He does have glowing feedback.
Wonder if they are friends - or there are people out there with lots of disposable income?
There are PLENTY of people with disposable income and some are well versed with eBay and overpriced pins. Having said that (almost to the point of contradiction), there are FUSSY collectors that will wait for the right machine to come along before emptying their wallets - and they are willing to pay high prices. I know a collector that was interested in the KISS, but the legbolts were not new and not the original Bally bolts. They were gottliebs. The front door was highly polished. Again - not original. The stencil work was "too perfect" - No overspray = not original. Things that SHOULD have been replaced (from original), were things like the connectors and C23 on the Solenoid Driver board. Yes - All VERY fussy - But if you are making comments like "the best (insert name here) pinball I've ever seen" - then it is VERY obvious that the seller has not seen many professional restores. Now if you want to take $10,000 out of a fussy collector's pocket, then you spend the extra $10 to make the machine as genuinely original as possible.
I appreciate the level of detail that the seller has gone to - his machines are VERY nice, but I know a couple of SERIOUS Collectors that were willing to pay the money "if" the machine was faithfully restored. When you sprout comments that the game is "the best I've ever seen", then you really need to look outside a bit more.
Whether the auctions are compromised ? - Who knows.. seems commonplace these days
I wish the seller the best of luck with his auctions - Glad to see people go to the effort. Just stops a couple of stubbies short of a slab in my book.
