Would be really great to see this game going to shows. I hope whoever is lucky enough to land it does bring it to some shows to be seen. Will probably win a few contests at the various shows it makes it to.

I see another poster in this thread says he has a verbal on the machine. If it goes through then big congrats on the amazing score!

lt will be good faith, luck and his word if it does go through. Stranger things have happened. lf not, it wasn't meant to be and more power to the next if it falls through.

l too, was hoping to bring it to shows, and let pinballers local and far play it. it's just too cool.

I hope it works out for you and the game makes it to many pinball events!!! Good luck.

yeah john and you prolly got yours for $500 with the owner not knowing any better. you lucky hustlin dog you.

Those long flippers are funkeee, but the artwork and the theme are beyond description. This machine deserves whatever it can get. Congrats to the buyer. You're going to get a real nice piece of Americana.

lol, love the bid retractions - "oops, better ask the wife if spending twenty-thousand dollars on a pinball machine is okay...dammit [retracts bid]"

$17,200 at the moment.

It seems to be on its way back to 20k.

Hey Chris, What makes you think you have number 9 ? Thats the number on my tag on my game. Hmmm......?

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

Not true at all. Believe me, there is a loooonng history of what it took for me to actually get one of these games. I had to let the first one go, and it took another year after that even to secure this one. But at the time I paid the going price and trust me, the owner knew what he had.

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

I don't understand why people get all bent out of shape over a rare game fetching big money. I like old cars, don't get all upset when a hemi cuda convertible sells for $5,000,000.00! What's with pinheads and their jealousy? What's even worse is some of them mention not liking the games! Shouldn't that be a positive? Sorry, I just don't get it and happens everytime something hits $10k.

I hope someone on here gets it. It looks cool.

There was/is no listed reserve, so the $12,000.00 Buy It Now (BIN) was gone immediately after the first bid was placed on the machine.

Brad

That's the first BIN price on Ebay I have ever seen that was way under priced...

Why don't all bidders just retract their bids and then the BIN price of $12,000 will return!

Every time I read this thread I cannot help but sing this theme song in my head...

Beautiful art on this machine IMO, especially the cabinet.

I remember playing King Kong at Expo around ten years ago. It looked like a cool game, but I don't recall it being too much fun to play. Like a lot of rare games, there is usually a good business reason the game didn't get placed into production.

I'm shocked the game had a BIN price of $12K. That would have been the steal of the century in today's market. It's not often that a person who owns such a rare game like this is so oblivious to its value.

If someone told you that you could give them $12,000, and they would give you a giant beautiful wooden box that at ANY time in the future you could trade again easily for $22,000 or more: would you do it?

If the guy seriously is having financial problems then I wouldn't blame him a bit for taking all he can get. Who knows it may be the difference between the Pinball Museum going away or staying open.

The label is what I was going by but now that you mentioned and I see your tags I decided to check the pics of the other one I did back in 2006 .
What I found is it has a later date of early May 1990 .

http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/album354

What I think is the later version pictured in that gallery has the hinges on the face of the head not the sides,no hole port in the floor,large chocking for the transformer and probably more..It looks more like a dedicated game than the one I am doing now or perhaps others that have blue paint under the black on the cabinet.

The one I am doing now has everything hand written in terms of the serial #s etc so it is probably one of the first actually not the last.

Wow $17200, everyone should of bought it at the buy now price of $12000.........I think it will go at $22000 by the end, let's start a mini guessing comp......winner gets nothing but bragging rights.

If you snooze you looze with Buy it Now on ebay. When a good deal comes up you have to be quick before other people bid and remove the option. When I got one of my rare games it was setup the same was as this auction and I had to be quick. I am sure people who say they were interested wanted to talk to the seller and ask questions before using buy it now and that is understandable because so would I, however you really don't have time for that. Your best bet it to just use buy it now so it's yours and then you can talk to the seller afterwards. Worst case if it's not what you expected you can always back out and he can re-list. Yes, I know when you use buy it now it's a contract and he could try to force you to buy it, however he likely has many other interested parties and will just sell it to someone else outside of ebay or re-list. I know a lot of people are ani-ebay and against it so guess they can chalk it up as a lesson learned. It sucks a lot of people missed out but I highly doubt he will honor his 12K buy it now price with it's current price. I know many people on here say he should and it's the ethical thing to do, but how many of you give away 10K+ on a daily basis?

True true, $10k is a lot to throw away.

+1.

folks, it wasnt a question of beating around the bush on the buy it now price. lt was, that he listed it for low starting bid with a buy it now. Within seconds, a ''dink'' bid was placed for the opener, eliminating the buy it now. The seller thought the buy it now was still on all day, he said that was the first item he ever sold on ebay=noob seller.
With that said, l was first to call and l told him i'd take it. Called him twice actually. He was confused about the listing, and why the buy it now wasnt available, and decided to look into that further before commiting to anything else.
He told me he has 600 pins, one of the first 14 bbb, and that WAS his Kingpin. He has many other rare games, they are all for sale (they are going to be auction housed)

So, in short, l gave it a shot, didn't work out so far. Oh well. The stories he told me about the King Kong were more than worth the time.
l'm excited about aquiring Metallica pro nib, so all is good

So, I'm guessing this definitely means no more National Pinball Museum return

He told me he needed to sell them all, it was time to move on, that he'd been doing this for a long time.
Sounds like an impressive collection. I wish him luck.

Dave will probably be selling a few items as he was heavily in debt from opening the museum in DC and having to move the museum to Baltimore. He sold the King Pin in the museum when he moved to the Inner Harbor. He worked his ass off to try and make the museum happen but had a lot of bad luck. The main tech that did work to keep the pins in good shape for the DC location couldnt work in the Baltimore. Volunteers did the work in Baltimore and a lot of the machines suffered.

Ya I'm the guy who bought David's kingpin last year.. It's now in another private collection as of a few weeks ago

Not buying that. How does a noob at EBay have 588 feedback?

At any rate, sorry to those who did not get it for the 12K, but good luck to the seller.

Chris

Yep. Total noob mistake. There is no point to a BIN if you have a super low opening bid. I still don't understand why the BIN was so cheap, though. The guy is clearly very entrenched in the hobby. You would think he would have checked with some of his buddies first before listing such a rare item.

He has 1 feedback as a seller to Mike Pacak 5 years ago..... Definitely a rookie when it comes to selling on Ebay.

Either way, he will do quite well with this auction.

I love that King Kong backglass! Does anyone know if there are any extras floating around?

I do to! I'm glad they weren't doing big ole LCD's back then...

I really doubt it but if there's one guy that might know it would probably be Mike Pacak...

That assumes his buddies would know what it's worth. I personally would have no idea how to price something like this. The bigger question is why have a BIN price to begin with.

$17k? 6 days left? Sounds like BIN disappearing was a blessing!

If there are any, maybe they will pop up on eBay now based on the success of this auction.

My buddy bought one from one of the game designers last year in Chicago (along with a lot of other rare stuff). I don't *think* it is for sale but you never know until you ask. I won't post his name on here, but if you are interested, I can certainly PM you his info.

ooooh, ok. My apologies!

Chris

Congratulations. Ever thought of opening a Museum, or some type of public pay to play?

When you are dealing with such a rare item like this, and it's difficult to gauge what it's worth, your best bet is to list it with a low starting bid and a very high reserve. If it was me, it would have had a $25K reserve on it. Sure, it may not hit the reserve, but at least it will give you an accurate reflection of its value. All it costs you are some fees. Then, you either re-list it, or sell it to the highest bidder.

What's the story with why it never went into production? it looks like fun.

Data East put together 9 proto King Kongs. Each one is a little different, but mostly the same. They kept trying to aquire the license for it, but couldn't finalize it. They then aquired Back to the future, which is why half the playfield (middle to left side) is much like Back to the Future.

Who did they have to get the license from? Figured that was in the public domian by now....

With all of the rare games I've come across in 30 years, this one seems to get flipped the most.

For all of those that missed out, just be paitient for another one to surface. They always come back.

Try to be more vigilant next time too.

Will there be a donation to Pinside if the machine is sold to a Pinsider because of this post?

Brad

it would be great if someone here could post a youtube video of game play of a King Kong purely out of interest.

what do you think Dayhuff?

Interestingly, back in the day, Nintendo wanted Donkey Kong to be named King Kong and they couldn't get the rights either . . . so King Kong became Donkey Kong. I'm sure it is staying out of the public domain the same way Mickey Mouse and all the other old copyrighted and trade marked characters stay out.

Here is an good on point review from an education article (that is expressly in the public domain):

Anything copyrighted prior to 1923 is in the public domain. (Practically speaking, this includes anything published prior to 1923, since publication without copyright put the work straight into the public domain. But note this possible exception in some western states for some 1909-1922 foreign works that were not published in the US before 1923.) Due to a 20-year copyright extension enacted in the US in 1998, copyrights from 1923 or later that are still in force will stay in effect through 2018 or longer.

Certain works copyrighted in 1923 or later may already have entered the public domain. In particular, works published in the US before 1989 without proper copyright notice, and works published in the US before 1964 whose copyrights were not renewed, may have entered the public domain. However, works from 1923 or later that were originally published in countries outside the US may still be copyrighted regardless of whether they were printed with proper notice or renewed. To research whether a book's copyright has been renewed, or needed to be renewed, see this article.

Works never published prior to 2003 (and never registered for copyright prior to 1978) are now in the public domain in the US if they are by authors who died more than 70 years before the most recent New Year's day. (For 2013, this means authors who died before 1943.) Although this new rule does not put any previously published material into the public domain, it may allow some long-lost manuscripts and collections of letters to be published online as "new" online books.

this one looks like it could use a HEP restoration as well, it has some pretty significant problems on the playfield. I think it would certainly be worth it after spending that kind of cash to acquire it.

You know the main reason copyright law in the US has continuously lengthened the copyright privileges to copyright holders throu legislation over the past half century without allowing things to go in public domain that should have under previous legislation? Micky Mouse.

I kid you not. Mickey Mouse made his appearance in The Steamboat Willie cartoon in 1928. Under original legislation, he would have been public domain in 2003. Disney wasn't going to let that cash cow go easily, so they lobbied hard and got a knight in shining armor in the form of senator Sonny Bono (hmmm..wonder why he cared about extending copyrights?) to go for boot and extend that legislation.

Won't be surprising at all if we see a problem arise again on Capitol Hill when the mouse is about to run out.

Not political here at all, just some interesting history on public domain. One of the few times my film degree and year of law school education could come in handy together ha!