Morphy Auctions Coin-Op & Advertising, Oct 15-16

[pennymachines]

Eleventh hour notice of the Morphy Coin-Op & Advertising Auction: Oct October 15 - 16, 2016, Auction Begins at 11:00 AM EST
Too late to jet over there but it's online at http://www.morphyauctions.com/auctions/

[ls14garlo]

Wow!! That catalogue took some getting through,some amazing items for auction there....even if it did take 45 minutes scrolling through it!! .....Well worth it

[chris rideout]

Pity we don't have auctions on that scale!

[moonriver]

I went to the preview last month and spent a couple of hours looking around. Noticed there were quite a few machines there entered by UK dealers, and also there seemed to be a larger amount of reproduction machines than usual. Nothing I was interested in this time, apart from a great sign.

[sweetmeats]

The results of this sale make very interesting reading even with the terrible £/$ exchange rate. The bandits I don't think have ever been so low. Caille Naked Lady $1,046 centre pull $4,200 including 23% premium. I bid unsuccessfully $11,000 hammer for a similar machine in VCA sale some years ago. The English machines were mostly also low - cast iron footballer $7500, plus 23%, another Cast iron footballer $7,400 plus 23% and the golfer $11,000 plus 23%. Some years ago one from Australia (sold on by an American collector/dealer) he told me he got in excess of $50,000. The top of the pyramid is very small so when the 'big boys' have all got one the price plummets. All sale prices on Morphy site.

[pennymachines]

Wow - if it carries on like this I might afford something again one day. My bids on two Bolland fortune wall boxes were nowhere near.

[gameswat]

I noticed many of the English machines in the auction had belonged to Simon Stern and I assume recently shipped over for the auction. Just checked his website link on this site and it's closed down. He must've been gutted by the very low sale price on most of them, especially when you factor in the shipping cost, insurance, US import duties and auction fees, etc! This was probably at least partly due to the highly over restored state many were in, as I think the big money these days is always for the most untouched original condition, even if a bit dishevelled. For a while now the car and motorbike market has made a big deal about "barn find" pieces that have been bringing crazy premiums. After all these years there just can't be many classic machines still to turn up unmolested.

[clubconsoles]

I wholeheartedly agree with Gameswat sentiments here, the early cast iron pieces went for a song.
I suspect Simon Stern was not best pleased with the results and, although I don't know him personally, he seemed quite a character and a regular face at Steve Hunt's auctions in the early Noughties.
I would love to speak to him and ask him the reasons he chose Morphys?
Maybe it was because of the depressed £?
I always assumed with the tiny number of collectors of "unfashionable foreign" machines in the US it would be foolish to list them with a US auction house?
It is also clear now that many US collectors are falling out of love with the over restored machines that were done in the '80s & '90s in favour of the "barn find" variety, we have always appreciated over here.
I would have thought Coventry or Elephant house would have brought in significantly better prices and would have created far more of a buzz in the community here than Morphys, most collectors US with money to burn would have favoured the Caille Black cat or Mills Duplex!
I believe Simon also had a Gaming License so even eBay would have been available to him.
I am totally at a loss as to why you would auction Premium British Machines so far away from most all the potential buyers??

[gameswat]

Nigel, for a while there the English and European machines were flavour of the decade with a couple handfuls of the top end US collectors. So Sweetmeats made a very good point about those guys not so much vying with one another anymore since many have the key pieces by now. Even our very own John T Peterson seems to have stopped buying the last four years. Timed a little earlier and this sale could've done great money I'm sure. Wish I'd been there in person with some spare cash to throw around!

[gameswat]

Wow - if it carries on like this I might afford something again one day. My bids on two Bolland fortune wall boxes were nowhere near.

While the Predicta and Heaven and Hell each sold for the high price of $2700 inc premium, and the Oracle for $3900!, it would appear that the low price of only $780 inc premium for the Gipsy was because at least one of the competing bidders from Sat had left by Sun? I guess you own a Gipsy already PM, or where you too cheap to bid that much?

[pennymachines]

I only bid on the Oracle and Heaven & Hell because those were the ones I fancied.

[john t peterson]

I too was very surprised at the low hammer prices for the killer cast iron pieces. I would hate to think this is reflective of the true current value of early 20th century British arcade. Comments about the BIG BOY collectors already having completed their requirements is spot on. As we all appreciate, it takes two mad dogs to drive the prices high. I was equally surprised to see the high dollar on the Bollands iron case fortune tellers. My guess is that the auction crowd was unfamiliar with these machines. They're interesting, but not that interesting. I sent my Predicta back to England years ago for less than one-third the hammer in Las Vegas. My Oracle is now shouting, "Send me to Vegas, send me!" Little chance, Grasshopper. Lightning only strikes once.

J Peterson
American Skeptic

[pennymachines]

I posted a little piece about the sale from a British perspective in the Penny Post
Hammer prices (with £ conversions) of the British/European stuff in the Arena.