As someone that knew David Silverman personally (not well but I have talked to him several times and have also sold machines to him years ago) and someone that also knows a good bit about the auction process (I have worked with auctioneers - had auctions myself - and attended hundreds of them here in central PA). Let me explain what I can for all who are curious.

As far as David Silverman - he was not only a collector but also a hoarder (in a way) and loved everything pinball. He had a vision of sharing part of his collection with the general public and started the National Pinball Museum trying to do that. The NPM only housed a small part of his collection and he did a beautiful job with it in Washington but he got himself into a bind because he got into a location with cheap rent but no long term lease. After he was asked to leave that location he did the same thing two or three more times having to move hundreds of machines each time. I guess after 4 or 5 years of that he had enough and collection went up for sale.

As far as the auctions go - auctioneers set auctions up to try to get best return for their customers but also trying to make things as easy as they can for themselves. So they broke the collection down into several auctions selling the best stuff first trying to get the best return early on. Now they have all the "junk" to get rid of.

What should have been done, in my eyes, was to have put 40 or 50 of these machines in each of the other auctions and held back some of the better machines for this auction. I think this is going to be a disaster - there is really nothing to draw a decent crowd, the local market is already flooded with machines from earlier auctions, they are trying to sell off about 400 fairly unpopular woodrails at once, etc.

Don't get me wrong - I like woodrails but there just isn't a market in the pinball world for that many of them all at once let alone after already selling a bunch of them in this area this past year.

Anyway - best of luck to David and Morphy's with this sale but I doubt it is going to end well for either of them. Hopefully David did well enough with previous auctions to clear up his debt from his attempts to share his collection with others. I wish things would have worked out better for him but sometimes things just are not in the cards. I do thank him for trying and wish him well!

Bottom line is junk is junk and auctioneers don't like junk. I blame no one and everyone for this without knowing all the facts. If Morphy cared they could have taken some extra pictures and if Silverman cared he could have used the Windex before Morphy's picked them up.

I think the biggest mistake made was not having a few more auctions and selling a mix of the good - the bad - and the ugly at each. Instead it seems like Morphy & Silverman decided to harvest the most money as quickly and worry about the "junk" later. Now it is time they have to deal with the "junk" and no one cares. So they grouped it into one huge sale hoping for the best.

As far as more pictures - it is likely the machines are so bad that more pictures might have scared buyers away instead of attracting buyers. Auctioneers get paid based on realized prices of items and all good auction houses know what to do to get stuff sold at the best prices. Morphy's might have decided extra pictures would have made things worse instead of better. They might figure they are better off trying to hook someone that doesn't realize how bad these machines are instead of having a bunch of close up pictures showing the condition of machines they are selling.

Quoting 80spit "I was at the one last weekend. When I picked up the pins I bought this week, I was talking with the guys there that helped me load, and they basically cherry picked the better ones for last weeks auction. I thought the auction last week had really rough pins! There were some nicer ones alot of pins with melted plastics and rough playfields I can only imagine the shape these last 300 are. "

So this stuff is likely the bottom of the barrel and all involved are just trying to put an end to things as best as they can. I guess we should all be thankful Silverman saved as many of these machines from the dead over the years as he did but at the same time most are likely going to be junked after this sale anyway. It just seems like a shame regardless of how you look at it.

My expectation is a bunch of really rough stuff all the way around knowing what I have seen Silverman buying locally over the years. It seemed like he would buy anything that was cheap and unusual but beyond that it also seemed like if it was an old pin not coming on the market often he wanted it regardless of condition.

Knowing what I have seen and what has already been sold my expectations are very low for this auction. It will likely be a good sale for parts machines and maybe a few major projects but I don't expect to see much worth saving at this sale. I highly doubt you will buy a machine work on it an hour or two and toss a backglass into it and have a nice machine.

If there is a title you have been looking for and have not been able to find in the collection it might be a starting point for you. But anyone going to the auction expecting to find machines that can be fixed up fairly easy will likely be disappointed.

If you head to the auction with realistic expectations it might be a great sale to attend. But expecting anything worth talking about at this sale is unrealistic from what I have seen. In any event best of luck to buyers attending, Morphy's & David Silverman - I have a feeling everyone is going to need it!

As far as only 15 items bid on so far online bidding doesn't really matter because they are having the live auction 9/13. Once live auction starts they just start in house bidding at high online price and most will get bid up anyway.

As far as items that don't get bid on - normally they will get returned to owner. But some auction houses group items without bids into lots and sell off those lots or use other tecniques to sell items that don't get bid on. It really just depends on how seller asked to have it taken care of and house the auction house handles it.

I am kind of "on the fence" about going. Part of me would love to go to buy a few "junk" machines for parts and maybe a project or two and another part of me says "stay away you already have enough junk around". My concern is if I go I might end up buying a bunch of junk I don't need just because it is going at a reasonable price.

Then I keep thinking do I really want to waste a day at an auction like this or would I rather be doing something with machines I already own or getting some Fall house project done.

If there was going to be some decent stuff at the sale it would be easier to waste the day but from everything I have read & seen it looks like this is the "bottom of the barrel".

Really a tough call deciding if it will be worth the time & fuel to check it out.

MC,

I doubt anything getting sold at this sale would be worth the shipping cost. I have not seen these machines yet but judging from the stuff people have said and the fact that David bought a couple of these machines from me over the years (and knowing how cheap I sold them because of their condition) even if machines were free cost of shipping would be more than most of these machines are likely worth.

If these machines were like machines sold at earlier auctions - and went cheap - maybe it would be worth it. But as stated above - even the auction help told people they "cherry picked" better condition machines for earlier auctions.

So basically most of these machines are going to be parts machines or full restorations. Not light projects or working machines like were sold at earlier auctions.

One thing for sure - I would not consider buying machines at this auction without seeing them in person. There is just not enough information or enough pictures to decide what any of these machines are really worth or condition of each.

Just my two cents.

Being very honest - the auction is less than an hour from my house and I still have not decided if it is worth the trip. So I am 100% sure I wouldn't consider $300 or more shipping on top of auction price for anything at this sale.