Keep in mind, this is a story of a DIFFERENT TIME. Back when getting deals on games was commonplace, and there were still lots of games floating around.
Years and years ago, I was sitting at work on a Friday, scouring eBay for pinball deals, and saw an ad for coin op manuals for $125. A whole file cabinet worth. And the guy was an hour away from me! I hit the buy it now, and sent the guy a note to arrange pick up, to see if maybe I can run up the next day to pick them up.
He replies that he was a 'business', and was open Monday-Friday, 8-5. He sees I am selling some pinball stuff on eBay, and suggests that he might have a few things I might be interested in, he has a bunch of project games that he'd be glad to get $100 or so for each. Turns out, his family owns a number of watering holes around Indy, as well as operates coin op, and the coin op biz is closing, and they need out of their warehouse..
A little bit of schedule re-arranging, and I'm at his door the following Monday bright and early.
I discussed the deal with my then close pinball buddies, and thought that for the price, for sure, I'm gonna walk into a bunch of old blown out games. But, *maybe*, if I get lucky, I could find something old and on my want list, like a Solar Fire.
Monday comes, and I'm in his warehouse. I'm trying to act cool, as a bit of a noob, and also knowing that it's his place, and he pretty much determines whether or not we can make a deal.
So, I'm walking through the place, looking around, and I see a Road Show. And a FT. And a TAF. And an IJ, Shadow, and a ST:TNG.... and I'm trying to keep my cool, because he said $100 per machine! Then, I get to the back part of the warehouse, a Who Dunnit, GTB Circus, Genie and a SOLAR FIRE!
A few others came up, and I ended up at 12 pins. But I didn't have much money, because I'm prepared for 8-10 games at $100 apiece.
So, I'm trying to play it cool. I know I can't afford *all* these games. And my gears are spinning, how can I get MORE money, and how do I choose *what* I want?
So, I'm thinking, and he says he might have some parts I'm interested in, let's go look at them! So, I walk through a room, and there are boards on shelves. A couple new DMD displays. Transformers, rubber rings, switches, parts from parted out games, bumper caps, plastics, all sorts of parts. He says $200 for all. SOLD!
So, we go back and forth on the games again, and I'm behind the 8 ball. I want these games - as many of them as I can get. But, I know I can't afford them all, and I don't want to make him mad, because then I get nothing! So, he finally comes back to me, and says 'How does $2000 sound for everything, not including the Addams?'
So... I tried to not sh*t my pants, tried to not look too green, and calmly say, 'I can do $2000'. Turns out, he wants the Addams for his own home, because of all the games he has had on route, if he had *one* game, Addams would be it.
I told him I would need to call Penske to get a truck, and he offered to use his business' truck, and charge me mileage. But told me I'd need to bring help to load the truck. DEAL!
On the way out, I saw an old generic JAMMA cab sitting in a dumpster. I looked inside it, and I had no clue what game it was, but the board had a couple EPROMS in it, so I reached in, and grabbed the board. The guy says 'do you have interest in JAMMA boards?'. I told him I had interest in EPROMs, not so much boards. He takes me in a room, and it's full of boards from games he's kitted out. I asked him for a price, and he said 'just take them all! Get them out of here!'
So, I thought I'd list a few of the boards on eBay, just to see if they had more value than the EPROMs that I'd be harvesting from them. And they DID.
A few days later, I'm loading the truck with one of his techs, who would be driving the truck, and a long time friend, the only person I could find to help load games. I decided to buy his tech lunch, before we hit the road. Word to the wise - any time you get a chance to buy a career arcade tech lunch, DO IT. The stories alone are worth the price of lunch. His tech was a nice guy, told many great stories about games of yesteryear, and mentioned to me that if I wanted the TAF, just be patient, it had problems and the owner would NEVER be able to figure out how to fix it.
He called me a month later. Had some more games. Nothing of high value, but stuff I knew I could find homes, and probably make a few bucks on. He sold me an old dodge ram with a liftgate at the same time. 6 games, $600, or 6 games and a truck, $1000. The 6 games brought in 2 grand, and I got a free pickup out of it. While the truck was ugly as hell, and rusty, I kept it for about 5 years, and all I put in it besides gas and oil was a battery and 4 new tires. When I was done with the truck, I sold it on Craigslist for $400, needing brakes and having about a million mud daubers living in it from sitting most of the time. The day the truck sold, I went outside to start the truck, and it wouldn't start. I popped the hood, and the neighbors cat was sitting on the front of the engine, half his body laying inside one of the drive belts. If it'd started, I'd have surely killed his cat. Damn lucky cat! Jump started it, and drove it onto the flatbed when the new owner showed up.
The op called me about a year later. Guess who got the TAF? Yep! No, it wasn't as good a deal as the previous games.. but it was a good deal! At that point, I'd already bought myself a TAF from another retired operator, so I just resold this one.
The other TAF came in a lot from another retired coin operator. Seems the guy had operated illegal gambling machines in the early 90s. He bought a few pins, vids and jukeboxes to make his locations seem 'legitimate'. They never got much play. I got a DE Simpsons, Teed Off, Funhouse and TAF from him for 2 grand. Sounds like a good deal at first, no?
Well..... he told me they were in his 'shed'. And the directions to his property included 'turn off the paved road'. So, I made sure we were packing heat when we went after these games! And his shed.. turned out to be a condemned house next to his that he was using as a storage building. He was getting ready to throw them in a sinkhole on his property, before knocking the building down. And they were bad. Squirrels, Mice or *something* had lived in them all at one point.
So, sometimes, the 'deals' are not all that they were cut out to be.. I still did OK on the 2nd lot, don't get me wrong... but I also had to pull ticks off my skin, spray games down with lysol and raid, etc...
The TAF had to have pretty much all of its playfield hardware replaced, including posts. Seems mouse urine is corrosive. Who knew?
New York, NY
Delhi, ON
Varna
