SUPER AUCTIONS ADVENTURE

[Ummon]

Yesterday, there was an arcade auction in Tempe, AZ. This was my first arcade auction. It was hosted by Super Auctions, and they were great. An honest business, and a real professional and nice group of people. There were a lot of machines. Most of them worked, though the cosmetics varied. Some didn't work well or at all. There were also some empty cabs just waiting for projects, and some people I talked with were there for those. However, some things just got PASSED. Stuff that wasn't that bad - just that nobody wanted - or were too large, like a couple of the driving/cockpit games. And most things went CHEAP. For example, a pretty decent Xybots that was complete and may have worked (they didn't have adequate power to run things, and I didn't see it on while I was there) went for $20.
 
First, I'll include a crude drawing of the layout. In a circle, from lower right to lower left, it went like this: assorted miscellaneous, snack bar, family machines (skeeball-like stuff), then a few empty cabs, lower room was driving games, office above that. Then the top row was all cabs, and the four center rows were all double lines of cabs. First circle next to top row was slots, then shooters (Crisis Zone, Carnevil, and some others, and all worked decent to great! and went from PASS (?!) to $50 to I think $250!!). Top-left corner was some more cabs. The left row was all pins. And the bottom left was cocktails.

[Ummon]

(All my pictures are too large, so there will be only a few, and in this haphazard format. Better 'n nothin.)

Below, we have the front of the place and....hey, who is that?

And one of a few long rows of machines.

[Ummon]

Here are some of the pins on the side wall.

[Ummon]

Here's a wacked out Bubbles. Notice the score and the extra bubbles. This was weird, because I've had a higher score than this, but there were no crumbs or ants on this board. You just waited to continually die. However, I came by later and some kid was playing it, so somehow it must've reset. They didn't have enough power for everything, so what was on was often clipping the breakers.

Also, here's Black Tiger in attract mode. I meant to play this, but got there with only about an hour before auction start, and was busy with just seeing everthing that was there, and figuring everything I might want try for (or need to try for if my top picks fell out).

[Ummon]

I also happened to bump into a couple members - Somunny, and HarumaN and his wife Adrienne* (an equal arcade enthusiast, yesterday) - and we all had a good time. (Two of us left with some choice stuff.)

And, some gold.


*Note: I had it incorrect the first time.

[Ummon]

I happened to  come home with the right Candy. The left one was fully working. I hadn't been around to see if the second one did, but HarumaN said he'd heard the monitor come on. I said I didn't care, I just wanted the cabinet to Mame. Well, when it came time, no one was interested in it! I paused for a moment on the initial $25 bid. Nothing. So I raised my card. "...thirty, gimme thirty..."...etc.....and nothing. And it was mine!

Below is at home after a thorough wiping down.

[Apollo]

Great score man, it looks to be in pretty good condition.

[Neilyboy]

damn man.. 30 bucks.. im going to have to get to one of these auctions.

Neil

[SirPeale]

damn man.. 30 bucks.. im going to have to get to one of these auctions.

Read again...$25!

[somunny]

That Impress looks great.  Amazing what a good cleaning can do.

[Clu]

Man, I was thinking of driving down for that one.  Reading your post I really wish I would have.

I've been to a couple of superauctions that were in really nice arcades.  I would much rather go to one in a warehouse.

[HaRuMaN]

My only regret is that I don't have more room to put cabinets at the moment.  There were some screaming good deals to be had...   

But, we got what we really wanted, and paid much less than we expected... so we're happy!   

[Ginsu Victim]

Well.....what did you get?

[HaRuMaN]

Well.....what did you get?

Who me? Or Ummon?

If it's me, see My superauction thread

[Ginsu Victim]

You....and thanks for the link.

[Ummon]

Well.....what did you get?

Who me? Or Ummon?

If it's me, see My superauction thread

Yeah, I didn't wanna steal his thunder...though I haven't been in Everything Else, so I didn't even know he knew about the auction.

I got the Empress with a working Bucky O'Hare for $275 

A non-working one with unknown game/issues went for $25

Um. Here's the kicker. Like I said above, I only knew it's cosmetic condition. I was just interested in the shell of the candy. (As HarumaN knew. What he doesn't know till now)  But last night I decided to turn it on. Monitor came on, but no picture. It does have a game board. I just didn't know JAMMA well enough to know Saturday. No lights on on it though. I turned it off - and they blinked. I turned it back on - and TETRIS comes up. So I got a fully working candy - for 30 bucks!! ($25 and then about 20% with tax and 'premium buyer's fee'. Of course, if you count travel and lunch expenses, it came to $72. I guess I can live with that.)

Well, almost. I have to flip it on and off twice for the fan inside and the board to come on. Maybe a PS? Still, though. I need to get inside, because I want to see it of course, but also because as you can see the geometry is off a little. Looks like it's in factory condition, though. I'm amazed.

[Ummon]

Also, some closer shots of the cab. There are some skid marks on the back left, and you can see the damage on the lower right front - which could've happened during transit pre-auction, who knows - but the left side happened when an eager staffer jumped in to help lift it on its side. I wasn't too happy about that, but what can you do?

[HaRuMaN]

 

Wow, that's awesome!    I'm glad that worked out.  I was pretty sure that monitor worked from the way it sounded.

It might not even be the PS.  You may just have a loose / dirty connection somewhere.

Like I said before... smoking deals...  I was bidding against a guy from the Neo Geo (and SHMUPS) forums on mine.  He gave up when I hit 275, and wouldn't even bid on the "non-working" one.  Had Ummon not been there, I would have probably bought both, and had two working candy cabs for $300 total.  

Glad to see it go to a good home, though.  

[Ummon]

And the rest. Notice, no nicotine stains. I don't know where this was before the auction, but obviously not too bad a place.

[Ummon]

Wow, that's awesome!    I'm glad that worked out.  I was pretty sure that monitor worked from the way it sounded.

It might not even be the PS.  You may just have a loose / dirty connection somewhere.

Like I said before... smoking deals...  I was bidding against a guy from the Neo Geo (and SHMUPS) forums on mine.  He gave up when I hit 275, and wouldn't even bid on the "non-working" one.  Had Ummon not been there, I would have probably bought both, and had two working candy cabs for $300 total.  

Glad to see it go to a good home, though.  

Yes, it could be pretty simple. You were a nice guy to be content with one. If I'd had a truck, I too would've thought about both, as well as another regular cab.

[mark shaker]

Yesterday, there was an arcade auction in Tempe, AZ. This was my first arcade auction. It was hosted by Super Auctions, and they were great. An honest business, and a real professional and nice group of people.

At least now I know where all their working machines went. They held the Detroit Auction on the same day. It was by far the lamest auction I ever attended. There were about 15 pins and about 25 working vids, and about as many broken vids. I left before the bidding started.  (I probably should have stayed around to see what "The Sopranos" pin went for.)

Super Auctions honest? That's funny! Watch out or you'll find yourself bidding against someone WEARING A SUPER AUCTIONS TEE SHIRT!

I have bought from Super Auctions in the past, and I probably will buy from them in the future. I just make sure I know the value of what I'm bidding on and who I'm bidding against.

   - Mark

[HaRuMaN]

Nobody with a SA T-shirt bid...

Although, the auctioneer seemed to be getting frustrated with how low games were selling for...  I felt that everything was on the up-and-up, as well.

[Dartful Dodger]

Super Auctions honest? That's funny! Watch out or you'll find yourself bidding against someone WEARING A SUPER AUCTIONS TEE SHIRT!

It's not the super auction people you have to worry about, it's our fellow BYOAC guys.  The problem I have with super auctions is they don’t police the viewing or pick up portions of the auction enough.  I’ve bought two games from them both of them were great deals.  I just made sure the boards were locked in place, I tested them right before the viewing ended and I was one of the first ones there to pick it up.

At both of the auctions I went to they were throwing those t-shirts into the crowd during the lunch break.

I was using the one I caught as a work around the house shirt, but now that I know it'll scare off potential bidders I'll save it for the next auction.

[HaRuMaN]

AFAIK,

There was only 3 BYOAC'ers there: myself, Somunny, and Ummon.  Fortunately, we were all interested in different things. 

[Ummon]

That Impress looks great.  Amazing what a good cleaning can do.

Yeah, it was really dusty inside, too. Later, when I saw the price on that Xybots, I felt bad for you man.

AFAIK,

There was only 3 BYOAC'ers there: myself, Somunny, and Ummon.  Fortunately, we were all interested in different things. 

Yep, just us. As for SA, they're just a service. You have the stuff and they come and host it. So each auction is local. This one just happened to be a rare situation (I think, anyways) in that you didn't have a ton of dealers, there weren't a million people there, those who were there weren't going to spend a million dollars and they wanted certain things, and then there were the few peculiarities like the power in the place and my candy not coming on.