arcade auction questions

[hulkster]

i have seen on this board that there is an auction in knoxville....fairly close to nashville.  ive seen some prices for some of these machines that go and they are like 50 bucks!  for some of them.  i was wondering, are these fully working models?  or are they crappy since they are going for cheap?  anyone who has been to these things let me know please!

[paigeoliver]

Prices at auctions are all over the place. Sometimes dead crap sells for $300, sometimes working games sell for $25.

The fall auctions tend to have higher prices than the summer ones.

The best advice I can give you is.

#1. Don't bother with anything in the first row of games.

#2. Every word out of the auctioneers mouth is likely a lie. Do not believe ANYTHING said about non-working games. Assume every component in them is missing or bad, and bid accordingly.

#3. The real deals come at the end of the day after all the newbies have given up, and all the wealthier middle aged collectors have bought up all the dedicated stuff.

#4. If somehow, someway you don't end up getting ANYTHING, then hang around the parking lot, sometimes people buy one game too many, and have to leave one behind. Sometimes people part out games in the parking lot (usually for the monitors), and then leave the rest behind.

[hulkster]

how much do sit down driving games usually go for?

[paigeoliver]

Sit down driving games like everything else, are pretty much all over the place. But it seems like $250-$300 is about right for a fully working older one. A lot of them seem to go around that price. Newer ones go for WAY more. Dead ones go for WAY less.

I am still bitter about the Roadblasters cockpit that I missed getting. They had just switched auctioneers, and I couldn't understand a word the new one was saying. I THOUGHT I dropped out of the bidding at $150, but it turns out that I dropped out at $50, and it went for $75. It worked, but had a video ram problem.

I also dropped out of the bidding at $250 for a Turbo cockpit which went for $275. I REALLY wanted that one, but no way was I going over $250 when some of the 25" driving games were going for that. Plus I already had an upright Turbo anyway.

But, really. Prices on sit down drivers are highly influenced by how many of them are there, who is buying, the weather, and when they decide to auction them.