Pawn Stars buys a dead Odds and Evens - $1000.00 - add $3000. to 'restore' it???

[K7]

seems like basic math to me. pay $800.00 more than market for a game they described as missing parts and needing a full restoration job. then overpay a dude $2900.00 to clean a switch and windex it.

i think it's overpriced for the TV audience. but, being in vegas, maybe they'll get a richo with casino money and no market sense, to buy it at "the pawn shoppe". the pinball was clean, at least from what i saw on TV...but parts were missing from the bottom of the playfield (according to the 'professional'). no good shots on TV of the inside of the machine to tell if they were even talking honestly about it at all. but the outside shot of it, it looked pretty nice. i didn't see the backbox at all when the seller bought it to the guys to sell (i may have missed that part...it came in dismantled).

the guy that "restored" it, robbed them (from the TV shots of before and after). he did cosmetic work, but shots looked identical from beginning to end. really didn't say much else. i think he cleaned a contact (it must be a fuse!). i also think this pin is worth $1200 bucks fully restored, in my opinion. i may be wrong, but just my opinion. i have played a decent example of one, and it doesn't do anything for me.

Pawn Stars : Pinball Wizards
Airs on Monday February 08 10:00 PM
The Pawn Stars have an opportunity to buy a classic 1973 pinball machine in need of some serious repair. Will they rack up a high score and make the deal?

[jsgtrman]

The Odds and Even is that pin I posted about in Sanford last week or so...I think it was the one with the water damage on the cab, looks like it was left outside.  But, it was like $175, so if you could restore THAT one and sell for $3,500 then you've got something.  Nobody is gonna pay $3,500 for that pin.

[KI4SWY (Bill)]

i dont get why they called some guy out to check out the pin, and didn't call the folks from pinball hall of fame, probbaly would of got a real value of it.

someone should email them:  http://gspawn.com/catalog/contact_us.php

[jsgtrman]

OK,

I'm watching the re-run now since I missed the initial airing.

"The thing that concerns me is that it's all in pieces".  Meaning, the legs and backbox are off of it.  I guess they've never dealt with pins before.

Chumley: "I know a lot about pinball machines.  The first pinball machine was invented by Raymond Maloney...the first coin op pinball machine was made by Bally".  Umm, not quite.  This definitely smells of BS also, he looked like he was reading that off a teleprompter!  Actually, almost word for word from my online search:

Doing a fact check, here's what I found online, close, but not quite:

<<The first coin-operated "pinball machine" was invented in 1931 by Automatic Industries and was called "Whiffle Board". But the gaming industry really began in the mid 1930's with the production
of a game called "Ballyhoo". It was invented by one Raymond Maloney, who later started the Bally
Manufacturing Company of Chicago, IL. >>

http://www.bmigaming.com/pinballhistory.htm

(the above info is found right below the Title... "Pinball - The Early Years : 1930s - 1950s "

If Chumley knew THAT, how come they had no idea how to put it together, and had to call in an "expert"?


The pin does look to be in great shape, I don't see ANY problems with the playfield, the head has a few scuffs but nothing major and should touch up easily.

So, they cut to the scene when the "expert" shows up, they have the playfield propped up, and coin door open (backbox still isn't on, nor are the legs).

OMG, the "expert": Well, you ARE missing some parts...a knocker...and a toggle switch".

Corey: Well then, what would it take to restore it and get it running?

"Expert":  "Ummm...I'd say about...$2,500 - $3,000"

Corey:  OK, sounds good


BULLSHIT!!!!  They wouldn't even PLUG IT IN to see if it lights or starts a game before buying???

OK, THEN it gets better!  They cut to 2 weeks later, the guys go to the "expert"s house. 

Corey:  Wow, it looks amazing...what did you do?

(Umm, he set it up and plugged it IN! He even put the legs and backbox on now)

The expert:  I totally went over everything inside and out, took off everything on the playfield and cleaned it, it has all new bumpers/ rubbers on it

Corey:  So, how much I owe you?

Expert:  "Well, I can cap it at say...$3,000"

LOL...I'll bet you can! That's a pretty cheap shop job...NOT! BULLSHIT!!!!  So, total investment on something they know nothing about...$4,000. And...they didn't even bother to check online or any kind of price guide??? BULLSHIT! Good luck on selling that!


OK, I'm gonna go to RGP now...there HAS to be a  huge post thread on this BS by now!

Here's RGP comments:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.pinball/browse_thread/thread/ee55a53b62ab9dbe/b4f5f1038ff173fd

[mrpinball]

Yea that show is realy stupid and fake...
but i wish it were true as if the would give 1000 for a non working pin i should take my whole collection
to vegas and sell it to em......

[Englishman in Plantcity]

but that is why you then get some crazy priced CL adverts as they have seen such a program and then think their <insert name> of pin/vid is worth thousands, as must be true as they saw it on tv 

[Greywolf]

Hell, I'd be their full-time tech at $3000 per machine 

[ibis]

You forgot something Jeff.  When he said the restore was 3k he told him he could sell it for 5k for a profit of 1k.  Someone wake me up because we must be dreaming!

[jsgtrman]

There was so much BS I couldn't type it all down fast enough!

[number six]

I learnt long ago that most so called "reality" shows are entirely staged and fake. After watching the 'Pawn Stars' marathon a few weeks back I'm pretty sure its all bullshit. I mean, some of the stuff looks reasonable.. but its because what does the average person know about the value of some 1930s cufflinks? So if the bald guy gives a 2 minute speech on it - sounds reasonable.

But as we saw with the Kiss Pinball, the Pac-Man and now this.. the show is really just bullshit. Remember that coke machine they paid like $3k to restore? Yeah right. That restoration guy had better machines rusting in a field, why even bother trying to fix up that piece of shit? Because it made for good TV. It let them throw out large numbers and made you think they were wheelin' and dealin' big money out of nothing which is the premise of the show. But if you think about it.. bullshit.

I remember one episode where a guy came in with a short box (!) of Comics. All typical 90s era shit.. in other words, worthless. 'Oh I got some X-Mens' yeah its 90s X-Men.. which for maybe about 5 minutes were worth about 2x-3x cover maaaybe but are pretty much worthless now. So he 'lowballs' the guy @ $75 for the box. Hell, if they'll pay those prices I'll fly out there with my collection and make enough to stay for a week.

It's like Miami Ink and all those tattoo shows. Do some digging, they don't actually work there. They may own that shop but the only times they are doing tattoos is when the cameras are rolling. Its all staged for the show. Its not like they are knee deep in running that business day after day.

Its all aobut as real as an episode of maury pouvich.

[Englishman in Plantcity]

Its all aobut as real as an episode of maury pouvich.

Now you gone and done it, I thought that was a real as anything, you burst my bubble on television now, next you will tell me Operation Repo isnt real either 

[Jocko]

Even bigger money is the car and boat restorations... They typically hand it over to a restoration expert who agrees to do the work and bill them in full after the job is done... $5k here, $15k there.  No big deal!

The thing is, they pay people to do the work who do it for a living.  Many people here can tell you the cost of a full pin restoration typically extends into the hundreds of dollars without taking into account 40-100 hours of labor and shop costs, so it's not really that outlandish that someone would charge $2-3k for a restoration if they do it for a living.  For the rest of us it remains at a few hundred $$$ because all the labor is a wash.  If the "expert" didn't do a full restore then yea, that episode is BS.

[number six]

The thing is, they pay people to do the work who do it for a living.  Many people here can tell you the cost of a full pin restoration typically extends into the hundreds of dollars without taking into account 40-100 hours of labor and shop costs, so it's not really that outlandish that someone would charge $2-3k for a restoration if they do it for a living.  For the rest of us it remains at a few hundred $$$ because all the labor is a wash.  If the "expert" didn't do a full restore then yea, that episode is BS.

I've never heard of anyone charging $3,000 for a shop job, which is basically what that was at best.

My guess is they multiplied everything by a factor of 10 for the show (and told the seller and restoration guy to play along). In other words they bought it for $100, paid $300 to have it shopped and are hoping to get $500. It all seems more reasonable at that level.

I can't imagine you'd be in business long making the deals these guys appear to do on a weekly basis, especially in this economy. How long is that Pin going to sit there for $5k (if thats what they are truly going to ask?) a looooong time. And yeah, yeah there's the 'it's vegas!' factor.. but come on. People still aren't going to spend $5k on this then deal with the costs and headaches of having it shipped. Not some random E/M. And if they ARE selling random E/Ms for $5k, then why isn't the shop full of Pinball machines? In Vegas they must be pretty plentiful given that every Casino used to have dozens.

[Mojo_114]

The Coke machine that was bought was not the same one that was picked up. They tryed to say he reworked it. Yeah,he reworked it into
another model.

Who the hell calls an expert in with the people standing there.

One show they talk about % of profits.  Their numbers were B.S. There are at least 6 people working there and they claim they are making like 19%.

Show makes a great show for the masses, but not slick pinball people.

[number six]

Who the hell calls an expert in with the people standing there.

That's another thing I never understood. Sure it makes you seem more honest and all.. but its a pawn shop, c'mon! It's a losing scenerio to have the owner there with the expert. If it turns out to be worth nothing, your out nothing as you haven't bought it yet. If it turns out to be worth a lot, you can go back and k7 the owner without him knowing its true value. Like when they had the cobra shell and the owner wanted whatever he wanted.. then all the sudden it was worth $50k or whatever BS price and they had to fork out a lot more than the owners initial selling price because it was instantly worth that much more. If that scenerio was real they'd get an expert out there to look at it to confirm then they'd probably talk the guy down off his initial asking price even if it was a lot lower than it was really worth as every penny they can talk somebody down is more profit for them. Or in their case more money to pad that fat dudes damages every week.. which is another thing I don't understand.. he's supposedly broken tens of thousands of $$ worth of merchandise.. how is he still employed?

I can't imagine these guys are the most generous honest pawn shop owners ever, they wouldn't make it long term. Not to say they need to be shady but just use common sense on some of this.