WOW! 496 pinballs and some top notch woodrails! You guys over there get all the good ones!

http://morphyauctions.hibid.com/catalog/48383/september-13th-2014-pinball-offsite-sale-?tab=0&cpage=1

How does shipping work? It just says to contact the company. I would love to have a couple.

Look closely and use caution if buying these machines without seeing them in person. It is my understanding this load is the "bottom of the barrel" and most are pretty rough. I am still toying with the idea of driving over to take a look in person but it is about a 3 hour round trip for me and I just don't know if it is worth my time.

Anyone hit the preview today? Are these machines as bad as I have been warned they are?

If I'm reading correctly, going tomorrow is pointless, because the machines won't be there. If you didn't see them at the preview today, you're screwed:

"The auction will be taking place off-site. If anyone would like to preview the collection, please schedule an appointment in advance by contacting Shaye Krispine at [email protected] or 717-335-4603. "

Then the preview was listed as being in Ephrata, PA, and the location of the auction itself is listed as Morphy in Dover, PA.

I think they're going to flash those lousy photos up on the screen at their auction house and you'll bid based on that.

Am I right, or am I reading that wrong?

I was there thanks through a US friend.
He got me a nice machine, thanks to him !

GRC Filmed It?!

I did end up going to the auction today and I was very impressed with prices on the "better condition" & rare machines. Morphy & David Silverman should be very happy with the results on the "better stuff".

As far as the real junk - about 150 to 200 machines at best guess most were bringing under $50 about 30 or 40 didn't even get a $10 bid, 30 to 50 sold for $10, maybe another 50 to 75 brought $20 or $30, etc. So a good bit of the "junk" sold fairly cheap.

The backglass lots seemed to do very well with most lots bringing north of $100 and some up to near $200. The lot of playfields went for $375 (if I remember correctly) and the box of legs & stuff around $200.

I didn't get a chance to write a lot of the prices down but I would say 75 to 90% of the better machines brought decent money to crazy money. One example of a "crazy price" was a Williams Space Odyssey with hammer price of $800 plus $160 buyers premium ( total $960 + tax) - I sold a nicer one last year for $550 shopped & fully working.

For you SS guys the only SS machine -Jurassic Park with issues - went for $1300 plus 20% buyers premium (so no bargain on that either).

I'll try to post a few of the prices I had written down tomorrow if someone else doesn't get to it first but overall I think sale went well considering what was there. It was held about 5 miles from Morphy's Auction House in a warehouse and all machines were on site (at that location). There was live on line bidding, phone bidding and in house bidding.

Fast pace auction with all 500 lots sold in about 4 hours. Morphy did a good job for Silverman but advertising of auction was a bit confusing to say the least. As far as the sale itself, loading after the sale, etc - everything was handled well. And they even brought in about 15 pizzas & soda for free lunch for everyone in the crowd.

As expected in house crowd was fairly small - maybe 50 or so people and only about 25 serious bidders. But online bidding drove prices up on most of the "better stuff".

Hope this answers some of the questions some of you might have about the sale.

The real vid is currently uploading. Took awhile to render an hour of walk-thru. Should be live sometime tonight. Sorry about the teaser.

Anyone know what lot #284, the 1949 Bally Hot Rods went for?

Thanks
John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, Mi.
269-979-3836

I was there too. It was really something to see all those pins in one place, Met a couple pinsiders there and had lots of nice chats. Bought way to much and don't know why I did, but got some fairly nice deals. Ended up with 16 pins and 3 lots of backglasses, my buddy bought 24 pins, we both bought several for only $10.00 !! Now for the fun part getting them home, glad I drive past there everyday on the way to work!

Where do you put 16 more pins ???
So you were the guy buying all the $10 pins....................LOL.

There sure were a bunch of those, I only got 3 of them at $10 but my buddy got a bunch, 24 pins and the most expensive one he bought was $90.00, I thought some of them were actually not to bad. I am going to store mine at work, until I get around to working on them.

Was there and scored four decent woodrails, a backglass lot with a mint repro "Diamond Jack" glass in it (the others were junk), and a lot of 7 heads, 6 of which I don't want or need, but wanted the Gottlieb "Joker" head for the internal parts. The pace was very fast, almost impossible to keep up with at times if you're not an auction veteran. Some crazy deals and some surprisingly high ones as well like on the "Space Odyssey". Really wanted the Williams "Cue Ball", but it was kind of rough for what it went for. Missed out on "Roto Pool", "Majorettes", three "Classy Bowler"s and a couple of "Ace High"s. Saw some really cool oddball games. Lots of early Genco, Chicago Coin, Exhibit, United, etc. The art on some of those old games is really gorgeous. I'm glad most everything found a home. I don't know who some of the online bidders were, but likely major collectors or possibly the PPM or Silverball Museum. There was lots of junk, but overall it was fun and I'm glad I went and score some deals.

It went for $425.

WOW, thanks for letting me know. A bit higher then I expected for a non flipper game but it is kinda cool and fits the theme very well.

Yeah the auction only lasted four hours?...yikes. Thats one lot every 30 seconds or less. Now thats moving right along.

Wish I could have been there.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, Mi.
269-979-3836

Who said pinball was an expensive hobby?
I wish there were auctions like that near my home!

Many of the inexpensive games were pretty rough. I was thinking of our very own Steve Fury and all the work he put into that old "Singapore" game a while back. There was one with a excellent playfield which sold for $50. There was another one that didn't sell, but the playfield was not as good. Of course it was labor of love for Steve and he is to be commended.

I went to the auction and it was a great experience. Was able to get in at 7:30am and look over each of the games prior to the 9am start. Morphys had printed out an auction sale guide with a small picture of each game and a description which made it really handy. i want able to take my bid list and write down under each lot my max to bid and then follow the auction.

Things moved fast. They would put a picture of the game up on a big TV and if there was an internet bid they would open at $25 over that price. If there were no bids yet - they would try and open at $50. As others posted many of the project games opened and sold for $10. Many had to take a pass - as no one at the auction on the floor wanted to bid.

I bought 6 games. I bought the Majorettes that had a beautiful playfield and cabinet and will clean up really nice.

The preware pin bidding really moved quick, One collector wanted them and he was going to have them. I bid on one I would have really liked to have bought but I bowed out when the price plus fees was going to reach $900 for a prewar pin and others took it on from there.

The only game that I wish I had bid on was the 1953 Williams Army Navy. I really liked the look of that game and it slipped past my bidding early on. Forgot to write down what it went for. All in all it was a good time.

Valentin: Glad to have been able to be there for you.

Here's the video. It's long & potentially boring? There were so MANY pins there that it limited time to devote to each severely. Nice event with great hosts & folks! Glad we attended. Didn't buy anything... Left $100 with Ron (who actually was contracted to identify & write the catalog of items) to "make a good buy." He chose to not spend our $100 & only bought one machine for himself. Score on his part a terrific condition 1931 Automatic Industries Whiffle which he says is the first coin-op pinball machine? Congrats Ron!

To remain positive I will have to agree with you. Probably long and boring.

Got my load out today, here's what it looked, like, have them all nicely tucked away at work!
pins1.jpg
pins2.jpg

*** Congrats *** Glad you got pinballs!

Can you give us an idea what some of the nicer woodrails went for? And what about that Heat Wave?

The turnaround from the auction is starting already?

ebay.com link: Automatic Industries 1931 WHIFFLE BOARD Antique Coin Op Pinball Machine

I believe so. I'm thinking lots of this stuff will surface at the York show too.

I don't know what it sold for, but it was valued at between $600-800.
Evidently they got it back to the shop and just wiped off the Dust !

I was actually second high bidder on it, It was really beautiful, Looked like a piece of furniture, I believe I bid I up to around $675. and I think it sold for $700.00 but I stand corrected. It was the only pinball related item my wife would
have allowed in the living room!!

Final sale prices (including 20% fee) are now posted on Morphy's site.

http://morphyauctions.hibid.com/catalog/48383/september-13th-2014-pinball-offsite-sale-?cat=0&sort=6&hide=0&qs=0&view=0&aView=0&selCat=0

- Tim

Whew! Some of those prices look more like a fire sale than an auction.

Thanks for taking the time to video all the games shown and posting this. As I had to rely on the Morphy's online photos for basing bids on, I wish that I had been able to view your video prior to the auction!

A few general comments about the auction:

1. Rather than being junk overall as a number of others have stated, I think that many of the games look to be in relatively good condition and will be fine candidates for restoration. I wish that I had been able to bid on more than I did as the final prices were a relative bargain for numerous Gottlieb woodrails.

2. If you're planning to bid, but can't attend the auction, DO NOT rely on using Morphy's online bidding software on a mobile device. Despite an assurance from Morphy's staff to the contrary prior to the auction, it did not work on my smart phone and this was confirmed on the day of the auction by a different staff person.

3. Interestingly, I noticed a few games in the video (such as Target Alpha and Vagabond) that weren't included in the catalog as part of the Silverman collection.

- Tim

Those were in the back row and marked sold, They were actually from the last auction several weeks earlier and were being stored there until the completion of this auction, probably all owned by one buyer

$US2795 and they post one photo-extraordinary!!

It is sad to see so many machines go for such a small amount, which borders them on being worthless, but they are anything but and lets hope that many of these machines will again rise to stardom!

I picked up the rest of my haul today, and also rescued an old pre-flipper Gottlieb that was destined for the dumpster. Unfortunately, I won't do anything with it except use some of it's parts. "80spit" rescued a "Singapore" that would have also met the same fate. Only a few games "passed" that are still there, and honestly they are no more than trash as sad as it is to say.

Actually I think jrpinball almost wanted to pay the guy for me just to save that Singapore. It actually had a great playfield, but no backglass, anyone that might have one, I'm interested, If I can't find one, I'll probably part it out, or make a nice coffee table out of it. It was tough to leave that place for the last time today, I don't think I'll ever experience something like it again.

Did anyone happen to score a gottlieb parts machine with the late 40s projection credit unit in it. I'm looking for one for my Cinderella

Thanks,
Jeff

I just went through the list of prices realized and did some quick math for anyone interested. It looks like the gross sales for the auction was just over $80,000 (including buyers premium) or an average selling price of about $163 per lot.

There were 16 lots with no bid, 53 lots brought $12, 59 lots @ $24, 36 lots @ $36, and 32 lots @ $48 (so about 200 lots went for under $50). So overall there were a lot of "cheap machines" as expected.

Of the highest price lots only about a dozen went over auction estimate.

There were a good many nice machines at the auction but the majority of the machines were missing backglasses or had other major issues so that should be taken into account for anyone looking at these figures. Only 4 machines went for over $1000 and only 33 machines went for over $500.

I don't know if we can learn anything from this auction but I do know it was a shame to see so many machines that had just been stored away for years when they could have been in the hands of people who might have done something with them. On the other hand I am sure David Silverman "saved" a good many of these machines from the landfill over the years also.

It is sad to see one mans dream die but life moves on. Hopefully a good many of the machines sold will be brought back to life. I guess only time will tell.

I am glad I went but it was very upsetting thinking about how many of these machines will not live on after this auction.

Thks for the outcome info too-many-pins and for your very spot on observations.

Would it be like a big Brass wheel maybe 8" in diameter with small numbers punched out and has a bulb behind it? When I was unloading my buddies pins, I noticed one with the wheel and was intrigued by it, Don't know if its a keeper for him or not, but I can check. I know he probably would sell the whole pin, not parts but I can ask

Nah. As I recall, you suggested that I pay the guy, but I said, "let's not get crazy here!"
BTW- He hosed me on the hardware for my games. He forgot to give me the leg and head bolts. Oh well.

Glad you had a Nice trip.
I will be making a roadtrip on saturday.

I always get confused between "Pottsville" and "Pottstown". Pottstown is close to where the auction was. You're in Pottsville, the land of Yuengling! That stuff must flow down the streets up there, no? I gotta get there soon and do the brewery tour. Really love the stuff, but in CANS only! It really is much, much better in cans, particularly the "Lord Chesterfield Ale".

Not so. He stretch wrapped the legs, and the hardware was wrapped up with them. The guys there were very helpful and I'll bet they're counting down the games until they're finally rid of them all. I don't think Morphy Auction could have been very pleased with this last bunch of games. It was a lot of work for them I'm sure, and I don't think they made a whole lot of money on the last batch.