LOL- its an operator.. all games are for sale if you can reach the right price.
He did ask me how much i was willing to offer, my answer was as little as possible but youll want to sell for as much as possible.. in the middle is a deal so lets talk..
and talk we did.
Game is still made by Coin Opexpress for US$3500 but by email they said i could have a new one for US$3300. it was originally comissioned by Benchmark Games. This comission has run out and Benchmark dont have any... their original price was US$6500. You can always rely on the Chinese and Koreans to not stick to a deal and continue to manufacture.. they do not recognise any copyright and very rarely cease production just because you only wanted 800 of something on the market.. game is still in production
Coin counter says the machine has had some 1500 coins in it, so it took $3000 on site in the year he had it on site.. game was reset some 12 months back.
redemption trash has been taken out.. i didnt want it and ive set it to free play.
When i went to the shed he had a minty looking KISS machine.. 100% original that he has had offsite for over 20 years, a Party Zone, Star Wars 1 and a South Park.. they were the only pinballs they had... everything else is coin pushers, smack em redemption etc.
But as i left he did say that if ever i saw a machine in one of his arcades that caught my eye to just ring him... they are all for sale and hed be willing to do straight swaps for other machines.
Operators are pretty cool to deal with.. they dont get emotionally attached to machines like we do.. its all business and they are there to purely make money.. work horses of the trade.
They will sell any machine if the $$$'s are right
Now funnily enough, after i bought this, i found the original 57 machine for sale for US3600... not working and in need of restoration./... a working model restored was US$7000.
It is claimed to be one of the best bowlers ever made.. and it is, but its not the best and most desirable bowler.
This king of the pile title belongs to the EVANS model ( any EVANS machine will cost you BIG $$'s). the Evans Ten Strike is the best ever made.... i searched a few years back for one of these and turned one up in the US.. there are only approx 12 still in existance and IF i wanted it then i had to offer at least US$45000.. even then, the guy wanted 4 weeks to think about it and he wasnt sure he wanted to sell at all... but get this.. he had 2 of them!
LOL.. i dont have $45000... i dont have $3600 + shipping to throw at a project ( molded plexi is US$850).. but i do have a few machines i could let go for the repro version. Once i take those bloody awful green, blue and red LEDs out and replace with a warm white ill be happy.
Order is with Greg at RTBB and already shipped.. so thanks Greg for the 110% service and next week it wont be so bloody garish!
The BEAUTIFUL Evans model is here..
http://www.pinrepair.com/baseball/e10strk.htm
