Just what percentage of machines survive?
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Just what percentage of machines survive?
Probably totally impossible to answer really, but I'm curious to know what thoughts collectors have on the percentages of machines from the 30's 40's and 50's which have survived. Someone recently said to me that for 50's and 60's pinballs there was a view that maybe only 2% or so survived. Maybe this was thought to be the case because they were big and so were scrapped rather than stored. It also leads on to two other questions. Firstly, whether more interesting games such as the Bryan's Payramid would less likely be scrapped than say an average allwin. Secondly, whether bandits survived in greater percentage numbers than allwins and amusement arcade machines. The reason I ask if bandits survived in greater numbers is that they were both in seaside/fairground and 'club' type locations whereas allwins etc were only generally in the fairground type environment.
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Here's my Thrupence worth on the subject.
I reckon the pinball estimate may be fair. The new pin on the block was always ousting the has-beens. It might stand for a few weeks on a prime site in the city earning good money, then it was shifted (maybe sold) to a secondary location and and made its way out to the provinces (like they used to do with feature films). By the end of its travels it was too beat-up to fix - not like an allwin that just needed a good thumping to get it working again! Too big to stick in the cellar, so off to the dump.
When slots were retired they tended to be smashed or stashed. Operators were often reluctant to sell them for fear they might start earning pennies in the arcade next door. I would think allwins and bandits may have had similar survival rates, but bandits were made in much larger quantities.
I know many of the nicer wall machines survived because the operators became quite attached to them after the years of sterling service they'd given.
I reckon the pinball estimate may be fair. The new pin on the block was always ousting the has-beens. It might stand for a few weeks on a prime site in the city earning good money, then it was shifted (maybe sold) to a secondary location and and made its way out to the provinces (like they used to do with feature films). By the end of its travels it was too beat-up to fix - not like an allwin that just needed a good thumping to get it working again! Too big to stick in the cellar, so off to the dump.
When slots were retired they tended to be smashed or stashed. Operators were often reluctant to sell them for fear they might start earning pennies in the arcade next door. I would think allwins and bandits may have had similar survival rates, but bandits were made in much larger quantities.
I know many of the nicer wall machines survived because the operators became quite attached to them after the years of sterling service they'd given.
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