If your building a collection as I am, enjoy playing them & don't really care if there in "absolute top condition", then in my eyes buying overseas is the go.
I don't mind a project as long as its fixable !

Why sieve through all the over priced turds here on the market (ebay/gumtree), when I can buy plenty of turds overseas for half the price of what they on evilbay are asking for here !
I enjoy fixing, cleaning, getting to know the machine and most important, I enjoy playing them more.... knowing that I rebuild it.

Some of you may have seen that I asked about containers here: http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=13466.0

I actually have some on the way, this is the first time I have bought a load like this, so it will be interesting to see what I get when it arrives compared to the pictures I bought them from.
If it all works out, ill definitely go back and get some more, if not I don't get burnt twice and a lesson well learnt ! lol.

Quite agree, but there is a top price to pay for any machine... the prices listed are supposed wholesale... confuse this with retail and you have yourself a collection that wont ever expand because you have been priced out of the market. The prices from Expand are and have nearly always been very high. These prices are based on a container load.. not individual. In fact the prices are crap and an attempt to fleece the unsuspecting.
Interestingly enough though, im finding USA prices are ABOVE market value here.. as more and more machines go into private collections to hardly ever be sold again, sourcing and affording is becoming harder.

But Euro400 for a Zac that doesn't work with a BG that you cant get and a display you cant get??... oh lordy!

Soon we will only be left with the Playmatics!