Perfection is not an option...

I woke up after 11.5 hours of sleep and still felt like crap. My throat was sore, my head hurt and I was in a hazy unmotivated state. It felt both physical and mental and I didn't know which was worse. Even going to bed at 8:30 pm last night didn't help.

First thing I did when I woke up was send an email about our trip to Wayne and Rino and for the third time ask them about the status of hiring Johnny to become a CSR for the book division. I continue to be amazed at how slow these guys are at making a decision or getting back to you. I personally don't get it, it obviously works for them. I just want to get it in place so I can keep the sales momentum going. A large part of my future compensation is commission based.

Stuff like bothers me. Alice and Al say let it go and I know I show and I will. It's just that my mind starts become a hamster on a wheel wondering why they are not getting back to me. At times I'll even start asking if the company if financially healthy in my paranoia. This way have thinking is very stressful and unhealthy I know.

I cc'd Al on the email I sent Wayne and Rino and we talked later in the morning and he thought it was really good. He's working on a proposal himself and I'm curious if Wayne or Rino get back to him quickly.

After sending the email, even though it was wet, cold and drizzling rain I decided to go for a ride. I need to get my head back and lately I've felt in a real free fall mentally. I've had this happen before and the results are never good. Once I had to be hospitalized. That was long ago before getting back into triathlons. This is the first time I've been feeling in a free fall since getting back into triathlons and I feel like I'm walking the wire.

I told myself, "the hell with it, doing a ride this morning is more important than working". I got dressed up and got out the door and when I went to pull my bike down the front tire was low of air again. The same thing happened on the last ride and that tire blew and I replaced it with the one that is now low. I figured there must be something wrong with the rim and came back in the house and told Alice I wasn't riding I was taking my bike to Wheels in Oakville, which I did and left it with them for the day to look at. I realized that I wasn't going to get a new tire for a manufacturers defect when I took one of my old tires back and realized it was frayed from the straps that hold it as a spare behind my seat. Damn, that was a $70 lesson.

After I dropped it off I went to work and was near zero percent productive and kept getting sicker and sicker. I just wanted to go home and sleep. It's been a long time since I've felt this bad and weighing on the scale at 186 lbs this morning didn't help. I'm up 3 lbs since Utah. I shouldn't be surprised. In those three weeks since I've probably had 10 of them as a bender.

I got home sick as a dog and didn't sleep. I was on the computer instead. I kept checking to see if emails were coming from Wayne and Rino. None. No response or acknowledgement to mine. I did however have a guy question me about my pinball machine and the discussion was bizarre, it went from a pricing question to debate to semi-cordial friendship to offering of pinball services. This is how it went.


Is it still for sale?

debating. Like the machine a lot and now just installed LED lights on backboard and table. How much would you pay?


I couldn't say at this point. How much are willing to sell for?


Asking $4200, but just put $300 into it for lights, being installed this weekend.


So what are you willing to sell for?


Prolly $4500. 


What do you think the market value of that machine is? I guess it doesn't matter if you have someone with a lot of cash. Kijiji is the wrong place to ask retail ++ and you offer no service or warranty.

I just sold a mint collector quality Guns n Roses for less and it's worth way more. I am your typical buyer and I have the cash. So, again if you do want to well you are going to need to acknowledge the actual value.

If not, I will bet it will not sell.

had a guy offer me $4100K last week and turned it down. The value is what someone's going to pay I guess.

In all seriousness though my family wants me to keep it, they love it. The machine is near mint. I'm sure I could get more than Kijiji if I tried to sell it to a corvette enthusiast I'm told.

There is a book value for frequently bought and sold pinball machines. I sold a nice way tona car collector a few weeks ago for $1900 including delivery and all LEDs as well as many many details to the work I did on it. Last week he called with a sticky flipper and I went and fixed it for free.

So at $1500 to $2000 above book price, what do you have to offer?


charm and good looks. haha

That won't get my cash, sorry

That's because your not a beautiful women who appreciates it. hahaha


Women don't usually buy pinballs. Except for my HUO SM, gift from my wife.


My point is if you are serious to sell you are turning away all the viable buyers with that pricing. If you are fishing for a huge price maybe you should run an ad with Corvette collectors. I doubt that will do it though.

People that buy pinballs for $2500 and up usually research their purchase.

That said I think you will be keeping that machine quite a while. If I ran for sale ads on all the machines I didn't really want to sell on classifieds for inflated pricing I would be quickly identified as a gouger not a viable seller.

Corvette is an ok game rated at 7.6 out of 10 on IPDB.org

I don't own one game under 8/10.

That said, your sale has been discussed online among collectors locally and you have no buyers there.

Again, if you wanted to sell you wouldn't alienate your buyers. You don't sell pinballs to non pinball collectors in that price range typically even if it is fair market price (which it isn't)

I'm obviously bored as hell at work.


hahahaha, bored or your wife kicked you out of the house or you need a friend.haha. 

In all seriousness, I bought the machine for $3600 a couple weeks ago and was going to sell it. After I placed the ad it started growing on me and my family insisted I keep it. I've since paid someone to add lights, etc. I just haven't taken the ad down yet. I did get a really good offer from a Corvette guy and family wouldn't let me take it.

You pinball guys are hard core. haha. Now you got the inside track and can tell them all about it. hahaha

I don't get it if you just got it why would you sell? I saw 2 for sale last fall when I was on the US. One was mint for $2500 or $2600 but I wasn't looking to buy. Who charged you souch, a retailer?


I was going to sell because it seemed too hard to play, then I got the hang of it and I like the challenge. I got it from a guy in Caledonia that seems to buy and sell slot machines. It was an impulse purchase on my part and I got a slot machine too. It was also smaller than most at 51 inches and we needed that to fit into a specific area in the basement. I know I probably over paid by $400, however I know I can at least get my money out of it, I already had a guy offer me $4100. He wasn't looking at it for it's pinball value, it was just a corvette thing. I wanted to take it, the family vetoed me. Online however, a lot of the corvettes are selling around $3800 from my research on some retailer and ebay sites.


Now I've decided to throw more money at it and pimp it up, which means I have to keep it longer to get's its value up. haha.



Oops try this: www.bostonpinball.biz

Click on the eBay sales summary.

Interesting.
So Tresurescove is a good place to buy from?

They are fairly high end restorers. There are some that are better but lesser known. For example High End Pinball (Chad Keller) is considered one of the best.

For a guy like you I am probably your best source since I don't gouge and I have ethics.

Do you fix/repair/restore pinballs as a business?

Hobby, why?

Just curious, you mention a guy like you was my best choice. I though maybe you had a pinball business.

Not a business, just for fun. Most people see machines with issues, I don't

Very cool.

I meant that when people sell they usually dump a machine with multiple issues. I never do.

You sound like an honourable guy. If or when you decide you want to sell a machine let me know. As I mentioned my buddy is looking to buy a few of the top rated games and put them in his new house and man cave. He moves in at the end of June and he's a collector type guy and only buys the best. He'd be specifically looking for a Medieval Madness, Twilight Zone, Theatre of Magic as his top three.


Just so you know most collectors usually offer up higher end machines to other collectors they know. Reason being, they are a lot easier to deal with. My last higher end machine I sold this week was Guns n Roses, and I was asked if I would sell it, I didn't solicit to sell.

I then bought a fixer upper for a change just for fun. If I am selling a machine usuall I put it on Kijiji and pinball forums.

If you comb ads you will eventually see something of mine. Another suggestion if you are interested in more machines/collecting/learning to fix is to join MAACA.org

Good luck
Warren

Thanks for the advice and help. 
B

All from a question, "Is it still for sale?". At least it kept me distracted as I was feeling low today. I wasn't even up for Friday afternoon beers. I was about to go to sleep and then realized that I hadn't yet picked up my bike from the shop. Off I went on a Friday at 5 pm to get my bike and traffic was bad.

I got to the shop and they guy said they found nothing on the rim, that it was a coincidence that two flatted back to back. I found that hard to believe and only time will tell. He also sold me some new brake pads, mine were wearing out. He said if I could wait for 15 minutes they'd put them on and I said I couldn't, I'm too tired and said I'll take them and put them on myself later. 

We got home I was baked. I've also been having the munchies. I've been good about it and not snacking on things other than a little cheese or yogurt or popcorn. It's taking all my will power to stop myself. I just feel I'm on this downward spiral. 

My biggest debate of the night was whether to have a beer or go to sleep. It was a back and forth battle. In the end I decided to watch a movie downstairs with Alice and Reid and have one small beer. We watched the original 1932 version of Scarface. I didn't even know that Scarface with Al Pacino was a remake. The original is great, I love watching those old black and whites. As we watched my spirits started feeling better and the beer started pouring a little bit more and a small glass turned into a big glass. Then the cigars came out and I felt comfortable giving Reid one. I also told him the rule is we are only going to have one once in a while, perhaps once a week and try to keep it to one. He was cool with that. 

After Scarface we watched Blues Brothers. What a great movie, I haven't watched that movie in so long I forgot most of the parts. I didn't realize until tonight that it is really a musical. The singing and singers in that movie are amazing and for a 2.5 hour movie it flew by. 

Reid has stopped smoking his cigar by the end of Scarface. I was still smoking mine by the halfway point of Blues Brothers. I asked him where is cigar went, he said he finished it with an inch or two left. I told him he was missing the best part. He then said, "you know dad, your right, you never see Castro or Che smoking big cigars, they are always photographed smoking the small end of a cigar". I told him I think it's because it has the most flavour and that that couple inches of a cigar can last longer than the first 6 inches for some reason. I let him have a drag of my roach sized cigar and he thought it was much more flavourful. I told him that he has now given me the idea to buy shorter cigars and by pass the long stuff. I gave him the best fatherly advice I had, "smoke it to the cherry". 

By the end of the movie I was drunk and feeling much better. As the night went on and I had my bathroom breaks I started to realize that "perfection is not an option". That if things don't go perfectly you can't get yourself down. If people don't get back to you, don't sweat it. If you don't eat right, don't worry about it. If you gain a pound, don't worry about it. Just roll with it. Right now I need something to stop the little hamster wheel in my head from spinning out of control and setting perfection in anything as the benchmark will not help. I realized no matter how bad I feel tomorrow I'm still getting outside and going for a ride and I don't care how fast it is. 

I need to get back to my regular training. It's been three weeks since IMSG and I'm feeling soft and more importantly I'm feeling mentally stressed. I've put my training as a lower priority and I think I need to move it back up. I hope that will help. If not, I'm going to go get some professional help. I was originally planning on having a discussion with a life coach today but had to cancel it because I was feeling so crappy. I've rescheduled for next Thursday. Although the type of help I'm talking about is with mental health doctors. I'm in a real funk right now. I'm not sure why. Work? Family? Training? Beer? Cigars? Health? Weight? Having perfection expectations?

Today's picture is my new favourite picture with Alyssa. It was taken as we were descending from Angels Landing and a nice gentlemen hiking up who we stopped to talk to took it. 

No Training

186 lbs.