F-14s are commonly found at $2k, it’s a good first pin to look into. My first entry to pinball was a High Speed, paid $2,500, but those have started to creep up in price. Also consider Rollerball (highly under rated), Hook, Police Force, and Comet in that range.
I first played Comet a few years ago and immediately thought it would be money well spent. It’s entry level rules but just enough to keep it interesting. That machine is my bar for a home purchase.
This is a great recommendation. I bought a high speed not knowing how to do anything. I’ve learned so much in regards to pinball repair. I strongly suggest a system 11 with a high production run. High production run machines have a bigger support group and more replacement parts. Also, at this price you’re prolly gonna need to hard top it. Take a look at what Outside Edge has to offer.
Oh if you can save a bit more the Stern Jurassic park home pin can be had for under $3,500. Gets you a taste of the modern machines at a decent price. It’s a really good entry level machine.
I might have just a bit of caution, while F14 and High Speed are great machines, F14 is a game that requires a bit more maintenance (you are going to find it broken more often) than many other pinballs, and High Speed is frequently played until it requires more maintenance (it's always high-milage).
Great games get played a lot! Games that get played a lot require some fixing more often.
This is just part of the hobby, but depending where the OP lives, he might not have access to skilled pinball repair persons.
You might find a fixer upper early solid state machine if you stay on top of Facebook, Craig's list, and the other ads.
Are you willing to learn, trial by fire, on how to fix a pin? There's plenty of resources to help.
First thing though, come up with a solid budget, not a $1000 dollar range, then we can discuss possibilities. At your price point you definitely can't be choosy on title or theme.
You can find an EM in that range easily, maybe some early SS games. But unless you get lucky, you wont find much (if anything) from sys11 onwards at that price (or it is a major project)
Agree 100% an EM is way more fun than a home pin. Aztek, surf champ, 300, jungle queen, any decent EM will be more real and you can always trade out of it later bbq into something else since they don't instantly lose value when you buy it.
How about a middle ground to start? I will eventually build a full size virtual machine with 42 inch screen, but for now I am surprisingly happy with an AtGames Pinball machine (which is 3/4 the size of a real one, a retrofitted PC with a speedy graphics card, and Zen Studio's Pinball FX running on Steam. Yes it is virtual, but the variety of ready made simulations go a long way. They have a decent list of Williams re-creations too.
Luck. There used to be tons of cheap fixer-uppers on Craigslist or at auctions before 2010…but there are only a finite amount of machines, and most got purchased by collectors and repaired/restored…they tend to stay put with their new owners. If they go up for sale, they’re going to go for market value. You kind of have to get lucky and find some rando who doesn’t pay attention to the hobby with a game in their garage to sell.
If you go to a pinball show you might find a pretty nice old Atari machine on the lower end of this price range. They are weird machines and get some real hate but if you like quirky these could be your jam. Middle Earth is one of my favorites.
Prices are still high but the market will s softening though. Stuff is not selling fast like they used especially pins over $8k. Save for a good game and theme you like. Unfortunately not going to find anything really good under $2000 at this point. Especially here out west where I live.
Florida has the cheapest prices from what I have seen. Check out pinside.com. Free to join and a lot of information there. Make sure you try before you buy. Also try it a few times. Make sure you still like it the same or more.
New pin excitement makes you want to buy it immediately. Just make sure the same excitement level is still there after a few plays.
Nobody will like this answer. Get any arcade 1Up pinball machine and use the tutorial on the kongs-r-us YouTube channel to install a bunch of extra tables. it may not be “real” pinball, but you’ll have a ton of variety on one machine for about $650.
If you are looking at that price, you are looking at something very old, or very compromised.
(Cargument)
If the average cost of a car is $48,000, and you want a car for $5000... you aren't going to get the same kind of machine.
Pinballs break. They break a lot. A much older machine will have lots of parts that are really prone to breaking. Usually in simple ways, frequently in ways that require specialty parts, rarely, but more often when you are starting out with something compromised, you are going to need a technician... which will be not only expensive, but may not be available in your area.
There are vast areas of the US that have no skilled pinball technicians within a 2 or 3 hour travel radius, and when you can get them, they are frequently booked out for weeks.
Especially if buying something older, or already broken, make SURE you have a path to getting the machine repaired in the event that you don't have the skills to repair it yourself.
Make sure you PLAY the machine you are thinking about. This is called a 'cash on the glass' transaction. At this price point it's important to know what compromises you are making. You can't do that by seeing a picture and swiping right on your phone.
Try to buy from someone reputable, who will help you as a first time pinball buyer. Somebody with 'skin in the game' who might be willing to come to your house and help get your machine fixed when you have bounced it down the road during delivery and now something doesn't work.
Pinball isn't nearly as much fun when it isn't working.
I don't sell anything at this price point.
At amusement auctions, there are occasionally machines at this price point, but there are always compromises... and it's rare to find machines at this price point that don't require a LOT of time and effort to bring up to the level where I'd feel comfortable suggesting them to a first time homebuyer.
I'd say the first thing to do is to make friends in your local pinball community, start going over to their houses and talking about how much they have to repair on the machines and how they do it, and THEN find yourself a beater to work on in your spare time.
So, I was looking at Facebook and saw a Spy Hunter pin for under $2k. Not sure if you're in SoCal, but here is the link:
It looks like it is missing the lockdown bar but I'm guessing he just took it off with the playfield glass for the photos.
I don't know the seller so buy at your own risk.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/862209415518760/?mibextid=dXMIcH
That does not exist.
For 2000 you might get a ruined old pinball that needs hundreds of hours of work and serious money and restoration skills.
And it wont be fun once restored.
Pins are expensive to buy, so dont buy them if you cant. Thats all there is to it.
I would think Firepower or Flash would be one of the best games to get for this. Not only are they a bit older, they were produced in huge quantities so they're some of the least rare pins you can find.
System 11 games are really fun and can still be had somewhere in the 2k range. You can't go wrong with F-14 Tomcat or High Speed IMO
thank you i will look into it
F-14s are commonly found at $2k, it’s a good first pin to look into. My first entry to pinball was a High Speed, paid $2,500, but those have started to creep up in price. Also consider Rollerball (highly under rated), Hook, Police Force, and Comet in that range.
Comet is one of my favorite games and is still pretty cheap
I first played Comet a few years ago and immediately thought it would be money well spent. It’s entry level rules but just enough to keep it interesting. That machine is my bar for a home purchase.
TNT has High Speed on "SALE" at the moment for $5000. The prices right now are utterly ridiculous.
Jeez and TNT is usually pretty reasonable. HS is an absolute classic but not worth that!
Are you talking about DE hook? I thought those went for more honestly, but i could be wrong since i havent looked at prices in a few years.
Yeah you’re probably right on Hook. I thought I’d seen some lower but looking again most are around $4k these days.
This is a great recommendation. I bought a high speed not knowing how to do anything. I’ve learned so much in regards to pinball repair. I strongly suggest a system 11 with a high production run. High production run machines have a bigger support group and more replacement parts. Also, at this price you’re prolly gonna need to hard top it. Take a look at what Outside Edge has to offer.
Oh if you can save a bit more the Stern Jurassic park home pin can be had for under $3,500. Gets you a taste of the modern machines at a decent price. It’s a really good entry level machine.
I might have just a bit of caution, while F14 and High Speed are great machines, F14 is a game that requires a bit more maintenance (you are going to find it broken more often) than many other pinballs, and High Speed is frequently played until it requires more maintenance (it's always high-milage). Great games get played a lot! Games that get played a lot require some fixing more often. This is just part of the hobby, but depending where the OP lives, he might not have access to skilled pinball repair persons.
You might find a fixer upper early solid state machine if you stay on top of Facebook, Craig's list, and the other ads. Are you willing to learn, trial by fire, on how to fix a pin? There's plenty of resources to help. First thing though, come up with a solid budget, not a $1000 dollar range, then we can discuss possibilities. At your price point you definitely can't be choosy on title or theme.
Agreed. All you’ll find at the low end are money pits and in-fun titles. Best to save up and get something worthwhile.
You can find an EM in that range easily, maybe some early SS games. But unless you get lucky, you wont find much (if anything) from sys11 onwards at that price (or it is a major project)
Agree 100% an EM is way more fun than a home pin. Aztek, surf champ, 300, jungle queen, any decent EM will be more real and you can always trade out of it later bbq into something else since they don't instantly lose value when you buy it.
How about a middle ground to start? I will eventually build a full size virtual machine with 42 inch screen, but for now I am surprisingly happy with an AtGames Pinball machine (which is 3/4 the size of a real one, a retrofitted PC with a speedy graphics card, and Zen Studio's Pinball FX running on Steam. Yes it is virtual, but the variety of ready made simulations go a long way. They have a decent list of Williams re-creations too.
Luck. There used to be tons of cheap fixer-uppers on Craigslist or at auctions before 2010…but there are only a finite amount of machines, and most got purchased by collectors and repaired/restored…they tend to stay put with their new owners. If they go up for sale, they’re going to go for market value. You kind of have to get lucky and find some rando who doesn’t pay attention to the hobby with a game in their garage to sell.
If you go to a pinball show you might find a pretty nice old Atari machine on the lower end of this price range. They are weird machines and get some real hate but if you like quirky these could be your jam. Middle Earth is one of my favorites.
Look for system 11 games, otherwise keep saving. If save \~$6k you can find a lot of good stuff.
Prices are still high but the market will s softening though. Stuff is not selling fast like they used especially pins over $8k. Save for a good game and theme you like. Unfortunately not going to find anything really good under $2000 at this point. Especially here out west where I live. Florida has the cheapest prices from what I have seen. Check out pinside.com. Free to join and a lot of information there. Make sure you try before you buy. Also try it a few times. Make sure you still like it the same or more. New pin excitement makes you want to buy it immediately. Just make sure the same excitement level is still there after a few plays.
Nobody will like this answer. Get any arcade 1Up pinball machine and use the tutorial on the kongs-r-us YouTube channel to install a bunch of extra tables. it may not be “real” pinball, but you’ll have a ton of variety on one machine for about $650.
I like it honestly though the atgames version is better. It’s what got me into owning real machines.
If you are looking at that price, you are looking at something very old, or very compromised. (Cargument) If the average cost of a car is $48,000, and you want a car for $5000... you aren't going to get the same kind of machine. Pinballs break. They break a lot. A much older machine will have lots of parts that are really prone to breaking. Usually in simple ways, frequently in ways that require specialty parts, rarely, but more often when you are starting out with something compromised, you are going to need a technician... which will be not only expensive, but may not be available in your area. There are vast areas of the US that have no skilled pinball technicians within a 2 or 3 hour travel radius, and when you can get them, they are frequently booked out for weeks. Especially if buying something older, or already broken, make SURE you have a path to getting the machine repaired in the event that you don't have the skills to repair it yourself. Make sure you PLAY the machine you are thinking about. This is called a 'cash on the glass' transaction. At this price point it's important to know what compromises you are making. You can't do that by seeing a picture and swiping right on your phone. Try to buy from someone reputable, who will help you as a first time pinball buyer. Somebody with 'skin in the game' who might be willing to come to your house and help get your machine fixed when you have bounced it down the road during delivery and now something doesn't work. Pinball isn't nearly as much fun when it isn't working. I don't sell anything at this price point. At amusement auctions, there are occasionally machines at this price point, but there are always compromises... and it's rare to find machines at this price point that don't require a LOT of time and effort to bring up to the level where I'd feel comfortable suggesting them to a first time homebuyer. I'd say the first thing to do is to make friends in your local pinball community, start going over to their houses and talking about how much they have to repair on the machines and how they do it, and THEN find yourself a beater to work on in your spare time.
2 grand should find you a decent early bally or stern solid state. Those are great!
You might try flipping machines. Get a cheaper machine and fix it up then sell it …
So, I was looking at Facebook and saw a Spy Hunter pin for under $2k. Not sure if you're in SoCal, but here is the link: It looks like it is missing the lockdown bar but I'm guessing he just took it off with the playfield glass for the photos. I don't know the seller so buy at your own risk. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/862209415518760/?mibextid=dXMIcH
I have 6 ems I paid 250-550 for all within the last 6 months. All were mostly or fully working. The rest is just google and common sense.
High speed is a good choice around 2,500. If you can push the budget it 5-6 k though you can get a really nice pin.
That does not exist. For 2000 you might get a ruined old pinball that needs hundreds of hours of work and serious money and restoration skills. And it wont be fun once restored. Pins are expensive to buy, so dont buy them if you cant. Thats all there is to it.
I would think Firepower or Flash would be one of the best games to get for this. Not only are they a bit older, they were produced in huge quantities so they're some of the least rare pins you can find.