873 - A with hold and draw.. rare or Frankenstein?

[Thephoneman]

Saw this online and can't get any firm info of this is original or a home concept. Owner says it's a .25 even though the glass says nickle. Pic of front and the tag is all I have at the moment. 

[Chris-socal]

Some Ballys from that era are completely mechanical. Some are EM. You would have to look inside.
Personally I run away from all of those.
I suppose if it functions ok you should be good to have some fun with it but they can become major projects and only ever be worth $150 or $200 …..if everything works and aesthetically perfect, glass correct, etc.

[wolftalk]

frankenstein, but sometimes that's a good thing if it makes the game more interesting.

the serial/model number plate is not reliable as aftermarket sellers/refurbishers commonly swapped plates around or changed what was inside a cabinet to make a different game.

in this example, at least the cabinet style matches an 873-A.

conversion to different denominations is pretty straightforward, tho a professional refurb shop would do a nicer job changing the artwork for the new coins.

assuming the guts of the machine are all electro-mechanical, conversion to hold-n-draw is mainly the addition of a bunch of parts to the reel mech and a couple added relays.  More likely a reel mech from a hold-n-draw machine would be swapped into the cabinet.  The glass doesn't appear to have any information about hold-n-draw.

it's also possible the buttons are for skill-stop where the player can push the button to stop the reels, but that's even more changes than hold-n-draw.
 

[Thephoneman]

Yeah i haven't asked for any other info yet.  I have a few irons in the fire right now and that might be on my way to get another machine. But I've been searching to see if any of the ballys from that era CAME like this,  and so far it's not looking like they did.  I already have a few projects going and dont really need another mess.

[wolftalk]

But I've been searching to see if any of the ballys from that era CAME like this

nope.

none of the bally EM machines used buttons like that for hold-n-draw.  The all used buttons like the change button with the black ring around it that is on the machine.

the added buttons on the pictured machine are on an added piece of metal.

[Thephoneman]

But I've been searching to see if any of the ballys from that era CAME like this

nope.

none of the bally EM machines used buttons like that for hold-n-draw.  The all used buttons like the change button with the black ring around it that is on the machine.

the added buttons on the pictured machine are on an added piece of metal.