Re: The adventure of your first pinball purchase.
I bought my first machine, black rose in December of 2006 at age 16. I had always been fascinated with pinball machines as a small child and considered having one in your own home, the penultimate expression of luxury! So in 2004 my family went for a trip to the gold coast. In the downstairs area where the pool was, there was a little arcade. Ventured inside and among the arcade machines were two pinballs, Indy and teed off. Yet again I was drawn to them and by the end of the trip I'd put at least 30 bucks of my dads coins evenly into each of the machines cashboxes.
On my way home I was getting excited at the prospect of looking up prices of pinball machines and hunting for my first one! At the time I was very fortunate to have a very high paying job so I had thousands saved up even by that age. Jumped on the net and like any noob, strolled off to bumper action and made some inquiries. Leaving the place depressed thinking that all machines cost over 3 grand..(teed off was quoted at 3.4! And Indy was 6.5k) I was disllusioned.
However I started looking at the private markets, mainly in the ol trading post..and began catching buses, trams and trains all across Melbourne in search of my first machine (being 16 at the time I didn't have a licence) I even caught the bus to Lara, Victoria! to view a gottlieb sure shot EM. As Christmas was coming soon, I was planning on securing my first machine to coincide with Christmas to soften the blow I would receive when my dad would open the roller door one day and see a pinball casually residing in his garage.
December 21, 2006 I set off at 9am to catch the bus to broadmeadows, where I would travel 20 mins by train to eltham. Got off the train and walked 15 mins to this old mans house. He was an ex jukebox operator and he had three pins..attack from mars, getaway 2 and a dr who. I was interested in the attack from mars but he wanted a heap for it..I couldn't understand why at the time..but I can now! We started looking at the getaway..it was very tired and needed a bit of work. Being a complete noob I was after something that was decent right from go. Strongly considered it, he wanted 2k. Told him id think about it and walked off back to the eltham train station. I set off for mulgrave which is the other side of Melbourne about 1.5 hrs in the train, to see a black rose and a no fear. I needed the seller to pick me up from the station as it was too long of a walk to his place we arrived at his house and instantly fell in love with the black rose. I got it for 2.3k in average to poor asthetic condition. Asked him if he could deliver it and he dropped it off the next day using his station wagon that had its rear door tied down as it barely fit the machine in there.
Told nobody to use the garage until christmas as I had a surprise to show them. Being Christmas my parents weren't too hard on me since then I have adjusted that garage to accommodate 9 more machines. My grandma hasn't been spared either, I crammed 3 more into her garage for good measure, making a total of 12
12 Is just the beginning though
