Pinball museum will auction games its11/28/2023 ![]() Lastly, something seemed off about the Banning auction. Bidders were allowed to bid on their own games and buy them back for a $25 fee but that was the only thing that kept some items from selling super cheap. Furthermore, the auction did not have any reserve prices. Additionally, I suspect that COVID fears probably made attendance at the auction a little lower than it ordinarily would have been. The online bidders seemed to drive up the prices at the Banning auction significantly. These factors included the fact that the auction was in-person only. A combination of factors seemed to keep prices MUCH more reasonable at the Kalahari auction. On the heels of the outrageous prices that were paid for games at the Museum of Pinball auction by the Captain’s Warehouse in California, I was curious what prices would be like here. Also joining us were Jim Melcher and Marc Frega, owner of the Marcade in Dover, NJ. A man who has been to over a hundred auctions in his life…and keeps track of the prices of everything sold at his cool website. There we met up with the OG of arcade auctions, Mark Davidson. Rob Miller and I got up at the crack of dawn yesterday and made the hour plus drive to Kalahari in his Game Hauler 5000 pickup. Flash forward to yesterday and a roving company called Auction Game Sales held an arcade, vending and pinball auction at the Convention Center at Kalahari Resort in Pocono Manor, Pennsylvania. and the pandemic have kept me from going to any in several years. ![]() A combination of a lack of auctions in the Northeastern U.S. Some arcade pricing.The last time I went to an arcade and pinball auction it was at a place hilariously named “Tasty Cheese”, a Chuck E Cheese knockoff before the pandemic. Super Off Road 3 Player Arcade Game $5,000 Joust Classic Williams Arcade Game $2,500 Road Runner Arcade Game System 1 Cabinet $2,900 Road Blasters Arcade Game Atari System 1 Cab $3,200 Jack the Giant Killer Cocktail Table Arcade Game $1,400 Midnight Marauder Classic Arcade Game $3,800 Sinistar Classic Arcade Game Williams $3,800īubbles Classic Williams Dedicated Arcade Game $4,100 Stargate Defender Classic Arcade Game $1,800 Varkon Pinball Arcade Game Williams $11,000Īsteroids SEGA Classic Arcade Game $5,600īlaster Classic Arcade Game Williams Rare Dura Plastic Cabinet $5,100 Zwackery Classic Bally Midway Arcade Game $8,300 The Real Ghostbusters Dedicated 3 Player Arcade Game $3,600 Midway's Blue Shark 1978 Classic Arcade Game $9,900 Midway's Chopper Mechanical Arcade Game $2,600Ĭhicago Coin's Deluxe World Series EM Pitch n Bat $2,000 Star Wars Trilogy Upright Arcade Game $3,600 Some from the first night and early the second day:Ĭhicago Coin's Junk Yard Mechanical Claw Arcade Game $3,300 Many of these new collectors may not understand that pinball machines require regular maintenance and may end up with a pretty looking boat anchor sitting in their living room. The difference as we all know is there is a car repair shop in even the smallest of towns, but pinball repair shops not so much. Lifting the hood and troubleshooting a pinball machine for most here is fairly routine, but for your average person it would be like popping the hood on their car and trying to work on it. Wait until these new collectors who overpaid for their games have something break and render their overpriced toy unplayable. Hardcore pinball enthusiasts remain a tiny, insignificant niche, and our opinions on everything from pinball pricing to how companies like Stern run their business are totally meaningless in the grand scheme of things. ![]() We see signs of this all the time: supposed “flops” like Munsters and Zep selling like hot cakes, 20 years of “the bubble is about to burst!!” Threads proving nothing but wishful thinking JJP playfield “fiascos” making some think they are on the brink of implosion while games continue to fly off the line and into folks’ homes the hysterical whining every time Stern raises their prices and people insist it will destroy the hobby īut this awesome and hilarious auction really puts an exclamation point on things, moving my thinking towards one sad, inescapable conclusion: One auction with huge publicity reaching beyond our tiny little club and way out to the general public to the tune of the New York Times’ readership rendered all of our brilliant opinions and vast knowledge of the pinball market completely moot. Hardcore pinball enthusiasts remain a tiny, insignificant niche, and our opinions on everything from pinball pricing to how companies like Stern run their business are totally meaningless and out of touch in the grand scheme of things.
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