I buy them off old operators when I try to dig up some pins. They usually sell them decently cheap because they’re busted and abused. They’re not hard to fix because most the games late 90s onwards use computers. They just hover at the same price it seems.
It’s not like pinball machines, because they made tens and hundreds of thousands of some games!!

KLOV is probably your best bet for arcade related stuff. It's not as pretty as pinside but probably the biggest/best arcade forum. Lots of good arcade FB groups as well. They do hold value and have gone up in price like pins, but not really with the same order of magnitude. They are more expensive then they were a few years back though. I had about 10 at my high point and am down to a Mrs. Pac cabaret and don't really miss them. If you're not a purist, get one multi cade and call it a day.

I had 10 at one point, all the classic 80’s (tron, pac, DK, tempest) and couple 90’s arcade. Sold them and haven’t looked back.

I only have my Mk2 left because I played that a ton in the arcades, it’s enough for me, i run a JPac to emulate some games on it. I don’t miss them and I find they get boring, pinball is much more fun.

As mentioned above KLOV is the place for arcade collectors.

Same as @OCP2, we only own a few titles that have any real meaning to us : Tron, Pacman, Super Mario and eventually Donkey Kong is coming.. with a multicade to complete this at one point.

Those games, we found through forums on the Canadian side (MAACA and Pinball Revolution). Prices? A few classic titles do keep their value, especially if close to original, but nothing compared to pinballs. There's no fomo with arcades - so many were built! But there's also nothing to replace the feeling of the real deal, is there.

What is interesting is seeing newer arcades finding homes..

Yes, they hold their value, as long as you keep them working, and as long as you buy at “hobbyist” price and not at brick and mortar price.

A lot of the 90s and later arcades are not as numerous on the market as some people would have you believe. Yes, they made a lot of them, but they are run by operators much longer. Since they don’t require as much maintanence as pins, operators still keep them as long as people are putting quarters or dollar bills in them. When they do get beat up through use, graphics and cabinet pieces are often impossible to replace, since they were usually only made for that single game, and they often end up in the trash instead of being restored.

That Road Fighters 3D I’m selling was being used in venues as recently as a couple years ago, for example. I still see them on occasion.

Multicades are great if you like 80s games with a joystick and 2 buttons. But you can’t replicate shooters and drivers with a multi.

It’s my listing, so take it with a grain of salt.

Yes they hold value, they've been steadily increasing like pins have, but aren't nearly as inflated. I own about 8 or so, Pac Man, Neo Geo, Asteroids Deluxe, Defender, Pole Position, Guided Missile, Gigas, and a generic Dynamo multicade. Easier to repair than pins in my opinion, but monitor work is a different beast and can be intimidating if you aren't familiar with it. KLOV is a great resource of knowledge

I disagree, games that used computers are locked to specific hardware, so it's not as easy as swapping in any old graphics card or motherboard. Caps found on those motherboards and graphics cards tend to be blown up at this point due to them being from the capacitor plague of the late 90s/early 2000s, and the solder joints on those boards are extremely tiny.

I see tons of arcade one up games when searching for pinball machines on marketplace. Not sure many are selling given the number continually posted.

For games without unique controls I’d just build a retro pie based multicade and call it good. Emulation with a raspberry pi 3+ is good enough unless you’re a hardcore arcade guy. Plus you don’t need to take up as much space with a machine dedicated to one game. Driving games or those with unique controls and hardware (like vector games) justify original dedicated machines.

I have a multicade in an original DK/Mario Bros. I love it as much as my pins! I will add more as time goes on. Just watch do ads on Marketplace.

I have 4 arcade cabinets. Now a days I'd say that places like Facebook marketplace are the best. There is also KLOV but you can find stuff more localized on FB and it has much more stuff there.

Killer Instinct 2 - I actually bought this back in like 2001 from Timeout in Springfield Mall out in VA. I was in college and wanted a KI1 cabinet and searched for this one and it was MUCH different back then than it is now lol. I found it randomly online and called and asked about it, then ended up buying it for $300. The KI2 board itself now a days is worth $1k+ alone. It ended up sitting in my moms basement for years an then my garage in this house when I moved in in 2012 until winter of 2019 when I wanted to move it into my basement and make it a MAME cabinet. So that is where it is now.

Rush 2049 SE - I actually made a post on someone's post on FB about possibly wanting a pair and someone local said he had some he was going to probably look to sell. So I went and checked em out and ended up renting a trailer from uhaul to pick them up.

Maximum Force - I had this idea that I wanted to make a multi-JAMMA light gun cabinet so I was looking for an Area 51 or Max Force cabinet to do this project. I searched for like 2-3 months and then this one guy who runs a business up in Hagerstown, MD called Coinops Warehouse posted one on his FB feed. Long story short, I ended up getting one for $300 that had a cracked gun and then the other gun didn't work. I ended up opening it at home and it didn't work because it was just a loose wire. I soldered it back and it worked fine. Now I have a very complex multi-light gun cabinet with a JAMMA switcher in it.

I see you are in MD and if you are looking for something, I'd highly recommend joining some FB groups. I can point you to a few directly if you'd like. I'd also follow that Coinops Warehouse guy and if there is anything specific you want, ask him about it. I've been up there just to browse his warehouse and it's pretty cool. There is A LOT of junk in there like project cabs though so just keep that in mind. And you can basically make an offer on anything. He had my Max Force cabinet listed at $375 and I offered $300 and he said sure thing.

All that said, I am somewhat contemplating selling some of my boards and/or the Rush 2049 SE's to make room for another pin as well as help fund it lol. I only have room for my 1 pin I own right now.

EDIT:

I see you mention Arcade1up as well. They are complete trash. If you haven't seen one in person then don't even consider one until you do. I don't see how a grown adult could be happy with one, and you also can't physically fit 2 grown adults next to each other if you wanted to play 2 player.

I collect Japanese candy cabs in addition to pins, and their value has skyrocketed in recent years. If that interests you at all, Arcade Projects forum is the place to be.

You can buy those giant ass games like your picture all day long because no one wants to move them. They are hard to sell.

KLOV is your best bet for 80s stuff but they don't generally much care about later games so depends what you are looking for.

Prices have gone bananas for classic 80s games not sure about 90s and onward.

Can definitely relate to many above…KLOV by far my fav resource for buy/selling and overall discussion. As mentioned above, not as active or refined as Pinside IMO. BITD Craigslist seemed to be a great source of games but has since dried up in my experience. I’ve had some great luck down here in the Va Beach area with old operators who have warehouses full of old games that aren’t really doing much for them anymore. There’s still a few down here that have 100s of cabs. Prices obviously nowhere near pin prices but some of your more collectible cabs restored can still go for almost the cost of a Stern Pro (i.e. color Tapper). CoinOp Warehouse up your way is great but a lot of their better deals or cabs seem to be literally gone in minutes of posting or don’t even make it to post before being sold. Arcade1up while I love the idea and the ability to bring games to many more people that wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity, are junk and honestly I don’t know how people actually enjoy playing them. Me personally, I was up to about 25 games at one point and sold them all except my PC-10 and a CGC Arcade Legends which by the way for a multi is a really well built alternative for those wanting multiple games. Good luck with your search!

Arcades are usually slower to sell when the time comes. They have been increasing in price. A 60 in 1 does not play appreciably different than the original for most people. I have a couple of cocktails and a Neo Geo 4 slot. Put a couple of pins in that area turn them sideways. Arcade 1ups are trash in my opinion.

You, sir, need to give me the hookup on finding a candy cab, especially since you're local. I only need one. Short of Ultraman and Godzilla, it's the only other pinball or arcade related thing I have any interest at all in. :p

Maybe I am different, but I have had hard time selling arcade games. I started with arcade games in the 90’s and I moved into pinballs by the end of the decade. The only machines that were easy to move were the no brainers like Tron, Star wars and those games. The common ones really got hit hard with the arcade 1ups. I struggled to sell a redecalled Centipede and a redecalled Asteroid deluxe for $500 a piece. Casual people will buy 1upsz

I have about 10 full size arcade games, almost all of which I found either on Facebook marketplace or Offer Up.

Joining arcade for sale groups on Facebook is a great resource. I use beltman to ship games for an average of $350-400 anywhere in the US. If I really like something im not limited by distance

Arcades are much cheaper then pins
And the market is not nearly as hot

Certain games tron dk etc popular sell fairly quick but many of them are being emulated

I still like them but would not pay today's prices for most of them unless it was something rare.

Bigger games too are a bear to move and most people don't want to deal with them unless something unique like DDR etc.

The Konami side scrolling multiplayers like X-Men, spiderman, TMNT, and Simpsons always seem to be popular titles.

Plus time crisis 2 & 3, Mortal Kombat, tekken, star wars trilogy, street fighter II...I'm sure there's several more titles.

There were also several duds or games that just don't hold up well today or in a home environment.

But it seems like most casual buyers prefer as many games as possible in one cab, rather than owning a whole fleet of cabs. Pin buyers seem to be the opposite.

This!

With limited space, I went with a A1up and modded with a retro pi kit with XL control panel. 6000 games in 1 (though I had many QC issues with my actual kit I ordered, which I may create a thread one day) but it’s nice to have all that in a small footprint. Now that saved space allows for things like bubble hockey and a unique version of Tetris… maybe a sit down racer, GT, or shooter down the road that requires unique controls.

I’m very happy with this from a functionality and playability standpoint and the mere $750 missing from my wallet all in. And we fit just fine with the XL panel.

6C6AB312-DA2F-47B1-8D05-208549DFF3EA (resized).jpeg

There is another site; KLOV:

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/

If you need a reference i can give you one.

Rush the Rock comes apart. The original Rush does not come apart. Rush 2049 does come apart and that is how I got it into my basement, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it through the door.

Arcade1up is actually what got me back into it as well and why I pulled my cabinet into my house from my garage. Arcade1up looked really cool then I saw one on display at Walmart and was like WTF is this crap? The artwork literally rubbed off on my hand as I was playing it in the store just to try it out. The sound sucked. The screen looked like a tablet because it's so little. And there was not a chance in hell 2 adults could play next to each other in the SF2 cabinet I was playing. I just immediately realized it would only be suitable for my 4 year old at the time if I were to get one but I never ended up buying one and never will. The prices they are asking for them now a days are a joke. The newer ones are like $700.

You also mention Virtua Cop. Just FYI that is going to be VERY tough to find, and it is also not a game that is easily swappable. Those sega games are just not standard JAMMA games and require multiple boards and their own specific harnesses to connect. They also use different technology than most light gun games and the standard Happ guns won't work on those, and vice versa. They use infrared tech instead of the standard optical guns that many other games use. I have about 18 light gun games right now and my cabinet has an 8 way switcher. One of the ports on the switcher I have external so I can swap on the fly without pulling the cabinet out and I set the board on top of my Rush 2049 cabinet behind the topper, so you can't see it or anything. Right now I have Time Crisis on that one as that is one of if not my favorite light gun game.

Here is a bunch of groups on FB. Some of these are just for boards primarily and some get more traffic than others, but these are the ones I use.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1959506730844767/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/329829610807930/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/eastcoastarcade/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ArcadePinball/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/430055717205352/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Arcade4sale/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1554852071285414/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1413885755408760/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1041730652598065/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ArcadeAddicts/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2267669440119923/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/499649376898165/

And then here is Coinop Warehouse and then the other one Coinop Amusement is like the sister company or something - I don't remember the exact dynamics but I follow both of them.

https://www.facebook.com/coinopwarehouse
https://www.facebook.com/coinopamusement

And as you can see, I don't really have any more space right now lol.

IMG_6326 (resized).jpg

He must have missed it, This was already said in post #3

KLOV

They hold value and depending on what title do increase in value.

More and better deals available than pins.....By far.

Arcade machines from many era's are super fun and well worth experiencing.

If someone frequents KLOV they probably have more of a vintage coin op collector’s mindset. Which differs greatly from the person purchasing Arcade 1up or multicades running emulation.

Most members of KLOV own dedicated cabs playing a single game. No different then pinside members with pins.

The biggest difference between KLOV and pinside is KLOV leans more towards restoration and preservation of older coin op while pinside is largely about “new pins”.

Not all but much of the content.

And 4...and 12...and 13... .

Here is a very detailed log about the whole project with a buncha pictures.

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/multi-light-gun-game-cabinet-log.467638/

Aside from the original cabinet it was around $300 for the switcher and adapters. The. The cost of the boards. I saved A LOT of money by not being in a rush to get some boards and waiting for deals. And same with buying untested boards. Like ingot Area 51 Site 4 untested without HDD for $30. Got it home and imaged the HDD from mame file and it worked.

If you have more questions feel free to ask I love talking about that stuff.

I just joined there under the same name Zartan looking forward to trying to find my last two games.

Yeah I have to say it was an awesome project. I probably had more fun putting it all together than actually playing the stuff lol. I still have some games I've barely played and I don't get that itch to play them very often, especially n ow that I have a pin. That is what I usually want to play now a days lol.

As mentioned with the boards, I also kind of lucked out with the prices I got some of them for. But being in no rush for a lot of them was key. I could sell a lot of the games I have for like 2-4x what I paid for them. I have some rare ones too and I really have no clue what a fair price for some of them would be if I sold them. It also lead me to some games I had never heard of, like Target Terror, which is one of the best light gun games IMO.

And then I got this game called Locked N Loaded which I had never heard of, which is basically a Lethal Enforces knock off but it's pretty rare, and I'd argue it's better than Lethal Enforcers. I also got Lethal Enforcers 2 pretty damn cheap but I honestly think the first one is more fun and a better game, and can be had cheaper than part 2.

Oh, and Area 51 Site 4 sucks. If you haven't played it and like Area 51, I would not recommend it. It's basically a collection of mini games and wasn't anything like I expected. One of the things I dislike about it is the music too, it's awful and you have to hear it when playing lol. Area 51 is also a lot shorter than I remember. Maximum Force is a better game and just more fun. I do like the Area 51 cabinet better than the Max Force one though.

Some arcades command more than others

fortwayne.craigslist.org link

That's true of any collector's market lol, but I dont know that Timber's worth that much, I think it's worth about half that

Agreed, this guy is definitely reaching a bit

I’ve never heard of it or seen it!

Exactly, a rarer game so people think its worth more. I've never played one myself but I've heard the gameplay is uninspired.

Wow… this guy is not cool. This is where price police will come.

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/three-stooges-qbert-timber.496711/

See here. This guy I’ve seen deals with majority top notch condition games sales and rare titles. He respectively sold around $3500.

But $8,500!??!? That is Craigslist price there

I had a pretty crazy collection of 80s games years ago and some clean rare ones.

Some of them did in fact go for crazyass pinball money.

Like anything else you gotta know what to buy and what to avoid.

Clean original condition games are pretty scarce these days since everyone thinks they are a restore expert and fuck them up on a daily basis.

Also too many people who think games that look good in original condition need to be fully restored. No appreciation for patina. It's also what irks me about the pinball community

I've played perfectly restored games(both pins and vids) that plated like crap, like actual poo- weak flippers, targets misaligned, wrong kinds of rubber used, joysticks too tight, buttons that don't work all the time, steering wheels not centered or their feedback motors not working properly, etc. And have played games that look as though "they've got some city miles on them" that played perfectly, like insanely good.

I'll take the latter any day and twice on Sunday. It's the kind I prefer to buy, too.

I’m trying to find a nice killer instinct so Pm if you have any info or selling. I don’t have a Facebook account, and never will but I will look at some of the info here. Thanks guys

I have a few. Multicade (vertical), centipede and Lunar Lander (a grail game for me).

Haven’t bought anything in a long time except my recent Arcade1up Tron and it’s sitting unassembled in my game room.

Yup I call it "john's arcade" disease since that jaghole has to "restore" every game he gets on youtube.

People think thats what you do thanks to him and his lame videos... pickup a game and strip the paint off even if it's a nice survivor. No respect for its history.

I liked his videos but I do agree with the criticism. Haven't watched his channel in quite a while and he hasn't uploaded much new content ever since he started being an operator.

I want to restore my Bow and Arrow pretty badly. I’m pretty scared to do it. I’ll probably try this spring. I like the patina on my superman. Looks great but there is what looks like mould stains on it. Looks like crap to me!

Didn’t someone in CA. Who posts here on Pinside built 10 or so of these Timber’s a few years ago? I remember some complimented his work while purists slammed him for building them from scratch even tho the boards were original. Wish I could remember the guys ID. He did beautiful work and the games he built/restored looked as good or better than New.

I’m whacked out on cold meds so forgive me if I’m wrong. It may have been the same guy who had a thread here about a full blown masterpiece T2 gun game restoration.

I’m pretty sure the link you provided is someone who also posts here on pinside. I believe his ID is Teekee. He deals in higher end video games and pins.

I recommend checking coinopexpress, they specialize in arcade rooms closing in Asia and act as clearance brokers. You can get some sweet deals on recent games although tax and shipping can add a load to the bill depending on where the games are located.

They have some good Korean candy cabs with CRT screens, not as good as a Japanese cab but these are really hard to get at decent prices right now.

Arcade is less hardware dependant than pinballs so they don't appreciate the same especially dedicated games who have inherent limitations.