Over the last few years, ebay has probably become the largest volume seller of pinball machines in the UK. There are a number of Pinball Sellers who sell many machines away from ebay, including ourselves and Pinball Heaven, but for bargains it seems ebay can't be beaten.

As I look over into my workshop there are SEVEN pinball machines here that are in for repair. ALL bought on ebay, and apart from ONE that was sold as-is, the rest were all "fully working". This of course means that people buying pinball machines on ebay are keeping the pinball-repair people busy.

So how can so much rubbish be sold on ebay and yet sellers maintain good feedback/reputations?

Well.... Selling a pinball machine to a first time buyer is one of the easiest things to do. People are so overwhelmed with their purchase they are very trigger-happy in leaving positive feedback, and even those that are astute enough to realise the machine isn't all it was sold to be, are worried about retaliatory feedback from the sellers.

So what should you do?

Maybe ask around on the forums (drop me a line for the UK forum address). Ask if people know the seller, ask if anyone has viewed the machines. We've had some terrible experiences with volume sellers asking us to sell their machines for them. They all see Pinball Heaven prices and think that no-matter what condition the machines are in, they'll be worth close to those prices. Pinball Heaven sell FULLY RESTORED machines, and the machines that they get in to work on are BETTER than what most people have, even BEFORE they start their magic. If you buy a machine from ebay, maybe hold-back for a couple of weeks before leaving feedback. Sadly, there are adjustments sellers can make in the menu system to make it look like the machines are fully working, when in reality it may take several games for the onboard computer to realise there are faults with the machine. Nearly ALL sellers claim their machines are in great condition and work fully, when in reality the machines might have been pulled out of an arcade, wiped with a cloth and sold on.

Of course there are bargains to be had, but just tread carefully, and if something seems too good to be true, then it just might be. There are sellers I wouldn't touch with a barge-pole and yet they somehow retain a fairly decent feedback score. Even though their reputation away from ebay is shocking.

Even up to the last couple of years, dealers (including us) were sourcing pinball machines in Europe to bring back to the UK to sell. As of this moment, I don't know of ANY reputable dealers doing this. And the reason? There aren't many decent machines left over there. That's also why you have started seeing European sellers advertising their machines direct to the end user. These are the machines dealers have turned down, and dealers would normally have a punt on anything reasonable. If a seller is registered in another country - even if the machine is now in the UK - just bid carefully.

Bids...

Many pinball machines in the UK, sell with one, two or maybe even ten bids. It's normally a couple of traders having a speculative punt at the lower end, then maybe one or two people bidding for the machine towards the end. If you see a machine with LOTS of bids, then maybe the seller is using another ebay ID to bid-up (shill) the price. This is more obvious when you see the amounts these bidders are bidding. Why on earth would somebody bid £999.99 for a machine - except if they thought the legitimate bid was £1000 in which case the spoof bid moves the price to this figure. Many times you'll see the same name 'winning' multiple items from the same seller, and yet no feedback is ever left either way. Go figure!

I'll add more to this guide soon.

Nick
Pinballers Anonymous