Saw all these new posts ....house sale is cool but I was hoping for some more old stories

I didn’t even bother looking but wow, this is total garbage.

Some serious “Craigslist renovations” quality going on there

Wow. Fascinating. Reading this and the Zidware/Deeproot fiasco together with the FOMO (customers) / IDGAF (manufacturers) principle of modern pinball leaves a rather sour taste.

What a strange hobby this has become.

They are just lally columns that are wrapped with 1x’s. Why they didn’t run the 1x’s up to the beam I have no clue. Maybe they were going to finish with some capital or something. The place is a shithole

Ugh...I take back my previous statement. I didn't look too closely at the photos earlier beyond the absence of the 70s decor.

I need to move to Illinois... that would be an easy million dollar property here, even in that condition. Indoor pool and 5000+ sf? Lotta promise.

No. Horrible.

That job looks like the work of some weekend warrior that read a couple Instagram posts on how easy house flipping is, and thought they could get rich quick. Idiots like this are why they are passing laws in some areas to regulate shoddy house flipping.

Workmanship like that is why I have banned my wife from any home improvement projects that are even remotely related to structural integrity.
People who build stuff like that don’t even know that there is stuff they don’t know.

Exactly. The previous comments are ignorant at best.

Awwwww.. I feel like we should do something for you. I don't have any cool stories, but I could mail you some money or something...

I’m glad we have so many constructive comments added, like some hypocritical response to a year old post.

Can we hear more about the Kingpin Remake Gene tried. How far did that get before his remake attempt died? How much does Circus Maximus have to work with? Knapp posted an April 1st story about them alleging to make an announcement at SFGE.

Okay, wow, I have no idea how I stumbled upon this thread a few hours ago as I don't spend as much time on here or posting about pinball lately, but man, what a trip down memory lane. I have a number of stories about Gene that may or may not contribute anything, but I feel compelled to share at least some of them after reading these.

There are a number of people who have stated that they don't want to speak ill of the dead, so they won't share their stories of Gene. A few others have shared their thoughts of why Gene was in it, and what his end goal truly was. I am not discounting their opinions at all, but I got a different sense for him - that everything he did was for the story - and he would love nothing more than to see a thread like this where he was remembered years later.

I first met Gene in 2003 hosting the Midwest Gaming Classic. As noted on the second page, pinwhoo suggested that he should come to our show as we were trying to grow pinball, and without much of a sales pitch, Gene was in. I spoke with him on the phone a couple times before the show to confirm details and things like that, but didn't really get to know him until after that 2003 show.

To explain what Gene was like, I would suggest he is a cross between the main character in Big Fish and the real life PT Barnum. He found things he enjoyed, then found ways to weave narratives around them so he could be the person that everyone needed to talk about. At the same time, he would exploit relationships to feed the narrative he was creating and I know he burnt people because of that. But, he always had a way to present the story in a way that he both fully believed, and would make him out to be the 'good guy' to whomever he was talking to.

Did he lose a million dollars on BBB? I believe *he believed* he did, but it was due to the sorts of funny math that people have alluded to in this thread. Even if we assume a total of 200 games were made and sold, the total revenue on them would have been $900,000. That would mean each game Gene made would have lost him at least $5,000. Considering the amount of free labor he used, as well as incredible deals that he did to receive the parts, I can't find any reasonable way that he lost that much. But if you talked with him, he was extremely sincere that he did it for the love of the game, and because he wanted to be a hero in the pinball story above all else. The best way to do that was to lose money.

But, if you got him talking about business, he would talk about how he did such a great job with the reproduction of BBB, and he was able to pull off the project for a price where he made money, and produced a product that the new buyers were so excited to get, they were worth double what they paid for them the first day, which he then was able to make more of them with the spare parts afterward to sell for that inflated margin. In this story, Gene needed to be the hero of the business story, and *he believed* that not just did he make a great game like no one else could do, it was a smashing success in the way of business and for the customers. Everyone won! When Gene presented it this way, he was now the hero in the business story.

I've heard Gene lay out both stories to people, even both to me at different times. The key I found with him was to ask a question every once in a while to direct him, and he would frame the story in that direction. I was also perhaps a unique case because I don't think Gene figured out that I was a pinball guy. I think he saw me as a young guy trying to start businesses, so he would often come at me in his conversations from the "oh man, I'm a super successful businessman!" standpoint. It was much more likely I would hear him telling someone at a show the more common story that I read on here, and then he would sort of pull me to the side to make a quip about how he was working a strategy to 'increase sales' or 'drive demand' or whatever. He *loved* giving me ideas about how I could better run the Midwest Gaming Classic, or the video game business, or how the real money is in real estate, or whatever. Sometimes, he would say really insightful things. Sometimes, he was full of it.

Because of this relationship, I feel like I've probably been told stuff in a different lens than many others on here. I'll try sharing some of how Gene presented Gene to me moving forward if there is interest in this thread. I'll just add one more thing for tonight though:

Gene actually officially announced he was producing Big Bang Bar twice. In the pinball version of the story, he announced the game at Pinball Expo in October of 2004 and it sold out immediately. In the 'let's teach this guy business' version, he also announced it in May at the 2004 Midwest Gaming Classic. The MGC announcement is basically lost to time.

But, he stood up our tiny speaking hall and told everyone he was taking orders for Big Bang Bar starting right now. I remember this presentation as it was one of the only ones at *any* show I've run that I got to attend. He kept telling me before the show that he was going to show me how to get people really talking about your business by making a huge announcement at the Midwest Gaming Classic, but he would only do it if I was at the presentation. He made it clear when he opted to come back in 2004 - a story I'll tell another time - he wanted to do this. And for whatever reason, me being in the room was critical.

So I'm there. But, didn't say much else so all we had to tell people was it was going to be "Gene Cunningham talks about Pinball Parts" or something incredibly generic and dull sounding. Gene was known amongst the pinball fans to tell the same stories, so the majority of the pinball people at our show that year didn't show up. I would be surprised if there were 20 people in the room including Gene.

The presentation was darn near the exact same thing that he did for Pinball Expo, in what is widely considered to be the real launch of the game and for practical purposes, really probably was. I wasn't in the room for that one, but Gene was elated to see me at Expo in 2004, believing that I came down just to see him - partially due to that more or less happening in 2003 - where he told me he did basically the same presentation. He told me there that he had about 25 sign ups after the Midwest Gaming Classic announcement, and after he announced it at Expo he was above the 55 preorders that he needed to move forward. (I remember the 55 number as it stood out to me as an odd number when he said it at MGC. Gene told me when you included the gold plated one, it was the point he would have $250,000 in revenue, presenting that at the point that, duh, it made sense to build a machine, right?)

Again, and this was the sort of mystery of Gene - I don't think he was lying about any of it. He absolutely didn't have 25 people sign up at MGC that year. I would be floored if he had more than 5 people sign up at the show. But, he always said to me "After my presentation at your show, I got a ton of great interest with more than 25 people signing up!" Technically, those people could have signed up at Expo, and it was still after the presentation at "my show." I also heard him directly tell people at Expo 04 that he had already reached the 55 number 'all from people who signed up after hearing my presentation!', so again, who knows where the real truth lies. But the fact he never said to anyone other than me that he announced it at MGC I think is a perfect example of how he would fit the truth into whatever suited him best for the story that he wanted to tell, where he was the hero of the moment to the segment he thought he was playing too. Again, Gene didn't think I was a pinball guy, so how would I be able to put a read on how much interest there was?

I'll close by saying this - my mother's father was *extremely* similar to Gene, except without all the shiesty stuff and he was an engineer, not someone who owned his own businesses. Grandpa had all of these insane stories, and as a family we would often find ourselves rolling our eyes as he would describe something impossible sounding. He passed away in 2003, essentially at nearly the same time that I ended up meeting Gene, and after his death as I helped my family sort through his belongings, we found out that many of his insane stories held at least a significant slice of truth to them. I think getting this perspective at the same time I started interacting with Gene really got me to see Gene in a different light, and again, his lack of understanding that I was also into pinball made him change his stories to present himself in what he thought would be a better light to me.

Okay, yeesh, I wanted this to be quick and just spent a long time doing it. Hope someone cared to read Again, if people are interested in more, I've probably got 10ish more stories about Gene that I can share in the future, some that paint him in a better light, and some that don't. But all, I think, would make Gene really happy to know his stories were being shared after his death.

Great read, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to reading more when you have time to post.

Thanks I ended up editing slightly and went slightly down the rabbit hole of old school RGP. Found this thread from 2006 about it and I'll copy and paste what I said... holy crap, 16 years ago:

"I'll say that quite frankly, I'm really kicking myself for not going for this when it was first announced by Gene. I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with him about it for a while at both the Midwest Gaming Classic in 2004 and Pinball Expo, and I knew right then and there that somehow, someway it would be completed. It was the way that Gene talked about the project and pretty much pinball in general that gave me the feeling that even if it ended up costing him $10,000 per machine, he really wanted to do this. I'm not surprised at all that they are rolling off the line right now, and if six are completed and sent out, I fully expect that another six are nearly there... and another, and another, and another.

I think BBB may be the best looking pin of all time, and the playfield toys and humor are top notch. I think that this game would still do really well on route, as it definitely has that "cool" factor like MM and similar games do.

I doubt that Gene will make any more pins after this, but it's awesome to see this project get finished. Now, I just need to find someone who did purchase one so I can stop by and play it like mad!"

Thread that this was in was here if it works: https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.pinball/c/iz3y7eOn6F8/m/xZ6C_NmhvUEJ

I never did find one that had purchased one, although I've made the trek to Lloyd's a few times and played his over the past years And, to be clear, my opinions haven't changed. There were a TON of rumors about how much Gene was losing on this project in 2006, and I *do* think Gene would have spent $10k per machine to pull off the BBB story. Let's be honest - without it as the crowning achievement of his parts purchases, he'd be remembered mainly as the eccentric guy who bought some of the pinball parts when stuff closed down, not the first new business to release a new pinball machine after Williams declared the industry dead.

Without BBB, how many people would remember the ILLinois Pin Ball Co. today? (And seriously, why did the Pin Ball community have such odd CAPitalizatIONS back in the Day?)

Well done. I really enjoyed reading all of that and I look forward to reading more from you.

BTW. You and I met one time and it was at Gene's pinball show in Bloomington when he was trying to compete with Expo. Or kill Expo after his feud with Pacak began.... 2007 maybe?

Mawr plz

With all the people who complain about how Steve @PBR works... imagine all these people trying to deal with IPB? hahah

I'm just now stumbling-onto this thread... I'll have to go back & read the whole thing later but it prompted me to go dig through my paperwork and find my Illinois Pinball swag... Gene used to give these stickers out when you bought stuff from his booth. I can't remember if I got this from his Pinball Expo booth back in the Ramada days (early 2000s) or maybe it was at his own show down the street from Expo after it moved to Wheeling (at PalWaukee airport) after he had that falling-out.

I liked Gene, I didn't know him that well but he was really passionate about pinball (obviously) and I thought he was really approachable. I never bought a game from him but I did go to his sale in Bloomington and pickup a bunch of Williams parts that nobody was remaking at the time.

I got to see the tour of his place, he led us around the property. I remember it was raining that day and he had a bunch of games in some barn or warehouse on his property and I remember seeing buckets all over to catch the rain water since the roof was leaky. The gravel floor had pools of water here & there... It didn't seem fitting for all the rare stuff he had in that building.

Wish I'd bought more stuff while I was there. I'll dig-through the pics on my backup drive and see if I can find any from his sale...

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I helped Gene load up his stuff at TPF one year, when no one would give him a hand. Early I bought a few EBD playfields at top dollar with flaws. Never got into business with Gene since he wanted you to do all the work, take all the risks, pay his legal bills, & then screw you over with doing the sales. His story telling & bull shit you could figure out on your own. The only best time I had with Gene was at the strip club at a Allentown Show when he was courting CPR to make more stuff. I still do not believe he actually lost any money on BBB. Many parts he bought dirt cheap, & likely in his head fixed a full price to them in the BOM. Too bad he lost it all. But he is a part of the pinball history.

Thanks for the kind words! We absolutely may have met - contrary to Gene's belief, I was / am a big pinball guy - but I realized in writing the longer story that I sort of fed into the narrative that I think Gene built himself that I wasn't. It wasn't until I was writing that I realized the reason I think he told me stories from a totally different angle, and that's probably part of why we had such a good relationship - he was under the impression that I was showing up at pinball things specifically to see him, so he could show me how he was able to make so much money in a hobby he also truly enjoyed.

Anyway, I never made it to one of Gene's stand alone shows. I was also never invited to see the collection or anything like that, and never got to tag along the times that I had friends who were. I did get to go down right after the first sale was made and the parts were being liquidated. That's a longer story for another day, but I may have met you there?

Okay, so one truly shorter one that I can't believe hasn't been brought up more... and I don't know how to properly introduce this, as I don't know if it was a strategy or what but...

Gene thought naked women were the greatest thing ever. I don't know if he thought it was the greatest thing ever because of an attraction to them, or because he loved the controversy that it created. A lot of what I am about to share, I did not see first hand - again, I think because he looked at me as a 'business' relationship, so it wouldn't have been appropriate in how he presented himself to me, but I know so many people who did see it. Gene carried around nude photos of his wife that he loved to show to people. I know at least 25 people who he showed at the Midwest Gaming Classic, and these were years that we had like 2000 people total coming to the show. They'd get to talking, and out the photo (or maybe photos?) would come.

Again, in at least how I see Gene doing things, this was specifically to ensure people talked about him after he wasn't around. I have never, ever had 25 people talk to me about a vendor at the MGC after the show was over with relatively the same story, so it worked. When Gene wasn't around, people were talking about Gene. I think he saw it as a thing that he could do that would make other men jealous that they didn't have the same ability or whatever to just produce photos of significant others the same way. I have never met anyone else who did that sort of thing, however.

It was also known if you were visiting him, there was at least one and perhaps more - again, I wasn't there, just heard the stories - paintings up of a similar nature.

But that wasn't it, it was referenced before that Gene made a nude version of the CFTBL playfield. And he did. 20 or 25 if I remember. Not just was the woman swimming naked on it, but it changed the car scene at the bottom from two people kissing innocently to something much less innocent.

Gene thought the playfield was high art, and would make the machine worth incredible amounts of money. No one that I remember seeing it thought it was high art. The majority of people thought that this version of it destroyed the innocent charm of the game and instead made it something that wasn't as funny ha ha about it. Those playfields are apparently worth thousands today.

Gene wouldn't show those playfields much. There was a lot of conversation about if he made them under the Williams license, or if he just made them for the attention. I fully think the latter. He didn't keep them out much, but he was always ready to show them to people. I overheard him telling others about how hilarious they were and then showing them. For me, he showed me one by saying if you want people too know you're remaking parts, you do something to get their attention, and here's how to do it. He was more proud of the car scene than the woman because he liked the fact it was more 'subtle' and harder to notice. I'm not sure he was actively trying to sell them, as I think they served as more of an ad for the rest of what he was doing. Again, it got people talking.

As someone mentioned earlier though, he was only interested in the sexiest parts to make. Things like screws or metal brackets or whatever actually needed to make things work he didn't care about. Things like nude CFTBL playfields though, that got attention.

It's where his business sense fell apart. Had he started finding people to do production on the parts we all actually needed, it would have been incredible lucrative - and as people mentioned, it was like the wild wild west for parts back then. People were buying games to put two together to make one because of a lack of part availability. In the early days, certain games known for being problematic were truly sold cheap - I was offered working TAF and TZs in my early days less than $1000 due to the lack of parts and how when things got blown out, there was no real fixes for them. Gene didn't change that.

But, he did change the CFTBL playfield art.

I hinted about this before but as long as you brought it up, I can confirm the nude pictures of his wife.... and more.

The times I traveled to Illinois, Gene and his wife Georgie always had me stay at their home which was very kind of them. Georgie was the sweetest woman you could ever meet and very attractive. At least I thought she was attractive especially considering her age at that time.

One morning I came down to the kitchen for coffee where Georgie had everything all set up and Gene was still asleep. She and I sipped our coffee and the conversation flowed like water from topic to topic. At one point Georgie tells me to follow her as she had something she wanted to show me. Just outside the kitchen hung a framed picture of Gene and Georgie with talk show host, Phil Donahue. She told me they had been guests on his show and the topic was married couples that swing with other lovers.

Gene had already shown me the pictures of his wife months before but now they made sense to me in a different way.

A couple of months later on a different trip, Gene invited me to his room as he had something he wanted to show me. Long story short, Gene had a ton of VHS tapes of their swinging adventures. Georgie was the star of the movie and they were filmed many years before when she was much younger and an aerobics instructor. As I watched in amazement I maintained my composure as best I could, but have to admit my pants got a little tight.

BTW, this was all apparently an open secret among adult family members and some employees.

While this is true, I believe Chad Keller gets original credit for the nude playfield. Gene loved it after he saw it and ran with the idea.

I remember seeing the x-rated CFTBL PF in a game at the Chicago expo in 1999, i believe, might have been early 2000s. At Gene's Bloomington auction in early 2000s of his vast collection of games he no longer wanted, he auctioned off some special commissioned Dave Christensen work, that included artwork on round mirrored glass, like for a coffee table, that depicted a woman's vagina in full spread eagle view.

Auction pictures......CAUTION!! Must be 18 to view.

John

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Yeah John
Thems it.
I also remember we both bid against each other on several machines,
including Solar Fire, Spirit, Mata Hari EM and a few others I think.
Or maybe that was Mike Schudel?

If I remember correctly, I ended up bidding and winning on several games
Target Alpha, Spanish Eyes and Seven Up/

The late great Mark Clayton was also there.

Also remember seeing a butt load of games that had missing heads and cabinet bodies without heads,
apparently an aftermath from some feud with Mike Pacak and as a result of Mikes divorce, his ex wife
sold to Gene, cheap; the mis-matched game parts just to screw with him. Or so the story goes that I heard.

I don't want to know but I want to know, how much the Spirit sold for back then?
Do you guys remember?

I do. In fact I was the one that wrote down all the hammer prices and posted them on RGP. I think it took me something like 6-7 days to post everything, a lot of typing. Right off the top of my head I think it was $1300 for the Spirit. I remember it being the first time I saw the the game and I was amazed it went for so much because most games were going for we'll below the $500 mark. The next Spirit I seen was a few years later at the PATZ auction and it only sold for like $4-$500.

John

Yup, same story I remember. Even Mike told me that when I was at him house a couple of years later and he showed me a lot of what he got back for what his buddies paid for it. All except Gene of course.....LOL.

John

The MH em, which I think was the only em version there of that game I bought with a opening bid of $100 and nobody else bid on it. To me that was the buy of the day. I remember Mark being there... Amazing how time (pigs) fly.

John

Sweet thread. I met Gene once at a pinball show.. no idea who he was. I bought a sheet of glass for $20 or something and I remember thinking man this guy drove all this crap out here to sell me a sheet of glass for $20!? he must really be into pinball.

Was that you who had for years in your signature on rgp you were looking for a mata hari em ?
And you finally found one for $100 ? Amazing!
Or did you find another before ?

Yes that was me, except I was looking for a backglass since the one that was in the machine that I bought it from Gene was broken and taped together. After four years of searching I found another machine that had a perfect glass but I had to pay up for that game. I then sold Gene's game off to a guy from Canada. Funny thing is I was never looking for the game in the first place but I knew of it's rarity. When they got ready to sell it I was looking down at my notes that I was taking on all the hammer prices and the auctioneer was bragging the game up and stated it was the EM. version and thats when I suddenly looked up at it and sure enough it was. HOLY CRAP!! I guess I didn't notice that because there were so many SS versions that it sorta blended in with them I suppose, that and the fact that they were selling 500+ games that day so my mind was on overload.... Anyways I threw out a $100 bid just to get things going and nobody else made a bid and I won. It was missing the apron and a few other minor things but I had everything in my parts stash to complete it, including that exact apron. I think it was meant to be.
John

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Yeah a broken BG, and some other cosmetic stuff, but I truly thought that I also bid on it too. In hindsight, i should have bid on it, but at that time finding a replacement BG was remote. And maybe i was at my funds limit and also i had to factor in the shipping costs back to Calif. I had flown out to the auction and drove a rent a car from St Louis, where i stayed with an aunt and uncle. I later bought an EM Mata Hari from Bill Kurtz and paid significantly more, and still later was able to buy a repro BG from Shay, as my kurtz BG had skin cancer.

This story totally explains the bizarre and creepy Bloomington house. That pool area and other rooms felt like a poor man’s Playboy mansion.

I thought the game you were looking for was an EM of Charlie's Angels.
Which you eventually obtained.

Another rare game at the auction, that i did bid on but lost was GTB Asteroid Anmie.
I think Mark Clayton nabbed that one.

Yes I had the CA em. signature on there for 12 years and finally got my hands on one.....long story short it's still here and is serial #1.

John

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Found this in the archives from a guy that lost the bidding war -

"I waited for the NEXT TO LAST pinball to go - Spirit. Great cabinet, excellent BG and a very decent PF. No CPU - No problem. It was mine. It started out like many on the last row, $10, $20, $30 .... then up to $200. So finally I'm in and bidding strong - one on one. We blew by $300, then $400, then $500, then $600, now $700 and then I woke up. I wasn't going to get the Spirit. The first I have seen in this condition. Immediately after I had given up and the game was sold."

You seem to come by other serial#1 pins, if memory serves,
you sold to me Bally Wild Wheels with serial number 1001.

Just found another piece of interesting information on this machine from the RGP archive -

Mark C.
Aug 14, 2009, 3:11:11 PM

Funny, mine was in storage for years, and I finally
set it up and put the head on it yesterday. I got it
from the Cunningham auction in 2001. The playfield has
some wear but is mylared and everything else is almost
perfect. The coin door was jammed and the CPU board
was not in the head (knew that when I got is), so was I
happy yesterday when I finally un-jammed the coin door
and in the coin box I find the original CPU with no
corrosion or other damage. Lift the playfield and
I find the original game envelope with the manual, key
fob and all the other goodies, and below that is a
test game folder with all the original test location
documentation and a stack of Gottlieb return envelopes.
Test game? So I check the serial number: 1235-S.
Sample game, yay!

OMG, I was just thinking about that pin a couple of days ago. That was a total fluke actually that I got that game, but it was cool never the less.

John

John was having trouble posting the full list from RPG that he compiled. Below is his hard work from the auction -

Nip it- works-decent- $625
world cup (williams)-nice-not working-$130
harlem globetrotters-not working -nice-$290
volcano-nice-not working,complete $260
dolly parton, nice glass, not working, decent $210
centuar, nice, works, $1075
playboy, bally, nice, works, no G.I. $700
eight ball deluxe, touched up , bad glass, not working $200
black knight, bad glass, not working, $305
gorgar, nice $305
college queens, nice, not working $210
six million dollar man, nice , not working $235
electronoma, not working, $95
asteroid annie, not working, $825
power play, nice, not working $550
capt. fan, $160
playboy, worn, nice glass $280
capt. fan, worn, working , $310
wizard, little wear, not working $470
james bond, real bad glass, decent field, not working, $110
black hole, missing boards, nice field, decent $185
haunted house, playfield wear, works (sometimes) , nice glass $700
wizard, decent but the worst one there, $355
kiss, not working , good glass, good playfield, $1175
superliner, bad glass, nice otherwise, gottlieb $100
strikes and spares, gottlieb, works good, $950
fireball, decent, all around, not working, $1000
pinball, sterns, ss version, not working, decent playfield, $110
ski club, poor glass, nice playfield , but some wear, $95
st. louis, poor glasss, good playfield, but some wear, $270
jukebox, chicago coin, good glass, and playfield, not working $90
dolphin, works, good playfield, $230
title fight, works, $425
flying chariots, good playfield and glass, works good, painted cab. , $310
touchdown, good playfield , bad glass, works, $200
disco fever, nice, not working , scratched glass, $150
teachers pet, slight wear, not working, $250
james bond poor glass, no boards, decent playfield. $30
jive time, working decent, $155
oxo, works ,good shape, no GI. $410
pinball, ss version, display problems, screwdriver used to get the door pried
open by the auctioneers so called, "pinball tech." $245
capt. fan , home version , works, looks good $170
spin a card, decent , missing caps., not working $260
jungle queen , nice, works, $775
trident, works, nice, display problem, $120
barb wire, not working, complete, nice shape, $650
hi dolly, slight flaking, good playfield, not working, $325
millionare, not working, needs battery, nice, $320
capt. fan. slight wear, not working, wrong legs, $445
fire ball, works, slight wear $700
fireball 2, poor glass, wear, not working $300
spanish eyes, good playfield, works $190
scorpion, nice, complete $115
buttons and bows, nice playfield, poor glass, works, $500
fireball classic, not working, worn and dirty,,nice glass, $275
wizard, best in the auction, drilled door, works, nice, $1100
flash, nice playfield, poor glass, not working, $60
spin wheel, decent , not working, $155
super orbit, poor glass, good playfield, not working, $50
fireball, worn, nice glass, wrong legs, not working, $700 ( herb)
spot a card, works, bad glass, $190
genie, nice, not working , complete, $230
monte carlo, nice ,not working, $435
catacomb, nice , works, $375
rock n roll, nice playfield , poor glass, not working,dirty, $175
granada, poor glass, nice playfeild, not working, $110
300, good playfield, and glass, not working, $450
aquacade?, dirty, bad glass, not working $50
rack em' up, nice works, $300
airport, nice , not working $165
flying trazeeze, poor glass, dirty, $15
paddock, worn playfield, and glass, $45
super orbit, nice playfield, works, $200
gorgar, nice playfeild, not working, poor glass, $$$???
torpedo alley, not working, nice $325
kings, good glass, poor playfeild, not working , $200
el toro, nice , not working, $225
combat, nice, not working , zaccari, $120
aztec, nice, not working $205
superman, nice, bad plug, $325
pacman pinball, $150
medusa, working, nice $850
maverick, works, lines in dmd, $750
capt. fantastic, nice, not working , $750
kiss, little wear, nice glass, not working $1225
hercules, not working, missing some parts, $325
top card, nice $675
mibs, nice playfield, works, good glass, $300
big casino, nice, $300
playball, decent glass, some flaking , $225
volley, nice , some flaking, not working, $200
tropic isle, poor glass, works, $380
egg head, poor glass, $225
olympics, poor, not working $110
sky line, decent playfield, poor glass, works, $310
top card, good playfield, $225
high hand, poor glass, good playfield, not working $205
domino, poor glass, good playfield, works, $160
king pin, good playfield, poor glass, $$$???
target pool, nice playfeild, poor glass, works , $285
grand slam, nice glass and playfeild, $270
cover girl, nice, $450
atlantis, not working , nice $675
mibs, nice, not working, $275
soccer, nice , dirty, $325
bowling queen, nice playfield, poor glass, not working, $285
card trix, nice, $500
bank a ball, nice glass, not working, $400
sing along, poor glass, nice playfield, not working,, $550
go cart, poor glass, nice playfield, not working, $95
slick chick, nice playfield, and glass, not working, $825
big hit, not working, poor glass, good playfield, $170
sky jump, poor glass and playfield, $225
volley, dirty, $185
spin out, not working, good playfield $385
royal guard, nice playfield , poor glass, works, $465
rack a ball, $375
pro football, not working $195
the 30's, (playmatic) nice playfield, works, $355
2001, dirty, not working $195
pro football, nice works, $525
king pin , decent playfield, not working $175
kicker, nice playfield, bad glass $$$???
charlies angles, ss version, $60
mata hari, not working, poor glass, $65
mata hari, not working, poor glass, also $65
gun smoke, not working, passed...
knockout, bally, bad playfield, good glass, $45
flash, not working poor glass, nice playfield, complete, $65
night, rider, dirty, nice glass, no front door $120
jumpin jacks, not working $50
happy tour, decent $800
big ben, decent, $155
mam'selle, nice $30
pinball ss version, no displays, not working , nice, dirty, $80
electronoma, no boards, dirty, $20
gulf stream, playfield wear, $110
charlies angles, poor glass, trying to work, worn, $90
sinbad, no display, nice playfield, complete, flaking, $80
close encounter, flaking, complete, not working, $60
charlies, flaking , wear, not working, $60
super star, poor glass, not working, $10
sinbad, missing boards, nice glass, $40
rawhide, not working $25
moterdome, works, $250
roller disco, nice playfield, poor glass, $95
circus, bad glass, parts machine, $10
chico, decent , $110
caveman, missing parts, $5
devil riders, working $275
sting ray, not working $75
wild life, nice , not working, $130
surf champ , nice, not working , $210
hot tip, ss version, decent , not working, $85
criterium 75, not working, $80
big flipper, not working, $110
aqua cod ??, poor glass, not working $10
charlies angles, not working , flaking, $70
bounty hunter, not working , toasted, good shape, $200
space riders, decent, not working $10
jacks to open, decent, missing boards, $20
torchy, poor glass, $30
monaco, segasa, not working $50
panthera, not working , boards missing, $10
mata hari, not working, good shape, $170
charlies angles, poor, not working, $90
pinball , ss version, poor glass, not working, $90
king cool, not working, wear, $140
sharp shooter 2, not working, $90
freefall, $105
flight 2000, $140
nine ball, stern, not working, $130
cleopatra, ss version, not working, $85
pin bowler, $15
bon voyage, nice, $185
big ben, works, nice $240
solar fire, no boards, $120
pinball pool, no boards, decent , $40
freedom, poor , works, $40
gulf stream , not working, $$$???
travel time, works, nice, $200
dipsy doodle, poor glass, $70
split second, nice , not working, $$$???
raven, nice , works, $100
middle earth, nice, not working, $120
disco fever, not working, complete, decent, $165
big indian, poor glass, good playfield, not working, $200
bad girls, works, nice, $280
close encounter, ss version, poor glass, decent playfield, not working, $60
jet spin, decent glass, dirty, not working, $220
jubille, poor, not working, $50
dolly parton, worn playfield,good glass, no displays, works, $195
street fighter, nice, not working, complete, $850
double action, poor glass, decent playfield, not working, $140
meteor, poor glass, missing mpu, good playfield, $100
klondike, nice, not working, $210
fireball, playfield worn, good glass, wrong legs, not working, $650
bug a boo,good playfield, poor glass, $75
hot line, good playfield, nice, $550
rock, works, $250
sound stage, decent , poor glass, not working, $95
four seasons, works, nice playfield, $300
king rex, nice, $600
champ, poor glass, nice playfield, not working, $85
target alpha, nice, not working, $445
kiss, worn, good glass, poor cabinet, not working, $1025
joker poker, em. version, works, nice, $155 ( i should have bought this one)
pheonix, works, nice playfield, $155
buck rogers, nice playfield, glass is poor, works, $205
firepower, nice, not working, complete, $425
rocky, nice, complete, not working, $400
millionare, $175
victory, not working, $$$???
pink panther, $375
caveman, $100
amazon hunt, $150
champ, $100
dealers choice, $170
king kool, $$$???
playboy, rally, fliptroic, not working, good shape, $370
mata hari, broken backglass, dirty playfield but nice, em. version,not
working,$100
gents, not working, nice, $280
gamatron, pinstar, not working, nice, $140
caveman, nice bad glass, german, sorta works, $90
jungle, decent, not working, $320 (herb)
swing along, decent playfield, poor glass, $210
mini cycle, decent shape, not working, $150
kiss, not working, good playfield, nice glass, missing lockdown bar, $1025
scorcer, works, decent, $220
time line, good shape, not working $105
laser war, nice , works, $$$???
hollywood, $220
contact, not working, $60
vector, works, $400
star trek, worn, glass lifting, not working, complete, $325
space riders, good shape, not working, $$$???
top hand, good playfield, decent glass, not working, $285
hot hand, decent , works, $165
evel knievel, nice, not working (wont take credits)scratched glass, $435
flash gordon, worn playfield, works good, $330
memory lane, poor glass, worn, $125
dolly parton, poor glass, not working, decent playfield, $175
blue max, good glass, works, $130
red baron, poor glass , worn playfield, not working, $35
kiss, no backglass, poor touch up, no mpu, cab. faded, $270
black knight, complete, decent glass, not working, $525
trident, decent glass, nice playfield, slight flaking, missing boards, $130
robo cop, nice, not working, $285
spanish eyes, poor, $75
pinball, em. version, slight wear, glass flaking, not working, $105
apollo, works $360
daffie, nice, works, $270
gameatron, pinstar, nice, $90
triple action, poor glass, decent playfield, not working, $70
twinky , poor, not working, $60
triple strike, works, $190
dragon, nice , works, $170
tag team, nice, not working, $20
the games, nice $135
stardust, works, poor glass, $85
galaxy, works, decent, $170
laser cue, decent, not working, $315
super soccer, decent, not working, $170
sharpshooter, not working, nice, $125
coney island, not working, $100
count down, not working, $80
kiss, POOR, junk, missing boards, $220
hot shot, decent, not working, $180
playboy, no glass, junk, $60
top score, works, decent, $230
full house, broken glass, $50
50/50, bad glass, $30
star race, no boards, nice, $5
medusa, not working, $205
roller disco, nice, not working, $175
delta queen, not working, decent, $150
bon voyage, decent , not working, $185
pinball, s.s. version, poor glass, no boards, $75
flash, nice playfield, poor glass, not working, $65
ski club, not working, worn, $105
set up, not working, decent, $125
pinball, em. version, not working, poor, $295
pinball pool, not working, nice $110
xenon, boards missing, worn, $90
panthera, worn, not working, $10
mayfair, bad glass, nice playfield, $150
blackhole, not working, $10
straight flush, works, decent, $140
atilla the hun, nice, not working, $30
pokerino, not working, complete, $65
flying circus, poor glass, not working, $100
hulk, not working, good glass, dirty, $165
quick silver, not working, boards missing, $150
panthera, not working, poor glass, $10
spirit, nice, missing boards, $725
cleopatra, ss. version, not working, decent, $60

GOD that hurts to read those prices. I’m gonna puke now.

Funny how years later we learn things. I was more into video games back then. I had actually went to Genes house to buy the video games he had. He had close to 30 in one of the buildings. I offered him something like 3k for them and he turned it down. 6 months later he had the auction at the beer nuts barn. and lo and behold, the 30 video games were there. i think i bought 28 of the 30 vids for under 1k. Being that i live about 40 miles from the auction, i had an advantage, easy travel.

I bought around 70 of the pins, probably 25-30 decent ones, and tons of shitty ones. I dont want to knock all the work that John did for making the list, but i do see some ommisions. Only reason i say this is that i know some of the games that i bought as i thought they were good games since i was new to pins back then. But i did buy 5 Kiss machines and 5 Capt Fantastics, and i dont see that many on Johns list. All kiss' that i bought were badly work playfields and i didnt pay over 500 for any of them. but you could buy playfield from gene for between 300-500 and all 5 games were fully restored. Also, were the list says pathera for 10 bucks, Actually at the end of the auction, i bought 4 patheras for 10 total. I still have the cpt cavemans from that auction to

Met Gene a couple of times, and stopped by his booth at an Allentown show, probably around 2010 or so. Even though I didn't have a game to put it in, Gene talked me into buying a re-silkscreened Mata Hari EM playfield. History on this is that Gene sent this playfield to CPR to allow a quality test of their silk-screening process of their upcoming MH EM PF production. In return Gene got his original PF back with a beautiful CPR re-screen and clear-coat. Fast forward many years later. Browsing through Craigslist, I was able to snag a decent EM MH, and over the next year or so totally restored the game that proudly adorns this playfield today.

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Great thread. Brings back memories from the old RGP days. Thanks to all for the stories.

I bought that Firepower - it had a bad 555 timer in the blanking circuit. Still have it. (I did repair the circuit board and the machine works fine.)

EDIT - added that machine works fine

I’m loving this thread guys thanks for sharing.

Thought I'd post these pictures from Gene's first pinball show in Bloomington. Not sure what year but I think it was 2006 maybe? He was taking orders for Kingpin.

John

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