I must be losing my marbles.

[Rival]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lucky-engrav...item3cbbe5cbce

2 balls. 2 freaking balls. Someone paid $25.00 for TWO BALLS!

So, since a sucker of magnitude 8.4 was found, he goes searching for a sucker of magnitude 9.0...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lucky-engrav...item3cbbff2c9d

3 balls for $39.00, but of course one of them is not only lucky, but GOLD!


Must...resist...urge...to.. buy... lucky balls taking over... losing control...

[pachinkojeff]

Yeah, but FREE SHIPPING! With my luck, they'd be the balls that roll onto the floor and disappear behind the cabinet.

[JACKSJE4]

I'd say that those balls were indeed lucky... for the seller!

[Drunkenclam]

Carefull. Might have been buyer here. We do have people after certain balls and engravings.
Oh.. It wasn't me

[hanabi]

There are some members / pachinko players that place a significance on these balls

here's a thread with a bit more info on the 'Lucky Ball'

pachinko ball

[takethecastle57]

I have a Very "Rare" Not Engraved 3/4 ", 11mm Chromed Steel Ball that has been used in a Actual Pachinko Parlor in Japan . Your cost ,.,..,.,.,.,.,, "How Much You Got ? "

[mxfaiman]

I have a Very "Rare" Not Engraved 3/4 ", 11mm Chromed Steel Ball that has been used in a Actual Pachinko Parlor in Japan . Your cost ,.,..,.,.,.,.,, "How Much You Got ? "

How is it 11mm and 3/4"? _____________

[RivkahChaya]

You have no idea how much I wish you'd taken a screen shot of that sale. So, you can pass a ball bearing off as an "unengraved" pachinko ball, that is an error, or special, and lucky? I once had a ball bearing that was slightly the wrong size get mixed in with my pachinko balls and gum up the works.

3/4" is not 11mm. 1/2" is sort of 11mm, if you are talking about wrenches, in that if your bolts are not brand new, you can usually substitute one for the other (anyone who has worked on a lot of engines knows the common metric-standard substitutions).

There is no pachinko ball that is either 3/4" or 11mm. That is just a steel bearing from some other game, like "Run Yourself Ragged," or "Which Witch?"

run-yourself-ragged-maze-game.jpg whichwitch.jpg

[DukeOfDelmar]

I once had a ball bearing that was slightly the wrong size get mixed in with my pachinko balls and gum up the works.

A little over 20 years ago, long before the internet connected all of us silverball lovers, I wanted more balls for what was at the time my only pachinko machine. My dad worked parts at a Dodge dealership, so I had him order 500 ball bearings that I thought were "close enough" to the right size.

Looking back on it, it's not surprising that they did not really work well, and I had to separate these balls back out from my real pachinko balls. I actually just found one of the buggers a few weeks ago still hiding in my collection.

Now, I will only accept parlor-engraved balls.

[heima]

Is there a thread where we talk about swapping and collecting balls? Pokemon are so boring and childish.

[hanabi]

Is there a thread where we talk about swapping and collecting balls? Pokemon are so boring and childish.

well of course, there's always this thread:

The Great PachiTalk Pachislo Token / Pachinko Ball Trade / Exchange!!

[RivkahChaya]

Is there a thread where we talk about swapping and collecting balls? Pokemon are so boring and childish.

People collect golf balls, so why not pachinko balls? and I have one of every NYC transit token that was used in my life time, because every time they announced a change, I saved one. I also saved coins from all the European countries I was in in 1977, many of which don't exist (USSR, Czechoslovakia) anymore, and other do, but use the Euro now. I also have a pre-WWII German coin that my aunt found among her mother's belongings-- the story is more dramatic if you know they were Jewish and in hiding during the war.

However, you are going to need some serious documentation on the provenance of an unmarked ball if you are claiming it was ever used in real pachinko parlors.

Real balls are what? 5mm, or slightly smaller than 1/4"? Or maybe since 11mm is used for so many things, they are 6.5mm, which is very, very close to 1/4 inch. They are probably a specific density, too. To heavy will be hard on the machine, and too light may not run through it correctly. They also remain pretty true after a lot of knocking around.

[Drunkenclam]

I thought 1/2" was 13mm

Well 12.7mm

[DukeOfDelmar]

Real balls are what? 5mm, or slightly smaller than 1/4"?

Real pachinko balls are 11mm in diameter, and weigh around 5.5g or 5.75g (I've seen both weights quoted).

[RivkahChaya]

I must have really been tired when I wrote that. I make conversion mistakes in my head all the time, even though I know what metrics look like, at least on the marble-breadbox scale, and that just goes to show you why the 1970s US metric conversion failed; they gave us (I was in the 3rd grade at the time endless conversion problems to solve, instead of just having us weigh and measure things in metrics for a week, and then spend another week making metric estimates, so we would learn to think metric. I still think I must convert in my head, even when it isn't necessary, and I get it wrong, even when I know how big something it.

I also know exactly how big 11mm is, because it is the most often-used of the metric wrenches if you work on cars. 15mm is the next most common, and I can eyeball them and know which wrench or socket to reach for.

Now, here's something funny. I grabbed a random ball to compare to an 11mm wrench, and it was too small. Then I looked closely, and there was no writing on it. I grabbed one with writing, and sure enough, 11mm.

I'll bet I have slightly too small bearings mixed in with my marbles. Every time the arm gets stuck, and doesn't dispense the payout ball, I will have to see if it is really a small bearing. I'll bet a bearing that is too light would cause that problem.

[mxfaiman]

People collect golf balls

They do? Maybe I can get rid of that massive bucket of them that I have acquired. Hard finding another use for them.

[heima]

But here's a better deal. Four rusty balls for $3.50, and free shipping!

4 Vtg Miyosi Pachinko Balls | eBay

"Shows wear" lol

[RivkahChaya]

But here's a better deal. Four rusty balls for $3.50, and free shipping!

If I had no scruples, I'd buy a bunch of 11mm bearings, and sell them in packs of 15 on eBay as "rare, uninscribed pachinko marbles," or even "Imprint errors," or something.

Slightly too large bearings can stick up a machine, but I have some bearing that are 9 & 10mm mixed in with my inscribed marbles, I realized, and they do not cause problems. They are probably cleaner than real, used balls as well.

[RivkahChaya]

Sorry, Moparformances, I forgot the [humor][/humor] tags.

And yes, I enjoy the fact that on this website we can have long discussions about the buying and selling of used balls, the differences in performance, and especially whether or not authentic Japanese balls are worth paying extra, and there's nothing whatsoever wrong with it.