Pinball machines For Sale: the 5 best and where to buy them cheap in 2022
Before starting with the guide, we asked our readers which cheap pinball machines were better. Those who had bought one in the last few months voted: these were the 2 winners.
What you will find here (you can browse)
- 1 The best Pinball machines For Sale
- 1.1 Blanca Recreativos: the best 6-ball Pinball machines For Sale
- 1.2 Black Side Armor Kit – best old fashioned Pinball machines For Sale
- 1.3 Mini Pinball Toy: the best pinball machine for children
- 1.4 Passat Espagne: the best Star Wars Pinball machines For Sale
- 1.5 The Avengers: cheapest Pinball machines For Sale
- 2 Guide to buying cheap pinball machines
- 2.1 What game to buy?
- 2.2 Ratings about pinballs
- 3 Basic rules of pinball
- 4 Guide to help you buy a pinball machine
- 5 Where to find the game
- 6 Selling a pinball machine
- 7 Cleaning your pinball machine
- 8 Changing the dash rubbers
The best pinball machines for sale
These have been the ones we have chosen.
Blanca Recreativos: the best 6-ball pinball machine
Advantages
- Capacity: it has six balls to make the game more interesting.
- Design: The design makes it look like an arcade machine that we could find in any arcade.
- Price: the price is affordable and suitable for any budget.
- Multiple options: we can have multiple game options and enjoy many hours playing with our children and friends.
Drawbacks
- Design: Although the design is realistic, there could have been a little more invested in making the images.
- Not suitable for children under 4 years old.
Black Side Armor Kit – Best Antique Pinball Machine
Aerosmith Pinball Black Side Armor Kit 502-7019-00
Summary: the rockiest pinball machine. If you are an Aerosmith lover, this machine is perfect for you. It has a very striking design and multiple game options. The dimensions are intermediate. The best thing, without a doubt, is the price.
Advantages
- Design: the design is unique and very original.
- Price: the price is something that we have valued a lot because you will not find such a low rate for a machine of these characteristics.
- Versatility: it is a very versatile machine to play various games.
- Resistance: the materials are very resistant.
Drawbacks
- Monochrome: even though it has a modern design, you can only buy it in one color.
Mini Pinball Toy: the best pinball machine for kids
Advantages
- Design: the design is perfect for the little ones in the house, as it is very fun and childish.
- Music: it has music in every movement we make for stimulating our children.
- Colors: the machine has colored lights activated when the ball passes over it.
- Scoreboard: the scoreboard can help you know how the game is going.
- Dimensions: it is the smallest pinball that we can find in the market for our children. It is perfect for taking anywhere.
Drawbacks
- Functions: it has few game options, although perfect for being a small pinball.
Passat Espagne: the best Star Wars pinball machine
Advantages
- Easy assembly: it is a very simple pinball machine since no tools are needed.
- Design: the design is unique, and we will not find two similar Pinball machines For Sale on the market.
- Quality: it is a brand working in the sector for many years and works with very resistant and durable materials.
- Price: it is the lowest price we can find in the market.
- Multiple options: you can play various games.
Drawbacks
- If you are not a fan of the Star Wars saga, you may not like this gift.
The Avengers: cheapest pinball machine
IMC Toys- Avengers Super Pinball (390140)
Summary: the cheapest pinball machine. Avengers theme. It has an adjustable height and volume button, and it has a marker with possible manual zeroing. It works with batteries. Easy to transport.
Advantages
- Design: the design is very dynamic and cheerful for children.
- Easy to assemble: you can assemble it without using tools since the legs are adjustable to the height you need.
- Multiple options: you can play as many games as you want.
- Lights and sound to make the game more fun.
- Price: super economical.
Drawbacks
- It works with batteries, and this is something that we must always be careful not to run out of battery in the middle of a game.
Guide to buying cheap Pinball machines For Sale
If you’re reading this cheap pinball machine buying guide, it means one thing: you’re planning on buying a pinball.
This article will help you decide whether you are ready for this purchase, what to buy, and how much to spend.
Are you ready to have a pinball machine? Contrary to video games, cheap Pinball machines For Sale have many moving parts and electronic components.
Therefore, the more you play, the more likely you will have to end up fixing something.
In this regard, most repairs are fairly straightforward.
If you are not comfortable operating a welder, it is best to make sure you have a person who will do the repairs at a reasonable distance.
Typical repairs
The standard repairs are usually related to broken cables, the replacement of old tires, the replacement of light bulbs, etc.
When I bought my first pinball, I did not know anything about the repair of these games. I played with it repeatedly until one day, one of the targets stopped working.
I was slightly petrified with fear.
And now how am I supposed to open it? Luckily, I recovered from the shock, opened it, and located the problem right away: a broken wire on the bullseye.
So I soldered it in the correct position, and voila, it was fixed. It is an example of something you might come across.
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What game to buy?
Once you have determined that you have the possibility of repairs under control, you are ready to begin the next part, determining which game to buy.
Thematic
Normally, the first thing people think of when buying a pinball for the first time is, what is the theme?
Is it a movie you loved, a sport, or maybe a fantasy theme?
You can find catalogs and databases of Pinball machines For Sale on the Internet with images and user ratings.
Ratings about pinballs
A word of caution is necessary for relation to ratings, and that is that they should be considered only as guidance about what is popular.
Keep in mind
Just because a pinball is in the first position of a list does not mean that that game is more fun than another in position 50. In this case, something similar to video games happens: everyone has their favorites.
It’s rare for two people to agree on their favorite video game. In my case, some of the most popular cheap pinball machines are not among my favorites. For example, a pinball can have a lot of interactive devices on the board but end up being boring in the long run.
Basic rules of pinball
Aside from the theme, the other important thing that makes a pinball machine attractive is the ‘rules.’ The rules are basically what defines the values of the shots and in what order, those shots should be made.
An example would be that knocking down a series of targets pays 1,000 points the first time, 5,000 the second time, and an extra ball the third time.
Modern rules
As games have become increasingly sophisticated, the rules have moved in that direction. It is important because new games tend to have better rules. It means that they usually end up being more fun in the long run.
In contrast, the games of the early 80s tend to have simpler rules, usually consisting of shooting down targets and spinning roulette wheels. As the decade progressed, the rules developed much more, especially when ramps were added to games in the 1980s.
When the 1990s began, most games followed the rules established by The Addams Family pinball.
This game broke the record for the largest number of cheap pinball machines ever made.
After The Addams Family pinball, the rules got slightly more complicated towards the end of the decade, but not too quickly.
The 2000s
In the 2000s, the development of the rules took a huge step forward with the game of The Lord of the Rings and The Simpsons.
These two games featured rules never before seen in pinball, making them great to have around the house.
That trend in rule development has continued to this day, with games like AC / DC, Metallica, and Star Trek.
If you are a novice player, then the ruleset will not be the most important thing, as for a long time, you will not be a good enough player to go very far.
However, the better you are as a player, the more suitable it is to play cheap pinball machines with more complicated rules.
Guide to help you buy a pinball machine
As soon as you have chosen a game, the next thing will be the most difficult: buying it. The most important issue in this regard is the price. If you are lucky, the game you have decided on will cost only a couple of thousand euros.
Popular machines
Now, if you have chosen one of the most popular, it will likely cost you at least € 5,000, and maybe even close to € 10,000. New machines also start at € 5,000, going up to € 8,000 for limited edition games.
It is a huge barrier to entry for many people, as the game you initially wanted may be too expensive.
But don’t worry, there are games cheap enough to fit any budget.
You can buy a pinball from the early 80s for up to € 500. And if you like old electro-mechanical machines, you can buy one for a couple hundred.
My first game was a € 1,200 Stargate that I bought in 2005. Although it is not the best game ever, it has a lot to offer new players with 8 different multi balls. It is very affordable even today (it can find for € 2,000 or less). A good way to determine the price when buying a pinball is to purchase an official price guide.
A price guide can be extremely helpful in getting an idea of the value of a game. Without it, you can sometimes be at a great disadvantage when negotiating the price.
Where to find the game
By now, you’ve settled on a game that, hopefully, fits your wishes and budget. The next step is to find the game. There are three places where you can buy the cheapest second-hand Pinball machines For Sale.
You can buy them by searching:
- On local classified ad sites.
- To local collectors
- In a physical store that you have nearby.
I bought almost all of the ones that I have using the first two methods since when I started, and there was no physical store near where I live (and if there had been, they would probably have been too expensive).
When you go shopping for a pinball for the first time, you will usually end up paying more than the game is worth. The reason is that it is difficult to assess its condition or find bargains when you are starting.
However, it is okay to pay a little more if the game works perfectly.
There are plenty of guides to buying a new pinball that should help you get your first pinball machine while saving some money in the process.
Selling a pinball machine.
If you start buying one pinball after another, at some point, you will want to sell one.
And this is where the next stage of owning cheap pinball machines begins. To sell a game, you must determine:
- Value
- Defects
- Mobility
- Pay
- Keys
How much is your game worth right now?
It could be very different from when you bought it, even if it was 6 or 12 months ago.
Nothing complicated
Once you’ve established all of these factors, selling a pinball isn’t much different from any other transaction.
The only thing about it is that it involves heavy objects and that people will often have to drive long distances.
In my case, I have been driving 8 hours to buy a pinball.
I’m not sure if I’d drive that far again because it’s a long way for a pinball machine.
Cleaning your pinball machine
If you play a lot with your pinball, you will have to clean it. The most recommended cleaning product is called Novus 2.
Most people have never heard of it, but it is quite popular in certain niches.
Novus 2
It is especially good for games made after 1990, and It is because the boards did not start to be lacquered until then.
It works well on boards and plastics and even frames.
However, you have to be careful with pre-1990 boards.
You may end up accidentally removing the paint.
So on boards made before that year, some use wax cleaners, some use Novus 2, some use a magic eraser, etc.
In my case, with the older boards, I use a combination of Novus 2 and the magic eraser, which seems to work decently.
On new cheap pinball machines, cleaning is recommended every year, or whenever stains appear.
Changing the dashboard rubbers
If you have a pinball machine for some time, the rubbers on the board will eventually age and eventually break.
Usually, it is a rubber ring close to the spring that breaks due to use, although some of the other rubbers break from time to time.
Rubber Kit
To fix it, you will have to order a rubber kit.
You can get them in one of the online stores that sell cheap pinball machine parts.
Make sure you buy the correct color rubbers to match.
I would also recommend that you take the opportunity to change some of the other rubbers that are easier to reach.
This way you won’t have to do it in the future.
It is also good to change the rubbers on the paddles or flippers. Over time, these rubbers become less elastic, making it difficult to make certain shots.
I hope this guide will be helpful to you when buying the pinball that best suits your tastes and budget and allows you to enjoy hours and hours of fun.
Pinball machines For Sale