Reburbishing whats too Far?

[KrawDaddy]

Evnin'

At what point does a cab lose its original status?

If I took an old pole position and replaced all the artwork to original specs- how about then?

What if the cabinet has water damage and you built a duplicate cabinet out of new wood, replaced new artwork and placed all original hardware  back in?

Whan have i gone too far?

Kind Regards\

Kraw

[Apollo]

IMHO the wood doesn't matter, the game is the artwork, controls and PCB and marquee. So if you have a Pacman PCB, Pacman artwork ( repro or otherwise ) Pacman CP and Pacman marquee you have an original Pacman. Wood is just wood.

[Lilwolf]

To make money... its just the board/roms.

All others is in your head.  If you can repo every part... and feel good about it... Its a original.

Heck, if you get a 720 controller and realize its only good for one game... but your willing.... Build up a full mame machine with 720 specs... I would still say its original... original to you

[NoOne=NBA=]

IMHO the wood doesn't matter, the game is the artwork, controls and PCB and marquee. So if you have a Pacman PCB, Pacman artwork ( repro or otherwise ) Pacman CP and Pacman marquee you have an original Pacman. Wood is just wood.

You won't have an "original" with this.
You'd have a repro.
Think cars here.
If you buy a Cobra "kit car", and then build it all from scratch, you don't end up with an ORIGINAL Cobra when you're done--even if you put in a REAL Cobra engine, drivetrain, etc... into it.

Basically, an ORIGINAL is going to be a fully stock cab.
A REFURB is one where you put fixed, but originally stock stuff back onto the original cabinet (i.e. shop the boards, replace the monitor, etc...).
A REPRO will be one where you built the cabinet, and put original stuff onto it.

[romperwomb]

I'd think the same rules that apply to antique furniture and other old stuff would apply to an Arcade Cab.

It's going to be quite hard to have a perfectly original mint cab if was actually in an arcade.  Just like it would be impossible to have mint armoire if it were dropped off in Grand Central Station.  But even painting or restoring antique furniture can sometimes lower the value.  I suspect that in the future this will be true for Arcade cabs as well.

Can't wait to see the great grand kids hauling Grandpa's old Punch Out Cab to the Antique Road Show.   

[RayB]

I suspect that in the future this will be true for Arcade cabs as well.

Uh oh. Does this mean I shouldn't replace t-molding?

[cbmeeks]

I don't know why this is even a big deal.

Here is my $0.02:

If it LOOKS like an original, PLAYS like and original, and FEELS like an original...then it is ORIGINAL enough for YOU.  In fact, if the only time you can tell it's not original is when the OS boots up and loads MAME, then I would say you are good to go.

BUT, who even cares?  I have a friend that lives in a log cabin.  The cabin was a kit.  He didn't go into the woods with an ax and chop down a thousand trees....but he STILL LIVES IN A LOG CABIN...lol

Pac Man is Pac Man, wood is wood, game play is game play......don't worry about originality...just have fun.

Don't hate the repros people!  If you put a quarter in, do we still not play?  LOL

cb

[Chris]

Don't hate the repros people!

[cbmeeks]

Don't hate the repros people!  If you put a quarter in, do we still not play?  LOL

Nobody hates the repro people, I'm sure, but if you're on eBay bidding on an "original" rare cabinet with "original" sideart and you get it to find out it's a homemade repro with sideart from ArcadeGraphix, you're going to be an unhappy camper.  People playing the games may not care, but people collecting them do.

--Chris

Yeah, I know...I was going for a whole "If you ---tallywhacker--- us, do we not bleed" joke...lame one at that...lol

cb

[paigeoliver]

Replacement artwork only devalues a game if it is lower quality or different type than the original artwork. Note that there WERE one original run of sticker equipped Ms. Pacs, so sticker sideart is FINE for them.

Upgrading a classic to a switching power supply increases the value, especially if the upgrade doesn't modify the original harness.

Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Galaga machines wired JAMMA with JAMMA bootleg PBCs are worth about the same as all original machines.

Replacing the t-molding with correct molding is fine. Replacing it with incorrect molding depends on the machine. You can't get Sega "double teal stripe" t-molding anywhere, so it has to be replaced with other types if damaged.

As for reproduction cabinets. depends on the quality of the work. A high quality repro can actually be worth much more than an original due to condition.

"Wrong cabinet" restorations are worth less than original cabinet restorations. You often see this with Midway games, as there were 3 or 4 different variations on the same cabinet. The shapes and materials were slightly different, but the parts all interchanged. You also see this quite a bit with Nintendo cabinets.

I have also seen quite a few "wrong cabinet" restorations of Williams' games as well. I once saw a Defender in a Stargate cabinet with FULL repro artwork, sideart and all.

But, I wouldn't be worrying too much about restoration value right now. This is the year that values tank. This is not the year to do restorations, it is the year to buy up all the restorations OTHER people did over the last few years.