FORUM

There is a Mills 5¢ Poinsettia at auction near me this weekend.
What are your thoughts?
I have no clue as to what to look for or expect to pay for it.

Who knows on the price - depends on the condition and who is bidding on the day. Just check it's for real... It looks it in the photos but that's photos for you. A lot of copy castings have been made over the years so check them. Unless you have had these older 10 stop machines before you will be disappointed with how it plays at first, very clanky and sloppy, but that is how they were. As BP says, in another current post, they were not made to high tolerances.

I would check the castings for MLB serials. I've seen a few made up from recastings and usually show poor definition on things like the Bell Motif
.…. Woodwork for 'oles
.…. Back door?
.…. Lock & key?
….. Is the mech sound and working?
…… Investigate the reels, are they tin, paper or plastic?
….. Is the Jack pot bank there? If so does it trip?
.... Does the coin mech behind the bullseye glass hold the coin just played?

How bad is that handle? Re-chroming should be allowed for.
As for value, probably twice as much as double the length of a piece of string
If it's all there (as described above) and only needs a coat of looking at I personally wouldn't want to pay more than £350/£400 including all of the commissions and VAT. However I'm me and I only buy if it's a bargain. I've had a couple of these and wouldn't want another one, they're hardly pulse racing to play. If I wanted a perfect example and was prepared to pay the highest retail price then I could buy one today.

A massive issue for me these days is commission bidding, telephone bidding and internet bidding at live auctions. These are people whom for whatever reason can't get there and are throwing money at something they haven't seen. So many of them must be disappointed when it's delivered.


BP
ps my post crossed with Paul's and echoes it.

Thank you for the replies.
I wouldn't even know what to look at to see if it was real.
I will be there so I can look it over.
I don't think it will sell high here.
People have deep pockets around here.
I can look for serial numbers or other markings.
I do see a serial bomber in the picture.

Liquor, looks like a nice unmolested original to my eyes, though the pics didn't enlarge. Correctly rusted bolts on the sides and handle, wood aged, payout card yellowed, etc And minimal paint on the grey alloy castings. The reproes are pretty much always blinged the hell up and just never look right even after 30 years. A simple way for you or any other novice would be to check the front casting width compared to a known original (hopefully someone on the site will furnish that please). Because the Mills factory molding pattern is long gone so any reproes will have been taken from an original surviving casting, and there will have been some shrinkage on a repro, approx 6% to 7% smaller.

Quite right of course, aluminium shrinks after casting. The last time somebody suggested comparing a casting we ended up with a few people shocked to learn that the one they owned wasn't real

After the OP's latest revelation I think I might be reticent to attend!!

BP

Update:

Well it looked authentic in accordance to what tips I got and the research I did.
It did have a lock and key however to me it looked as though the back board was replaced.
The wood base had a large 2.5 cm chunk cut out of it on the left corner and I think that was done to facilitate getting the old back off.
Other that that it was in great shape will little to do to spruce it up.
It was working but didn't play enough to get a payout.
The auctioneer said it was worth $1000 (I think he was defending one that currently shows up at that price in google search).
The first bid was $500 Canadian dollars and there was one other bid of $525 before it was sold.
About $542 total.
I didn't bid.

Assuming all correct, a decent enough purchase, but of course there would be on charges as well, plus money to be spent on renovations.