Don't waste the effort. You will.most.likely be bidding against the seller as buybacks are allowed. There is almost 20% in buyer fees added to your bid and most games have been there many cycles.

I would just call the place and ask about the game. As I recall they will sell and ship games at any time, and you don't have to bother with the auction. Just make an offer and they might take it.

It's basically all buybacks or pure junk

Did I mention the junk will sell for over market value?

Pretty rare that you'll get anything "cheap" at Captain's Auction. All consignments, fake bids, buybacks. Only buy a game there if it's an absolute grail that you want and money means nothing to you.

I always go for the trial period! Great fun if you don't have anything going on, free pins to play, lots of fun folks. The auction itself is a joke. Joke joke joke. Haven't seen a good deal come out of there in years. But I breeze through the free play, drool over the Blackout that's been there for months and months on end, give some high fives, good times. We usually run up the street to a pizza joint with pins before the time the auction even starts.

I'm happy to glance over the SI for you if you want to pm me your email address, but I wouldn't expect to find a deal from the Captain. Haha he sent out some pretty sexy fliers this time, anyone see that? My bf grabbed the mail and was just like "huh, you pinball folks...i'll tell ya what".

yea alot of the same pins everytime, I did snatch a baby pac a year ago there for 400 fully working and my buddy snagged an Elvis for 2200, its very hit and miss, they have a Tommy which i would love to have

I also go every time just for the freeplay on some different titles, the SI was there last auction and if I remember correctly is was in good shape,played well and pf looked a lot better than mine.

The auction flyer was a bit over the top this time....he thinks he's a rock star.

But the card stock! And the gloss! I mean WHERE is he getting the budget for that?!

All the great deals on pinball of course

I went by there yesterday. The Hook looks real nice.

Is it just me or does Captain Chris and the guys who work for him look like they met in prison?

c'mon... Everybody is loaded with prison tats these days

He must make a lot of $$$ from the concession stand since it is the same group of people bidding on the same group of games that don't sell! I have a $250 gift cert for them for 2 years that I have yet to use.

The concession stand makes one tasty burger.

Hey Milton, I know you said you were looking for a cheap SI to restore, but wouldn't the shipping from SoCal to ND make it almost not worth it?

He is also trying to get himself a reality show about finding and auctioning off arcade games.

Look at this press release that he wrote about himself!

http://www.wthr.com/story/22149013/captains-auction-warehouse-goes-back-to-the-future

More PR:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/captains-auction-warehouse-points-to-pinball-as-investment-in-fun-and-finances-211536611.html

lol that was way too much...

It says members of Generation X showed up. I wonder if Billy Idol was there.

lol his "fans"

They're Red & White or HA for those who don't know

Billy Idol showed up to my high school grad night party. He wore sunglasses at night and was high as a kite. So it is possible. And yes I am telling the truth, I even shook his hand.

I would love to go, but not overpaying for a pin.

Wow... Nobody has a good thing to say about the actual auction.... I heard he had a Punchy the Clown recently...went for cheap?

It's not the best place to buy pinball
Concealed issues and overpriced
Due to 26% add on of fees & tax

Sellers will be bidding against you
As well as auction house.
This same space invaders was there
At last auction and was sold !!
Now it's back , weird ?? I gues not.

Then again, you might get lucky.

he verbally states "looks good, working good" on almost every pin as he begins to auction each machine, even if it only lights up ( a great drinking game would be to take a shot every time you hear him say looks good working good). I think that misleads those who are bidding on the internet and have to judge a machine by pics only.

the buyback fee is only $10...wtf...ten bucks really!! no wonder its the same machines each time.
buyback should cost the seller at least $100 each machine.

that being said I love to play during the 2 hour preview and there are actually some good deals on upright or sit down arcades

That's what I noticed about the last auction I watched online. Pins went for what they're worth, or more, and vids went cheap on some stuff and STUPID cheap on others.

I was going to go but my pirate costume is still at the cleaners.

Well, after looking at the listing, it'll be interesting to see how much the pins go for, especially the FH and TAF. Looks like that FH would be an easy restore, too. I'd love to pick up one of those Police Trainers, but only one of them looked to have a decent monitor. I liked the dedicated cab one, but the monitor was out on it, too. It's too short notice for me now to borrow a truck and a friend to help me load up anything I might buy.

Sure would like to go to play a bunch of games, though! Not quite sure that's going to happen....

I will get to one of these auctions and I will come home with some vids at some point in the near future!

I have a Police Trainer in a MKII cab with a bright monitor.
It has Judge Dredd game in it as well.
Has the Happ recoil .45s.
I would take 500 for it.

Here at auction now...its a different si..playfield poorly touched up

Somebody ended up with a very nice TFTC. And that Twilight Zone was in very good shape and sold for under 5K.

Is that before or after the 26% tax/fees?

hammer price was $4950 but with tax and fees it was over 6k...it was very nice as was the tftc

Most likely it was a buyback. A lot of time what appears to be a good deal ends up at the next auction from the same seller or gets sold before the next time.

I was there, they had a lot of pins - more than the usual auction. I managed to play a lot of the working ones and they were pretty solid machines, clean and working. I have to think this is a very short lived situation. Most of those pins must have come from out of state where the pin market is not like California. There isn't going to be a supply available like that forever, just like there no longer is for classic video arcade games. Most of the crowd was playing the pins and the vids were hardly looked at in the preview - and I was there the entire preview. I think they had close to 600 machines total for sale.

That neo-geo kid size machine they had was kind of rare. Other than that, the vid selection was lame.

Twilight zone was definatly not bought back by seller today...lots of other pins were

the restored tempest was very nice

Well, at least it was working. That is not a game that is known for reliability...I know, I own one. There was a sign on the game that stated it had been repaired and was working all the way, and it did work, but there was definitely a wave in the picture and the monitor needed to have the convergence adjusted. Don't get me wrong, in the old Superauctions days it probably would have not been working at all. But then it might have gone for $50-100 instead of whatever it sold for at today's auction.

Anyway, at least he's finding pins to sell off. I don't think it will last, there is not an inexhaustible supply of pinball machines sitting in operator warehouses. A couple of years, tops, and you won't see these kinds of auctions anymore.

I played a bit on it. The playfield was in pretty good shape with the exception of a bit of wear that was touched up by the scoop. It had issues though. Gumball machine and clock did not work or else were disabled in the menu. Many of the insert lights were out and the slot and piano lights. Probably more than just burnt out bulbs. $4950 plus the fees is way too much to pay for it. Heck my TZ is in much better shape with mods and third magnet kit installed and I'd sell it for $4950.

Auction results??

,

Sean Casey's final list from RGP:

Here is the full list with final prices including buyers premium and tax.

X-Files 2,177
Dr Who 3,073
Hook 2,305
Wheel of Fortune 3,201
Judge Dredd 2,817
Space Invaders 1,536
Xenon 1,408
Playboy Bally 1,984
World Poker Tour 2,817
Tales from the Crypt 3,457
Star Wars Trilogy 2,817
Roadshow 2,689
Harley Davidson 3,393
World Cup Soccer 94 2,689
The Simpsons DE 2,561
Riverboat Gambler 1,920
Back to the Future 2,817
World Poker Tour 2,561
Frankenstein 2,561
Demolition Man 1,920
Dr Who 3,201
Fire 2,305
Addams Family 4,865
Twilight Zone 6,337
Terminator 2 1,664
Haunted House 2,177
The Amazing Spiderman 1,408
Captain Fantastic 1,280
NASCAR 2,561
Last Action Hero 2,112
Batman 2,497
Monopoly 2,945
South Park 2,433
Terminator 3 2,561
Elvis 3,137
Addams Family 4,417
Tommy The Who 3,457
World Poker Tour 2,369
Maverick 1,792
Demolition Man 2,048
Simpson's Pinball Party 3,457
Austin Powers 2,177
Pool Sharks 896
Funhouse 2,305
Star Wars Trilogy 3,073
Gilligans Island 1,536
Riverboat Gambler 1,536
Monopoly 3,073
World Poker Tour 2,369
Terminator 2 3,137
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2,241
Demolition Man 2,112
Slugfest 1,216
Revenge from Mars 2,561
Buck Rogers 832
Six Million Dollar Man 384
Flash 384
Airborne Avenger 512
Contact Williams 384
Airborne Avenger Issues 288
Airborne Avenger No BG 224
High Speed 1,280
Blackout 832
Hardbody 896
Jukebox Chicago Coin 256
Dipsy Doodle 192
World Cup Soccer 94 2,881
Freedom 448
Knock Out 448
Space Time 288
Target Pool 256
Flash 960
Super Mario Bros Logic Issues 640
Raven 832
Space Time 384

vid1900, thanks for the results. One note however, not everyone pays tax.

Those prices are INSANELY high, I hope that isn't the direction everything is headed...

It looks like Judge Dredd has doubled in value over the last few months.