What's a mostly working Galaxian worth?

[kckenkc]

Hi,

I bought an old Galaxian cab to make a MAME machine out of... well of course I had to tinker with it before doing anything else, and it is basically 95% working now (as a Galaxian).   It only has 2 issues - 1) the startup sound is really quiet and has a high-pitch tone to it, and 2) when the missiles come down, they stay in the upper part of the screen as opposed to come all the way down, something with the y-zone is not working on them - it is only the missiles, everything else works perfect.

So the box looks like it had the decals/graphics removed, and someone put some anti-skid tape on the control bar.  The marquee has a mark in it, and the screen surround is not original, so it is is far from being an easy restoration, but the cab is solid (which is what I bought it for).

SO - at this point, I feel kind of guilty gutting it to make a MAME because someone might want to restore it to a fully operational Galaxian, but I'm not really into the restorations, I really just wanted a MAME cab so I could have a bunch of different games in my home pub/brewery (I have air hockey, pinball, and this game, so it is for me and friends who stop by to have a couple home-brews, and everyone likes different games).

Anyway - if I sell it, what do you think it is worth?   Given it is already missing lots of original stuff like the stickers and surround, would it be all that bad if I preserved the parts for someone else to later restore, and then just went ahead with the MAME conversion?   

Looking for advise...  I'm new here, so go easy on me if I posted this someplace I wasn't supposed to.

Thanks!

Ken

PS - If you know how to fix either of the 2 issues it has, I'm open to suggestions on that too.  I play it as is, but it is challenging because you have to keep an eye on the upper part of the screen to see where the missiles are.

[Ian]

I don't know man... It's yours and that is one sweet looking cab. It wouldn't hurt trying craigslist to see if you could find a trade. I am sure there are arcade purists that live by you always looking for a good deal. If it was me I would do a kind of Mame/restore. I would throw mame in there with a few games (top 100) and then buy some of that nice Galaxian artwork and try to bring back some of that love. Kind of a tribute you know? Just my two cents.

[behrmr]

It's worth at least $200-$250 as it sits to a collector that would want to rescue it. For restoration quality artwork is expensive. That and a repro bezel would set you back about $300. But it would look sweet   But If you're going to MAME it you can probably find a multi game control panel already made and sell the original one to a collector. The PCB isn't worth more than $25-$30 non working as it is. What area do you live in?



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[JDFan]

Depending on where you live and the market there - Behrmr is probably close (though you'd probably want to list it around $300 and be willing to negotiate down to the $200-$250 to let them think they are getting a deal)

 So will probably get less for it than what a new cabinet in that kind of condition would cost you for your Mame build. Since it already is missing so many parts ( side art, monitor surround, CP in poor shape, etc.) you might just want to put the parts you can't reuse aside (metal CP, Marquee, Monitor, controls, PCB ) or list them for sale for a few $'s and use it as a base for your Mame build.

[leapinlew]

Depending on where you live and the market there - Behrmr is probably close (though you'd probably want to list it around $300 and be willing to negotiate down to the $200-$250 to let them think they are getting a deal)

 So will probably get less for it than what a new cabinet in that kind of condition would cost you for your Mame build. Since it already is missing so many parts ( side art, monitor surround, CP in poor shape, etc.) you might just want to put the parts you can't reuse aside (metal CP, Marquee, Monitor, controls, PCB ) or list them for sale for a few $'s and use it as a base for your Mame build.

Agreed.

I've had way more luck with Galaga than Galaxian, which is kind of backward since Galaga is the sequel. Galaga was such a good game and a lot more people know it, I guess.

I'd say get the game playing 100%, replace the marquee, clean the whole thing and list it for $600 to see what it does. You aren't looking for 10 buyers, you just need 1. That cabinet looks to be in real nice shape. If you are looking to mame a cabinet and this cabinet design is what you want, I'd keep it and sell off the internals.