I've gone to the museum about 3 times and talked with techs behind the scenes who keep the games running. Leadership and planning is not the owner's strong suit it seems. From lack of communication about when public events are taking place, to having techs supply parts out of pocket, to having pretty much *one* guy keep the entire arcade side going. Last I heard the tech I was talking to was telling me they were getting more games and this was about 3 months ago, when the real possibility of moving had to be on the owner's mind.

Feel free to correct me. I tried to volunteer but scheduling on their part didn't work out. You would know better than I would.

But that would be a realistic solution, and the museum owner(s) clearly wants to live in a fantasy land where someone with lots and lots of money or space will swoop in and save them. There have got to be duplicates of games on the museum floor in their storage (projects, parts machines, etc), I'm sure they could make a good chunk of change offloading just those. Then sell games that are worth a lot but relatively easy to purchase again (keep games like Big Bang Bar, sell games like TZ, for example).

We're being very critical but it's because we care, and we want this place to thrive. I love the museum, and went as often as I could when it was open. I'm not trying to just being a hater

Auction is on August 7th which is about the 2 month mark. We will see what happens when the shit hits the fan... I'm very curious.

I'm surprised none of that has happened already, since it's a totally realistic solution to the problem and not just wishful thinking. Sounds like you actually have it figured out, thanks

Captain's Auction does do that, Ive seen separate auctions that are held at other locations. Be on the lookout for something like that within a month or two

May I ask how you know for sure? Direct contact with them? Article?

I gotcha, I wasnt insinuating anything, I was just wondering if that was for sure or not.

Thats sad, partly because it has to happen in the first place, and partly because Im not in a position to buy any more projects for a while!

I'm sure there is more to it behind the scenes we don't know about, but I would agree with not needing modern games at the museum. You can go to a lot of different places like bars and arcades (what's left of them) to play the newest pin, but very few places have classics, and even a smaller number have the sheer volume of classics that the Museum of Pinball did

So marijuana totally okay, but arcade and pinball machines bad? Weird

That might be the case but you know what would have made them more money than they were? Letting the Museum of Pinball be open more frequently

Basically taxation is theft and fuck the government is the only logical conclusion

Another weird point I just realized, is that it was stated:

but in this article talking about the move to Palm Springs it said

Plans for the museum include 1,900 pinball machines and arcade games on display and full-time hours from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Sunday with 60 volunteers and staff,according to the proposal to the planning commission.

https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2021/04/13/museum-pinball-banning-planning-move-palm-springs-desert-sun/7207069002/?fbclid=IwAR2VPMTYfdu3j9xh3Pd9adrm8k8DFQRDbuBBIZHw_7SEjb3ag5tK6cKuEXE
Soooooo what's the deal with that? Weird discrepancy

I think finding someone to actually help them with those solutions is the problem, not so much the time aspect. Who, honestly, is going to dump a bunch of money into a museum of games that the owner doesn't even work on himself? That was barely profitable?

If anyone is curious about the organization's 501(c)3 status here's a tax filing from 2018 found on the IRS' website:
https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/463094935_201812_990PF_2019110716827730.pdf

Some interesting things I found (I'm not a tax expert so I could very well be interpreting these things wrong or not have the whole picture):
-Johnathan Weeks is listed as Secretary but worked an average of "1 00" hours per week? Does that mean 1 hour a week?
-If you look at the breakdown of their "Other Expenses Scheduled", they spent $0 on Electricity Expense?
-The board members spent $8,048 on "Travel, Conferences and Meetings"

So the dad is John P Weeks, and the son is Johnathan Weeks. IIRC, the collection was passed down from father to son at some point. They are both on the board of the MoP organization. It looks like they made $56,237 in 2018 if I'm parsing the information correctly (outlined in Part 27a- Excess of revenue over expenses and disbursements)

To your point about no assets, that's what it seems like, considering they have random stuff like TVs, a printer and benches listed in their depreciation schedule, but no mention of arcade or pinball machines in some kind of appreciation schedule (if that's even a thing? correct me if I'm wrong)

I definitely expect them to use the name of the Museum to generate interest/buzz/bidders, but they might write it in such a way that they describe it as the family's personal collection

Um... no money to fund a move, huh?
https://www.instagram.com/misterweeks/

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One of the chief concerns was the unexpected costs of the Palm Springs location, was it not?

If they came out and said they lost interest in keeping the museum going, or didnt want to spend the money that was required, then I wouldnt care, and wouldnt have posted that. But when one of the lead techs comes here and basically says "we need money or a place to move", that seemed to me a bit at odds with with them posing next to expensive cars and living in $1m houses.

It's regardless a bit of an F-you to the techs who paid out of pocket for parts, food, drink, etc for themselves and/or other techs. Clearly the Weeks are pretty flush with money, so they can and should have comped them considering how much of their time and specalized labor they donated to fix *their* collection.

With things not being properly declared on the tax forum, that makes things a lot more scummy IMO

In my opinion, you and many other techs have Stockholm Syndrome

We can agree to disagree on the being comped part, but can *anyone* here defend or explain what looks like a potential tax shelter based off their filings?

Also I didnt get my money back for the canceled 2020 event until I made contact with a tech more than a year later, who contacted Jonathan. That whole ordeal took about a week. I was not contacted by the organization, and an attempt to contact them on the website "Contact Us" page led to nothing. Now that they are liquidating their non-declared assets, I can only hope they send out an email, and failing that, people remember to bug them about getting a refund

Most games there need at minimum a shop job and other minor work to get them 100%. Games vary wildly in condition, it may be a museum but they are not all "museum quality". I expect a good chunk of people being disappointed when they get their games shipped to them.

"Evidence of wear and commercial operation" is their generic copy-and-paste message. At their warehouse in Anaheim during COVID restrictions you had to make an appointment but you were allowed to walk around, test out and look at whatever you wanted before the auction. I dunno if they're letting people in for inspection, but I thought I heard it's both in-person and online

Edit: yes it is in-person and online

Check out the info, they require a $300 refundable deposit to bid. Seems like they wanna keep the riff raff out
https://bid.captainsauctionwarehouse.com/m/view-auctions/info/id/80

I usually like watching Captains Auction even if I don't buy anything, but I'm clearing my schedule and pulling up a front-row seat for this shit just to watch the chaos
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I think that would cut away from the Scrooge Mc Duck style money-pit him and John Weeks are gonna have after this auction though
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I'm gonna say $1500

All fax no printer baby. Chris and John are (literally) laughing all the way to the bank

Spanish Eyes for $2700, this hobby has jumped the fucking shark
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If Gottliebs are going for this much I can't wait to see the Bally/Williams

Buncha people contributed a lot of free labor for the purposes of it being an interactive museum... wonder how they feel seeing it inadvertently destroy the hobby

People aren't THAT clueless that they would take the word of an auctioneer who directly profits from perceived value... are they?

The people who are clapping like seals are pissing me off

Now I see Close Encounters is not on despite the rest in the row being on. This could be the first true "project" game, I'm really curious to see the prices. If this goes for peanuts I think it's safe to say it's noobs who know nothing about pinball driving up the prices

Same people who spend $1500 on a plastic topper... you're right

Ya caught me lol. I was hoping we would get to see a true project today

Are we allowed to talk about the vid auctions? $3400 Bagman doesn't fill me with much hope... not like I had much to begin with

"The cleanest Nibbler on the market today. There are no other Nibblers on the market today"
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Crazy that for the listing photos they didn't pull each game out. They could be completely waterlogged and falling apart and you would NEVER know

Stop it you're breaking my heart

PHEW $9900 for Sega Samurai

The dedicated is extremely rare yeah, amazing cabinet design

Great 1000 Mile Rally 2 Hulk Edition with the green-ass green monitor for $1000

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Nonworking Berzerk for $1700... wow

Did the Blaster have a 19-in-1 in it?

Gotta pay for that expensive LA gas money you wasted getting there today somehow

I respect the hustle, but today's prices probably scared off most potential collectors from buying

OUCH, I hope the buyer knew that... who am I kidding, the buyer probably doesn't even know what that means

Warp Warp for $1100 and Jump Bug for $1200 over on the vid side seems like pretty standard auction price. $900 for Exerion might be an okay deal, never heard of it.

I watch Captain's pretty frequently and that's his style usually, except at the end of the night during his normal warehouse auctions where he will be a lot quicker. Can get some good deals if you wait until the end of the night usually, but not during this auction.

Why would they? It doesn't seem to be affecting their bottom line

Because it's fucking boiling hot and everything's overpriced?

https://gyazo.com/487149bfb631db1937e1d2efee5cd219
https://gyazo.com/80bc0ac5e865c7be32eb7bdfab15ce4f
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/120589

Here we gooooooo. Real classy on the Cliffhanger description dasha126

Auctioneer: had some over heating issues on camera.. we will have to move forward by images until equipment is sorted.
Auctioneer: almost there... bounced the router
Auctioneer: we have camera back and software has been rebooted. Getting crew back in place
Auctioneer: i have your details
Auctioneer: rebooting software for video source
Auctioneer: restarting encode
Auctioneer: test... test
Auctioneer: hello
Auctioneer: yes we can
Auctioneer: we are still trying new browser
Auctioneer: trying to work out an alternative for better steam process
Auctioneer: Auction paused
Auctioneer: taking a short break to iron out stearming issue. One mpoment please and thank you.

I dunno what it does, but I sent my own message under the bid window and said something about hiring an IT guy since they made ~$70k last night. I think only they can see that, but they deleted it lol

With your shitty cellphone connection? Wouldn't be any better I don't think. The connectivity down there is ass

Give em a break dude, it wasn't like they had a month plus to prepare and have been doing this for 20 years... oh wait

AND WE'RE BACK with bidder 1959 mysteriously making more appearances driving up the DL's price

where are you hearing this audio? I'm not getting anything on their website player

That's some Captain's Auction level IT advice lol. I did, it's not helping. I'll try switching browsers

Edit: Opera browser wasn't working, Firefox is working with video and sound

No fucking way bidder 1959 isn't John Weeks or a Captain's Employee lol

That Berzerk will be an "easy fix". Somehow I doubt that

I'm guessing $5k

"Great value, great deals right here" I nearly fell out of my chair

EDOT will probably go $13k

At this one, it's hit or miss, techs primarily focused on getting games playable. I've seen games clearcoated and nice, I've seen games worn down to the wood (like Stern Dracula)

I love how he's trying to get Gene to talk about some piece of shit conversion game no one's heard of (Dyger) because it didn't go over $1k

Yeah, like Gene wants to spend $1800 + taxes and fees on Thief when he can probably get 3 restored with all the parts he has

They said CC got it working though??

Who knows, there was no video feed of its current condition. Probably lied out their ass

I am really loving these in-depth written descriptions. The Playchoice said "Nintendo". Like yeah bitch if you're not blind you can see it's Nintendo.

Gene is an upstanding dude

Nonworking Joust: $2500
Working Joust: $5000

Oof if he has to explain what "Playing blind" means he must know he's catering to the completely clueless this auction. I've never heard him do that before

No it means this
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Yesterday Nibbler: $2700
Today Nibbler: $3900

Video Joust not pin Joust lol

"Lots of working Pole Position PCBs on the market" LOL

Even those VAS prices are insane. FMV in collectors market is $1500 and $800 respectively but you'd think people would do SOME kind of Google search

Yes and I just happen to have some for sale. I'll even go 10% off the Captain's hammer price because I'm just that nice of a guy. For you- anything

We jumped the shark with the $2700 Spanish Eyes, I don't even know what to call this

Captain can't even believe this shit! "Wow, that's all I got to say... wow"

"Here's one you don't talk about too often" LOL

What do you mean? This is all going to the """""""""""nonprofit""""""""""", which will totally be used for charity purposes

Yeah from what I could gather it looked like they didn't declare the value of the games on the tax forums, but I'm no tax expert

Dave gave up being the hype-man LOL

Sorry but they're going to hype it up because it's the Champagne edition. It's not going for under $6k

They've still got 125 lots left... you east coasters hanging through the whole thing? Will probably be another few hours at least

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No he bid $3500

East coast bros are saved!!!! They're only going to the end of the row tonight

Was this at Banning? The setting doesnt look familiar

Welp, time to grab my morning Monster and pull up a chair for day 3 of the bloodbath. I wonder if they'll be able to finish in the allotted time, or will they have to extend the auction a day or two?
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Can't wait for the Stern Dracula, that game was probably one of the roughest there. Probably doesn't matter lol

https://www.facebook.com/arcadecaptain/videos/397915495295676
https://bid.captainsauctionwarehouse.com/m/view-auctions/live-sale/id/80

YIKES Stern Stars not working for $2600 so far I think the buyer is gonna be very unhappy. It was working in the listing photos

Wow that's like the 5th time he's started to say "SOLD" then he takes another bid. I would be pissed lol

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I'll sell you my Totem for 10% off what the auction one goes for at hammer price (when it comes up)