Chicagoland

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gameswat
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Chicagoland

Post by gameswat »

Went to the show last weekend and had a great time! Wasn't expecting much in the way of games but really just to catch up with many collector friends from across the US and to make new ones. So many interesting people and then machines and other stuff to keep me busy. It's no wonder the US collections are so impressive when they have this to head to twice a year! Did stumble on a couple of British pieces I had to walk away with. Luckily only saw one UK collector/dealer there so that helped. A Brenner Ball Past the Arrow, my second this trip to the states. It works and has the payout cup inside. Artwork is cracked and jamming the arrow though so that needs sorting. Asking $375 and haggled down to $250. And this Essex Stock Exchange from '28. Had seen this same one offered for ages on eBay with some crazy figure on it. Seems complete but gummed up. And never seen another with surviving marquee. Price asked was $1275, but again haggled that down to $850. This is the second one of these I've owned and I already have the correct award card ready to print at home. A really elegant machine I think and I do like these unusual payouts to get around the law of the time, in this case future pay. Prob my score of the show was this pile of tokens. There was a bag of 100 sitting on a table outside all Fri with some restored machines and a little bit of lesser stuff. Didn't look closely at them though. Then Sat they were inside at a booth. I looked closely and they were OK nickel size tokens for my 1920s Mills FOK slot. And I'd been looking for these for ages. But the seller was nowhere to be seen about 4 times I walked past. Eventually in the afternoon the wife was sitting at the booth. I asked and she said there were 100 and the price was $10. What the, these are NOS ?! I see sellers over here usually asking $1 each on eBay for just a handful. As I went to pay she asked if I wanted any more? OK - I eventually got 1000 for $100!! Then the husband who had gone to the truck to find them said that he'd kept one bag for himself and that I'd gotten a bargain. He had last offered them for $45 per bag!! And the weird thing is I was thinking about only taking half that many, but they talked me into taking the whole lot. Saw some great bargains but either too big and heavy to deal with or needing much work and I have enough projects at home - unless it's something crazy that is! Also some small spare parts like locks and coin mech. And one big piece of advertising. A 48" Coca-cola button from the 50's. This has the bottle in the middle, but the artwork and gloss it retains is just superb! I saw well over 200 Coke signs at the show and this was the only one I lusted after. This was already cheap but got it a little better too. Times are still tough in the US as I saw lots of dealers selling cheap or not buying quality pieces offered cheap by others. Sadly forgot to photograph this one. A nearby dealer trucked the games and sign back for me but I've not gone to pickup yet.
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giles_gunning
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by giles_gunning »

Sorry for bringing up an old topic, but does anyone know of shows similar to ones such a Chicagoland in the UK (preferably in the south)?
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treefrog
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by treefrog »

This is a repeat of the other "HOT" thread and the answer you probably already know. Coventry is the one and only dedicated one now, although the Elephant House is growing.....Most of the others have gone....The Jukebox shows have either gone or have little slot interest, Carters got involved for a brief period....

Every so often a collection appears at a auction house, eg Fieldings
roger
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by roger »

GAMESWAT WROTE ' times are still tough in the US'....................THEN HOW DO YOU ACCOUNT FOR THE RECENT VCA GETLAN AUCTION PRICES...THEY MUST HAVE UNLOCKED THE 'NUT HOUSE' GATES' FOR THIS ONE........THE INMATES WENT WILD. (see vca getlan auction prices realized)
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clubconsoles
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by clubconsoles »

Hi Gameswat

Great report on Chicagoland, its a pity a few more of us pommes dont make it over there!
Expensive flight as well as too high prices, I expect.
Except you proved all the doubters wrong and got yourself some real bargains, especially the trade checks!

Re Roger- he is spot on.
The prices realized on the Getlin collection are high in some cases, but stratosperic in most.
How come some US collectors have seemingly bottomless pockets?
Maybe with the economy so bad and Greece on the brink ppl are losing faith in there own currency now, who knows?
I was amazed at what I saw on the news a few nights ago where families are selling all the family silver for scrap and its going straight into the smelt.
Its a crying shame as you saw some beautiflly crafted pieces just being thrown into the furnace.
Wonder how many antique castings from coin op machines have gone the same way??
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gameswat
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by gameswat »

roger wrote:GAMESWAT WROTE ' times are still tough in the US'....................THEN HOW DO YOU ACCOUNT FOR THE RECENT VCA GETLAN AUCTION PRICES...THEY MUST HAVE UNLOCKED THE 'NUT HOUSE' GATES' FOR THIS ONE........THE INMATES WENT WILD. (see vca getlan auction prices realized)
The thing is an auction of so many high end pieces such as those from the Getlan collection only happens every so often and it's always going to bring some heavy bids. But I don't think you can judge the whole of the market place on the sale prices of the top .01% of collectable machines. Many of the millionaire collectors don't feel the same pain during a recession as the normal folk. Plus auction prices are unique to the day, and not very representative of normal sales outside of auction. I spoke with quite a few dealers and collectors at the show this year and they were all saying that participant numbers were way down. A lot of my friends in the US and a few overseas didn't make it as they said it wasn't worth the trouble for them. And when that's coming from people who used to religiously make the trek that says something to me. I also witnessed some great machines with bargain prices languishing, and the dealers I knew who specialised in those machines said they saw them and agreed with me, but just weren't interested. I've also bought some stunningly original machines (working even) in the states this year via eBay and the prices have been what I used to see people pay for really rough restoration projects.
Last edited by gameswat on Thu May 24, 2012 4:14 am, edited 2 times in total.
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gameswat
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by gameswat »

Picked up all my Chicago treasures about 6 weeks ago and even better than I'd thought. The Brenner just needed the coin payout unblocked and it works fine! While the Essex sort of worked after about 30 mins tinkering. Mech just needs a good clean and should be fine. Coke sign is actually pretty damn huge and impressive at 4 ft. Had a hell of a time getting it into the rental car to bring it back to where I'm living. Pretty much had to bend it like a taco to squeeze through the door opening. The damn rental Co messed me around big time with the wrong car and an hour delay to get it so no time to wait for something else. I was almost at the point of pulling the door seals off to make room!!
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gameswat
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by gameswat »

Finally got all my US found treasures of last year ( some date back to 2008!) shipped home to Australia and picked them up from customs clearance on Fri. Had to rent this flatbed trailor to handle the load in one trip! Was a hell of a day and even though the crates were emptied and off the trailor by 5pm I didn't have the group photo set up until 10pm!! Then they had to be all stored away. Found lots of little spare part goodies stashed all over the place in cashboxes etc. Note the rarest machine in the lot, the Earth Satellite, lower right on the grass in the box, this is the almost unknown Swedish export version "Flat pack style"!!* :HaHa:
Most of the allwins came from John Peterson, who i took great pity on with his upcoming interstate move, and "helped" him out bigtime by taking many of the ratty ones. He sees it differently of course and thinks he's done me a huge favour. But I have a sneaking suspicion that after the deal was done I saw him wringing his hands with glee telling his wife, "There's a sucker born every day honey!" Thanks JP! :D

*thank you UPS! :dammit:
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jimmy55
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by jimmy55 »

Wow what a collection! ....I'm seriously envious Gameswat
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slotalot
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by slotalot »

Hi Gameswat :D , Thants a good looking bunch of machines, what is the "organ" type machine? !PUZZLED!
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badpenny
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by badpenny »

Incredibubble Gameswat ........

How have you contained yourself waiting for that lot to arrive? You must have forgotten what was there.
That consignment alone outstrips most of our collections.

I'm willing to bet the pipe organ thingy that Stuart asks about is a machine stand.

The Trainers fascinate me, we tend to see them individually lying by the side of the road.

BP
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gameswat
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by gameswat »

Hey Slot, that pipe piece is a jukebox extention speaker made by the slot company Keeney about 1939/40 i think. I have a sneaking suspicion it's been tampered with a little or it could be the junior model? Later I found the design patent which shows an added section below what i have that shone light up onto the pipes. It's a rare piece though as a hardcore juke collector/ dealer friend in the US hadn't ever seen it when I stumbled on this one. He's since found a complete version which really looks killer. If mine has been tampered with maybe I'll replace the missing parts.

Still sore and aching after unpacking and moving all those machines but maybe will head out to the workshop tonight to start really looking over a few.......where to start though? I know, the French Josephine Baker roulette in stunning original cond that I eventually talked someone into selling me after first playing in 2007!
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slotalot
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by slotalot »

Gameswat wrote:Hey Slot, that pipe piece is a jukebox extention speaker made by the slot company Keeney about 1939/40 i think.
Hi Gameswat :D , I have just had a good old google :woops: and I must say I feel a lot betters for it :D
Just found ths link !!JUNK!! it may be of interest to you when you get to restoring it !THUMBS!
[url]http://www.jukebox-world.de/Forum/Archiv/USA/keeney.htm[/url]
!!CHEERS!!
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gameswat
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by gameswat »

Thanks Slot, very bloody useful! It's funny but the photos of messed up machines are usually a lot more helpful because you can see what's going on under the paint etc.
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treefrog
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by treefrog »

Wow, some nice looking machines there....and two Brenners. The Stock Broker looks nice.....

I assume the lack of coin cups and some triggers was for shipping purposes
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gameswat
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by gameswat »

Yeah Tree, I pack like Tetris, I don't like to either waste space or chance damaging anything fragile /semi-fragile like coin cups or triggers etc.

Believe it or not I went out of my way not to buy much on this trip.
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lepingouinmecanique
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by lepingouinmecanique »

the French Josephine Baker roulette in stunning original cond
The real name is POKER D'AS ( ACES POKER ) by french manufacturer LOUIS LOUBET - 1934
Need a cup ?
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gameswat
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by gameswat »

Thanks lepingouin, great advert! And amazingly I just shipped home a set of alloy Roovers legs in this load but they are the short version for a stamper (dammit - shaking fist) . The long legs that I'm sure these were copied from were only used on the Roovers automatons like the Puss in Boots so they are really rare. I have the cup thanks, but I am missing the token chute and the coin return chute to the cup. If you have one then a few pics would be great to see how they should look, or better still the spare parts!! This machine is in truly lovely original condition all over, the mech needs a full clean as it's jamming with old grease but otherwise very nice. cheers ,
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pennymachines
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by pennymachines »

Hey Gameswat, if you keep posting these pictures, I'm going to stop looking at your threads. You're making me unspeakably jealous! :x
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Re: Chicagoland

Post by andydotp »

pennymachines wrote:Hey Gameswat, if you keep posting these pictures, I'm going to stop looking at your threads. You're making me unspeakably jealous! :x
Me too - and we're only three hours away from one another.
As for Puss in Boots' legs,,,, rarer than hen's teeth Gameswat,,,, but I'm sure I've seen them somewhere... >!!???!!< You would've too I'm sure?
Stunning piece!

Great thread.
andydotp.
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