Flip Again: Restoring and Reselling Vintage Pinball Machines

Collectibles or adolescent souvenirs, flippers still exist and are even making a comeback in certain bars.

Since she founded Flip Again in January 2023, Amandine Le Moult repairs, restores and resells models dating back several decades.

Also called “pin-ball”, this electro-mechanical game attracts many enthusiasts. Gaming devices worth on average between 3,000 and 5,000 euros.

In his garage in Martigné-Ferchaud (Ille-et-Vilaine), transformed into a workshop, the 38-year-old young woman combines passion and work to give these machines a second chance.

This enthusiast considers pin-balls to be “true works of art with quality animations, music, lights and games”.

Pinball machines from the 50s

Models, brands, styles. Amandine Le Moult has already seen all colors and all origins.

Gottlieb, Williams, Bally, Stern, Sega… these are historic American brands. There are European brands like Recel or Zaccaria, but the market has remained more confidential.

Brands that have each their own particularity and therefore their complexity of repair in their details. “For each machine, the manufacturers wanted to create something unique, with a particularity,” explains Amandine Le Moult.

The first pinball machines are born in the 20s. But the oldest ones that this entrepreneur repairs date back to the 1950s.

An artist above all, she is passionate about the themes of each pinball machine, such as Back to the future, The Simpsons, Indiana Jonesetc.

A work of patience and meticulousness

In total, one fifteen pinball machines stay in the workshop of the couple, waiting to be repaired. Like a surgical operation, the parts are carefully dismantled and separated to be precisely repaired and reassembled. A work of patience and meticulousness.

My husband and I are very perfectionists. The more faults we repair, the more new ones we find.

A professional painter, Amandine Le Moult works and repainted the details of each drawing plates. This is what makes its services special and proves that the design of a pinball machine mix of fields other than mechanics.

If passion and art take precedence in the activity of Flip Againa ecological thinking is also thought.

Our customers have above all a sentimental attachment to these objects. But repairing them also means polluting less by not throwing them away.

“A basic repair costs on average €1,000”

Repair quotes depend on each machine. Variant between 500 and 1,000 eurosthey can also climb more.

“It takes on average a week to repair a pinball machine if you dedicate yourself to it full time.” But Amandine considers delivered within two to three monthstaking into account the arrival of missing parts, “which come from a niche market”.

The rubber bands, bulbs and balls must be changed.

A showroom for sales

Before returning them to their owners, the repairer enjoys playing with these parts. She is above all a collector.

It is also satisfying to see the joy of our customers when they see their pinball machine in full operation again.

Amandine Le Moult also performs purchase and resale in their show room area, where repaired models are displayed.

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