negative things, we so often miss the good stuff (that we too often take for granted) that is usually right in front of us.

Hard to believe that it has been 5 years since good old Jungle Princess parted from me to you!

[Steve2010]

Sorry, hit return too early as I hadn’t finished typing!  I have generally found the members of this forum to be helpful and willing to assist.  My earliest introduction was really through the purchase of my first machine (Skateball), and Marco (pinfan) was most helpful in making this a stress-free purchase and put me at ease.

And over the past 5 years, I have enjoyed reading the majority of the posts, as usually there is always something of relevance in there.

Nino has certainly been a driving force of this forum, but there are countless others – moderators, those  who support the forum, and contributions from a good number of people.

What I like most about the forum is the ability to openly share ideas, and having a community of people who bring something into the forum for the benefit of someone else.  Whether that be for one or for many, it is worth it.

[andypinboy]

On AP I've learnt more about pin's & how to fix/ improve them than I thought I ever would. Member's are willing to freely share their knowledge & experience - they've been very supportive & patient with me & my questions. And I love reading even the old posts - especially the resto's - I really admire the patience, skill & attention that go into these. Retropin has been a standout for me - I love reading his repair stories - but there are many more. Top forum & great thread.