Arcade games

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 10:00 AM, Philip Belben <philip at axeside.co.uk> wrote: OK. My experience with classic arcade games is owning a couple (Gorf and Xenophobe) and spending many hours at US Arcade Amusement game auctions a mile from my house. At auction (which is a very different environment for supply and demand than a corner shop) in the US, I have seen variations of over 100% for the same type of machine at different parts of the day (usually more expensive to less expensive, but things like nearly missing one can make for odd fluctuations). I've paid under $200 for uncommon items, and seen popular games got for hundreds to thousands of dollars. Pinball almost always sells for more than similar era video games. Vintage pins are expensive, as are modern pins. There's a soft-spot in the middle for ones that are just old and not classic. The two most common expensive machines I've seen are Ms PacMan and Galaga. I routinely see them go for $600-$1000 US, auction after auction. The folks buying those machines know that they will draw many quarters, which is the goal of any amusement operator. Space Invaders is in the same league as those machines, but is not as common anymore (if it ever was). I did see a modern 2-in-1 replica game with *both* PacMan and Galaga (licensed, etc., not a MAME box)... in a smaller-than-normal cabinet (that will fit many places, especially bars or the right kind of restaurant), it went for $2200. I don't know anything about the UK game market, but I can't imagine that the games would go for less than the US. There's shipping, duty, etc., if nothing else, and perhaps scarcity for 220V models vs 110V models. I would personally not pay $1300 US for a real Space Invaders, but consider how many paid games that turns into - in the US, it would be $0.25/game (don't know about the UK.), so that's 5200 games. To pay that game off, electricity not included, would take approximately two years at one quarter per hour over an 8-hour day. That's a long time for a low-volume environment. There used to be a good FAQ on arcade operators - how to buy games from them, how to talk to them, how *not* to talk to them. There was an estimate, in 1980s terms, of how profitable a game had to be to be worth buying or keeping. Given that coin-op per-play inflation is limited to newer and bigger games, not trying to double the cost of an older game so much, unless you gear up with customer swipe cards (like Dave and Busters) and can get people to pay 1.3 credits or whatever, a game needs massive nostalgic popularity to suck down over 5000 US quarters in a short enough time to make the space pay off. Remember, that's just 5200 games to pay for the machine, not to make a dime of profit. Operators don't think like (most of) the folks on the list. It all gets reduced down to dollars per hour/week/day. Sentimentality goes out the window or they go out of business. Many, many games do not pull in enough money to justify their existence in a commercial environment. Some do. Those sell for lots of money. There is also, as you suggest, the home collector/nostalgic angle. In recent years, home arcades have gotten quite popular. There are a few types buying for those - the hardy types will buy husks and as-is games and beaters from auctions or operators and refurb them on their own (like me - my Gorf came from 3 different sources over a 10-year period before it was complete). Others just want flashing lights and bleeping boxes and don't know how to change out a fuse. They will pay and pay for someone to sell them a totally tricked-out box. They will pay much more than an operator ever would because of sentimentality or nostalgia. I have a few games on my list I'd like to get. Space and opportunity have limited me to just a couple. Unfortunately, some of the games to play them on MAME. I need the real thing or to build/program my own replica. The time has somewhat passed to see games from the B&W 8080 and earlier era at auction on a regular basis, and when you do see them, they are not always in the best of shape, and if they are, they don't often go cheap. These are all older than Space Invaders. To summarize, yes, I think those games sound expensive, but not so far out as to be unbelievable. If they are targeting the nostalgia angle, they might or might not be able to get that much for them. If they are targeting the commercial buyer, they wouldn't likely get that much for them in the US, but I can't be certain about the UK. -ethan