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Pinball Junk Drawer, Episode 9

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Feb 14, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

Modding pinball machines adds personal value, not resale value; do what makes you happy.

Summary

Host discusses pinball machine modding culture, drawing analogies to guitar and Harley motorcycle customization to explain how modifications appeal personally to owners but rarely add resale value. Emphasizes that modding is acceptable if it makes the owner happy, while cautioning against expecting monetary returns. Includes tangential stories about personal restoration projects and a wealthy Florida collector's high-end machine enhancements.

Key Claims

  • Modifications to pinball machines generally do not add monetary resale value

    high confidence · Host's direct statement based on personal experience selling Dr. Dude and observing market behavior

  • Every pinball machine in the world has been serviced/tinkered with by a technician at some point

    high confidence · Host's assertion about inherent maintenance nature of pinball machines

  • Powder coating modifications are experiencing a backlash in the community

    medium confidence · Host observes trend shift: 'I'm already seeing kind of a backlash against it'

  • A wealthy Florida collector enhanced his machines to museum-quality standards, making them worth ~$12,000 each when typical machines sold for $5,000-6,000

    medium confidence · Anecdotal story from five years prior; specific numbers not independently verified

  • Vid1900's Pinside playfield restoration guide from nine years ago remains highly informative

    high confidence · Host recommends resource as comprehensive and well-researched

Notable Quotes

  • “if you see that one has been modified, that is a negative, a complete negative... someone's went in there and diddled with the guitar”

    Host (Foghorn Leghorn character) @ ~5:30 — Establishes guitar modification analogy and sets up contrast with pinball reality

  • “You're not adding value. You're adding value to you. That's what modifying and customizing things is.”

    Host @ ~12:00 — Core thesis on subjective vs. objective value in mods; key philosophical statement

  • “the only thing the refresh does or you know like the restoration does is maybe makes it a bit more appealing... that might give me an edge to sell a little quicker. But I couldn't say, it doesn't have any monetary value.”

    Host @ ~18:30 — Clarifies nuance: minor appeal boost possible but no real equity added

  • “so literally you can do whatever you want to the machines if you're happy with it when you walk up that's cool”

    Host @ ~24:00 — Stated bottom line on mod ethics and ownership freedom

  • “I'm already seeing kind of a backlash against it. But, to be honest, when the doctor dude was sitting there all looking all homely next to the The Beatles, it didn't look the same.”

    Host @ ~17:30 — Admits tension between aesthetic appeal and long-term trend perception

Entities

Poor Man's Pinball PodcastorganizationVid1900personDanpersonFoghorn LeghornpersonThe Beatles (pinball machine)gameDr. Dude (pinball machine)gameWoe Nelly (pinball machine)gameAustin Powers (pinball machine)gameElvira's House of Horrors (pinball machine)gameprojectpinball.orgorganizationPinside

Signals

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Powder coating as a modification trend is experiencing backlash within the community, despite aesthetic appeal to individual owners

    medium · Host: 'I'm already seeing kind of a backlash against it'

  • $

    market_signal: Dr. Dude machines trading in $3,200-3,500 range with minor resale appeal bump from restoration/LED work; no meaningful premium for mods

    medium · Host: 'doctor dude's only worth what the market will bear three grand or whatever... you're like yeah the only thing the refresh does... maybe makes it a bit more appealing... you couldn't say, it doesn't have any monetary value'

  • ?

    product_strategy: LED upgrades and colored DMD replacements are widely adopted modifications across the collector community to match modern aesthetic standards

    medium · Host notes Austin Powers with LED and DMD upgrades looks dramatically different from stock; 'just to keep up' is common motivation

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.063

0:00
Now who's responsi- I say who's responsible for this unwarranted attack on my person? I say, I say, I say, pay attention now, boy. This is, of course, Foghorn Leghorn presents the Pinball Junk Draw. You all asked for it. I say, I say, you all asked for it now. You're gonna get it. And boy, oh boy, are you gonna get it. Go, I say, go away, boy, you bother me.
0:25
Infinity pool in the back. All the chicks wanna get with the Mac. And what that I mean is, of course, it's time for Foghorn Leghorn Presents the Pinball Junk Tour. Show number nine. Wowzers. We're almost at double digits and no one's pulled me from the air yet. Amazing. This show might be a little dicey for some to hear because I'm going to talk about the modding trend and people modifying their pinball machines and modding upstarts and modding businesses and companies getting modding and fighting about who made the mod first and oh my god i'm not going to talk about that i am going to talk a little bit about you know my thoughts about it right or wrong doesn't matter it's all like i keep stressing that and i'm keep waiting for the i know sooner or later someone's gonna lose their mind and be had to like scream at me somehow how dare you sir i digress so i want to start by saying right if you listen to last week's I was alluding to there was a there's a pin side thread that it was actually not terrible. You know, I'm not terrible. That was the wrong way of saying it. But it was very informative. So I did want to give due. It's called Vid's Guide to Ultimate Playfield Restoration. And it's by Vid1900. Very good. It's a good read. And it's, again, it talks about a lot of tips for caring for your play field, bringing one back to life, all that kind of stuff. Because there is a lot of, I don't know if you've ever heard, but the Internet's filled with misinformation from time to time. You might stumble upon something that might not be actually true, like this show. But you can also, so go there and read that. It's a very long read, and I thought it was a new thread. It's from nine years ago. So, you know, it's very informative. Even if you've been doing this for a long time, when you go through, you'll be like, oh, wow. You know, this dude really put some time into it and made it a good thing. So good on you, Vid1900. That is an awesome, awesome resource. And that's kind of, you know, from time to time.
organization
2:36
Pinsight can be a resource for good. Not just evil and hatred. Sometimes good can be there. And that's, we should all try to aspire that. And by that, I mean, you should go to projectpinball.org and donate. I know. Show nine, I'm already shilling and saying, you should do this. And you're like, who is this guy? Well, I know Dan personally. Well, as personally as I'm going to know somebody. And he's a great guy. And I actually really believe, I don't really like call out for charities. I'm not a very charitable fella. Kind of mean spirited in my heart. But this is like, what a great, you know, charity. putting pinball machines in children's hospitals and not only that not charging them which i setting them to free you know and also making sure that they keep running that's the rub making sure that they keep you know they're not just like broken you can put a pinball machine anywhere and if you don't care for it it's going to be broken in about 20 seconds and well that's the end of that so if you want to help contribute you bring a little like happiness into the lives of some children that could really need some, need a little bit of happiness. We'll do that. And I'm not even being told to say it. In fact, I might get a cease and desist if Dan ever found out I was saying it. So don't say anything if you contribute. Okay, on to enough of the nonsense. I kid everyone and everything. So, modding. Now, the modding, pinball machine modding is not new. It's just now there's a lot of upstarts because all of a sudden pinball is going through the roof and you know everyone dreams i could make the next topper that's twenty thousand dollars you can't but one of the things that is a little bit funny i was trying to think of like analogies that made sense because modding in my in moderation can be cool there's some things that do add value when you're modding a pinball machine most do not and at first i was like i'll talk about guitars because i know a lot about guitars i've bought and sold and fixed and ruined and the whole did a whole bunch of stuff with guitars over my life i can't play them very well but i sure have a lot of them and um like when you're thinking when people modify guitars all the time they're chasing that dream that that one sound and the sound, if you want to really practice. If you want to really chase the dream you practice more And that could be said for pinball I guess as well You want to just play better you know practice But guitars don really make a good analogy for pinball modding Because in the guitar world, when you're looking for a used guitar, you're looking to buy a guitar, I mean, and you go to the used market, if you see that one has been modified, that is a negative, a complete negative. That means someone's went in there and diddled with the guitar. and I'm using that sorry it's a little sexual sounding but that means you don't know like why is that making that little crackly sound who knows magic generally speaking you know the guys at Fender and Gibson and all this you know all these great guitar manufacturers they do their best to hit a price point and they give you a serviceable guitar that is expected to play for a long time And that's, you know, that's the reality of it. So if you see one that has been modified and changed and this and that and the other thing, well, then you know someone's been in there and you're just waiting to see what they've ruined. Like you basically buy it and take it apart again to see, let's see if I can bring this back. You know, the smart guys, if they do change out the, like the pickups is a common thing that gets done. They'll say, well, I have the original pickups as well. You know, so you can say, okay, you know, that shows that you might care a little bit. but that doesn't really apply to pinball world because there's no pinball machine in the world that has been set up turned on and that's the end of that everything every pinball machine in the world has been diddled with because you have to like continually make sure you're tinkering with them and making like lifting up the play field and not fixing so much but like people you're i expect a pinball machine no matter how new or old has been like a technician has had to do something at some point so that's a big difference a guitar i don't expect it needs anything for a long long time like they're kind of made to keep going and you if they are changed or modified or whatever like that you're like well that's that's something different not so much with pinball pinball is almost you know things have been addressed and changed and tinkered with and adjusted and so because it has to be. So by nature, that's a bad analogy. So I was like, well, I can talk about it. We got, you know, we have some time to kill. So whatever. Then the correct thing hit me.
7:37
A Harley, a Harley motorcycle. And I was like, there it is. That's the one. Now I don't ride a Harley. I've ridden motorcycles in my life. I grew up riding mini bikes and I've had numerous motorcycles, crotch rockets, all different kinds. And now I don't anymore because I don't like to cheat death. I'm slower than I was, so death is closer. When you're young, death is in the rear view mirror. You're like, she's not going to catch me. Even if I crash this motorcycle, death ain't going to catch me. Now I slip too hard on some ice, death might be right there. So I don't ride motorcycles anymore. But analogy is coming. So when a guy buys a Harley, you're like, all right, I got my new Harley. I paid a lot of money and I love this thing. But you know what I really like? I like skulls. And you go, oh, that's cool. A lot of people like skulls. I like black chrome skulls exclusively. And you're like, oh, okay. Well, he's saying that to himself. Now, I will stress a pinball machine like this Harley is this guy's. He bought it and did whatever he wants with it. It's not right or wrong. It just is. Well, this guy's like, ah, yes. And he starts and he gets the black little cover for the exhaust covers that are little black skulls. And he valve stems and soon he's invested thousands and thousands of dollars and it is this the most scullied skull motorcycle in scullville and look at that that's that there you can't put it's airbrushed with black chrome skulls and it's just it's black chrome skulls from sea to shining sea now he goes to sell it because he wants next year's big shiny motorcycle and the guy walks up and even if the guy walks up and goes, I don't think I like skulls so much. So that's, I don't know, look at all these skulls. What am I gonna do with this? You know, if I park this motorcycle near a Terminator, the Terminator's gonna step on this motorcycle. Terminators notoriously hate skulls. They're always stepping on them, movie references. So like right off the bat, this guy's like, you know, and pretend this guy does love skulls. He's like, I love skulls. I'm gonna go check out this motorcycle. And he looks at it, he's like, wow, I like chrome skulls or gold-plated skulls. I sure don't like black chrome skulls. I like chrome chrome skulls. So you're not adding value. You're adding value to you. That's what modifying and customizing things is. If I rip apart a guitar and do all kinds of wacky stuff, well, that kind of is only cool to me because I've done the 10 things that I think are cool. and yes there are other people out there but for the most part it's not cool they're like what this guy ruined this guitar or now this guy's like oh i can buy this beautiful harley because i this the year i want this it the it the model i want it everything look at this money i have to invest d d sculvis thing you know and that where we getting i know everyone like oh is this guy getting to the point or what i know long-winded today i had too much caffeine or not enough caffeine i can't remember how that works doesn't matter so like when in the same goes for modifying a pinball machine some things add value and that again this is my perception but generally speaking Like if you have an Austin Powers pinball machine, you take out the dot matrix and you put in a nice colored DMD. Well, that's adding. It makes it much more beautiful. If it works correctly, you're still modifying it. And there is a camp of purists that are like, you've destroyed it. But those guys kind of hate everything, so you don't really listen to them. But, you know, and then you take out the LED. You put in LEDs. That's a very popular thing. because if you have an Austin Powers or a Dr. Dude sitting next to a new shiny, a Beatles,
11:21
it doesn't even look like the same thing. You're like, I don't know what this thing is, but this is a pinball machine. Look how bright and shiny it's yelling at me. Big speakers and shiny and there's powder-coated sparkly crap everywhere. So just to keep up, a lot of times you take a pinball machine like I did with my Dr. Dude. And in fact, I have three pinball machines in a row and they are at various stages of modified. The Beatles is bone stock. I just keep it clean, wipe it down. That thing's already pretty much a big, gaudy, shiny thing.
11:53
Now, the second thing I have is the Wonelli. Now, the Wonelli, it's all stock except I bought the watermelon shooter rod. And I'm not even a fan of the shooter rod, like the little clown faces and the fire thing. But watermelon shooter rod, I was like, well, that kind of should have came from the factory like that. so i swapped that out and i kept the original one because i'm anal retentive and that's so that's like it's pretty much but you can't say it's original because i and i also built a topper for that for the woe nelly i had a lot of fun doing that it looks pretty good actually it well of course i say i build it so of course i said and then the third thing was the doctor dude and the doctor dude i went all in i did a restoration on that so i did i straightened the body put the decals on it and then i i sent the i sent all like the stuff out to get powder coated this gaudy orange metal flake and i you know i didn't upgrade the speakers but i replaced the speakers i made it led i did a whole bunch of like little stuff so it's not and i did well i the i was gonna go all in on the powder coating and i started looking at pictures and i was like oh no no no and if you if you like it that's cool i left like the door is black and i left i was gonna do like the ramps on the inside like a crazy like vibrant electric puke green from the from the 90s you know i was like i'm no i'm not i just i stopped like something in my head said just stop so i did the legs and the side and the you know the side the armor the side rails i mean i think what else i did i did a couple of the lockdown bar so it's i want to say tastefully powder coated if that's even a phrase it's not really because i think i don't think history is going to look too kindly on powder coating. I'm already seeing kind of a backlash against it. But, to be honest, when the doctor dude was sitting there all looking all homely next to the Beatles, it didn't look the same. You know? So, that modding, that did add... To me, it added, but I don't think it added to the value. Like, when you do modifications to a pinball machine, you're not adding value that's going to be, like, money on the class. the doctor dude's only worth what the market will bear three grand or whatever they're at now i mean well now probably thirty eight thousand dollars but in real world like three thirty two hundred maybe you know you're really pushing if you're asking four or five for a doctor dude you're like yeah the only thing the refresh does or you know like the restoration does is maybe makes it a bit more appealing if it's up against another Dr. Do that's out there for 3,500. Like we all, if two or three of them out there and they're all 32 to 35, if a guy goes, well, this one has all LEDs, it's been lightly restored,
14:46
you know, it's cared for, it's nice, that might give me an edge to sell a little quicker. But I couldn't say, it doesn't have any monetary value. And a lot of mods, I think a lot of people think that, but that's not the reality of it like a modification doesn't add you can't just say well you know i glued a bunch of figures on this crap now i want a thousand dollars more you can say that but it's like no i have to i have to take all those off now some mods are like you know then there's some guys like there was a guy where i used to live down in florida and this guy had like his house he had a mansion this guy was really rich and i met him through local like a local board and i needed some legs for a machine I was restoring. I just said, does anyone have any crappy legs out? Because I want to take the ones off and I want to shoot them Just clean them up and spray paint them and put them back on This guy said yeah I have some Come on up No problem Don you know you don need to buy them I just give them to you I was like cool So I show up and this guy has this whole bottom of his mansion is like nothing but pinball machines. I was like, oh my God. And he handed me four legs that were like brand new chrome legs. And I was like, are these the right ones? Are you sure? He's like, yeah, don't worry about it. Come to find out. Cause then he was like, yeah, you can play a couple of games. I was looking around. I felt uncomfortable. So I didn't stay too long. every game is the most i don't want to say modified but enhanced his games are known he's known throughout florida his games are the most perfect examples of like high-end everything so he'll buy a new elvira and the tech comes and the tech brings the subwoofer and the and the the different colored leg or powder coated legs like he brings the invisiglass every single thing you can do to make that the highest and like museum piece every one of his machines i i was standing there and this is about five years ago i'm talking about every machine was probably like a twelve thousand dollar machine when machines were selling for five or six so this got like and that and that was like one of those things where i was like i don't even know where to put that in the modifying or modding world, it's almost like he's just made every single thing the most perfect example of the highest end of that thing. You're like, well, holy crap, you know. So that's the catch-22 when you're saying, well, modding doesn't add money. I guess it can add money, but I wouldn't take it to the bank, that's all.
17:16
So long-winded. I don't know. Usually my no-interview ones don't go 20 minutes. Sorry, everyone. so the bottom line and i have to stress this and this is the bottom line of every show it's your machine i mean do it do whatever you want you can take the glass off and crap on it and then just put the glass back on and i modded it that's the crap mod you know i wouldn't advise that but i mean so literally you can do whatever you want to the machines if you're happy with it when you walk up that's cool you want to glue a whole bunch of crap all over go ahead who cares there was a time in our life where people put paneling on pinball machines and it was in the 70s and their friend came down and they were both probably drinking like a lukewarm schlitz and the guy was like perfect and that was it and then they went and played pong in their underwear and then that machine sat there crying inside because it was now had wood paneling all around it and you know well it used to be a fun fest but now it's just a fest all the fun's been taken out of because but again at that point in time that dude was like that's awesome i love that paneling and now it matches the paneling in my basement let's go have more schlitz and they did and it was totally fine so you know if you want to put wood paneling on your pinball machines go ahead go powder coat some paneling somehow wood wood powder coating and then do that that'd be hey cutting edge man that's the way to go you're gonna do it do it like cutting edge again do with do with your machine what you will in the grand scheme of life at the end you're going to be in a box and there's going to be some guy wearing a funny hack on he was always a good man and as ashes to ashes dust and it won't matter what you did to your pinball machine in the past hopefully you weren't so audacious with your modifications that a crew of pitched forked villagers came to kill you because of your modifications you made on your pinball machine that would be no good i don't think that would happen. That'd be pretty rare. Enough of this nonsense. I want to thank you for listening. This has been Foghorn Leghorn Presents the Pinball Junk Drawer Big Show 9. Number nine. Number nine. Remember that? No, no one does. Beatles. Yoko Ono, I believe. No, that was still the Beatles. Man, I should stop recording this right now because I'm just fading into oblivion. I'm not going to edit either. Again, I am the Ed Wood of podcasting here. Okay, enough. I do have a Stern interview.
19:53
I found it. It's only like five and a half minutes long. I'm like, whew. So I think what we're going to do is maybe I'll bring Mrs. Leghorn on. She's been saying she wants to do some of the shows and I was like, please do. Because I think, although I enjoy talking and hearing myself talk, I'm sure other interesting, more interesting viewpoints might help. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next week for show number 10. Number 10. And where's Barney? Oh, he's with his new girlfriend, the Japanese conceptual artist.
20:33
Marvish Shop is in danger of going stale. I'm taking it to strange new places Number 8 That's it, man Game over, man Game over