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Before answering to this question, let’s first get acquainted with a variety of bingo machines. Roughly speaking, bingos fall into four main categories: Parts Machines, Warehouse Machines, As-is Complete and Retail.
Parts Machine: Don’t delude yourself; you won’t get rich from this one. Those games are quite shabby looking and frankly don’t have a fixed price, but worth the sum of their used part value. The valuable parts include back-glass, which would typically cost somewhere around $100-$200; playfield, if in a reasonable condition, would cost $50-$75; motors worth about $40.
Warehouse Machines: those bingo machines are usually brimming with games and on the average worth about $25-$75. But don’t get overly excited since parts machines occupy at least half the space with battered layout, missing back-glass and stolen motors.
As-is Complete: those machines might have few points to their favor as they come in decent shape, but their primary vice is that they haven’t been in use for quite a while. For you, the implications are that you’ll first need to invest some time, energy and money to resurrect them and get them going again. The money you are likely to spend on this recreational process depends on few variables: the kind of game it is and the condition of its vital constituents.
Retail: You aspire to get a game that would not just bedeck the setting but would also work and better come with a warrantee. It is possible to sell the game for $2000 but that’s for those who can afford spending so much money. $500-$1500 is on the reasonable edge as well, as it does take a lot to sweep the dusty layer of it and restore the running condition to its engines. So it all comes down to whether it is unreasonable to ask $1000 from a retailer who offers a guaranteed game and promises to answer calls on whatever technical problems you might have. Probably not, but the prospects of selling it for the same price are slim.
Okay, it seems the pricing issue has been exhausted. You’ve set yourself a goal to purchase one of those dream bingo equipment. You’ll have to evaluate the cosmetics of course, but more important you’ll have to figure out what is going on there the inside of these machines.
Beware of the dangling wires! They are definitely, a worrying sign, meaning that perhaps some vital segment has been disconnected. If the cover of the wire bundles is tight, then it is a safe bet that no wires were taken out of there. A few disconnected wires around the ball trough inside the coin door. These are normally applied for the meters.
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