Simple… the weeks dont care what it cost you to buy. They paid 15% to make 85% of the gross sale.

Try closing 1000 sales transactions yourself to hundreds of different people and collect through many different forms of payment. You too would like to just pay a commission to make it happen.

Oh and never mind actually taking photos, making listings, etc.

Auctions are the goto method for large lots for good reason - most people don’t want to invest to make it happen themselves.

Remember- as of at least 2018… the museum didn’t own the games. This must be the weeks auctioning what they want to thin the herd

Did you mean to reply to me? You're basically pointing out the same thing I did but appear to be trying to argue about it.

6 days...this is going to be amazing. I wonder if they are doing pins one weekend and vids the other weekend.

You said how does it equal more profit and pointed out how much was going to captain as if the auction is a bad deal for the weeks. My point was the seller doesn’t care what captain makes off the buyer.

If someone really wants every penny - well it comes at a high cost.

Yeah, exactly, it was a question posed to the poster whom I quoted, not a question to the group. This is how I understand the quote system to work.

I understand your point now. But to todd’s comment… the auction certainly stands to make a nice gross per game… as they double dip, but any conversation about profit is pointless. We dont know how much the weeks paid for their games originally, nor how much it costs captains to operate the auction.

Given the age of the collection- i’m sure no one is worried about losing money on those titles

Because the "profit" would come only after you subtract what the MOP paid for those games to begin with. When you account for the lower hammer prices due to buyers having to pay an extra 22% on top of that and then take out additional sellers fees, I bet they will take a loss on numerous games. Their total revenue from the sale is not the same thing as profit.

The vast majority of this collection... 70-80% probably, was acquired prior to the mass pinflation of the last 10 years so I think it's safe to say that hammer prices will almost universally be higher than prices paid for these games, but that's pure conjecture because neither of us actually know how much MOP paid for a single thing.

Also, hammer prices at Captain's have never been depressed due to the buyers premiums and tax, so I don't see why that would change for this auction.

Captains games are generally consignments with lots of shill bidding to drive prices up. The owners would rather keep their items then sell for too low. This is a true “stuff’s gotta go” auction. There still could be fakes and trolls to drive things up, we’ll see.

It’ll be really interesting to see if that much stuff selling at once keeps prices reasonable…or if all the new collectors who want games + retailers who want inventory will keep prices bonkers.

Totally agree. If I were betting it would be on the latter but it's for sure gonna be interesting to watch.

Yeah - there’s generally one of each game, so it only takes one person who really wants that title to pay up to get it now.

Actually it takes two people to push it up.

There are 3 specific machines that I played there a lot and would not mind having. So I would appreciate it if you peckerwoods would all refrain from bidding those up on me. And no I am not going to name them here!!!!!!!!!

Yes it is.

This auction will create lifelong blood enemies.
Good luck!
See you guys in Banning. Cash on glass wins.

Hope its not the 3 I want!
Still debating what size uhaul to rent.

I wish. I miss the old in-person only auctions. We’ll be competing with everyone. Thanks, internet!!!!

Exactly that double dipping. Plus no idea which games they owned, which ones were on loan, etc... Will be an interesting event to watch the bids on for sure.

Where is the auction information?

There were games on loan? I thought it was all Weeks’ huge hoarde of buys from over the years.

There is an announcement and link to it here.

https://bid.captainsauctionwarehouse.com/m/

Clicking there will allow you to go here:

https://bid.captainsauctionwarehouse.com/m/view-auctions/info/id/80

There is a lot of info there about how the auction will go. However the online catalog is empty at this point in time. They have a lot of work to do if they are going to build the catalog similar to their usual auctions. You can checkout the one that is coming next weekend for a idea of how it usually looks.

I have no idea if part of the collection was loaned to it, but not that uncommon with large collections. ReplayFX had machines which were loaned to it from players/collectors.

John bought my Austin Powers years ago - and told me about his massive storage unit collection of games & how he planned to open a pinball restaurant…I think it was a year or two later that his project turned into the museum. I’m pretty sure it’s all his stuff.

I had between 2-4 various personal games there over the course of the last 4-5 years. I would bring them up because I never had enough time to prep ~16 games for a tournament and I needed enough stuff I knew I could trust with the abuse. I know a few other people would loan games in from time to time but this is by far an exception. There were probably a dozen games like this out of the lot, not 100.

I know at least 100 of the vidz belong to Ritchie Knucklez. He and I were talking in Allentown about making a road trip to get them. Includes 22 fully restored DK machines.

As to any pins on loan I have no clue.

That’s funny. Those are the same 3 machines I want

A couple pieces of info here that I was not up-to-date on, such as whatever became of Pinball Rescue.

Well, this is odd. (?) The site remains up

https://pinrescue.com

Vintage Pinball machines for sale, classic pinball game restoration and ...
Quality vintage pinball machines for sale, repairs, classic pinball machine restoration and more...

although the page is seemingly stuck in a time warp. That is not so unusual: I've seen websites remain up for even a few years after the company has gone away. You might think that they'd have stopped paying their web hosting fees or domain renewals, so it would then be GONE, but . . . I can't account for it.

Nic is talking about Pinball Rescue in Australia that made plastics and other parts. I got the impossible to find Klondike molded piece from them a few years back. A big loss to the hobby to be sure.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-rescue-closing-down

I just reached out to RK about this the other day. As far as I know he's the only person with a bunch of games at MOP. If you guys need help with loading them let me know, I can round up a few volunteers.

Most the pins and vids have been picked up by their rightful owners, there's only a few left IN the actual museum building (maybe 5). There are 100 of more games stored in at least 24 storage containers and 4 buildings.

As for Richie's games, I believe ALL his games (but maybe 1 DK in the Walter Day museum) have been moved out of the building to a safe storage area. I was there Saturday with PinballPetefromSD and reviewed the situation myself. I "heard" there are 24 fully restored DKs..... Richie knows all this and is in contact with us. I talked to him this morning.

We (the volunteer staff) at the MOP are not sure what games will be auctioned and when. There are approximately 1100 pins+vids. About evenly split in quantity. Again, we're not sure if it will all be auctioned over those 6 days or not.

I know Captain's Auction Warehouse routinely auctions 450+ games in one day so they can certainly do 600 in three days (or 1100 in 6 days).
Please be patient with the auction house, they will get a lot list and pictures in plenty of time for us all to begin strategizing and planning our bids.

Thanks Chuck. You know one thing I have always been curious about and never seen mentioned is how late those Captains auctions go. On occasion I will look in on the live bidding, and as you said there often have 400 or so lots, and it seems like it's pretty late and they still have a long way to go. Past my normal bedtime for sure. Do they go onward to midnight or beyond? And do the bidders start to thin out and/or tire out for the last items in the lot?

As you can see, the start times for all 6 days is listed, but no end times.

Edit...I was going to add for the heck of it, for most of the events I went to at MOP Captain's Auction had a table and people there, so they are more than familiar with everything over there I'm sure.

It would be very helpful if there was a published lot order schedule, allowing us to have a rough estimate of WHEN it was necessary to attend for bidding. No point in hanging around for hours on end which happened to be irrelevant for your particular items of interest, wasting that time. From what I've heard (might not be accurate ?), the MoP pins & vid lots were going to be shuffled together like a deck of cards, rather than being in separate auctions -- as Captain's has traditionally done their auctions. If so, I think that is not to the best interest of most pin bidders.

Captain's is working on that. One of the techs was finalizing the list Saturday.
Once they know the order, we will add a link here.
Bidding live should be fun, thats if you are local and can make it. They should be announcing preview times shortly too.

They tend to run very late, basically all day long which is mostly why I've only participated online so far. You can tell the energy by the end is just gone and they tend to go through items *much* faster near the end. If it was a fixed predictable schedule then I'd give it a shot live, but as it is they have always been open ended so I'm sticking with internet bidding.

If you’d like to get an idea of how the Captain mixes items up check out the inventory list for his auction this Saturday. He sometimes updates the sequence prior to the auction so I’d take a look at it Saturday morning and watch along for a while if you can.

I totally get sprinkling the high-dollar pins amongst the average stuff, but mixing pins & vids across two weekends would only exasperate fans of each. I have zero interest in buying vids, and I'd assume there are plenty of vid guys with no interest in pins.

Three full days of one type is already pushing it for most bidders' time & attention spans. How many pin collectors would make two trips, AND sit through hundreds of vid items? Anyone interested in both pins & vids will have to be there both weekends anyway.

So you would rather they organize it better so it's easier to bid and drive prices higher on you?

I for one welcome the chaos.

Captains Auctions often go late, I've been there at 1:30 am.
They always sell the Pins together.

The more bids per game the longer the auction, get ready for six very long days.

It’s long, hot, smelly, and people might not survive. Not really I’m just saying that so nobody shows up so I can bid alone

When will the auction list be available? There are a few titles I’d be interested in bidding on I’m sure…not that I think there will be many deals to be had given how hot the hobby is right now.

If I was driving a truck halfway across the country, I’d rather risk paying a bit more per game than make that round trip twice. So, yes?

Will be very interesting to see the ramifications of this sale on the market. Guessing this many pins hitting the market likely to cause at least a small crash on the west coast, particularly for less popular segments like the older ss market segment or em’s. Everyone loves a whitewater….. lot less buyers for a close encounters of X’s and O’s.

The big profit will be made by the auction house. John will be lucky to break even.

Chris's normal scheme is to have both vids and pins the same day, but keep the two in separate blocks, i.e. all of one before any of the other. He's also good about providing lot numbers and running things in order. At one time the run rate was about 40 lots per hour; I haven't clocked it lately. BUT you could use his regular August 7 auction to check for pacing. That way if the pin you want is 248 lots after the start on Day X, you can guestimate when to tune in. No word yet on how he's handling or mixing vintages, e.g. if the EMs will all go the same day(s). He does like to go "down the line" though, so there's a chance the machines may go in the order they're currently positioned in the MOP. Even if he does that, he's still got plenty of choices like which rows to do which day and starting at which end.

I’m counting on it being a “stripped down” list minus the rare and other pins which are getting leached right now as we speak. I’m going to tune in and go, but I’m not getting wrapped up in a bidding war and only paying below market or nothing. Otherwise what’s the point? Hopefully it’s clear the estimate timing on pins being auctioned, otherwise I’ll tune out

Just a guess...
Day 1. Electromechanicals.
Day 2. Solid States.
Day 3. DMD to moderns.

Then 3 days of vids.

Simple, sell them in the order they stand on the floor.
Why complicate it.

How does the seller make $850 unless they got the machine for free....

Based on the fees posted a page or two back, I threw together a quick spreadsheet that tallies the cost for online or in person costs (tax included).

auctionprices (resized).JPG

The latest conditions as posted don't read exactly like that. I don't see any distinction made between in-person and online fees. It says 18% for all buyers, with a 3% discount for cash (or bank checks, etc). So you won't get the 15% if you want to use a credit card, it will be 18%.