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I notice the vender knob missing on side, so I assume the mech for vender missing. No point having the vender covers on front if they are not functioning in my opinion. As for getting hold of the vend mech, impossible!!
May fetch an over-inflated price just because it's the only thing worth watching in this months auction!!!!!

Rolatop good bits, it works ok. Pays out ok. Has a good back door and escalator looks good. Bad bits, lots of putty inside at the top of the lower casting. Painted over on the outside, no skull stop bits inside on mech, no vendor gubbings inside machine. Base plate chipped in the corner as banditos picture.

Rolatop fetched £3450 plus 10%. Way too much in my opinion. Guess the guy who bought it should have gone to specsavers

bill gates wrote: Guess the guy who bought it should have gone to specsavers

He should have gone to Coventry...

I guess it did have one thing in common with Rolls Royce - the price!

lost interest when a couple of the jennings that 'sold' last month on commision, 'sold' again, on commision bids. They will pop up in the December sale no doubt.

Very little at the auction and was not going to go with diesel costs.....bought very little, but did get one machine the "Fruit Cocktail"as love the graphics and simple plastic case. One sold in the previous auction as well, no idea who made them, anyone know?

Don't understand why Rol a Tops are worth so much, simple machine with a fancy front, these was a crazy price....

now this is just a theory, along the lines of the '90's classic car boom. By investing a relatively small sum, (15%) a 'market' develops for a high ticket item and thus the market is seeded for the next few sales to draw in new bidders who are unaware of the history. As I say, just a theory, or maybe scrappy Rolatops really are worth nearly 4 grand.

EH Rolatop October 2014

Shame it was missing the vender mech! As for prices, whether your a lover or hater of the rol-a-top range, these ARE rare and do hold their prices. Having just returned from a trip to the states almost every dealer who had one had a price tag of $6000 - 8000 (approx £4000 - £5000), and these were average/tatty condition. The original and untouched rol-a-tor were fetching $9000 and more!

The one at EH was an early one, you can tell by the mech, and how the reel stop levers are placed. 2 hit the reel discs and 1 catches at the far right. Later versions have all 3 stop arms catching the reel discs.

I personally would not have paid that much for it, because if it has venders fitted then it needs the vender mech, as other colectors may have found, picking up spares for a watling is somewhat difficult.

As for EH this month, was a big disappointment, with almost all parts and junk selling, and as mentioned elsewhere here, the very few machines won were commission bids!!! MMMmmmm!!!!!! I wonder!!!!

Still not put me off going again, they are well run and organised on the day, and I suppose they can't control what gets entered!!!

(anyone got a rol-a-top!!! )

EH results are on their site now

Well those Jennings all sold and were good original condition at bargain prices, the lowest seen for a while. Kept stopping myself bidding as have too many already. In fact most of the machines sold

In terms of Rol a Tops, I have watched these on ebay US and private sales do not achieve the value stated earlier, in fact less than half. These people expecting silly money are usually dealers and at any time you see them asking crazy prices....As I said to someone else the Rol a Top was mass produced and non uncommon, yes less of them in the UK, but I have yet to see a early converted British version, so all imported for collectors . They seem to have been produced for the French Market and a number come up with Franc denomination. The key here is that they are popular because they have fancy fronts and a big visible escalator, so eye candy appeal and as also mentioned no Roll Royce in terms of quality.... If one wanted the eye candy appeal funny how Widget has not shifted his one with a broken part for less than a third of the price, maybe more auction fever as usual

looks to be an early converted British version

I Have to disagree with you slotsoffun. The rolatop is not a rare machine. Also 9000 for a rolator? Try looking a bit harder. Here is a picture for a rolator vendor front for less than £3500. Take a look yourself at slots of Montana. Also not only did the EH rolatop have missing vendor bits and bobs it was badly damaged. The black paint along the top of the vendor front was hiding the repair done to the broken case. Not just a chip but a 5 inch smashed in jobby. Have posted pictures. So in my opinion it will never be possible to restore the EH rolatop to a high standard without spending a heck of a lot more money on it!

I agree, was surprised to the see the term "rare" along with Rolatop. Of course there are some rare variations, but I've seen a lot of them over the years. Any machine you can find multiples of for sale at any given moment over the last 40 years does not constitute rarity in my book! The complete output of Oliver Whales must be far rarer than surviving Rolatops!? Nearly 20 years ago when I was restoring my first example I dealt with Larry DeBaugh who used to be the main Watling guy, and he claimed to have well over 100 of them in stock. Found mine locally but was imported from France on 25 Centime and then converted to operate in Aust on 1 Shilling.

Results now in the Arena.

Hi everybody, I'm new here on the forum but following this topic for a while. I was reading that there was some doubt if the Jennings machines where sold last auction. I can tell you that the Jennings Eldorado did come my way and I'm very happy with it! I'm new with the hobby and have a lot to learn with two machines which will need some little work and cleaning on the mech. I think in the nearby future I will need advice and will post a new topic. Does anybody now that the Eldorado original have lights in the top? Mine don't have it.
Greetings dutchboy.

Dutchboy! Great to have you here and I'm glad your first purchases have been successful. It certainly looks like a nice example and I think you picked the right time to buy. I don't remember there being so many Jennings bandits for sale before. It's been a buyer's market for them this year.

nice Governor Dutchboy. Yes, it would have had 2 light tubes at one time, with a ballast and starter mounted on a board. Any operator these days would not use them due to the age of the components and the difficulty in getting a PAT certificate. The main problem with 240v is getting a sound earth continuity throughout every metal part, so I always dump the originals and either make up low voltage LED strips or do without.

That's the one pennymachines! Raj, the led's could be an option. I think with light it would look great. My other machine is an poinsettia i bought earlier this year from eh. This machine has some cutting in the coinentry and ascalator etc. I will be back later with a topic about that. First i clean a lot of dust, grease,oil and rust inside the eldorado Thanks