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Yes it's interesting how market trends change.
The first time that I had started collecting what would be later known as vintage slot machines I called at a well known arcade at Scarborough. It was 1972 or 73 and I talked with the owner if he had any of the old machines in storage and that I was interested in buying such!

Somehow or other he wasn't interested in letting go the old stuff but thought I would buy the pusher machines.
Taking me to what seemed like a very large cellar underneath the arcade, full of loads of lovely old stuff including counter top viewers (Oliver Whales?) with film, cowboy and all sorts of themes, all on old penny play!

When he realized I was only after the older stuff, he let me have an old penny Oliver Whales Kiss-o-Meter and a Whales allwin size Giftmaster on 6d and a shilling that still had all the old gifts behind the glass.
"You can have them at £10 a piece", he said, and I bought them.
But it was his words I can still remember today as I carried them to my mini van with happiness - he said to me, "they will never be worth anything you know, as there are too many of them."
I thought at that time he was wrong... but I wouldn't have been bothered if they never increased in value, as to me they were all wonderful!

tammy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 4:35 pm Some of the details and especially numbers of machines quoted to have been made in the Braithwaite's slot machine book I believe need to be not taken too serious.

It's a good book and gives good general knowledge but accurate it isn't always.
A good example is the large Win a Cig or Fag. They are the same in size as the sister and brother Fill Em Up and Many Happy Returns range. The large Win a Cig, with rows of balls and picture, is quoted as very rare with just one machine.

The 'Win a Cig' machine is called Yours To Be Won and the book makes no estimate of surviving numbers. In a caption below its image, John Carter says, "it is the only one I have ever encountered", which I'm sure was accurate. As we discussed here, it's now considered 'quite rare'.

Paul Braithwaite took pains to avoid inaccuracies and was scrupulous in citing sources. He quotes numbers of Bryans machines sold from the factory order book so, together with the serial numbers stamped on the machines, we have a fairly good idea of relative rarity with these.

tammy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 4:35 pm...A good example is Edison invented the light bulb... Well he didn't. Swan a British inventor did. My dad who's now gone said many were working on the electric light at the same time but Swan's was the first. Edison bought it out and patented it!

Decades before Swan, British scientist Warren de la Rue made an effective light bulb, but it was expensive. The design that Swan patented was impractical:

Edison realized that the problem with Swan's design was the filament. A thin filament with high electrical resistance would make a lamp practical because it would require only a little current to make it glow. He demonstrated his light bulb in December 1879. Swan incorporated the improvement into his light bulbs and founded an electrical lighting company in England. Edison sued for patent infringement, but Swan's patent was a strong claim, at least in the United Kingdom, and the two inventors eventually joined forces and formed Edison-Swan United, which became one of the world’s largest manufacturers of light bulbs,

Who Invented the Light Bulb? Livescience.com

But I'm not sure what this has to do with the topic...

tammy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 4:35 pm Some of the details and especially numbers of machines quoted to have been made in the Braithwaite's slot machine book I believe need to be not taken too serious.

PM beat me to it!
I am only referring to Bryans machines as in my answer to Tammy`s post.
I spoke with Paul Braithwaite when the book was published, and I stand by what I said regarding the numbers produced of Bryans machines. He obtained the actual sales figures from Jim Bryan.

I do agree with Tammy that the Payramid is overrated. Members of this forum (myself included) have claimed it's brilliant, so I feel partly responsible for this. I would like therefore (if forum rules did not forbid it) to buy them from anyone who feels they have been mislead, for £500 each, which I believe is their more accurately rated value.

I've not researched the contemporary retail prices or compared the different manufacturers.
However I imagine Bryans were more expensive than the competition.
If I'd been an operator I'd have been tempted by Bryans over the others for the following reasons: -

Their willingness to do part exchange.
Variable pay outs and adjustable play.
Shiny and bright colours
Eye catching controls more varied than a mere ball trigger
Invisible features that help the operator %

Bryans demonstrated to their customers they were supplying "Business Tools" which were not just for amusement only.
I don't think they always got it right though some were definitely too complicated and/or confusing.

BP

I am not sure there is any evidence of prices going down, we had an odd auction recently at the Elephant where a few did not sell high, but sometimes this can be down to who is in the room. Trust me, if something was too cheap, people would snap up....

As the point has been made, we all have different tastes, thank god and often our tastes change, mine has. Also trends will change, but there does seem to be some unwritten rules on what something should be worth, often over abused......

For machines have to have something, either in play, rarity and most importantly the look has to grab me. I remember when a Bryans Windmill came up for sale at the Coventry auction and was tempted, in fact was bidding the eventual winner, but stopped because one it looks like a clock and secondly was not any more exciting, so really it was only about rarity for me.....

I find all the above a fascinating discussion about collecting in general and Bryans in specific. My experience is that individuals covet items from their youth. There will be exceptions, I being one as I never saw a British coin-op machine until well into my adult years but I regard that as an outlier. The greater issue is what (or more specifically - who -) comes next for our hobby? As the games of one's youth evolve from allwins to fruit machines and beyond, who arrives to treasure the older games? I suspect the answer is a future generation yet unborn. These machines are unique not only in construction but also in the ability to reflect the interests and emotions of their time. God help the current generation if they grow to revere these current times but that's a discussion for another day. Long live Bryans, Whales, British Manufacturing, Parkers and all the other wonderful manufactures of yore. Their creativity and genius is timeless!

J Peterson
Timing out in America