Early Gold Crowns

[Bigkahuna]

I may be looking at an early Gold Crown that may be a GC1. I am sure these have some common short comings. Can anybody suggest what I should be looking for?

 

[OTLB]

skip the one and get a two, the one will have a plastic nameplate and the 2 metal which is an easy way to distinguish them. most important thing is the condition of the rail tops on an old GC. Try to find one that is not beat to hell. I have a nice one that has only been done a couple of times that would be mint if you spent a little time on it. The ones and twos have the best return on their money but they need to be near mint. Slate on GC 1 Brunstone is the worst and don't bother with them. Lots of little things but I consider the GC 2 the best. These to me are really slick when restored and the rubber on the old GC's is usually better than what you find new today. Classic GC with trim under the aprons, table still looks 20 years ahead of its time. You can also strip them down and make them look like a new GC if you want but then why bother. Also have a nice GC 3 if your looking which IMO is the easiest table to work on ever.

 

[sausage]

I may be looking at an early Gold Crown that may be a GC1. I am sure these have some common short comings. Can anybody suggest what I should be looking for?

i had a GC1 for 22 years. when i bought the table i knew almost nothing about them. the slate had been plastered and that was a red flag. i cursed that thing every time i played. there's nothing wrong with the GC1 per se however. just make sure that you get one that hasn't been abused. the ONLY way to do that is to either look at the slate beforehand OR make the deal contingent upon inspecting the slate. like a car with a new paint job, you can hid a lot of defects under new cloth. i wouldn't pay more than 900 for one. oh, and i had to glue and dowel many of the screw holes to make them tight AND strip the old white paint off AND refinish. if i had it to do over, i'd just paint the thing black.