slowcade: A little roadtrip

I noticed a classified ad some weeks ago, from an ex-op selling a whole warehouse full of stuff. He wasn't easy to reach, but I finally got a return call from his workplace.

It turned out he was going on vacation the next day, and he didn't have time to check what was in his warehouse. All I got out of him was that he had a bunch of pinballs and all sorts of coin-ops. He definitely preferred to sell it as a lot, but he sounded willing to let go of a couple of games separately.

The warehouse was about 500 km away from me, and when I was in the area a couple of weeks later, I tried calling him. Repeatedly! The problem was, I still only had his work number, and no-one picked up. I finally got an sms, evidently from one of his co-workers, who informed me that he (co-worker) was home sick, and he gave me the op's cell phone number, asking me to contact him instead. Jackpot!

The op (who shall remain nameless) sounded surprised to hear me, but he still remembered me, and said: "You can buy the whole lot and sell it separately to the hundreds of guys who have been e-mailing me". Oh-oh.. Not good. I asked if I could come and take a look, and maybe buy just a selection of the games. I was short on time, though, as I was going home three days later. He agreed, and promised that we could meet before that.

He called me back the next day, and said that someone was coming to potentially buy the whole lot at 5 pm the day after. I persuaded him to meet me at 3, so I could choose some games before they were all gone.

I called him up the day of the meeting, just to confirm that the deal was still on.

It was all looking good, and my cousin and I arrived at 1:40, as we didn't want to arrive late. We had to drive for an hour to get to the warehouse area, and we didn't know how the traffic would be. We enjoyed a meal at a Chinese restaurant while waiting for the clock to strike 3.

We had spent the last couple of days dreaming about what kind of games would be there, and we wound each other up like we always do. I was at the point of believing that he would have titles like Medieval Madness, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and that I would have to choose between them. We discussed back and forth between bringing two cars with trailers, but ended up with just one large Opel Vivaro and a trailer.

So we were there ..and we waited.. But no-one showed up. I called the seller at 3:20, and he told me that he was late from work. So we waited again.. To make a long story short, he eventually came to meet us at 4:30, just half an hour before the other people were supposedly coming to pick up the lot.

I was quite stressed arriving at the warehouse some minutes later, as I felt I didn't have much time. Of course, I was bound to be disappointed after my sky high expectations... and I was. The seller had an ok selection of games, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I saw the backbox doors of a Safe Cracker, which was actually one of the titles I was fabling about! Asking about it, I was told that he used to have one, but he sold it to one of his friends, who is a pinball collector. He had actually sold many of his games to that friend.

So much for the hope of finding an untouched warehouse! Someone had already picked from the "A" list!

Anyway, a quick look around revealed a mixed lot of pinballs:

Revenge From Mars
Judge Dredd
Star Wars Trilogy
Fish Tales
Terminator 2
Stargate
Eight Ball Deluxe
Tales From The Crypt
Doctor Who
No Fear
NBA Fastbreak
World Challenge Soccer
Big Guns

I asked about the Terminator 2, which he was keeping for himself, and the Revenge of Mars, which he wanted quite a lot for. I contemplated buying three pinballs, but ended up with Judge Dredd and the Star Wars Trilogy. (Doctor Who was my potential third choice, if you're wondering).

The Judge Dredd had been broken into, so the front was completely broken. It was supposedly working, though.

I was too stressed about the other people coming some minutes later, so I didn't test the games in any way. In fact, I didn't even look at the playfields! In retrospect, this was too brash, but the pressure got to me.

The seller definitely knew the value of his games. Being unshopped and untested, I would say that some of them were even overestimated. I got a good deal on the Judge Dredd, though.

The buyers? No-one showed up at 5! We left at 5:45, and the op locked up and left at that point.

All in all, it was a bit disappointing, but it was nice visiting a warehouse full of games. The seller was a very nice guy. I just wish I wasn't so stressed out.

This whole story would be worthless without some pictures, so here we go. Sorry for the bad picture quality. Most of them were taken to help me look above or around something blocking my view.

Revenge of Mars and my Judge Dredd. Notice the stack of backglasses in the foreground.

Kiddie rides, House of the Dead 2, the usuals.

I would have had interest in this HotD2, had I not had a Wii. Just not worth it anymore, when I can get the same experience from the sofa.

Nothing to see here. Move along..

I need such a Videomaster bezel, as mine is damaged. The seller promised to look through is glass collection, maybe he has one for me. These were all converted to poker, actually.