Cheap Cabinet Kits?

[supazio]

Me and a friend are planning a Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike machine (MAME box with a PS2 instead of a PC) and were wondering about a good way to acquire an upright cabinet kit for cheap. The cheapest I had found was around $375, but the guy I was talking to said that I could find them "for way less." So now two jobless teens are looking for cheap kits.

[Jeff AMN]

Well, the thing about the kits is that they are all overpriced. You aren't so much paying for the kit, but for the time you save in building your own.

You might find them a bit cheaper, but it's actually cheapest to get an old cab, clean it up, and MAME it.

[Arcades R Fun]

Jeff AMN is quite right.
Find a nice used cabinet. Preferebly one that uses a control panel ledge like 4 player game cabinets from games like Simpsons, TMNT, X-Men, Capt. America etc.

You can look up the auction houses to see if there are any auctions in your area.
usamusments.com
Superauctions.com
They sell many cabinets that otherwise are dead but make great MAME conversions and go for less than $100.

Or just go to basementarcade.com for real auction results and links to the auction houses.

E-Bay can also be a resource as well.

You should be able to find a nice gutted cabinet for under $100.

Then look under the Buy/Sell/Trade thread on these Message Boards and buy all the Happ Controls/Ultimarc parts you need to fix it up!

Jack

[Havok]

Check usenet - I got my first sit down cabinet for free. All it needed was a monitor fix, otherwise it was complete.

http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=33610239

[myntik1]

you have to be a fiend about getting a cabinet.  check craigslist every day and the usenet groups.  most of the time you can find something that's an easy fix for dirt cheap. i bought a nfl blitz for $50 that needed a cap kit. and i've been a day late on a dozen other deals because i only check cl once a week

welcome to the biggest waste of your time. i wish i had a different addiction, one that didn't require my to hoist old beatdown games out of people's foul smelling, cluttered basements.  - ok I've done my useless rant for the day and now i feel better. welcome to the fam

[Jeff AMN]

Well, I got a free Blitz cabinet from a local arcade distributor. I just dropped by, asked if they had any non-working cabs, and they gave one to me as long as I was willing to haul it away. Also, I got a fully working Street Fighter II cab for $300 from the same place. Look up the nearest distributor and give them a call. A lot of times they will unload cabs just to make more space in their storage area.

[Arcades R Fun]

How true! I have an arcade vendor friend who would place games on the loading dock and give collectors just 1 day to pick them up for free! Then he just threw them away in the dumpster, how sad!