I'd like to know too.
Might be worth a look.

I have not been to AGS Winston Salem sales in years ( space ). Back in the day made every auction for several years . Post Christmas sales used to have wide selection since game sales places dumped inventory . Likely different times now. Coolest part trip anticipation what treasures await. Not much as far as EMs though. My ride much further from Charlottesville . Enjoy your day!
Shane

loriradford used to post the results from the auctions quite a bit. I suspect if you look at their post history you will find some examples like the below thread.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/winston-auction-results-3-30-19

EM stuff always goes for really cheap in my experience. I am planning on going too. I will probably be wearing a Chiefs hat. Feel free to say hi if you go.

Few classic Skeeballs these days mostly Ice Ball games and EM arcade games are fairly rare.

I grew up there too! Been down in carolina for a while now though.

I'm in michigan. It's about 11 hours each way for me for both the Tenn and NC auctions. I used to go almost everytime. Now it's more like once a year and usually Tenn. At 2 hours each way, just go. Play some games(bring an extension cord.) Talk with people. Maybe you dont see anything at the auction but find someone who does have what you are looking for. In the end the worst thing that happens is you spent a day with other pinheads playing games and pissed away a few bucks in gas.

Any one have results yet or photos?

Saw this on Facebook. There also seems to be a crackdown on the “parking lot deals” - the auction company is trying to stop this.

Also factor in the fees and sales tax which could add up to 20% additional cost
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How bad was the Indy? I wold not have thought of trading my HOU IM straight up for an INDY, let alone a Junk Yard for an Indy.

And you want to trade that GB? You better be adding cash to the Indy, sir

edit: was it the Stern Indiana Jones?

What’s the back story on the lot deal crackdown? It’s a free country and the auction house doesn’t have jurisdiction over parking lots. I get why they would be bothered by this but is there really a way to stop that!?

They say they rent the building and parking lot and don’t want any sales outside.

They want to eliminate “parking lot deals” because they don’t get any fees or tax money. I don’t have all the details, but I read about the auctions on our local Carolina arcade Facebook group

I understand what you are saying but I have always said this. Seller should pay the fees not the buyer. Adding 13% buyers fees then sales tax is stupid. When you sell your house, who pays the RE Commission? The seller does. It’s their product and goods. That’s why 11 pinballs were buybacks as well. NC allows shell bidding.

Auctions are a business. I have been dealing with auction game sales for a very long time. They are one of the more reasonable auctions for fees. I believe super auctions was either 15 or 20 percent on both ends. Some of the online auction houses are similar. I only did one parking lot deal and that was after the auction. I bought a piece back and someone offered to buy it at the price I wanted. Afterwards I went to Rick (who used to run the auction) and asked if he wanted his commission. He told me not to worry about it, but thanked me for the offer. Somebody mentioned liability. If you were unloading in the parking lot and someone slipped and and got crushed, the auction company is going to get sued. Also there are a lot of assumptions about the fees that are wrong. As a business owner I get different fees then a regular guy who does it as a hobby. That's the only reason you see truckloads of games getting dropped off.

I understand they are a business but buyers should not pay the fees period! Most guys going to auctions don’t have a business ID number so adding 600 dollars to a 3k purchase sucks. I appreciate what Auction Game sales does, but buyers fees and shell bidding sucks. You can’t sugar coat this.

When the auction rules were set up to allow buy backs, buyers premiums, and other fees, it was to encourage vendors to bring equipment and not lose their ass and never come back again. My first AGS I went to was in N C back in 99. I was doing the Indy and Columbus auctions for several years before that. The fees were the same back then, but it wasn't a big deal because most games were a few hundred bucks. I can see how with the prices in the 4,5, or even 10k range can inflate the cost to insane amounts.
Now getting back to the real topic of parking lot deals. From what I was reading the problem is guys hanging out at check in trying to buy games meant for the auction before they get submitted. In some cases guys are hanging out in the parking lot selling flea market style. Personally i have had guys ask me to sell before the auction. As for the parking lot situation, I have not seen it. My guess would be that a lot of these deals are happening and when confronted the excuse of " it's a deal we had done already and were just meeting here" is becoming the reason. So the next step will be banish all outside deals from the property.

I would agree not to do this in the parking lot. Meet there and go to a Walmart parking lot, take care of the transaction and the head back to the auction to hang out.

Sorry but as someone who has gone to the AGS auctions for about 20 years now as a buyer and seller, I have to disagree.

These auctions are based around the coin-op business, not the hobbyists. The reason that AGS is still around and not Super Auctions, USAA, and the smaller ones that have come and gone over the years is because, while not perfect, AGS takes care of the regular sellers. It keeps equipment coming to the sale in large, sustainable numbers.

The "most guys" you speak of who don't have a business are just not going to be catered to. I know them well, the guys who scan over the 100s of games and narrow down to a few games that they hope to get at a steal just because it's at an auction and there's a chance, like a Theatre of Magic going for $3000 in 2020. The machine comes up for auction and they wiggle themselves to the front of the crowd and pull their bidder card out of their pocket. Then when the bidding over $5k they throw their hands up, look around at their buddies and say "can you believe this!?" Look I get it, we all want a deal. But the reality is that deals at these auctions mostly disappeared years ago as pinball (and some other coin-op sub-markets like classic vids) became hot again and prices shot up because of supply and demand. You want a deal on something? Buy a pool table, cigarette machine, or some junk off the parts (let's be real, it is mostly junk) table because nobody wants those. 20 years ago nobody wanted to pay over $2500 for a Theatre, and those looked a hell of a lot nicer than the ratty ones that bring $5500 today. But that's just the way it is.

I also know that it sucks when you find out that the person you are bidding against is the seller. But the sellers know the market too. A seller knows his ToM should sell closer to $5k than $3k (depending on condition of course) in today's market, and there are various unknown factors at each auction like the crowd turnout, machine turnout, weather, etc. A seller brings their ToM to an auction instead of just listing it on eBay, Pinside or whatever because they know that in a worst case scenario -- 50 people show up to the auction because there is a blizzard but 2 other ToMs were also brought to sell, AND 1 of those 50 people is that guy who likes to try and mess with the machines (happens too often) -- they can buy the machine back with a reasonable fee. It is not an absolute auction. It is a consignment auction, with a lot of variables. Sometimes things work in a buyer's favor...like maybe that ToM seller just needs the money or doesn't know how to fix a problem that makes it sell for less. Or maybe, as happened yesterday, there were like 10 Buck Hunter Pro arcade games so most of them sold for a bit less than they usually would. But you take away the option of buybacks, and I can assure you the quality and quantity of machines at each auction will take a huge hit, and then you might see AGS end up like the other auction companies of the past.

I'm sure we probably bumped into each other a few times. You are spot on with your post. A couple years ago I showed up with 2 boxers. They were 2 of maybe 16. Mine were first to go up. First one was the worst of the 2 and it got over 700. The nice one went for under 300(and I wasn't hauling it back) and by the time the last one went, they were begging for 25 dollar bids. It's a huge risk for me to come down. I usually rent a truck then add in fuel, hotel, and other expenses, it's usually about a grand. I need to be prepared by bringing half a truck to sell and possibly buy back if prices are low and bring enough cash to buy half a truck to bring back and sell locally. Worst case is going down and not sell anything and not buy anything. That's 22 hours of driving, a whole weekend and 1k thrown away.

Make your drive to the PATZ auction, no fee's what so ever and no sales tax. Cash on the glass.

John

This I like.

In this case there is no third party. Follow the link and you'll read what I mean. Hard to see much as far as games and stuff in these pictures but the crowd was there for sure and plus these were taken at the beginning part of the auction when all the small stuff is selling first, backglasses, playfields, etc...

John

http://www.pinballatthezoo.com/

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OK, yes there is a $17 entree fee to get into the show itself and I didn't realize it was that much but it gets you into the show for the entire day to play a hundred games all day long, check out vendors, be around other pinball people.....etc. If there was no auction the show would still go on without it. You can sell your game there on the floor without any hassle from anyone trying to get an extra dollar out of your pocket for doing so. If that fails, run it through the auction and see what the real market bears for your game and it wont cost you ANYTHING if it sells or not since you can put a reserve on the game but I'd say about 50% of the games sell during the auction and many others are sold right after the auction with a number the seller and bidder can both live with so it's a win/win. There is no other pinball auction like it, anywhere's.

John

I can confirm that, yes; I just watched the video.

I haven't been to an AGS auction in about 10 years. Are they still letting people smoke inside the buildings ? Used to be horrible.