Here's my adventure - not overly adventurous apart from forking out the cash for a substantial purpose.

Started looking for an Eight Ball Deluxe and ended up at a well known Melbourne northern suburbs institution that also sells bikes. The price quoted for a tired looking machine sounded a little excessive. Spoke to a couple of other dealers as well just to get an idea of prices.

Anyway later that year after some more internet research I joined AA and happened to find out about a container that was arriving soon in the western suburbs. Went and had a good look and decided to buy a pin or two while I waited for an EBD to land - had a few choices and nearly ended up with a Cue Ball Wizard but finally ended up with a Dirty Harry and a Mousin' Around! - both good buys for the money. And was able to pay them off over time which was a great service. I decided to purchase two at once as that way if one was down for repairs I could still play the other. Pretty good move as every now and then there will be a little problem on a machine that needs fixing. I was confident in being able to fix things as I have a background in hobby electronics, and computers.