If anyone is curious, I have an excel spreadsheet with the hammer prices here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SwZHJKThE_gXg8YR6OOAoMDgUUzADDV3/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104156786432110486413&rtpof=true&sd=true

Thanks for that.

As to "which collection ?", I know of a SoCal collector who has (or had) a collection of around this size, but several data points don't seem to line up. I don't think there was this extent of EMs, his Centaur had a CPR pf, there should be different and quite a few rarer titles, can't imagine him owning a Punchy the Clown, etc. So I think we are still absent the answer on that, but I could be wrong . . . .

I would not be surprised if a lot of these were Banning machines being unloaded by the previous purchasers trying to recoup.

Good point.

Doubt it. The list was pretty heavy EM and early SS, newest machine was 1997, with almost a third of them were pre-1970.

Banning was a much newer collection. This list feels like it could have been a single person's collection, not a bunch of random machines assembled for an auction. I paid attention to both auctions and don't see any real connection/crossover.

Troll- thanks for the list

Other than the 5K Volcano, I thought all the prices were pretty reasonable for an event like this.

I would have backed the truck up for a bunch of those EMs. Ignoring the zizzles, there were 180 machines at $1000 or less hammer price.

The collection that was auctioned off made me think I have a doppelganger collector, cause the eras 1960-1985 looked very much like my collection.
Assume he was bidding against me back in the day, on ebay, back when ebay prices were more realistic.
He had a few more BLY EMs than I had, mine was more heavy with early 60s Williams EMs.
I wonder if I could get anything close to $9500 for my WMS Defender that I still have (with new repro Plastic set).
Thought it might have been Orange County's David Miner's collection, but have heard from other sources it was not his

Only EM that went for surprizing big money was GTB College Queens at $2500

Yes you could. The net price on that one was over $12K with fees and taxes. There was more than one bidder at 9k so there's at least one more person looking for one.

For giggles, I added the Banning hammer prices on machines I could find matches..... that kind of made me feel dirty just putting those numbers in....

Yeah, a bunch of the same titles. The Banning prices were flat out stupid. Chris made a load of bucks!

Anyone have any idea how a Gottlieb Volcano went for $5100 !!!?

From what I saw it looked like a bidding war between bidders 709 and 581 who realllly wanted it.

That was fun. Stupidest Banning buy in my opinion is still Gottlieb Bronco... was a stupendous $4200!!!???!!!

Occasionally, an auction will consolidate multiple collections in a single auction.

Such was the case with the Morphy's auction of the Torrence collection, which was mostly high-end EM arcades. A few dozen average condition pinball machines from a 2nd collector were combined in that auction.

I don't know.... I still think $18,000 for Hercules was above and beyond.....

There is someone I could ask in the local club (and I'll do that next time I happen to see him), as my impression is that he may know -- or know of -- pretty much every significant collector in this region. That assumes an origin in this region . . . but I shudder to consider what the trucking fees into CAW would be, if this was a single collection and came from afar.

I know who bought that college Queens and he wasn't going to let it get away at any price, too good of a game.
I bought Rockmakers for under a grand, definitely a different one than the Rockmakers I bid on at banning, don't think there were any banning games in this last one.
B

It is? Looks kind of quaint, honestly. Plunge, wait, then not much to shoot with those 2” sling-mounted flippers. The exit to the shooter lane shakes it up a bit, but otherwise looks similar and less action-packed than Playball or Wild Wild West.

Also with 1725 produced it’s not exactly rare, but then again I haven’t seen one in person before.

What am I missing? Something special about the rules?

Or maybe buy a GTB Airport
same game two player

We play dollar games on it and had a long running weekly mini tourney for a couple years until someone bought the one we were playing for $3K! ( Dude had it priced to not sell)
It's super fun, every ball more stuff is lit until last ball everything is lit and you can come from behind to win it all, airport just ain't the same cause it's only a 2 player, gotta be able to get 3 or 4 people playing, gets really fun.
I walked by this game for years until someone showed me how great it was, real sleeper.

You mentioned Morphy's. I posted a query as to their more recent status, some time ago in another Pinside thread. There was never any response, as if that firm was obscure to unknown. But I recall their having online auction catalogs, stocked with supposedly elite specimens at daunting prices. Supposedly a "Sotheby's" for pop collectibles. This was all before the Captain went from being a mostly regional, niche phenomenon to the international powerhouse he is today, in the world of pinball and video game auctions. (And his handling the Banning auctions may claim a large share of the credit for that.)

But I wonder what became of Morphy ? Over the last few years, I heard a few scattered carps here or there, nibbling away at Morphy's former reputation . . . but nothing definitive or that I thought one could hang their hat on.

I also wonder what happened to Super Auctions... They did a lot of coin op games
many years ago.

From what I heard, these games were all the "extras" from the Banning collection that were in the process of being fixed, or placed on the floor, or never made it to the facility. I've been wrong before, though. That's just what I'd heard through the grapevine.

Not likely since there is exactly 1 of most popular titles of the 70s 80s, etc and they 'appear' in nice condition with no missing parts. (potato camera is a registered trademark of captains auctions)

Some one asked this question directly on Facebook, and was told by Captain's that these were not machines from Banning.

I think that firm very much predated the ascendance of CAW. It has been some years since I've noticed any signs of Morphy's + coin-op. Just an impression, but they may have drifted away from coin-op to concentrate on *other* auction categories. Ones that were much less logistically or maintenance problematic. For example, I can recall auctions they did on antique toys of various kinds -- but rarer, upper-level stuff that would command premium prices from those with a specific interest.

You are wrong. I bid on 2 games in the banning auction, didn't win either, both titles came up again on this auction but were 100% different games. You can save your watch list and it will show you games you bid on in the past, seeing the games next to each other, they are not the same games.
100% these were not banning games.
B

Don't have any reference for this readily to hand, but what is the max. height (head) for the taller Gottlieb pins ?

They are still doing Coin-Op auctions.
https://issuu.com/morphyauctions/docs/flipdoc_nov_3-5_coin-op?fr=sYWMwODQ2NjA1NQ

Day 1 and 2 focus mostly on high end collectibles with a smattering of coin-op. Coin-op is the focus of day 3. Starts on page 229.

Interesting, fills in some of the blank. So, not entirely out of this biz, although playing a minor part in this one, with pins confined to a few older Gottlieb titles, on pp. 350 - 352.

While I am wrong as to where the collection came from, my point was that they were the "extra" games from Banning, as in, the games that weren't actually in the auction because they were in storage or being worked on. They obviously wouldn't be the same ones from the Banning auction as those sold to new owners. The Banning collection that sold at auction had numerous multiple titles, they didn't have just one of each of their games.

Here's a link to the official answer on the collection's source:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/great-line-up-at-captains-auction-tomorrow-4-23-16/page/2#post-7198232

Man I just don't get this attitude, whatever makes you feel better there bud, I really shouldn't have bothered.
Have a great day.
B

Oh, no, I don't mean to sport any kind of attitude at all. I guess it just came across poorly. I just wanted to clarify what I meant in case it was misunderstood. All i meant to say was simply that not every pin that was physically at Banning made it into the auction. Sorry about the confusion.

This is an awesome spreadsheet. The average banning price was 140% higher than this auction. Are there any theories as to why banning was so high? It definitely doesn't feel like the overall market for pinball machines has fallen that much.

The Banning auction came right after everyone got their govt checks and didn’t know when they’d be leaving the house again. It was well advertised and most of the people that bought had never purchased a pin before. I know a few that used ppp money and was their first purchase so had no idea what the cost of a pin or the value of money is. Also since it was coming from a “museum”, everyone thought that the pins were CQ but a lot of them are player quality. If you watch the auctions, you will see the auction begin, the auctioneer talks about how rare the game is and create fomo. Then as soon as bidding between internet buyers stops, he will announce all the boards missing and problems with the game and then you’ll see the price not move as someone sits and regrets their fomo.

Wow, that all makes perfect sense. I might have to watch the auction if I can find it online somewhere.

Banning auction got a ton of free national press, including a prominent story in the New York Times. I think NPR did a story...it was seriously all over the place. I can't tell you how many family members sent me various links to the story.

That’s the real reason it blew up like it did. Tons of folks who had never thought about owning a game before saw these stories and got caught up in the excitement.

We probably won't see anything like that again.

It is probably archived at YT (& maybe also at Twitch ?), just need to know the dates for lookup purposes. Title is apt to mention "Banning" or "Museum of Pinball." As additional narrowing help, the Capt. has his own YT channel. Once you find it, you can download the whole thing -- all 13 GB of it -- and have a record of Dave's game / history descriptions, along with the bidding and final hammer prices.

Here's a solid tip for that, which should be FREE for the next couple days:
https://sharewareonsale.com/s/free-allavsoft-downloader-100-discount
It is quite a good program for grabbing videos from some of the major sources. (Windows only. Don't know whether there is a version for the Mac.)

Yeah, even though I actually watched the whole banning auction, it was still a bit jaw-dropping putting the prices back into the new spreadsheet. I had registered for the banning auction and was planning on picking up a new pin if the price was reasonable. Quickly gave that idea up about five pins in, and just sat back and watched the insanity.

The Auction in Anaheim had a LOT of games from the Banning auction. I agree that most buyers thought they were getting museum quality pins. But a good number were ones with issues needing repair. I ended up with one and it has a lot of issues, some of which indicate that someone worked on it in the past who didn't know what they were doing.

Which machine is that?

Looks like the Marijuana growing deal at the former MOP site went to pot. See what I did there?

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Recent new grading and walkways added since the '90's and '00's when I would deal with Deutsch Connectors USA that was there.

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Next time you're there, bring an angle grinder and take those MOP letters off the wall. Hey, they no longer own the place and they didn't bother to take 'em themselves, so they're free game in my book!

Coincidentally, MsBally suggested I remove them and give them to cfh for the VFW pinball museum. Not sure if the cameras on-site are working and monitored. I had the tools with me.....

Just make yourself a shirt that says Pinball Staff on the back, or one of the old MOP shirts and I think you'll be fine.

Get a hardhat, a safety vest, and a clipboard. No one ever even looks twice, whatever you do. My plan is to attend the Super Bowl that way.

It’s kinda depressing seeing those pics. I did go there quite a few times, but I could have gone a lot more. I just took it for granted that it would be there forever. It was a great place to get hands-on experience with a wide variety of pins to see what I liked or didn’t like. I always had a great time playing all those different machines, and wish I had done more.

People often think that. Until their favorite location is gone.

LTG : )

Was it this one?
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(I didn't EVEN bother to look in the back box!)

Doesn't John Weeks still own the property? The "For Lease" sign has his company "Weeks Investment Group" on it.

Ron...