Another missed cocktail deal!
I think that I must be cursed from picking up on any great deals involving cocktail table top arcade games in Indianapolis. Late last week I stumbled across a new classifieds website that contained the following ad;
TABLE PAC MAN GAME 1980 BALLY CO. NEEDS MONITOR GOOD CONDITION SELLING FOR $ 80. CALL FOR INFORMATION ASK FOR ED
Twice in one month I missed great deals on table top arcade games. I called and left a message, figuring for sure that the pac-man cocktail had sold and the seller had forgotten to take the listing down. That was Thursday, and finally on Saturday I got a call back saying, sure enough, that pac-man arcade game sold last month soon after it was listed. (more…)
Craigslist Pac-man Cocktail Deal
It was about 11:30 last night, and I checked my feeds for Craigslist. As anyone who hunts Craigslist for classic arcade games knows, and I have experienced this first hand with my Ms. Pac-man win in Michigan, 99% of the time it’s junk and spammers but that 1% of the arcade findings are a great deal, and then it all comes down to timing.
Somehow I totally missed a post for northern Indianapolis at about 1:10 (I can’t remember what I was doing other than working at that time of day);
Moving and must sell many items. Antiques include; Armoire, buffet, secretary, marbletop end table, marbletop corner table, marbletop hall piece, carved walnut pedestal and Louis side chair. Reproduction queen ann desk, chippendale bench, and federal table. Old Pac Mac arcade table, needs repair. Do not want to download all the photos. Please call to set appointment to see if you are interested. Location NW side if Indy between Carmel and Zionsville.
I emailed late last night, figuring some other collector or worse in Indianapolis got to the pac-man cocktail first. Sure enough, it was gone. (more…)
Jillian’s Arcade Indianapolis
Friday night we met some friends downtown at Jillian’s, or Jillian’s Billiards, whichever you prefer. Jillian’s is a three floor complex, downstairs you have a ton of big screens and a bar, on the second floor you have the “Amazing Games”, and on floor three there are pool tables and bowling lanes.
We hadn’t been to Jillian’s before, and we figured with such an uncreative generic slogan like “Eat. Drink. Play.”, hey, it’s gotta be great. But Jillian’s isn’t a place I would return to that often, and here’s why. (more…)
Stash of arcades in Indianapolis, IN
I will post more on this later, but here is a photo of a couple of the arcade games to give you an idea. I wished now I had taken a straight on view of one of the four storage units of games, but I didn’t, so this will have to suffice.
We see a crappy Ms. Pac-man conversion, a Popeye that is in decent condition, it is missing sideart on the right side, and Super Punch Out, missing the Duck Pull from the control panel and the “Punch Out” sideart is torn up a little on both sides.
There are many other games, about 30 total. I am going to get my stuff together and then post a photo album of about 95 photos of this stash of arcade games here in Indianapolis, IN.
Little Chief Pinball Sold!
That was pretty easy! I found a buyer named Dan in Carmel who came over yesterday and bought the Williams Little Chief off the owner in Castleton.
We helped our own cause in the sale when the owner put the game back together first, including the back display back. I found out later it had not been attached in two years, so I was relieved the pinball still worked. He powered up the game, it was a little glitchy at first but did play a couple of full games. The buyer says that the Little Chief needed an adjustment made to the main logic in relation to the scoring unit, and the “gate” needed some work as well. But a great deal on a classic pinball in the Indianapolis area.
The Night Rider pinball machine is still for sale. Hope to get some video of that pinball in action soon. $400 and it’s yours.
Edit ~ I find this a little strange. I had never heard of Little Chief before, but all of a sudden a second machine comes up for sale in Rossville, IN on Craigslist? I don’t think this was our buyer, that would be really rotten to relist for $1900, but it is another nice looking instance of this Williams pinball, even if the seller (765-379-2429) has the year and the name are wrong.
Pengo on Ebay in Indianapolis Area
I have my RSS feeds setup such that I immediately see when new auctions are listed concerning my favorite arcade games. Within 2 minutes of the initial listing, I saw a Pengo come up on ebay on January 30th, 2008. The starting bid was $20! As things usually go, I opened the link and figured the game would be in Oregon or something. It was in Plainfield, IN! For $20, how can that be possible? The story the seller gave surround the Pengo sounded true and it appeared as if this would be a great deal for someone.
My dad owned a video arcade that went out of business in the 80’s. I bought this upright Pengo Arcade game and brought it home. It got a lot of use by my wife and daughters. I remodeled the basement and decided to move it to the new Rec Room, but the basement door was too narrow. I moved it to the garage during a remodeling project, where it has been for the past 10 years. Now my girls are grown and gone, and even though I’ve purchased a wiring diagram for the machine, I still haven’t managed to find the time to work on it.
I called him that morning right away asking for photos of the Pengo, not even sure what I was going to do with it if I bought it. Would I buy a second Pengo? But for $20 starting bid, how could I pass it up? I decided that if this Pengo had the other control panel, the one with the roman numerals, I would drive out to Plainfield, make and offer on it and snatch it up and then have the two different Pengo UR’s in my basement. How long would I wait for photos if the seller never got back to me? Would I drive out sight unseen the next day? Did I feel that strongly about the idea of a good deal without really wanting another arcade game?
I didn’t have to make those decisions because four photos were updated in the auction later that night, and I saw that this was going to be a great deal for someone.
This Pengo has the exact same control panel overlay that mine does, and even though it has most of the sideart and will be a steal for someone, I decided to pass.
Well, today, the auction ended. $81! (Right click this link and choose “Save As” for an ebay screenshot of this Pengo auction.) What a rock bottom final auction price. Just goes to show you how weird the market for these games can be, and timing. A non guaranteed working Pengo, but probably an easy fix, sold in the Indianapolis, Indiana area for less than $100. A true steal if you want to keep the game in your collection. The Pengo fixed up to the right buyer might bring in $300, but if you ebay it, probably less. If the bid had stayed under $50, I would have gone for it and figured out the rest later.
Also, it really is true that patience is a virtue. If I had waited about 18 months, I could have bought this Pengo here less than 10 miles away. But instead, I drove to Nashville, TN for mine.
But mine was HUO for most of it’s life, has perfect sideart, and it just a great looking machine. Plus, I had my first bulk buy, my first arcade game adventure, and I ended up getting my Pengo for free. Once I sold off all of the other machines I paid for the trip and the Pengo. (View the Nashville bulk arcade game buy photo album.)
I am just glad to know that it is staying here locally with Aaron Demaree over in the Speedway area. Once you get it fixed 7146aaron, you should definitely look into Jrok’s high score save kit. I play my Pengo every night, trying to best my own scores and enter my initials. Sega’s Pengo is one of the best games ever.
Little Chief and Night Rider Pinball’s for sale, Indianapolis
Someone in the Indianapolis area contacted me about these two pinballs that they have for sale. One is a William’s Little Chief and the other is a Bally Night Rider. Both were bought new from the factory back in the 70’s and have only ever been used in a home setting, the Little Chief doesn’t even have coin mechs in it. However, the cabinets have a little more wear and tear to them than a normal HUO pinball / arcade game machine.
Click on the thumbnails above to check out the galleries for more images of the games (Little Chief – Left, Night Rider – Right). I tried to get as many photos of them as I could, the playfield, the condition of the cabinet, the backglass, etc. etc. I am not a huge pinball guy myself, but I told the guy that I would see what I could do to sell the pinball machines for him. He is looking for $650 for the pair, OBO. The Little Chief works, and you can see that the Night Rider powers up, but he said there was something funny about one of the connections in that pinball. I didn’t play either of them, kind of crunched for time. I wouldn’t know what to look for if there was anything wrong with the Bally Night Rider at all.
If you are interested at all in these two classic pinballs, let me know. I am going to hold out on my own personal search until I find a more recent pin, like a Batman or a Jurassic Park or something to add to my gameroom:)
