Back from the 05 arcade auction

[Pipercub]

Made 5 good scores, Teed Off pinball, Joust, Mappy, Bubble Bobble, and Donkey Kong. They are in the arcade after a very long day today.

Better pics of each here: http://www.subarubrat.com/arcadeandauction.htm

[RetroJames]

awesome.  expensive? working?

[Pipercub]

The DK was sabatoged at auction. This happens sometimes unfortunatly where a game gets a fuse pulled or cables, or an IC tweaked by a crooked bidder to try an lower the price. If an auctioneer comes to a game and it doesn't power up he sells it as non-working and it goes for less. I saw this one working early in the preview and it didn't power up when he got to it. This happens sometimes for legit reasons and inept assistants who can't find the switch or don't wait for warm up or boot up. But this one was clearly sabataged, it had a few cables pulled out of the PS and PCB. Even the one from the PCB to the monitor was disconnected at the monitor. I reconnected everything and it powers up and displays but it is garbled. My bet is that in IC was pryed out partially or something. I will have to look into it soon. The others are all in great or good shape, the usual minor trim items and such are in order to make them really clean.

[RetroJames]

At an auction here last year there were tens of power chords that were left in the row after having been cut.  Dirty f****rs. 

[ChadTower]

Holy crap, great scores, especially the DMD pin.  What was the price on that one, if I may ask?

[Pipercub]

$1,100, very very clean with everything functioning 100%. Another one sold for about $300 less but was missing the gopher and had some dead items on the playfield. I adjusted the trigger points on the bumper bands a bit to meet my preferences but other than that it was plug and play.

[ChadTower]

Awesome... of course, it must get a shop job... if you don't go to the toothbrush level, at the very least replace all coil sleeves and clean/wax the playfield.

[ClubNinja]

Wow.  If only our annual local auction looked like that.

[Frosty]

Hey Piper--

Was it just me or did this year's auction have less selection than last year's?

[ChadTower]

Seriously... pinwise, last year, all they had were a couple Fish Tales that went for way too much and a couple Shaqs that no one wanted.

[Frosty]

It's funny how a few good, rare pins can create a palpable buzz at an auction.  I remember last year talking to a few guys who were waiting for hours to see how the bidding would go on some of the ones up for sale last year.  Really interesting to watch if you've never seen it before....

[ChadTower]

Yep, I waited quite a while to bid on and lose a BabyPac last year.  I'll go again this year but probably won't have much more than $10 to bid with.

[Pipercub]

Yep, got the Joust in the first row. Other than some 409 and paper towles there was nothing needed before putting it in place and I am pretty picky. Last year there was one that was taken back to mint. The same seller brought a Defender that was also in the same condition. I got the Defender which had the multi williams board in it but I didn't get the Joust so this year it was on my hit list. I think it may have been the only one there again.

I would say that selection was about the same as last year, but both years were less than the 03. The crowd was pretty dead for a while on bidding. Those first few coctails (frogger, galaga) went for way low. Then the first row which is usually overpriced went for fairly low prices. Bidding warmed up a bit later but allot of good deals were present throughout the auction.

[RayB]

He avoided the key question, so the answer must be that he spent a pretty penny on these. 

[ChadTower]

$1,100, very very clean with everything functioning 100%. Another one sold for about $300 less but was missing the gopher and had some dead items on the playfield. I adjusted the trigger points on the bumper bands a bit to meet my preferences but other than that it was plug and play.

He avoided the key question, so the answer must be that he spent a pretty penny on these. 

[RayB]

$1,100, very very clean with everything functioning 100%. Another one sold for about $300 less but was missing the gopher and had some dead items on the playfield. I adjusted the trigger points on the bumper bands a bit to meet my preferences but other than that it was plug and play.

He avoided the key question, so the answer must be that he spent a pretty penny on these.

[ChadTower]

Ah, yes, the less relevant (to me) stuff.

The classic ones in good shape usually go high at auction, since people at auction are generally not DIYers.

[Pipercub]

I have bought mint classics and I have bought wrecks and brought them to mint, it's all good.

I thought the question was about the Pin only..

Joust  $500
Mappy $525
Bubble Bobble $200
Donkey Kong $300

[ClubNinja]

Mmmm......  $2500 at the arcade auction...... spendy.....

[AC.]

Nice collection additions.  I went to a superauction in Belleville IL this past saturday, Oct 29.  Bid on a few things, but did not get anything.

[Pipercub]

The Donkey Kong is up and running just fine now. I saw this game working before the auction, and even played it. Here is what was done to it:

Reconnect one power cable at PS
Reconnect one power cable at PCB
Reconnect audio cable at PCB
Reconnect audio cable at monitor
Reconnect marquee light cable
Reconnect video cable at PCB
Reconnect video cable at monitor
Set V hold
Set H hold (deep in monitor chassis)

Somebody didn't want this baby to show any signs of life. I can only  imagine how pissed I would have been had it been a game that I brought to sell that should have gone for $100s more. I have only one game that I am considering selling and the only way I would take it to auction is locked up tight.