Send the entire lot to auction.

If you start letting people in there to cherry pick you wind up selling the good stuff too cheap. Also you wind up being left with all the problems, junk and hard to sell stuff.

Send it off to auction, let them deal with it and sit back and collect a check at the end. It’s a lot if work to sell 200-300 machines.

Yeah but before you do that, send coindork and I a list of games and give us first shot.

Talk to your local OP Dan Tiemeyer. He had a large auction a couple years ago. I can't remember who the auctioneers were, though I think they were from Oklahoma.

I'd use someone from the Northeast, preferably just north of NYC

Free bump.

It may make sense to action the arcades and pins on separate days. All you really need is klov, pinside and a few more specific posts to get the entire country traveling there and bidding the junk up. Contact a professional auction house that specializes in coin operated equipment, close to wherever the games are located. No, I am not asking where. If you do have an auction, post where it is in the country, once the details are all worked out. There are a bunch all over, just do a Google search:
Texas: https://www.americanamusementauctions.com/
West coast:
https://captainsauctionwarehouse.com/
Maybe one close to the actual location would be willing to travel there and have the auction on site so they can leave the equipment where it sits, until they are ready.

Buying is the easy part. Transportation and storage is another depending on how much is available. I’ve had to pass on a few good deals because of these factors alone.

Rick sky

Auction. If you can get the games working first, and cleaned up, you will get better prices.
Obvious stuff.

Well the easiest option is an auction but that’s not best price. You could get a ton but you could also get bare bottom prices, depends on the day. If you wanna be a hero just hook up a few pinsiders and we can buy the lot. It’s easier to get people to claim all the games, provide the cash as long as it’s clear they MUST TAKE EVERYTHING. Then he’s not suck with junk.

You could just contact CoinOpWarehouse and let him take care of it. He’ll ship them all to Europe and make bank and give the guy one bulk price.

The most money is selling them one by one. The easiest way is one bulk price sale to a big buyer/auctioneer who sells it off

The first thing you need to know before you talk to an auction company is know the fair value of what you have. Then you can determine if the fees from them make sense. You could be better off selling all of it to a private individual for a fair cash price. There are collectors that can and would buy it. Auction fees can eat you alive. Without knowing what games/condition I don’t know if you have anything of value or lot of junk. I have seen both. There are ways to screen private buyers to make sure they have cash for this type of a sale and can remove the items once purchased. Most important if you should go that route is to set an agreed upon reasonable time items must be removed and stick to that. DO NOT become storage for a buyer. Use a broker/lawyer for such a large transaction to draft a sale agreement to avoid any issues of the terms of sale and transfer of funds.

Hope that helps and good luck!

I know someone who would probably buy the whole lot. They have the money and capabilities to purchase something like this

Contact Troy Smith

Pretty much the best single person for this volume of vids and pins combined.

He is fair and will make a deal that makes money for you while also leaving opportunities for Him To make some for the effort involved.

Lots of people will tell you they have the cash... Troy actually seems to make these deals happen.

Bring them all to the PATZ show and we'll do it there with no fee's at all.

John

Depends on your friends situation. Does he want to vacate the building asap? Is he in a hurry to get them removed? If not, it may benefit him to piece out depending on what he truly has? Does he have treasures or turds? You could probably get a list of some sort to try and see what he should do? Recent warehouse raids seem to be full of worthless redemption games, beat arcades and a few C level pins. Almost a waste to try and auction

Get an idea of the goods for sale first and then you can make an informed decision.

This thread be like....

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I think most people that have been around know that realistically there is a ton of junk and likely little of solid value without a ton of work involved. Most of us have zero interest in dealing with a couple hundred games just to make a few bucks and keep a few gems.

At this point it would be highly unlikely that a previous operator had a building with quality games just sitting and nothing picked over.

It is fun to fantasize about but reality is my back hurts even considering it. Lol

I would have someone, or a few people, come out to evaluate the stock. Like a few others said, if its a bunch of junk, its a whole different ball game than a bunch of classic, well loved games. If they are not in a hurry, there is an arcade/pinball auction in Iowa in the spring, and others scattered across the country. As suggested, I would try to find someone that will come do the auction there. Makes it easier. I would love to take a look at the collection regardless of whether or not I could buy anything because I just dont have the room or funds to make purchases. Just seeing a collection that large is worth the trip for me. Hope it all works out well!

Search for an auction company that will help your friend maximize the profit on their investment, based on condition of course.

We bought and transported 110 games from TX to CA a few years ago. Depending on the situation and how they decide to deal with the lot, we would be interested if they want to go the single buyer route.

You will hear tons of advice from many people that honestly dont have a clue. So ill give you a few things to think about that I know for a fact since this is what i do.

Getting the maximum value with little to no effort is just not possible with any way you go. Your talking about im guessing at least 6000 square feet of space being used if the number you say is correct. I have been in and bought many warehouses, besides the games, there is going to be junk and parts around as well, no one keeps that many games sitting around with out compiling other stuff as well.

Contacting an auction company is an easy way to go, but that doesn't mean its the best way to go either.

For maximum value, each item needs tested, this is a multiple day job itself. and then once a game is tested, it would need cleaned up. (im not talking a shop job, im talking about a simple wipe the machine/glass down to make it presentable to sell) This is a job itself, one person cant do 250-300 games in a single day and do a good job of it.

Location. There really isn't a good location anywhere in the country to sell at auction a load of that many projects. lets be honest, whether its vids or pins, chances are slim of them working. You can easily find someone in a specific area that would take on a few projects, especially if they are a desired machine. but finding someone that will take on 250 projects with many shitty games is different, as well as finding 250 different people that each are willing to take on a shitty game.

Also with auction, essentially, it is allowing people to pick and choose. so yes the addams family game will sell, and sell well, the stripped down and parted out shaq attack wont sell, so then you still have to deal with stuff afterwards.

To get maximum value, you will need to ship the stuff. are you prepared to pallet and ship hundreds of games? if not, you will have to pay someone (auction company or individual) and thats not free.

Are you going to want 200 different people coming in to the place to removed the game they bought (and maybe a game they didn't buy) once again, this takes time, and time is money, someone will get paid for it

These are just some of the things, i can go on and on

Now selling to an individual. There will be tons that say that they can and will do it. Just remember, i said "that they can and will" when it comes to actually doing it, now that is a different number.

You are very limited on the amount of people that can actually take on a job of that size. The volume alone is daunting. I bet that there is only a handful of people on this website that have actually moved 50 games in a single day, and even less that have done this kind of number.

Funds, you are limited with the number of people that actually have the cash for this volume, and yes people have the cash, but then you have to have the warehouse space to put this in, and then you have to have the ability to transport this many machines. each factor in this equation reduces the number of people that can do this job.

and once again, i can give many pros and cons of doing it this way.

I understand that you want to help your friend get maximum value, we all do, but there is multiple levels of where a person will stop to get maximum value. Lets be real, you want maximum value, you fix, clean, shop every single game out. There, you get the most "$" and thus maximum value. But now throw in your time and effort, and that "$" number is far lower. You want maximum value, let people pick and choose, but then you will get stuck with a ton of shit that no one wanted

You are more than welcome to contact me, this is a task that i can handle, cost, logistics all of it. In my dealing with large purchases, many have liked the honesty from when i talk to them and explain things. I will not give you top dollar for the games, but i explain why and help you understand why my price is worthy as well. Because on deals like this, it has to be valuable for the buyer as well.

so PM me if you want to talk

thanks
Troy

We moved about 1200 sq ft of stored games - 70+ in total. We wanted maximum value but we also mainly wanted to get out from under the $875 a month rent. I considered using one of our local pickers either CoinOpAmusements or CoinOpWarehouse. They give very fair prices but we had a very helpful volunteer who went thru the collection and assessed condition and took photos and posted on pinside the good the bad and the ugly of these stored pins. It took him 3 months to do so. For sure we lost money relative to what we paid. But we also lost $10k of rent obligation over the next year which was critical to keep the arcade open. Even doing this we still have the games we wanted to keep shoved in volunteers homes, the ones we couldn’t sell at any price (Spanish eyes even at $150 went nowhere ... really ?) in my garage, etc. Why did our volunteer do all this ? Well first and foremost they are a great guy. Second, more money means the largest collection in town stays open and also more money to buy new factory fresh pins to replace what was in storage and would never be restored. The point is everything has a price and as other have reiterated you have to decide what your time and money is worth. Honestly the best route to get the cash and get rid of the problem is to bring in someone who does this for their living. Pay the man (or woman), accept the seemingly lowball dollar amount rather than fantasizing over eBay prices, and clear it out. They will likely list at 50% over the price per game they paid you but that is ok and they get to deal with the individual headache of no shows and problematic buyers and storage costs until it’s all liquidated and cleanup of the detritus left over. Think of it as cleaning up a waste disposal site but in this case they pay you for the privilege of doing so. Without our volunteer we would have been forced to go that route.

I agree with Pooky. If he needs them gone to start renovating a building, get a few bids and take the best one and move on. If he has 6 months before he starts working on the building then you can take the time to inspect each game. I also cleaned out my building about 4 years ago. I sold working valley darts and pool tables for a couple hundred each. I threw tons of old parts in the trash. People told me I was crazy and was throwing away cash if I held out for top dollar, it could have taken me 6 to 12 months to sell everything at $1000 rent a month plus utilities. Plus you need to add in the hassle of dealing with people, PayPal, shipping, and the countless hours of evaluating and listing.
My best advice is if he himself isn't into games just sell it off and move on.

Well said. You can already tell from the response in this thread that if you have an on-site auction where the games are now, pinball people will flock there from all over the country, even if the games and parts are as-found. You can be part of the publicity that ensures that there are plenty of bidders.

We had a games/jukebox auction in NH where the retiring operator used some random local auctioneer. The auctioneer had no idea of the expectations that coin-op buyers bring to an auction, questions they'll ask, how they expect auction lots to be offered, etc. He put together these weird lots that cut across specialties (e.g., jukebox and redemption items in the same lot). Bottom line: confused and reluctant buyers bid pennies on the dollar. Seller and auctioneer were very disappointed.

If there are true collectibles, there are auctioneers known to COCA (Coin-Op Collectors Association) who can reach that set of bidders.
.................David Marston

I’m not sure where this huge mystery lot is; but if you were near Southern California I would suggest a place like captains auction in Anaheim. I think they would probably even answer questions on the phone.

If these were in Chicago I’m sure there is someone else like this there.

There were other great responses here. Best of luck.

John does an excellent job at the auction.

Depenind on the games, location and condition, this would be something I could handle.

PM sent.

Every time some landlord tells me they have a warehouse with 300 games and pins, it turns out to be ~50

Cigarette machine, lottery terminal, crane, bar top, video poker, internet jukebox are always the bulk of it....a few video games and maybe 2 pins

Would be nice to let the Kansas folks (assuming this is close to OP in Wichita) have a crack at some games. It’s a true pinball desert out here.

I was at that auction in Tulsa a couple of years ago. That auctioneer did a fantastic job. These pins had been stored close to Oklahoma City. The auctioneer trucked them to Tulsa to a location he had rented for the purpose, and got some real good prices for his client. The pins were all set up and turned on and playable. The auctioneer had bidders on the phone. If you were out of state, he was set up that you had a week to make arrangements for shipping.

A local OP saw the success of that auction and put his own pins up for sale. This is the auction where a Game Plan Cyclopes sold for $5200.00 and shipped out of state. An EBD with the small back glass setup brought $2200.00 dollars. The prices were going for high dollars.

Although a number of pinsiders were 2nd guessing him ( is that a surprise?) this auctioneer did an excellent job at both auctions.

EDIT: Those pins in Tulsa were properly stored. They were not from some falling down, leaky-roof chicken shed.

I appreciate you thinking of us. But when the Tulsa auctioneer sold those pins in Tulsa and later Wichita, I met people from all over the country. At Tulsa, the Interstate highway system converges at Tulsa. Some prospective buyers were disenchanted because this auctioneer squeezed maximum value for his clients. The buyers' paid up. There were no deals.

Just for comparison, the Iowa winter auction was held online at Hibid due to COVID restraints and it was a big clusterfvck. That being said, many of the games and especially the pins (which most were in average condition at best) went for insane prices by the time you added their fee in with it. However because of this it got out to a wider audience.

Glad to know these are still out there. Last operator I spoke to with a massive warehouse full of games consistently refuses to let anyone see it or sell it for less than half a million.
And the list of games he provided was absolutely insane, no way they still exist NIB like that after 30 years.
I imagine the leaky roof chicken shed every time I think about it. Especially in the Northeast.

Following to hear more details

I have a feeling if someone left that many games they are going to be mainly worthless and have already been picked through. May have to actually pay someone to remove them? I am curious and I think we all have that excitement of the possibilities? I do have a feeling it will be like the Geraldo Rivera unveiling the Mystery of Al Capone's Vault-lots of excitement-and then DOH!

Good luck either way

Disappointment.gif

I got to look through an Op's warehouse years ago and he mostly had cigarette machines, I was bummed.

Woof. That is going to be a junk sale. Price by square footage - there is almost no way to come out on top of a situation like this without making a price per foot deal.

After seeing the photos, I dont think he has much to worry about.

Grab the few pins and run??? There are some good parts there but overall, what a shame.

How does it smell? That smell brings back so many memories. Hoping you’ll get 3 to 5K. Thank you for sharing.

Ooof. I think this is the part where the auctioneer trots out the “I’m sure it will clean up well”. Time to call 1-800-Got-Junk. Sorry, those could have been some great pins there.

Now we know why this stuff was included with the building. Thanks for sharing anyway.

Any pics of the jukeboxes? Looking for late model Seeburg 45RPM jukes.