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Arcade and Pinball Discussions => General Pinball Discussions => Topic started by: beatnikdaddio on August 14, 2014, 06:19:54 pm



Title: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: beatnikdaddio on August 14, 2014, 06:19:54 pm
a 1980 stern's ALI

(http://i.imgur.com/K5XUl5o.jpg)

owned by an elderly gentleman who had the machine about 20 years; he said it worked great until a few years ago when it "just stopped turning on". since then, it's just been sitting taking up space and he was ready for it to go.

got it home, opened it up and saw this:

(http://i.imgur.com/ZBMRcqa.jpg)(http://i.imgur.com/EzpZcds.jpg)(http://i.imgur.com/I1ONXGY.jpg)
 
ANOTHER project to the pile!   ;D


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: alby13 on August 15, 2014, 03:31:55 am
has some obvious problems there.

considering pins go for $1500 this was a steal no? great find! thanks for sharing.


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: iankellogg on August 15, 2014, 10:22:54 am
This pin averages around $700 so not a bad deal. I would start with fixing those burnt connectors and maybe considering replacing all of the connectors with 'trifurcon' style connectors.


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: beatnikdaddio on August 15, 2014, 01:40:40 pm
thanks! yeah, totally lucked out on this one... i'd been using john's craigslist arcade search string and just randomly decided to try the pinball one and saw the ad had just been posted 40 minutes before i searched. i wasn't in the market to get a new pinball, or even a new project since i now have a ms pac man and a pole position in line, but at that price i decided to roll the dice and called the guy. luckily i was the first caller because by the time i was finally able to make the drive to the guy's house the next day, he said that people had been blowing up his phone. "i had no idea these things were so popular" he said. luckily he was a man of his word and didn't just sell it to the first one to show up and honored my "first caller" dibs.

i got even more of a chuckle to look on craigslist and find this last night:

(http://i.imgur.com/8aOmZ8b.png)

nope. sorry, pal... even at that price, i ain't sellin'!  ;D


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: iankellogg on August 15, 2014, 02:20:28 pm
honestly you are a lot luckier than you know.
Most sellers don't honor first caller but honor ether highest bidder (even after promising you the sale) or first one to his house. As far as a pinball goes, i would sell that for $900 in a heartbeat and get a better pinball machine.


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: lesoleil70 on August 15, 2014, 02:30:23 pm
totally - flipper says Ali go bye bye.  Triple point score.
(http://earthtrust.org/archive/gif/fsabig.gif)


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: beatnikdaddio on August 15, 2014, 02:35:33 pm
haha i hear ya... yeah, luckily he was good dude; an old guy with integrity.

as far as selling for a 'better' pinball machine, this one is pretty much a pinnacle pinball machine for me... i'm a huge muhammad ali fan, and a collector of ali memorabilia, so this is probably the best ali collector's piece an arcade junkie like me could own.

also, ali is from my home city, louisville, so demand for his stuff is pretty high here which is probably what drove the guy posting the "wanted" ad trying to entice me to sell.  ;)


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: iankellogg on August 15, 2014, 02:37:06 pm
that's different. you aren't interested in the pinball machine as much as the theme.


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: lesoleil70 on August 15, 2014, 02:40:21 pm
Nice one - its a deal, it's a steal, it's the sale of the century.



Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: OriginalTHK on August 17, 2014, 05:11:09 pm
(http://s12.postimg.org/eilgxzxu5/17qhej856xluvjpg.jpg)


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: nintendoguy1982 on December 16, 2014, 02:21:56 pm
cheaper than i paid for my ali
I bout mine at auction for 550 ive since thew some soft white LEDs in it
and it looks to have the same obvious burns on the connectors typical
of those pins.
It is a cool pin though easy to play ive considered selling or trading for another pin
just havent pulled the trigger yet.
great find


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: yocke on December 16, 2014, 06:04:13 pm
Sweet deal, and a really nice price!


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: VertexGuy on February 12, 2015, 11:40:15 pm
honestly you are a lot luckier than you know.
Most sellers don't honor first caller but honor ether highest bidder (even after promising you the sale) or first one to his house. As far as a pinball goes, i would sell that for $900 in a heartbeat and get a better pinball machine.


try pulling it away from those two kids... 
not with smiles like that lol.. priceless.


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: beatnikdaddio on February 19, 2015, 07:12:24 am
we've been recently snowed-in here in louisville the last couple of days, so i've had some time to work on the ali pinball... replaced the connectors, the rectifier board and thanks to my buddy edward who tracked me down a new transformer, the ali LIVES again!!

(http://41.media.tumblr.com/33a6e0cc44c3519aab3775745e4aa1fa/tumblr_njvoujULIP1rab8xmo1_500.jpg)

very fun game!  and, like ali, the play is very fast!


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: nintendoguy1982 on April 15, 2015, 10:23:52 pm
average price on this pin has seem to go up.
its around 1100, I'm curious to see what happens
when he passes away. is that bad? not saying
I'm hoping for it or anything. just a thought.


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: TonyScoots on April 16, 2015, 08:16:28 pm
Wow very cool Pin


Title: Re: my $300 craigslist find.
Post by: yocke on July 04, 2015, 07:17:02 am
Sweet,,

Did you find out why those pins got hot (bad)?
Would like to know more!!

 ;) Good job make it working! Never plaid Ali,, how is it?
Is a fun theme??!