Commercial Distributors bread and butter business is to sell games to "Game Operators" who place the games in commercial locations and split the profits. Many of these Commercial Distributors are not focused on selling to home customers, it's drop and run. They're looking for a quick buck in their always-shrinking market and without great home service and attention to detail they miss out on the repeat loyal customers and referrals. They set up new web sites and pile into home sales around the holidays...they even claim to sell at wholesale. They sell on eBay claiming the "factory" refurbished their crappy games. No Pinball Factory reconditions games to be sold on eBay!!  They change their name weekly and offer the junk they can't sell as a "free gift"  to get you to make a purchase, what's free anyway?

Ask their sales people detailed pinball or game questions and you'll find out how little they know. Most are not sales people but merely order-takers.  They will take used pinball machines on trade-in from route operators, spit-shine them so they look good and then after the sale when you need them most, they're big enough that they don't need you! The bigger they are, the worse their response to service of home customers is! They look at Home Customers as trouble and therefore they raise their prices significantly above what they usually sell games for. That allows for the repeat service calls and extra aggravation they get because of their shoddy "recondition" jobs they get from the temp agency workers they hire. Actually, the unwritten rule in the business is that there's one lower price for their regular "game operator" customers and a higher price for the home (poor sucker) customers! In fact because of this most of them won't even quote prices on their web sites.

There is never any prices on the games in their showroom either. That's because they got their used pinball machines on cheap trade in's from their operator customers game routes. If those operators see the high prices they are selling them for...the distributor will never get another game on trade! If they give you a 30 day warranty they'll wait till the first 30 days are almost over before they even come to do the repair just so it's almost expired! Many times when it comes to a service call these distributors will job out the service to their game operator customers as a bonus or for credit at their parts department......good luck if it gets fixed after a few visits too. Don't get passed around. We have full time factory trained technicians who can service your games, we make house calls and.....We love home customers!

Time was that a distributor represented a manufacturer, sold their product and at some point would get paid. From where I sit, a few feet away I can see Old Glory or the latest version thereof. That American Flag reminds me that thousands of brave people fought for and died for freedom in these United States. I’ll tell you that I am going to sell whatever I want to sell to whoever can pay for it right here in these United States. 

There is no manufacturer, distributor, publication or person in this industry that will prevent me from selling what I want to sell, where I want to sell it and at what price I’m going to sell it for, Period.

Rec-Room, Online Catalog, Fireplace, Online Gaming, Swimming Pool Dealers & Patio Stores- They really have no clue. They want a piece of the pie too even if it's not anything they know about. They'll sell you a new pinball machine for $6000.00 and not know how to plug it in the wall....ask someone there a question and see....pass on them as you'll get no service after the sale and overpay plenty!

eBay Sellers - We're proud to sell on eBay and we're a Gold Power Seller....but it's less than 1% of the business we do. Look at the sellers feedback rating...from BUYERS! The listed seller may be a buyer of small items just to prop up their eBay Feedback numbers. Look at their current auctions. Beware if they sell a lot of items outside of what their company claims to be in business for...or if they have not sold anything in a while lookout too...that may be a hobby business!

BUYER BEWARE - OTHER SELLERS ON eBAY HAVE THIS TYPE OF FEEDBACK:

	Machine never arrived but money was refunded.		Jun-29-07 20:57
	-- (#290122391073)
	The game took 8 weeks to deliver, poor communication, via phone and email		May-14-06 21:14
	-- (#6256956993)

Be careful about auctions for games starting at .01, NO RESERVE and NOT STATING anything about shipping, packing or "palletizing" charges. They will make it up on you there so ASK QUESTIONS FIRST!!

Here's a Recent e mail we received:

I just purchased Junk Yard pinball machine on ebay.  As a Newbie, I assumed that it would be plug and play.  I read through the instruction manual, but one of the steps it describes didn't happen. When I plug in the machine, it is supposed to go into a test mode on the screen, where the score would be displayed.  Instead, it is blank. Also, I know the power works as the lights and sound are working.  I noticed when I lowered the head of the machine, there was a red wire with a plug attached to it that wasn't connected to anything.  Do you have any suggestions?

Should have written us before the mistake!
 

Johnny-Come-Lately Web Sites- Set up by High School Drop Outs who think everything is easy. They all claim to be "The World's Largest Online Super Store" or something like that......says who? Largest in Content stolen from other sites like ours maybe. Call them and talk to them, see how you get the bums rush and high pressure or bait and switch sell tactics. Do a Google search on them and see what you find! To me the "Largest" does not mean the BEST!   Most often the "Largest" means less attention to detail and to the customer.

Other Web Sites claim they have been selling to home customers longer.....just look at any web site from years ago in this archive and see for yourself when they started selling online:

Click here To Go To The Wayback Machine

If you "save" $100 or so at the risk of a $4000.00+ purchase and have nobody to stand behind the sale when you need help, you wasted your money and saved nothing.

 This all sounds brutal and it is if you are on the losing end. It's not here to scare you but to educate you before you make a costly mistake!