Collector's nightmare

[operator bell]

Mr PennyMachine's dream came true, for a good friend of mine.

He found a particularly nice Mills HiTop amongst a large lot of miscellaneous junk in a house clearing sale, and negotiated an even nicer price for it ($300, US) with the elderly seller. Unfortunately he only had $220 in his pocket. After shaking hands on the deal he hurried to a nearby cash machine and returned within fifteen minutes to find it was gone, sold to someone else who stopped by in the meantime.

What really upset him was when he got to work on Monday, a fellow in the sales department was bragging about how he spotted this Mills HiTop on the weekend and the seller said, "Well there was a man here wanted to give me $300, but he went away and didn't come back. You can have it for $250".

True story.

[pennymachines]

Ouch! "That's gotta hurt", as they say.

[pennymachines]

OK, this time I'm visiting an industrial city up north to attend a major slot machine auction. As if this isn't unusual enough, the day before the sale I come across an underground flea market selling all sorts of old tat, and what's this? Not one, but two of the stalls have a clutch of old amusement machines! They're in terrible condition, piled up in a dark corner behind the stalls, like so much firewood. Amongst them is the front of an unfamiliar oversized version of the Bryans Retreeva. I pull it out and the stallholder says, "£600!" His partner says, "Don't be daft, Charlie" and we settle on £50.

[badpenny]

So what is it?

[pennymachines]

I'll see if I can find out tonight.

[badpenny]

Ahhh!.... now I understand ..... you're a cat burglar.

[pennymachines]

Well I inserted a coin, turned the handle and it gave me such a sting.
Turns out it was a box jellyfish!

[badpenny]

Welcome to my world Mr.P