Anyone that’s owned a pinball machine knows that eventually something is break.  Whether it be a flipper, a rubber, a ramp, etc, at some point a part fails while you’re playing.  Heck even the balls get pitted after a while, you even need to replace them even if nothing else breaks.  For a lot of people though, finding out where to order stuff is tough.

I’ve put together a list here of the best places to order parts from my past 13 years of experience.  It’s purely my opinion, some other people may have totally different lists or opinions. Unfortunately, not one place is a central hub for all parts, most likely you’re going to have to use a bunch of these places depending on what breaks.  It’s not unusual for me to order from 3 or 4 different places when completely fixing up a game.  Without further ado, here’s the list.

Common Pinball Part Vendors

1. Pinball Life.  This is the number one place I order parts from.  Cheaper than almost everyone for common parts, their only downfall is that they lack a lot of game specific parts.  So as long as the parts you need are just like rubbers, flippers, etc they’ll be the best, but if you need like a ramp for a game you’re likely going to have to order somewhere else.
2. Marco Specialties.  They typically have the biggest assortment of parts for games.  Usually if I need a game specific part I check here first, then check somewhere else to see if I can get it cheaper.  They’re a good company, but I find that typically their prices are higher than everyone else on everything including shipping.  Sometimes they’ll surprise me with a good deal though.  They ship fast, probably faster than almost everyone else to their credit.
3. Bay Area Amusements.  Like Marco, only they don’t have as many parts and have a way worse website.  You’ll notice this with a lot of pinball parts vendors, their websites are from like the early 2000’s.  They have a lot of game specific parts that I order, but I rarely order any common part, in part because it’s a pain to find.

LED Pinball Vendors

1. Comet.  I know some people will say Cointaker and originally I would have said them too, but as they got bigger some of their competitors undercut them to a degree.  Comet is the major player who took some of their market share.  I order pretty much all my LED’s from Comet these days, high quality product at discount prices.
2. Cointaker.  The biggest LED vendor (or at least they were at one point) they’ve expanded out to new game sales, shaker motors, etc.  Still offer some great game specific LED packages that are handy if you want to color match.  I’ve used a couple of their game specific kits and they were mostly good, only a couple places where either I had the wrong LED or the machine I was working on had a different socket/color for some reason.

Game Specific Pinball Parts

1. Marco Specialties.  They’ve got the best overall selection for game specific parts, although usually they’re most expensive for that part as well.
2. Bay Area Amusements.  Like Marco they’ve got a lot of specific parts for Williams, Bally, Data East, Sega, and Stern games.
3. Pinball Resource.  For Gottlieb parts, this is basically your only choice as they hold the license.  It’s also like traveling back in time when you order from them.  Credit cards?  Won’t accept them.  Online ordering?  Nope.  It all works through phone or email ordering and they bill you.  They insist on part numbers, however, the part numbers aren’t readily available because you need the manual which they won’t allow digital copies of online, lol.  So you get into this chicken/egg scenario where you need parts but don’t have a manual to look them up.

Pinball Mod Vendors

1. Mezel Mods.  They’re the official mod vendor for Stern and have made quite a business selling them.  They’ve really expanded their selection.
2. Modfather Pinball.  They’ve also exploded onto the scene with their big selection.
3. ColorDMD.  While not a mod vendor like the others, they sell the most popular mod in pinball, the ColorDMD screen that colorizes old pinball machines.
4. Pinball Pro.  They make the best sound system for pinball machines in my opinion.  Some people favor Flipper Fidelity though.  I think that the bass is tighter with the pinball pro system.

I finally finished a project I’ve been working on for a while, I’ve got the initial version of my intro to pinball class up and running.

Pinball Class

Took me quite a while to get all the filming, slides, and editing done but it’s finally available here on Udemy:

Intro to Pinball Class on Udemy

As a bonus, if you use the coupon code GAMEROOMINFO, it will discount the class to $9.99.  I tried to make it lower but $9.99 is the lowest Udemy will go on a class.  There’s a 30 day money back guarantee in case you change your mind, so that helps too.

If there’s anything you would like to see in the class that isn’t there currently, please let me know.

Other Pinball Education

For those of you looking for additional pinball learn stuff, I’d recommend checking out the Pinball 101 DVD.  I bought that when it came out and learned a bunch from it.  It goes over playing tips which are pretty good but unfortunately also has a bunch of filler video of a toy car going through the pinball playfield which is kind of annoying.  It covers all the basic flipper skills plus nudging, slapping, and some game specific tips (though not too many).

Order the Pinball 101 DVD from my Amazon Affiliate here:

Pinball 101 DVD

The Pinball 102 DVD is out as well now, though not in wide distribution yet.  I’m not sure why, but it’s only available on this kunaki site that I’ve never heard of (evidently they are a DVD burning wholesaler.  In any case, I haven’t bought it yet, so I can’t really offer any review of it.  The link is below:

Pinball 102 DVD

Although not really a learning thing, I’d also recommend (for pure entertainment value) Things that go bump in the night – The Spooky Pinball Story.

I rented that when it came out on Amazon, it was pretty good.  Shows what some hard work can do.  You can find the movie through my Amazon Affiliate here:

Things that go bump in the night – The Spooky Pinball Story

Another documentary which came out a while back is Special when Lit.  Unfortunately I haven’t seen it yet, but the reviews are pretty good on it.  Roger Sharpe is in it, and for those who don’t know he’s basically been one of the most influential people in the hobby for the past 40 years.  It’s available through my Amazon Affiliate here:

Special When Lit:  A Pinball Documentary

Pinball Repair Videos

When it comes to pinball repair, there’s only one set of videos you should look into, the This Old Pinball series.  Done by Clay out in Michigan, they’re a tremendous value when repairing your own pinball machine.  I bought all the videos associated with the new 90’s games and all were a huge help.  They cost around $12 each, I’d highly recommend you buy the ones aligned with your interests.  I think I own 3, 4, and 7, which cover most games from the late 80’s to late 90’s.  The link is below:

This Old Pinball Videos

I used them to repair a bunch of games when I first started in the pinball hobby.  One of the best purchases I’ve ever made for pinball.