I would have SOOO bought these had I seen this auction.

I call total nonsense and pure bullshit, it was a PUBLIC AUCTION. I had no clue about it until his post and signed up immediately to place a bid. I was out when it crossed $1200. I was ready to hook up the trailer and go for a weekend road trip. Cry me a river that more people had the opportunity to bid on these rare pieces. Pretty damn shallow to blame the O.P. because someone else didn't get "the cheap deal".

I completely agree.... this is a forum for pinball enthusiasts, I would hope that those that see collector quality items going un-noticed to highlight them for the community.

Had it not been for the OP, a non-enthusiast buyer might have just

a) Flipped them on craigslist
b) Strip out the guts to make a mini virtual pinball or sit down arcade
c) Used them as a saw horse
d) When they find out the rubbers are all deteriorated, toss it in a dumpster

I commend the Op for posting it while the auction was going on, I wish there were more selfless pinsiders like him out there!

Why don't you guys just get a room! lol

Use your Columbo like research skills and let's solve this caper!

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RTR I do at least one national Craigslist search a day. I’ll keep a look out for these cocktail pins

I've been searching Facebook for the words "Night Moves" to see if anybody has been talking about it recently, some of us know it has some distinctive metal traits.

And this is where I sit and ask how many times have you seen someone post about a deal publicly and later see that there was a feeding frenzy that drove the price up? Its common and anyone who wants to sit there and say otherwise is full of shit. More eyes make for more dollars so it hurts rather than help.

As the auction winner I am glad that this thread was posted. I have learned a lot. I had my max bid and didn't exceed it. It just made for more spirited bidding.

Hey cap'n roadkill,
If you want to let go of one whenever you get em all, shoot me a pm.

Please god no.

It hurts whom? Your point of view is very slanted because this helps the seller immensely. Only the buyer can decide what his ceiling is on what he or she is going to spend. Boo hoo if someone doesn't get the killer deal because someone has deeper pockets or is willing to step up to the plate more. Are you really going to play the someone got hurt card because they had to spend more in a hobby? How ridiculous! I am sorry, but the hurt comes when you can't afford the rent or to put food on the table, not because someone got outbid on pinball machines that no needs in life. Cry me a river.

What you got them for was still a killer deal. Such a shame that two of them walked off, but I have a feeling they will be recovered.

And if you find out about a little-publicized deal, do you pass it up out of “fairness” to others that may have learned about it first and don’t need you horning in on “their” bargain? And if that’s not your usual practice, how are you not just as much a part of the “problem” as OP, since you’re also “hurting” the deal for someone else?

I’ll take my answer in the new thread.

I see everyone piling on, saying to post the auctions, and anyone crying about it is a big baby.

To some extent this is true: there's no use crying about it, because information leaks and odds are, SOMEONE will post about the auction / estate sale / posting / whatever. But the problem with folks getting on the bandwagon of "who cares if the auction was posted for more exposure", is they missed this little bit of hypocrisy:

You don't say...?

This is why, even though there's no use crying about it, I hate when folks point an auction out while braying "just trying to help my fellow hobbyists!" Because as sure as the gavel strikes, as soon as an auction has something of your/their interest, "community help" takes a back seat to self-interested secret-ism.

For crying out loud, this site is full of threads created for the sole purpose of bragging about insane deals, and bitching about bad ones. There's no way that any of you folks saying "Yes everyone needs to see deal listings so bring on the competition!" will be doing the posting when you luck into that $2K Twilight Zone estate classified. Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar or a hypocrite. NOBODY ever posts a "nobrainer" CL ad before calling or passing on it themselves.

So yeah, bitching about the exposure of auctions is pretty stupid, but don't pretend to be above disappointment when one you've been stalking for yourself suddenly attracts more attention.

Well ya.... of course.

If he buys it, he knows an enthusiast will end up with the machine, so why start a bidding war against himself. But if he's not going to buy it, he'd rather someone else in our community get it.

So if I find a good deal on craigslist, I would buy it myself, if not, I would tell the community... why would I tell the community "hey, I found a great deal for myself, but if you want to out bid, me, here's the sellers info?"

This is in no way hypocrisy, it is just doing what's in the best interest of the pinball community, understanding that we are also part of that community.

For the folks who do not have facehugger, can you post here or pm them? Thank you.

Impossible man 3+ years of research and hundreds of videos make an account or suffer! lol

Any new news? We need to get those machines back to their rightful owner...

Update please!

We are all waiting to hear some good news but you have to realize things just don't happen all the quickly in the real world and waiting for the police. It could be months before anything is solved - if it ever happens. A few hundred dollars worth of pinball machines might be important to a few of us but to the police it isn't a big enough deal to even waste time on.

Sadly the real world is much different than it one was. Cops are busy looking for the armed robber, sex offenders, & murderers - they are not worried about a few hundred dollar break in.

Probably the very best statement that could be made on the subject. The disappointment is just human nature.

Best of Pinside Throwback!

Into the Maw of Despair is so quotable, I’m sad that when I try to share it with people outside of Pinside they just think it’s lame... nobody understands the rush of saving a pin from a nudist crackhead cult.

bump for update(s)

Wow! What a coincidence. A brand new pinsider is selliing 2 new pins that he “inherited from his uncle”. I hope these aren’t the same missing pins

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That's either a bad joke or one of the stupidest people on the planet. If he actually has the games it's pretty much a 100% chance this is them.

Maybe this is someone who got them from the person who stole them, not knowing. Otherwise why would they post here? I hope someone is checking into these.

bro your nephew in Oxnard has your pins

I think its just a strange coincidence, looks like those games for sale are definitely used with alot of pf wear...

Never used but with wear?

Call the cops.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but they just joined pinside and their only 2 pins are rated 10.0 and now are for sale.....

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Could've thrown old rubbers on the flippers and slings to throw people off the idea of them being stolen. Edit...didn't check all pictures, yeah worn.

The posted pictures could have been taken from the internet and are not the actual NIB machines. Call Michelle Bianchi and see if NM and CC were recently shipped from NC to CA.

BallyPinWiz You're within a couple hours. What would it take for you to go have a look at them?

I would be willing to go and inspect them.

The odds of someone being THAT dumb are incredibly low, I'd suspect strongly that it's a troll account.

I'd ask mods if they could check the IP address of the new member and see if it matches any other member as an alternate account (if they have the ability).

I sent ForceFlow a heads up msg earlier today about all this after I read coz's post.
Could be a troll acct due to new Pinsider fredrok is so knowledgeable about Pinside such as donating, rating machines, etc.

So, is forceflow in charge of stuff like this?

I wouldn't word it like that exactly.
I would say that ForceFlow is a knowledgeable guy and good at sleuthing online type stuff.

All the moderators and Robin & Martijn can help out with online issues that can affect Pinside and/or Pinside users/members.

That's what I thought.

Master Googler

The Saratoga Pin/arcade show is this weekend, so don't expect a quick reply.