KC, KS Superauction buys - full results

[nostrebor]

Just got home from the Kansas City Superauction with a couple of new goodies Managed to pick up a complete non-working Moon Patrol that appears to have the wrong power board. It is in nice shape with good art, a few cig burns on the CP, and a worn out 2-way joystick. I intend to restore this one as MP is one of my personal favorites! The other one is an Atari Firefox cabinet with a Top Gun Conversion. It is also non-working, but complete, and only shows a bit over 4000 plays on the meter. I bought it for the controller, but it looks real nice so I may restore it also. a couple of pics are attached below.

As far as the auction was concerned, it was so-so for game choices, excellent for buyers. many games were $5-$10, with some for $1. At the end they were 3 for a $1 The highest game sold was actually a Jakks Ms Pac Man in a cooked Taito cab. Sold for $650 The highest priced "real" game was a 19" 4-player X-men, at about $275. Many nice games were sold in the $100 range.

I took a friend from work, to play the free games but most were not powered up, and if you got too many going, it would trip a breaker We did play quite a few, but it was not near as much fun as the St Louis auction - for game playing.

[ripzone]

I wish there were auctions like that here in Portugal.

I only know another MAME cabinet builder here.  :

[paigeoliver]

How in the world are you supposed to play Top Gun with a Firefox yoke, last I remembered Top Gun was an 8-way game. Or was there an analog kit available too?

I predicted last year that 2005 is the year the botton drops out on game values. Luckily I already sold everything that wasn't a keeper. Well, except my Turbo, I still have that, but with a grand total of $55 invested in it I'm not too worried about the value.

[Flinkly]

i wish there was a closer superauction to me also...dang california gets everything.  also, i hate you since you got a firefox cabinet.   

[nostrebor]

How in the world are you supposed to play Top Gun with a Firefox yoke, last I remembered Top Gun was an 8-way game. Or was there an analog kit available too?

Yeah, we were thinking the same thing. Top gun was an 8-way game. (strangely, KLOV doesn't have it on their list?) It did have Top Gun paperwork in the cab, but it doesn't shed much light. This cab seem to have a power problem also, so far the only thing that has power is the marquee.

Edit: Found it on KLOV as VS. Top Gun. (Just like the marquee says DUH) No real help though?

[Nannuu]

Oh man I need to hit the KS auctions one of these days.  It isn't that cheap here in DFW yet.  Although, at the end you can get $1 cabs but usually they aren't in very nice shape.
Nice score on the Moon Patrol and Top Gun.

[unix4hire]

ha, yes the auction was a blast today.  I was the first to buy a very nice Lee Trevino Fighing Golf (non working) for a mere George Washington!  It's an excellent cabinet (how often have you seen or even heard of this game in a cabinet?  Doubt it was hardly ever played) which I intend to turn into a small mame cabinet or simply put in one of those jakks controllers + 19" TV and get me $500 at the next auction!

Also got some crummy non-working bowling game for $20.  I should also have cost only $1 but it was early on in the day.

I only wish I had a truck: I would have been able to spend less than $100 for 10 nice cabinets! --Erich

[tommy]

If you missing some things from your moon patrol, or just want a better part ive got a few things still on my mp, for trade.

[quarterback]

Just got home from the Kansas City Superauction with a couple of new goodies Managed to pick up a complete non-working Moon Patrol

[nostrebor]

Just got home from the Kansas City Superauction with a couple of new goodies Managed to pick up a complete non-working Moon Patrol
          [snip]
many games were $5-$10, with some for $1

If you don't mind me askin', how much did you pay for the Moon Patrol?

$60. I was tempted to wait for another MP that was on dead row, but this one was complete, right down to the paperwork, and I REALLY wanted it The later dead one was ust as nice/a bit nicer, and sold for $40. I bid it up to $30, but I was pushing what I could haul, and my friend was still looking, so I let it go

[Wyluli]

Congratulations on the score.  That moon patrol cab looks nice. 
Wish I could have been there....

[Hoagie_one]

i hope i get as lucky adn score a yoke at teh upcoming superauction in michigan

[nostrebor]

Josh McCormick posted full results at RGVAC so here is his report:

My first trip to a Kansas City Superauctions. It was some distance away,
but incredibly easy to find. I think this was one of those auctions were
you'd love it, or you hate it. Most of that, of course, would depend on
what you were looking for (or looking to get) at the auction.

MOST IMPRESSIVE SIGHT: An upright Sinistar 90% fitting into a
Mitsubitshi Lancer Sportback LS. If there wasn't a passenger in the
front seat, it would have been inside the vehicle all the way. The
hatchback was down but just shy of being latched. An amazing sight, I
wish I had brought the camera! Marketing at Mitsubitshi would have ate
that image up.

AUCTION SUMMARY: Some interesting pieces, many sad pieces, some
seriously depressed prices (certainly compared to the Dallas
Superauctions that I was at the week previous).

Okay. Here's the auction run-down, more or less in the order they were
put up on the block. (I might have mixed one or two here or there.) I'll
follow up with some more comments at the end. Want to integrate these
results into a database (public or private)? Fine by me. A credit would
be nice. Add it into your existing auction list.

KANSAS CITY SUPERAUCTIONS 03/19/2005

$85     Skill Slot              No LCD - simple version
$60     Skill Slot              No LCD - simple version
$70     Skill Slot              No LCD - simple version
$100    Skill Slot              No LCD - simple version
$100    Kangaroo                Worked good.
$85     Eswat
$85     Hang-On
$5      Aero Fighters           Dead Monitor
$120    Special Criminal Invest OK
$90     Golden Axe              Wavy monitor
$45     Cabal
$160    Operation Wolf
$130    NARC
$45     Paperboy                DEAD
$50     Cowboys of Moo Mesa     DEAD
$30     Polaris Cabaret
$650    MsPac / Galaga Multi
$650    Arcade Classics 39-in-1
$135    Street Fighter II
$40     Mat Mania Cabaret       Vertical collapse of monitor
$310    Donkey Kong Cocktail    Very dim image (Seller helped bid up?)
$65     Relief Pitcher
$250    Cougar Dart Board       Wrapped in cellophane, unable to test
$100    Aladdin's Choice        Dark Monitor [Later resold for $80]
$150    Pengo
$675    Multigame               Ms. Pac/Galaga/Frogger/Donkey Kong
$225    Special Criminal Invest Looked good, wheel vibrate worked.
$20     Strata Bowling          DEAD
$50     Silkworm
$95     Jungle King             DEAD, monitor appeared good
$275    Tron Cabaret             (Seller bid it up a bit.)
$235    Satan's Hollow Cabaret  Monitor image was fair
$125    Ninja Game Cabaret  *STRANGE IMAGE*. Wrong tube/gun mix?
$50      Cabaret             "Galaga", it was alleged. Bad monitor.
$60     Jailbreak Cabaret
$155    Tournament Solitaire
$135    Arkanoid Cabaret
$150    Tron                    Played blind -- no monitor output
$60     Moon Patrol             "Dead/Complete" -- monitor flashes
$70     Tron                    DEAD
$25     Make Trax               DEAD
$185    Zaxxon                  (I thought these had METAL CPs?)
$110    Capcom Bowling          No marquee
$160    Sinistar                RAM Error / Resets on test pattern
$120    GORF "was working"    Then worked after last bid. No plug.
$55     Strata Bowling          "Cue ball missing" error
$170    Moon Patrol             Looked pretty decent.
$80     Wheel of Fortune
$120    Crime Fighters          "Was Working" - Gauntlet Cab
$160    Tetris
$35     Capcom Bowling          Vertical collapse of monitor
$200    Turkey Shoot            ROM ERROR + Feathers flying in cab!
$125    Commando
$100    Thundercade             Distorted video
$120    vs. Excitebike
$110    Bad Dudes
$250    X-Men                   4 player, good looking
$45     Shinobi Cabaret?        Vertical monitor collapse
$200    Toy Pop Cabaret
$45     Trivia Whiz Cabaret
$250    Locked and Loaded       Guns not tested, no coins accepted.
$70     Cloak and Dagger        Bad?
$85     Cowboys of Moo Mesa     Worked but very very wavy monitor
$75     Top Gun                 DEAD. In SW:ROTJ cabinet.
$375    Megatouch XL Gold 6000  Worked well. Seller bid up?
$145    Special Criminal Invest Corrupted background video
$100    Krazy Bowl
$20     Choplifter              "BAD IC" displayed on monitor
$10     Elevator Action         DEAD
$5      Twin Eagle              DEAD/No Board?
$35     Son of Phoenix          GARBAGE on screen
$90     Kid Niki
$10     Birdie King II          DEAD
$125    Martial Champion
$75     Exerion
$75     Rough Ranger
$15     Hang On                 DEAD
$125    Raiden                  Custom Marquee
$30     Wild Western            DEAD
$125    Turbo
$100    KLAX
$100    Neo Turf Masters
$10     Pole Position           DEAD
$35     Time Soldiers           DEAD
$50     KLAX                    Poor monitor
$85     Martial Champion
$10     Chase HQ                DEAD
$75     Pole Position II        [Mine] Corrupted road graphics.
$1      Fighting Wolf           DEAD
$90     Golden Axe
$170    Operation Wolf
$150    Hotdog Storm
$25     Operation Wolf          DEAD
$25     Grand Champ             Poor video
$25     Operation Wolf          DEAD (another one!)
$30     Final Fight             DEAD
$125    Krazy Bowl
$10     Pole Position           DEAD
$100    Tron Cabaret            DEAD
$105    Gorf Cabaret            DEAD
$5      Pole Position           DEAD
$5      Ikari Warriors          DEAD
$10     KLAX                    DEAD
$70     Spy Hunter              DEAD
$100    Xevious                 DEAD
$40     Pro Golf Cabaret        DEAD
$120    Elevator Action         DEAD
$85     Pit Boss
$100    Capcom Bowling          Backglass missing
$5      Gambling Cabaret        DEAD
$5      Pole Position           DEAD
$100    Lethal Enforcers        DEAD No Guns, no Monitor
$20     Raiden                  DEAD
$1      Video Poker             DEAD
$20     TRON                    DEAD - Partially gutted
$95     Bosconian Cabaret       DEAD
$25     Circus                  DEAD (B/W vid?)
$5      Video Poker             DEAD
$5      Video Poker             DEAD
$10     Video Poker Dodge City  "UNAUTHORIZED CONVERSION" on screen
$5      Pole Position           DEAD
$55     Tron Cabaret            DEAD
$40     Cloak & Dagger              DEAD
$5      WWF Superstars          DEAD
$5      Alpine Ski              DEAD
$20     KLAX                    DEAD
$1      Pole Position           DEAD "no board"
$1      Pole Position           DEAD (Yes, yet another.)
$5      Fisherman's Bait        DEAD & broken fishing reel
$5      Fisherman's Bait Kit    Goodies in a box.
$5      Raiden                  DEAD
$5      Cowboys of Moo Mesa     DEAD
$15     Elevator Action         DEAD
$40     Moon Patrol             DEAD
$5      Monte Carlo             DEAD (B/W racing vid?)
$225    Buck Rogers Pinball     The only pinball machine!
$650    A children's carousel   Worked great. Nice music.
$25     Shuffleshot             DEAD
$25     TRON                    DEAD
$75     Video Poker El Dorado
$1      Pole Position           DEAD / UGLY
$5      Battletoads             DEAD
$1      3 Video Poker Machines  DEAD and no face or CP
$15     Cowboys of Moo Mesa     DEAD, PCB in back
$10     P-47 by Jaleco          DEAD
$20     Pole Position II DEAD (no monitor or back) **plus**
        Video Poker DEAD (no coin acceptors or mechs) **plus**
        Spy Hunter DEAD (looked okay) all for one price.
$1      Metal Detector          The old walk-through kind.

END TIME: Approx 12:15pm [2 hours long]

People at the auction said there was a lot more junk than usual. I don't
know what is usual for this location, but it was dead machine city. If
you were going to build a fleet of MAME conversions, this was the
auction to attend. No new games. No cockpits/sit-in games. Few top-tier
classics. One cocktail. Cabarets left and right (I don't know why!),
although many not working. One pinball machine. One megatouch.

Prices were low. I've been out of touch for a bit, but I think I got a
good deal on the Kangaroo and the Tron Cabaret. You know those
multigames that were selling here for $650-$675? They were going at the
Dallas auction in the $1400 range.

Some of the prices being so low was all of the dead machines and poor
condition working machines. Lots of one with monitor problems. It looks
like at this auction, you had some people getting rid of their junk
machines. But there was also some good machines mixed in here and there
that probably didn't get the price they should have. Maybe the
overabundance of dead games had people concentrating on the fixer-uppers.

Dead Cabarets were sold with the line, "This could be converted into a
Pac-Man machine!" The number of dead Cowboys of Moo Mesa uprights were
only outnumbered by the number of dead Pole Position machines. I lost
track of the number of dead Pole Position uprights.

Game I wish I could have taken the bidders aside for? "Locked and
loaded". Two guns. Shooting game. The free-play button on the outside of
the cab didn't work. The coin acceptors didn't work. The cabinet and
coin door was locked. I had a sneaking feeling that the high bidder may
come to find out that the guns don't work.

Funniest game? Turkey Shoot. Due to the ROM error and the game
constantly resetting, you had feathers constantly flying all inside of
the cabinet. It was a hoot! It probably sold for more than it would
otherwise have been worth.

Funny bidding? Yes, a few phantom bidders that got peddled back down.
Some owners bidding up their games... but at those prices, I'm not sure
I can blame them. Hey! If the person you are bidding against doesn't
work for the auction company, but is standing behind the machine you are
bidding on, helping the roadie get the games to work (or is constantly
hovering over a machine or group of machines), any idea who that might
be?

The bidders included only a few operators... mostly the ones with things
to sell. The audience seemed to be a majority of collectors and people
that were pulled in by local advertising. No people with far far more
money than smarts. Young people, for the most part. Apparently,
advertising was good. I pulled into a gas station some miles away, and
the attendant (over the intercom) asked if I just came from there.

People were friendly, talkative, relaxed.

My most troublesome personal story was on the way back. The direct route
from Kansas City to Tulsa involves going on secondary highways. The ones
that go through small towns. Sure enough, one had a drug enforcement
checkpoint, randomly pulling over cars. Looks like they were full when I
drove by, but I saw how one officer glared at my pickup truck filled
with arcade games. It didn't take a psychic to know that he was itching
for an opportunity to get his drug dog all over that!

Scary thing is, these are auction games. I don't know WHERE they've
been. For all I know, it could have been in a drug kingpin's bedroom and
been caked in residue from years of... what was the name of that game
again? Oh, yes. "Krazy Bowl". Just one of those little moments where a
tiny possibility could have been a major problem. The liability of
transferring newly acquired arcade games across state lines.

[APFelon]

You should have taken highway 71 to Joplin and headed west on I-44... It certainly would have been faster (I assume you took 169 through Kansas).

Unless you were looking to avoid those nasty Oklahoma toll roads.

APf

[nostrebor]

You should have taken highway 71 to Joplin and headed west on I-44... It certainly would have been faster (I assume you took 169 through Kansas).

Unless you were looking to avoid those nasty Oklahoma toll roads.

APf

This was a copied post from RGVAC. I avoid Kansas highways at all costs

[Hoagie_one]

did that dead ikari machine have the rotary sticks? 

[Hoagie_one]

another question.  How does the bidding work?  Do you just call out bids or is like those crazy auctions you see on TV where you cant even understand the guy.

[nostrebor]

Ikari question = Yes

Crazy talk auction style = Yes

[Hoagie_one]

how do you understand it?  I'm so gonna be lost when i go.

[tommy]

I havent been but im sure there understandable or they wouldnt be selling much. 

[Hoagie_one]

I'm sure...just have teh first timer jitters

[unix4hire]

It's easy to understand the auctioneer.  He calls out a buy price very clearly, then mumbles and pretends(?) to speak real fast, then if a hand goes up he uncreases the buy price by $10 or whatever.  It's nothing to worry about and pretty exciting to bid on something you want, then actually get it.  Heck, after the first 2 machines you'll be able to understand how it works and be ready for the rest.  Just make sure you have a bid number before you try to bid or it won't count (if you win, that is).

I spoke with nostrebor a bit while we waited at the checkout line.  I swear if I had a bigger truck I would have cleaned house on those dead machines.  I didn't know ikari went for a mere $5, that's insane.  I wanted to just pull the CP off and toss the machine since I didn't have room to haul it, but by this point the games were flying so fast I couldn't hardly think if I wanted to spend money on 'em or not.  wish I would have bought that dead tron for $30 as well (full control panel looked great).

[nostrebor]

Unix4hire,

Hey! It's good to put a face with a name. Did I see you helping clean up the exploded cab in the parking lot? We were trying not to laugh, until we saw the owner laughing. For those who weren't there, a guy lost a machine out of his truck, over a closed tailgate. It did a head-first gainer into the pavement, and simply disintegrated. The rumor was that it was one of the dead $5 games, but it still hurt to watch!

Did your Moon Patrol light up? It actually was nicer than the one I bought, and $20 cheaper! I would call it a great score!

I seem to be missing a bit of wire harness between my power board and the heatsink/transformer. Would you be interested in shooting a pic of yours and e-mailing to me? Just PM me if you can.

[SaiNRuB]

Man i woulda took home the bosconian and tron cabaret with a fury.

[shawnzilla]

I picked up a Kung-fu Lady Pachislo at this auction for $60. Fully operational and looks great!

I was soooo jealous that you got the Kangaroo machine, Nostrebor, it was right after I bought the Pachislo, so my auction fever had passed. 

[nostrebor]

I picked up a Kung-fu Lady Pachislo at this auction for $60. Fully operational and looks great!

I was soooo jealous that you got the Kangaroo machine, Nostrebor, it was right after I bought the Pachislo, so my auction fever had passed. 

Actually I didn't get the Kangaroo. I posted that list from the RGVAC forum. Credit is given to the original poster at the top of the post. I did buy a nice Moon Patrol and a Firefox Cabinet, and I wish I had bid more on the Jungle King