Did you get my Transporter? That was a good deal on a beautiful game. Thats the only pin I bid on.
I won the jukebox and wayyyy over paid, but it had sentimental value.

Have to say that I've never heard of Transporter until just now, will have to look it up.
I'd be amazed if anyone has memorized all 6,700 or so titles in the IPDB database, but there certainly were some obscure ones in the MoP collection. Titles I was surprised to find out about. Friends of mine bought a couple of them. I hope they lucked out on the pricing, though in the overall context of that auction it seems unlikely.

I'd really like to find an 8BD-LE in very good condition, but the chances of that are looking ever more remote. The two MoP 8BDs went for ridiculous prices. A guy in FL. had been trying to sell a restored one on eBay for quite some time; he had been asking 16K for it, but I think recently upped that to around 20K. (Are you effing kidding me ?!!) And that certainly appears to be more typical fallout from the Banning auction . . . .

I really wish they had never closed. They had a super cool collection.

Enough with the suspense, what game did you get? All I got was a driving arcade "1,000 Mile Rally 2" because I had to have SOMETHING from the MoP!

Uhm . . . I'd prefer not to go on the record with that.

Ugh.. Great looking cabinet - ruined by a completely awful game. But to its credit, I have heard the game grows on you if you're good at it.

Quote taken directly from Wikipedia:

You might have heard that 1,000 Mile Rally 2 ranks as one of the worst arcade driver video games ever created. But the reality is it actually is ranked as the worst video game ever created.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/Please-help-me-save-the-games-stuck-in-Banning

Richie Knucklez posted a GoFundMe begging for money to transport his collection out of Banning. All of it reeks of emotional manipulation from a worthless community "figurehead" with a cult of personality. He shoulda sold 3 B-list titles at the Captains Auction and he would have had the money.

Why doesn’t he ask John Weeks for the money? Didn’t he make a killing off the auction? But I agree, sell off some of those games to pay for shipping.

These gofundmes are getting out of hand. They were meant for people who had tragedies befall them in life who had no financial means to deal with them. Not so some guy with a bunch of pricey toys can keep them all.

What I don’t understand - when does it cost $15,000 to rent a truck?

rd

Exactlyyyyy, fuck these people. Shit like this makes me hate this hobby

Seems like he needs to be offering to trade some of those games for transport. There are some real clowns in the video game world. He was also always pimping the hot sauce guy back when he got caught cheating. I think Knuckles "donated" those games back during his divorce to steal them from his ex-wife bitd, but I'm not sure. I really don't pay that much attention to clown drama.

Only dumbasses are pitching in on this grift. I might pay for it if one of the two trailers full comes to my house. I'm sure there are a lot of other people who'd do the same.

BTW, does anyone know how many of the games auctioned off were donated by old and dying guys who just wanted them to be appreciated? Did Weeks ever share any of the proceeds with any of their widows/families. I remember at least a couple guys donating large collections before dropping dead. This whole debacle leaves a knot in my stomach and a bitter taste in my mouth. Birds of a feather and all that... It's the most distasteful aspect of the hobby/business.

It's no wonder coin-op people are looked down on like overgrown children and pedo-creeps.

Over 5k donated from simpletons who can't resist the influence of a self-anointed celebrity in a hobby that never needed these characters in the first place.

It's not about the truck, it's about keeping the arcade dream alive!

I really need to lower the bar of my moral scruples, there's so much money to be made manipulating man-childrens' sense of nostalgia

Yeah I’d buy a nice DK or two for $2+gs but I’m not donating to help him start up a new arcade.

Let me tell you about NFTs

There's so many questions begged by the GoFundMe I don't even know where to start. But "what is $15k paying for exactly?" would be a great start

A "Truck" Could be anything from a Pick-up to a Tractor and Trailer. He also claims to have two truck loads of games whatever that amounts too.

Was surprised to hear that some games were still present at the facility. Apparently the use-conversion and start of weed farming has not yet gotten underway ?

remember.. there is alot of buildings/storage on the property.

That's what happens when you are shill bidding.

That's what I'm most curious about, too. If these machines were legally donated to a 501c(3), aka the MoP, then sold for those stupid prices, who received the proceeds? If Weeks himself did, there are a lot of legal questions to be asked. If those monies were dispersed to a "board of directors" of sorts for the MoP, there are also legal ramifications for that scenario. If the proceeds from the sale of those games that were donated were given back to the families of those who donated them, then all should be fine. I guess someone could have outright purchased the museum before the sale, thereby transferring the entire collection to a single private owner right before the sale. That would be better legally, but still kind of a sheisty thing to do.

The understanding was Weeks was going to set up a new charity foundation to avoid the taxes and embez I mean funnel the proceeds tax free to a good cause that he believes in.

Boy, between the MoP and Deeproot the talk is, ouch and ouch and ouch.

Based on the 990s, that was not the case. The non-profit had very few assets on its books.

He's got 12 DK's. 12! He could sell two or three and probably cover a big chunk of it.

This gofundme is a joke like most. If they are worth money then they are worth it to the owner to move. No matter the cost. This is stupid shit.

Why would they make a documentary about loading up two trucks of games and driving them cross country.

Didn't address the 2nd. major point: So where's all that damn weed already ??!
Countless spliffs are waiting !

While I was there the first day of the auction I peeked at the upcoming weed operation. It was rolling hard. Alot of machinery being installed, or had been installed already.

I don't think that it could have been -- for a few reasons -- but if this

ebay.com link: itm

was the Blue Note EM that sold for an amazing ~ $7,500 at the auction, it would here be getting turned around for a 25 % profit. (Or maybe somewhat less, in view of auction fees and shipping expense.)

Deleted.

No way, but then there are a lot of clueless prices on ebay all the time. I've actually seen worse. Too bad for the seller.

Posting this here, out of convenience and because there are certain relevant connections.
CAW conducted another auction yesterday in SoCal, probably the first one of a large size since the Banning auction -- over 300 pin lots, no parts or allied items this time. If I understood this correctly, it may have mainly concerned a private collection ? If so, does anyone know (or can disclose) WHAT collection ? Just curious.

I wasn't able to be there in person. but to the limited extent that one can judge from abundant stills and the video coverage, it looked like the average condition of the games was notably better than the average condition of those at the Banning auction. That might line up better with what you could observe from a well maintained private collection. (?) If anyone who *did* attend yesterday's (10/15/22) CAW auction and had a chance to take a good look around or do the pre-auction inspection cares to comment on those assumptions, either way, I'd be interested to hear it.

I did follow the livestream at various points. There seemed to be some spirited bidding with particular lots. Also, some surprisingly modest closing bids on some titles -- IF your skewed frame of comparison happened to be the over-hyped and VERY inflated prices seen at the Banning stanzas. Even for EMs. After that, many here were saying, "Welcome to the New Normal." Does this indicate, in any meaningful way, that pin prices may be returning to more reasonable levels ? Perhaps because the post-pandemic economic downturn has generally kicked the crap out of people ? Whaddaya think ?

https://bid.captainsauctionwarehouse.com/auctions/catalog/id/103

Here are the results from auction mentioned above.
Take aways
EMs are cheap
Most went for $500-$900
Even early solid states were reasonable $600-1300
The low production and rare games went for big money
To name a few
BLY Red Max $4600
BLT King Rex $4700
WMS Defender $9500
S/S pins from 1980 thru 1995 went for fairly high prices ($1500-3000)
but not outrageous with exception of a few.
Thought Midway RaceWay would have gone for more $$, (went for $2600) but not sure of condition or if working.
If I was still living in Calif, I would have been bidding on the EMs that I did not own (<$1000)
and maybe RaceWay.

The rares went for $$$$, but most were in excellent condition for fair prices.

I bought Pop-A-Card ($900), Top Card ($650), Show Boat ($450), and Laser War ($2400).

All were very very nice. I’m thrilled the ghost of Banning passed us by.

Excluding buyer's premium and taxes?

Yep, and delivery. But again, condition was so nice that it justified the purchase. Cost less than my existing Pop-A-Card did from a fellow collector two years ago.

Yay EM deals! Hope we see more.

The only result that matters

Screenshot_20221016-175736_Chrome (resized).jpg

Interesting analysis. (And also, especially from you NV !) Thus far, I've only checked prices on less than 10 % of the over 300 lots: a smaller and very randomized sample, how reflective overall I was not sure.

For those who missed it and may have some interest, the recorded auction stream can be downloaded at

and likely also from Twitch.

That backglass is just as apt to scare the bejeezus out of the tots who were its ostensible audience . . . .
(True of a lot of clown depictions, generally.)

Were you out visiting or bidding remotely?
Other than seeing the photos posted of the games and maybe live video during bidding,
did you have other trusted eyes looking over condition?
I was really surprized by how low most the EMs went for, especially the 1960s 2in flipper EMs.

Again did anyone ever find out whose collection these games came from?

I bought a Chicago Coin Big Hit pitch n bat for $300 kind of on a whim. I didn't look at it in person. It's a project, they were saying something about it being clearcoated? I didnt really understand what they meant. Looks like the bat, metal piece which hides the ball dispenser, and inserts are missing. Hoping they are inside the game. Backglass is shot but rest of the game looks pretty nice
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https://bid.captainsauctionwarehouse.com/lot-details/index/catalog/103/lot/26434?url=%2Fmy-items%2Fwon

This is what I am curious about.

They were obviously hoping for a Banning 2.0. This flyer says

LARGEST PRIVATE COLLECTION OF PINBALL MACHINES
TO BE SOLD AT AUCTION SINCE BANNING'S MUSEUM OF PINBALL CLOSURE!

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/AUCTION-Private-Collection-of-Pinball-Machines.html?soid=1116210963336&aid=KhoY7CLokB4

They posted a bunch of writeups for individual games and their history on their Facebook page, and posted several full walkthrough videos on their Youtube page, which they normally do not do.

Happy there were very reasonable prices. A lot of the EMs went head-scratchingly low. Slick Chick for $750, Im kicking myself for not bidding on it.

I heard someone bought that to give to Lloyd.

Those super high dollar games all went to the same bidder number, 464, if my memory serves me correctly. They may have been buybacks, or just someone who only wanted the high end collector's items. There were some decent deals for people who really needed certain titles, but even better deals for those that are local and don't have to pay shipping.

Bidder 464 put absentee bids on pretty much every lot.