Information on purchasing second hand BOLA products

As we have been producing bowling machines for 40 years and have manufactured and sold over 10,000 machines to date, they regularly appear on the second hand market(predominantly online auction sites).

This may seem like a great way to pick up a BOLA machine at a significantly better price than buying new. This can be true, occasionally we see machines at bargain prices but more often than not the machines on sale are very old, some times 35+ years old and regularly listed at 75% or more of the cost of a new machine. The sellers often underage the machines in their descriptions(either because they do not know the age or they are are underestimating how long ago it was purchased!) or do not describe the listing well enough for the customer to know exactly what they're getting.

While a 35 year old machine may still power up and fire a cricket ball(a testament to BOLA's quality), it will likely present the owner with various problems, especially if it has not been used for a long time and stored in cold or damp conditions(a garage or store room). There may be electronic related issues or the urethane wheels may have gone brittle from temperature, requiring replacement.

While BOLA can still repair and service these older machines, the repair cost on top of the purchase price ends up being more than the customer would've paid if they had purchased new to begin with.

When considering a second hand BOLA purchase - find out the machine's serial number from the seller. This can normally be found on a white label on the underside of the machine. Alongside the serial number will be the year of manufacture(96 indicates it was made in 1996). You are welcome to contact us for free advice and with the serial number we can give you some information about the machine and any likely issues you may encounter.