How Much Does It Cost to Repair a Pinball Machine? The Item-by-Item Price Guide
How Much Does It Cost to Repair a Pinball Machine? The Item-by-Item Price Guide
Short answer: for a solid-state pinball machine from 1977-1990, the vast majority of repairs fall between €50 and €400. A common electronic fault (blown transistor, dead driver) comes to €50-150 including parts; a CPU board eaten by a leaking battery climbs to €150-400 depending on whether you repair or replace it; and only three areas genuinely blow the budget: displays, the playfield and the cabinet, each of which can exceed €500. This guide prices everything, item by item, with figures recorded and sourced in July 2026.
Method and honesty: every price below was recorded on a real retail page on 21 July 2026. US prices are converted at the ECB rate of 20 July 2026 (1 USD = 0.8752 EUR, source Frankfurter/ECB) — the conversion is always flagged. Those US prices exclude VAT and shipping: a European buyer should add 20% VAT, customs and international carriage. An entire section is devoted to what we could not verify. Prices move: always re-check at source before you commit.
The quick answer: the 5 most common failures and their cost
| Fault | Typical all-in cost |
|---|---|
| Leaking battery on the CPU board (early corrosion) | Repair: €20 handling fee + €50-150 labour and components. Advanced corrosion: quotation, or a replacement board from €199 |
| Blown coil (flipper, pop bumper, slingshot) | Coil €10-25 + 30 min to 1 h of labour |
| Blown power transistor on the driver board | Component under €2 + €50 labour with us, i.e. €70 including the handling fee |
| Weak flippers | Rebuild kit €22-52 per flipper + 1 h of labour |
| Dead lamps / general illumination in a poor state | €0.75-2.95 per LED bulb, €74-184 for a full-machine LED kit |
Before you pay for anything: our free diagnosis is a 30-minute telephone appointment, in French only, covering Gottlieb System 1, System 80, 80A and 80B as well as Williams System 3 to 7. A great many calls end with « it is a connector » rather than with a quotation.
The central table: every fault, its symptom, its price
The « cost if repaired by a professional » column uses labour rates observed in France in 2026: €80 incl. VAT per hour at Repar-Flipper (Seine-et-Marne, public rate card updated 3 July 2026), and €50/hour + components for board repair at Pinballs Store. The ranges assume travel or postage is settled separately.
| Fault | Symptom | Likely cause | Parts cost | Cost if repaired by a professional | DIY possible? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leaking battery / CPU board corrosion | Green or white crystals around the battery holder, blackened traces, erratic start-up | NiCd or alkaline battery soldered to the board and forgotten for years | Battery €2-5, wire and eyelets a few euros | €20 handling + €50/h; advanced corrosion: quotation after inspection | With care — acetic acid cleaning and trace repair take experience |
| Dead CPU board | Machine silent, no display, no boot sequence | Corrosion, failed RAM or ROM, crystal, 5 V regulator | Programmed EPROM $20.99, approx. €18.37 (Marco Specialties) | €20 + €50/h + components. Alternative: new replacement board €199-349 | No, unless you already read schematics and solder surface-mount parts |
| Driver board (blown transistor / MOSFET) | A coil stays locked on, or a group of solenoids stops responding | Shorted power transistor, failed flyback diode | TIP102 $1.79 (€1.57), TIP122 $0.99 (€0.87), 2N3055 $3.99 (€3.49), 1N4004 diode $0.19 (€0.17) — Marco Specialties | €50 labour + components with us, i.e. approx. €70 including the handling fee | Yes if you solder cleanly — this is the ideal entry-level repair |
| Power supply | Unstable voltages, constant resets, flickering displays | Dried-out filter capacitors, bridge rectifier, regulator | New board: Alltek rectifier $89.95-104.99, i.e. €78.71-91.89; Rottendog $145-160 | €20 + €50/h + components; a full recap is often 1-2 h | Yes with care — mind the charged capacitors and the mains voltage |
| Sound board | No sound, distorted sound, missing speech | Failed amplifier, sound ROM, capacitors | Our Gosof sound board for Gottlieb System 80/80A/80B: €129 | €20 + €50/h + components | With care |
| Displays | Missing segments, dead display, ghost digits | Plasma tube at end of life, high-voltage transistors, display power supply | Gottlieb reconditioned 6-digit $58 (€50.76), NOS 7-digit $50 (€43.76), NOS 80B alphanumeric $167.50 (€146.60) — PB Resource. Pinscore LED: module $89.99-99.99 (€78.76-87.52), full set $179.99-399.99 (€157.52-350.07) — Marco | Allow 1-2 h of labour on top of the part | Yes for a straight swap, no for repairing the tube |
| Blown coil | Burnt smell, blackened coil, dead function | Coil left energised (locked-on transistor or misadjusted EOS switch) | $11.95-19.95, i.e. €10.46-17.46 (Pinball Life); flipper coils €15.98-25.28 (PU-parts) | Part + 30 min to 1 h at €80/h | Yes — but first find out why it burnt, or the next one will burn too |
| Weak flipper | The ball no longer reaches the top of the playfield, feeble shots | Worn bushings and plunger link, misadjusted EOS switch, tired coil | Rebuild kit $24.95-59.95 per flipper, i.e. €21.84-52.47 (Pinball Life). Budget kit from $5.95 | Approx. 1 h per flipper at €80/h + kit | Yes — the most approachable mechanical repair there is |
| Dead pop bumper | The bumper no longer reacts, or fires into thin air | Coil, spoon contact, leaf switch, driver transistor | Complete assembly $49.95-59.95, i.e. €43.72-52.47 (Pinball Life); cap €2.45-8.32, skirt $0.69, ring $4.25 — PU-parts / Pinball Life | 1 h + parts | Yes |
| Dead slingshot | The triangle no longer kicks the ball back | Worn leaf switch, coil, kicker arm | Complete assembly €76.77-84.77 (PU-parts); Bally linear version $39.95 (€34.96); leaf switch alone €7.67 | 1 h + parts | Yes |
| Jammed drop target | The target will not reset, or drops on its own | Spring, bent shaft, dirty target bank, reset coil | Single target €1.98-12.71; 1-target bank $59.95 (€52.47) or €75.69; 3-target bank $99.95 (€87.48) — Pinball Life / PU-parts | 1-2 h depending on strip-down | Yes with care — reassembling a target bank takes method |
| Failed microswitch | A shot no longer scores, a ramp no longer registers | Oxidised contact, bent blade, open diode | $4.95-9.95, i.e. €4.33-8.71 (Pinball Life); €4.23-9.28 (PU-parts); 1N4004 diode $0.19 | Often sorted in 15 min: approx. €20 of labour | Yes — the most rewarding fault to tackle yourself |
| Lamps / general illumination (GI) | Dark areas, dull playfield | Blown bulbs, oxidised sockets, burnt GI connectors | €0.75-2.95 per LED bulb (Pinballshop.nl); €0.98-2.21 (PU-parts); full-machine LED kit $84.99-209.99, i.e. €74.38-183.78 (Comet Pinball) | 2-4 h for a complete LED conversion | Yes |
| Worn playfield | Bare wood around the inserts, faded artwork, sunken inserts | 40 years of steel balls | CPR reproduction playfield $699-1,249, i.e. €611.76-1,093.12; in euros at Ministry of Pinball €599.95-935 | Swapping a playfield is a job of many dozens of hours: quotation only | No, not for a beginner |
| Broken glass | Cracked or missing glass | Transport, impact | Invisiglass anti-glare $239.99 (€210.04); PSNL at Pinballshop.nl €249.95 on promotion (list €399.95), widebody €399.95 | Immediate fitting | Yes — but plain toughened glass is best ordered from a local glazier (price unverified, see below) |
| Damaged cabinet | Faded artwork, swollen wood, chipped corners | Damp, route use, storage | Full decal set €239.95-289.95; backbox only €89.95 (Ministry of Pinball); per panel $29.95-49.95 (Pinball Life); Pinball Pimp stencils $189 (€165.41) + $80 international shipping | Quotation only — no French professional we consulted publishes a fixed rate | With care — sanding and painting need space and patience |
| Coin mechanism | Coins no longer credit, or fall straight through | Counting microswitch, dirty mechanism, wiring | Microswitch €4-10, cleaning: consumables | 30 min to 1 h | Yes |
Area by area: the real prices of July 2026
1. Electronics
This is where the value-for-money ratio is best, because the components cost almost nothing and virtually the whole price is diagnosis. At Marco Specialties, a TIP102 is $1.79 (€1.57), a TIP122 $0.99 (€0.87), a 2N3055 $3.99 (€3.49) and a 1N4004 diode $0.19 (€0.17). A programmed EPROM is $20.99 (€18.37). In other words: on a driver board the part accounts for under 3% of the bill, and everything else is human time.
Our board repair rates, published in our returns and warranty policy:
| Service | Rate |
|---|---|
| Handling per board (administrative fee) | €20 |
| Full test + software update | €25 (0.5 h) |
| Full test + software update and minor components | €50 (1 h) |
| Simple repair (minor fault, e.g. blown transistor) | €50 + components |
| Complex repair (damaged board, acid damage, etc.) | Quotation after inspection |
| Hourly repair rate | €50/h + components |
Return shipping of the repaired board is billed automatically by weight once the service is paid for. Every repaired board goes back with the latest firmware where one exists. Our diagnosis is not limited to the test bench: the board is also tested in a real pinball machine, which eliminates false positives.
For context: in the United States, Game Boards USA charges a flat $120 of labour (€105.02) + parts + $30 (€26.26) return postage, a rate that rose from $90 to $120 in December. In France, a general repairer's hourly rate is more like €80 incl. VAT per hour (Repar-Flipper, public rate card of 3 July 2026).
As for new aftermarket boards: Alltek Systems sells its Ultimate universal Bally/Stern MPU at $199.95 (€175.00) in the United States, but the same board is €249.95 at Ministry of Pinball in the Netherlands — a gap of roughly 45% that neatly illustrates the cost of VAT and importing. Rottendog Amusements covers a wider range: MPUs from $219 to $630, power supplies from $145 to $160, driver boards from $130 to $499, and a small flipper board at $17.
For more on what each board actually does, read our guide to pinball electronics: MPU, driver, power supply and sound.
2. Mechanics
Mechanical parts are cheap but expensive in hours. A flipper rebuild kit costs $24.95-59.95 per flipper at Pinball Life (€21.84-52.47) depending on the era: $30.95 for a Williams/Bally 1993-1998, $55.95 for a Bally 1980-1988, $59.95 for a Williams 1967-1979. A budget kit exists from $5.95. As a machine has two flippers, double it.
- Coils / solenoids: $11.95-19.95 (€10.46-17.46) at Pinball Life, €15.98-25.28 at PU-parts for flipper coils.
- Pop bumper: complete assembly $49.95-59.95 (€43.72-52.47). Individually: cap €2.45-8.32, skirt $0.69, ring $4.25 or €7.48.
- Slingshot: complete assembly €76.77-84.77 (PU-parts), Bally linear version $39.95 (€34.96). Kicker arm €6.78-9.52, leaf switch €7.67.
- Drop targets: single target €1.98-12.71. One-target bank $59.95 (€52.47) or €75.69. Three-target bank $99.95 (€87.48). Smart version $79.95 or €110.36-130.36.
- Microswitches and leaf switches: $4.95-9.95 (€4.33-8.71), €4.23-9.28 at PU-parts. Classic Bally/Stern/Gottlieb flipper leaf switches reach €14.09, Data East ones €21.75.
- Plastic ramps: this is the mechanical item that stings. From €54.95 to €216.25 each at PU-parts, and up to €389-459 for a complete set (Doctor Who, Earthshaker). At Pinballshop.nl, €103.95-164.
3. Displays
This is the area that surprises owners the most. On an alphanumeric machine, an original display stays affordable: at PB Resource a reconditioned Gottlieb 6-digit is $58 (€50.76), an NOS 7-digit sold « as is » is $50 (€43.76), and an NOS System 80B alphanumeric is $167.50 (€146.60). Converting to LED costs more but lasts: Pinscore modules at $89.99 or $99.99 (€78.76-87.52) each, complete sets from $179.99 to $399.99 (€157.52-350.07) at Marco Specialties. Rottendog offers US-made sets from $215 to $299, including a Bally/Stern 6-digit set at $250 (€218.80).
On a dot-matrix machine the scale changes. A new 128×32 plasma DMD at Marco (part DMD32) is listed at $599.99 (€525.11), reduced from $699.99. Replacement LED DMDs are €219-259 at Pinball Solutions in Europe. A ColorDMD costs $479 in LCD (€419.22) or $439 in LED (€384.21) in the United States, but €539.99-599.95 at Ministry of Pinball in Europe.
Two market signals worth knowing, recorded on 21 July 2026: XPin has announced its permanent closure (letter from Brett Davis published on xpinpinball.net), and supply pressure is real — the entire Pinscore range is out of stock at PB Resource, the ColorDMD X-LED units are sold out, and the PS-DMD32 is unavailable at Marco. If your display is tired but still working, this is probably not the moment to wait.
For perspective: a new DMD at €525 or a ColorDMD at €550 is nearly seven hours of a technician's time at €80/h. And it is no accident that French service packages explicitly exclude « boards and displays ».
4. Playfield and consumables
- Complete rubber kit: $29.95 (€26.21) for a 125-piece set at Pinball Life, $59.99 (€52.50) for Marco's 122-piece assortment, or €54.95 at Pinballshop.nl. Machine-specific sets are €13.99-28.95 at PU-parts.
- Silicone: the Titan universal 50-ring kit is $42.50 (€37.20), the 100-ring pack $70 (€61.26). Machine-specific sets €19.23-36.98 at PU-parts.
- Pinballs: $1.50 (€1.31) at Pinball Life, $2.99 (€2.62) at Marco, €1.80-2.25 each at PU-parts depending on quantity. A Powerball costs €37.90-49.95.
- Full LED kit: $84.99-209.99 (€74.38-183.78) at Comet Pinball depending on the title, with most of the range between $130 and $160 (€114-140).
- Mylar: a 12×12 inch sheet is $3.95-5.95 (€3.46-5.21) at Pinball Life. A full playfield protector cut for your machine is €125 at PU-parts (up to €154.20 on some titles). Cliffy-style hole protectors run from $19.95 to $79.95.
- Playfield plastics: €8.95-24.99 each, around €100-150 for a complete reproduction set (Ministry of Pinball).
- Reproduction playfield: CPR lists $699-1,249 (€611.76-1,093.12) depending on the title, with a median around $849-999. In euros, all in, Ministry of Pinball sells CPR playfields from €599.95 to €935 — the most honest reference for a European buyer, since it already includes importing.
5. Cabinet
A complete cabinet decal set costs €239.95-289.95 at Ministry of Pinball, or €89.95 for the backbox alone. At Pinball Life, decals are sold per panel at $29.95-49.95 each — a modern cabinet needing around five, the order of magnitude is $150-250. Pinball Pimp stencil sets are $189 (€165.41), plus $80 of international shipping to Europe, which is not trivial.
Professional playfield clearcoating is reported at $400-700 for a new playfield and around $250-300 for an original one, but we only found those figures in discussion extracts, not on a rate card: treat them as orders of magnitude, not quotations.
6. Labour and call-out charges in France
The public French rate cards recorded in July 2026 converge:
- Repar-Flipper (Seine-et-Marne), rate card updated 3 July 2026: 1 h of labour €80 incl. VAT, then €80 incl. VAT per hour billed in 15-minute increments; producing a quotation €65 incl. VAT; call-out €65 incl. VAT within a 20 km radius, then €5 per additional 5 km; maintenance package €160 incl. VAT; transport to the workshop €100 incl. VAT per trip.
- Pinball Arcade Forever (Mérignac): home diagnosis from €60 incl. VAT, deductible if the repair is accepted.
- RétroSpin Garage (Loire): all-inclusive first-visit package €290 incl. VAT for a solid-state machine, €590 incl. VAT for an electromechanical one, round-trip transport up to 40 km included, 6-month warranty.
- L'Atelier du Flip: service package €590 for a solid-state machine (excluding boards and displays) or an electromechanical one, €790 for an alphanumeric or DMD machine (excluding boards and screen).
Remember the averages: €80 incl. VAT per hour, €60-65 for a call-out or diagnosis, and €290-790 for a full workshop service — excluding boards and displays, which is to say excluding the most expensive items.
7. Shipping
Sending a board is cheap. The 2026 Colissimo rate card gives, for France: €9.59 up to 1 kg, €11.19 up to 2 kg, €17.39 up to 5 kg, €25.29 up to 10 kg. To the European Union (zone A): €19.39, €22.19 and €28.59 at the same steps. A packed pinball board generally weighs 0.5-1.5 kg, so roughly €9.60-11.20 within France and €19-22 to the EU. Add the R2 registered option (+€4.70, €200 of cover): an MPU is worth more than the basic indemnity.
Moving a complete machine is another matter: 110-130 kg on a pallet. The orders of magnitude found sit around €80-250 within mainland France, but we did not obtain a firm quotation — see the section on unverified figures.
Repair or replace? The honest economic comparison
Here are our replacement board prices, taken live from our catalogue on 21 July 2026:
| Board | Machine | Price |
|---|---|---|
| GoPOP80 | Gottlieb, pop bumper board MA-922 / A-19741 | €29 |
| Set of 3 PIC microcontrollers for Lisy80 | Gottlieb System 80/A/B | €40 |
| Godri80 | Gottlieb System 80/80A/80B, driver board | €99 |
| Gosof | Gottlieb System 80/80A/80B, sound board with speech | €129 |
| BallyLa_60 | Bally, lamp driver board | €149 |
| Lisy80 | Gottlieb System 80/A/B, CPU and diagnostic board | €199 |
| BallyDri | Bally, power supply and driver | €199 |
| Renovation Pack System 80/A/B | Gottlieb System 80/A/B | €295 |
| BallyFA | Bally 35, CPU board | €299 |
| WillFA7 | Williams System 3 to 7 | €349 |
| GottFA80_Plus (Light) | Gottlieb System 80/A/B, all-in-one | €349 |
| GottFA80_Plus V2 Full | Gottlieb System 80/A/B, all-in-one with integrated sound board | €399 |
Do the arithmetic honestly. A repair with us costs €20 handling + €50/h + components. A small, identified fault therefore comes to roughly €70-90, plus return carriage. A more damaged board needing three hours on the bench takes you towards €170-220. At that point a new Lisy80 at €199 or a Godri80 at €99 enters the comparison directly.
When repair wins:
- The board is healthy and the fault is isolated and identified (one transistor, one trace, one regulator).
- There is no corrosion, or only superficial and recent corrosion.
- Originality matters to you — for a collector, a working original board has value in itself.
- There is no replacement board for your model.
When replacement wins:
- The board has already been repaired, or shows traces of several interventions.
- Corrosion has reached the vias and the underside of the components — the classic point of no return.
- The repair quotation exceeds 60-70% of the price of a new board.
- You want to play, not troubleshoot: a modern battery-free board will never call on you again.
Let us be clear about both sides of the argument. A 40-year-old board that has already failed once stands a good chance of failing again: its capacitors, its IC sockets and its traces are all the same age. But the reverse is equally true: a lightly damaged, clean board with a single clear fault is an excellent candidate for repair, and it would be absurd to throw it away. The decision threshold is not ideological, it is arithmetical. We develop this reasoning in repair or replace a pinball circuit board.
One essential and often forgotten point: a replacement board fixes the electronics. It fixes nothing else. It will not firm up a weak flipper, will not free a jammed drop target, will not replace a cracked rubber, will not rejuvenate a worn playfield and will not change a tired display. If your machine starts up but plays badly, the problem is probably not where you think it is.
The special case of the leaking battery
This is, by a very long way, the fault whose neglect costs the most. The reasoning is simple: the electrolyte escaping from a battery never stops. It creeps along the traces by capillary action, seeps under components, climbs into plated-through holes and attacks the copper where you cannot see it. A board that costs €70 to clean today will be a « complex repair, quotation only » in six months, and beyond saving in two years.
Second peculiarity: it is the only pinball fault that can be fixed permanently. All our replacement boards run without a battery: no more corrosion, no more lost scores, no more settings to redo. The problem does not come back, because its cause no longer exists. We devoted a whole article to it: leaking battery on a pinball machine: causes, damage and the permanent fix.
Three typical budgets, costed line by line
Scenario 1 — The machine starts but plays badly
The most common case: the machine lights up and scores, but the experience is soft and functions are missing.
- Complete rubber kit: €26-55
- Set of new balls (3): €6-7
- Two flipper rebuild kits: €44-105
- Two or three microswitches: €10-30
- One coil to replace: €10-25
- Replacement bulbs (or a complete LED kit): €15-184
- Professional option: maintenance or service package: €160-290
Total on your own: roughly €110-400. With a professional: €350-700.
Scenario 2 — The machine is dead on power-up
Nothing lights up, or the machine lights up without booting. The fault is electronic.
- Diagnosis: €0 with our free diagnosis, or €60-65 for a home visit
- Sending the board: €9.60-22 depending on country
- Handling fee: €20
- Simple repair: €50 + components, or 2-3 h at €50/h for a deeper fault
- Return of the board: billed by weight
- Or instead a replacement board: Godri80 €99, Lisy80 €199, GottFA80_Plus €349, WillFA7 €349, BallyFA €299
- Power supply to redo if necessary: €79-92 for a new aftermarket board
Total: roughly €90-250 for repair, €100-400 for replacement. This is precisely the range in which the decision is made.
Scenario 3 — The wreck to restore completely
A complete but exhausted machine: worn playfield, damaged cabinet, corroded electronics, tired displays.
- Complete electronics (renovation pack or board set): €295-400
- Displays, complete LED set: €157-350 (up to €525 for a new DMD)
- Reproduction playfield: €600-935 in Europe
- Reproduction plastics set: €100-150
- Cabinet artwork: €90-290
- Consumables, mechanics, rubbers, balls, LEDs: €200-400
- Ramps if broken: €55-460
- Transporting the machine: €80-250 (unconfirmed order of magnitude)
Total in parts alone: €1,500-3,000, without counting a single hour of labour. Entrusted entirely to a professional, a full restoration is always quoted individually in France; in the United States, figures reported on forums range from $6,000 to $7,000 (roughly €5,250-6,130) for a full restoration and up to $12,000 for no-compromise work. Our article restoring a vintage pinball machine: the complete guide details the method, and restore an old pinball machine or buy new asks the awkward question.
What costs the most
- The playfield. €600-1,100 for a reproduction, plus many dozens of hours to transfer everything across. No other item combines such a high parts price with such heavy labour.
- Displays, especially DMDs. €525 for a new plasma DMD, €550 for a ColorDMD in Europe. And with XPin closing in July 2026, supply is tightening.
- The cabinet. Decals, stencils, sanding, painting, drying: the materials are modest but the time is enormous.
- Playfield ramps. Up to €216 each and €459 for a full set — on a sought-after title, that is a budget in itself.
- Labour itself. At €80 incl. VAT per hour, ten hours of work costs more than most of the parts on this page.
What is not worth repairing
- A board eaten right through the vias. Once the acid has gone through the printed circuit, rebuilding traces becomes slower and more fragile than the price of a new board. Our rate card says so plainly: these cases go to « complex repair, quotation after inspection ».
- A plasma display at the end of its life. The tube does not recharge. Replace, do not repair.
- A blown coil. Rewinding it is not economic: €10-25, just change it.
- Hardened rubbers. These are consumables, not parts.
- A playfield whose wood has swollen under the inserts. No amount of sanding recovers wood deformed by damp.
- A machine whose restoration cost far exceeds its resale value. Unless personal attachment is the reason — a perfectly valid one, but not an economic argument. Value your machine first with what is my pinball machine worth.
DIY or professional? The tooling budget
If you plan to look after your machine over the long term, tooling pays for itself quickly: two hours of professional labour saved is enough to pay for a good multimeter. The minimum kit is a multimeter, a temperature-controlled soldering iron, solder, desoldering braid or a pump, a set of screwdrivers, pliers, a head torch and isopropyl alcohol. That is what lets you handle, on your own, the vast majority of the faults in the table above: microswitches, rubbers, balls, lamps, coils, flipper kits, targets.
Where should you stop? Hand over as soon as you are dealing with mains voltage, large capacitors (which stay charged long after power-off), display high voltage, rebuilding corroded traces or desoldering multi-pin integrated circuits. A board damaged by a clumsy attempt costs more to save than a board that is simply faulty — that is true at every repairer, ours included.
One last detail that wastes more time than you would think: the screws. Our guide to pinball screw sizes saves a good many trips to the hardware shop.
What we could not verify
In the interest of honesty, here are the figures we looked for without being able to confirm them on a retail page or a public rate card. We would rather say so than invent them.
- Plain toughened glass (non anti-glare). We only found prices for premium anti-glare glass. Plain glass is usually ordered from a local glazier: ask for a quotation, it will be considerably cheaper than the €210-250 of premium glass.
- Flipper rebuild kits priced in euros. None of the European distributors we consulted displayed a price; our figures are converted from Pinball Life in the United States.
- Wireforms. We found no dedicated priced category at all. The only reference point recorded is a No Fear wireform and target assembly at €54.95 at Pinballshop.nl — not enough to give a range.
- Fuses, new aftermarket sound boards and complete ROM sets. No priced page could be consulted. We therefore give no figure.
- Sanding and repainting materials for a cabinet. No source itemises the cost of abrasives, primers and paints for this specific job.
- Professional playfield clearcoating. The ranges of $400-700 (new) and $250-300 (original) come from forum discussions, not published rates.
- Full restoration by a French professional. No provider we consulted displays a price: the wording is always « on quotation ». The American figures quoted are indicative only.
- Transporting a complete machine. The €80-250 range within France comes from general palletised freight estimates, not from a quotation for a 110-130 kg machine. Cross-border European transport could not be costed at all. Always ask for a named quotation.
- XPin prices. The brand having closed in July 2026, no rate is verifiable at source any longer.
FAQ — your questions about the price of a pinball repair
How much does a pinball repair cost on average?
For a single identified fault, allow €70-200 all in. A full recommissioning of a machine that still works costs between €300 and €700 with a professional. A complete restoration of a wreck exceeds €1,500 in parts alone, labour not included.
What is the hourly rate of a pinball repairer in France?
Around €80 incl. VAT per hour according to the public rate cards recorded in July 2026, plus €60-65 for a call-out or diagnosis. For board repair, our rate is €50/h + components, with €20 of handling per board.
Should I repair my original board or buy a replacement?
Repair if the board is healthy and the fault is isolated, or if originality matters to you. Replace if corrosion has reached the vias, if the board has already been repaired several times, or if the quotation exceeds 60-70% of the price of a new board. Our boards range from €29 for a GoPOP80 to €399 for a GottFA80_Plus V2 Full.
Does a replacement board fix the whole machine?
No. It fixes the electronics and nothing else. Mechanical problems, rubbers, coils, the playfield, the displays and the cabinet all remain to be dealt with separately. It is important to know that before ordering.
Why does a leaking battery cost so much?
Because corrosion never stops on its own and advances under the components, out of sight. A board cleaned in time costs a few tens of euros; the same board two years later becomes a complex repair on quotation, or beyond saving. As our boards run without a battery, the problem disappears permanently.
How much does replacing a display cost?
On an alphanumeric machine, €44-87 per module and €157-350 for a complete LED set. On a dot-matrix machine, a new DMD reaches €525 and a ColorDMD €540-600 in Europe. It is one of the three most expensive items on a pinball machine.
How much does it cost to ship a pinball board?
Roughly €9.60-11.20 within France and €19-22 to the European Union according to the 2026 Colissimo rate card, for a parcel of 0.5-2 kg. Consider registered post: the basic indemnity is lower than the value of a board. With us, the return of the repaired board is billed by weight when the service is paid for.
What warranty does Pinballs Store offer?
Our boards come with a 6-month warranty (parts and labour) against any fault not caused by misuse, plus 30 days money-back satisfaction. Technical support is free, both before and after purchase.
Sources and further reading
All the pages below were consulted on 21 July 2026 unless otherwise stated. Conversion rate used: 1 USD = 0.8752 EUR on 20 July 2026.
- Marco Specialties — transistors, EPROMs, Pinscore displays, DMD32 (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Pinball Life — rebuild kits, coils, pop bumpers, targets, mylar, glass (consulted 21/07/2026)
- PU-parts.com — coils, ramps, targets, playfield protectors, prices in euros (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Pinballshop.nl — rubbers, LEDs, anti-glare glass (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Ministry of Pinball — CPR playfields, cabinet decals, ColorDMD and Alltek boards in euros (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Titan Pinball — silicone rings (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Classic Playfield Reproductions (CPR) — reproduction playfields (consulted 21/07/2026)
- ColorDMD — colour LCD and LED displays (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Alltek Systems — Bally/Stern replacement boards (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Rottendog Amusements — MPU, driver, power supply boards and displays (consulted 21/07/2026)
- PB Resource — NOS and reconditioned Gottlieb plasma displays (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Comet Pinball — complete LED kits by title (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Repar-Flipper — rate card (updated 03/07/2026, consulted 21/07/2026)
- L'Atelier du Flip — service packages (consulted 21/07/2026)
- RétroSpin Garage — first-visit package (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Pinball Arcade Forever — home diagnosis (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Game Boards USA — flat-rate board repair (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Pinside — real-world reports on restoration costs (consulted 21/07/2026)
- Flipjuke and FlipperFrance — French-speaking communities (consulted 21/07/2026)
In summary
Repairing a pinball machine is almost never as expensive as people fear, with three exceptions: the playfield, the displays and the cabinet. Everything else — electronics, mechanics, consumables — stays within a €50-400 range, and a good part of it is within reach of a methodical hobbyist. The real mistake is not spending too much: it is waiting, particularly when a battery has leaked.
Unsure about your machine? Our free 30-minute diagnosis will tell you where you stand before you spend a single euro. And if the board is at fault, our battery-free replacement boards come with a 6-month warranty (parts and labour) against any fault not caused by misuse, plus 30 days money-back satisfaction.
