Greatest Arcade Bargains You Ever Snagged!...

[Shipwreck Arcade]

So it was in a gym in Essex ,
But the guy got it for free from a pizza shop in central London ..
He said 2 cabs were down some stairs at a pizza shop. He got it for free as
Pizza shop was closing and nobody wanted to lift it up stairs .
It had not been played for ages because of something really silly like the jamma harness wasn’t connected correctly or a loose wire on the colours . Something silly like that ..

It was a Simple fix .

Love hearing stories like that. Awesome find.

 

[Retroman839]

Nos came with a bundle of stuff
So can’t say what I paid indervidualy for this because It came in a bundle with SF3 3rd strike & egret 2 but it was a nice cherry .

 

[Shoryu-stu]

Think i mentioned this when first joining the forum.(not sure,been a while)my first cab was sold to me by a friend who used to empty arcades when they were either shutting down or having new machines.i managed to get a playscene cab with cadillacs & dinosaurs for the astronomically heavy price of.......£20!dont think he knew about the price of the board as if he did,he would have charged me a whole lot more.he was a right dodgy geezer from stepney.

 

[Retroman839]

I had a strange one ..

Dead guy
Died in prison
Hacked one of the first mobile phone networks in uk and took folks monies ..

Got enough years in prison that he died in prison.

Before all that he purchased lots of arcade games ( with his ill gotten gains I have no idea I don’t ask)

But his mum ran a cattery and all his cabs were out on sites in pubs
When cabs cab back they just sat in a catery ( Insert cats favourite arcade games here )

When I went to look at the stuff the guys brother who was handling the sale Would not let me power anything on to test .

So I had to buy it all unknown.

He left me alone in the old cat hotel it’s all those game PCB’s and cabs with an Extention lead plugged in on the floor infront of me ..

Do you think I plugged some cabs/pcbs up and tested or not ?as he had asked ?

Although I would love to be that guy that does what he is told ,
Sadly to say temptation just took over me ..

And he caught me playing a bit of neo geo ..

I think he did initially say to me to leave his property but he soon calmed down and did see the sence in what I had done and we agreed a sale ..

He just said he honestly wanted to sell these as not knowing if they worked or not ..
Still didn’t and he still wouldn’t let me test the PCB’s ..about 30

We agreed a price
Some worked but the one I wanted to work gradius 2 didn’t and still don’t but I’m working on it.

 

[patloz]

Some guy in Luton advertised a garage of old fruit machines for sale but when i got there they were actually quiz machines with burn free 19" monitors in them.
I said to him they aren't fruit machines and he must have thought I was disappointed as he offered them to me for next to nothing ( I cant remember but I think it was £25 ish )

Had to make two trips stacking them on top of each other in the van , think there was 12 in total, replaced pretty much every burned in monitor in my collection at the time and had a few left over.

Only issue was what to to with the carcasses, think someone on here took a couple to covert to JAMMA cabs the rest I had to smash up.

 

[Retroman839]

2 brothers
1 we known he was a crook

The other maybe is carrying a guilt complex into living his life as honestly as he can after his brothers antics..

 

[69er]

I bought that Daytona for £100, and when we drilled the cashbox it had £260+ in it 🎉

This happens more frequently than you would believe!

In the 80s tendering for small arcade rentals on holiday parks we often inherited pushers ready loaded beds with 2p or sometimes 10ps and most fruit machines with part filled or even full pay tubes in the back…

One occasion I sometimes relay in conversation Luke Knightly funfair owner in Towyn had closed their Huge Millers Cottage camp arcade as it was being demolished for 3-4 static caravan bases instead….. He asked if I wanted the whole lot (he called it a container full) for £2k he would deliver it to our storage too….

Not wanting any old junk Dan and I went to see his 40ft Waltzer artic lorry plus another smaller container were jam full…

I suggested we help him empty off for his urgent retrieval of his waltzer ride for spring opening from his Rhyl storage ( he is not allowed to leave rides on the fairground since the Towyn floods in1990 and a massive write off insurance payout) . On this occasion all his vehicles and some containers were ok parked nearby the fair ground site…

Colin, Dan & I took our 6t & 3.5t vans across Golden Sands access road to the beach side of the North Wales railway and along behind the sea wall…

I said we will give him £500 for the stuff we wanted and burn the rest on the funfair site.
Video games among the haul included a 2gun Warzaid , a 2gun Ps attack , a starwars trilogy, Tekken3 , soul edge, and a few older assorted jamma s four or five pushers and some fruits and novelties, (2 ‘busy bee’ ping pong ball catch skill egg venders ful of eggs and cash boxes half full)

4 van fulls in a day the only item he wanted to keep was a Disco Maze bouncy castle rolled up at the back , first item off.

A 8 sided happy days pusher sold for £550 two days later so you could say the rest were free?

During the day with the help of his arcade tech David and fair manager Mike the rest burned …. Hundreds of coins rolled away from the ashes as they disintegrated and smoke could be seen 5 miles in every direction…..

A funny thing happened tho same day 2 miles west at Pensarn Pleasure Beach where I engineered for Sian Williams’ breakdowns …. Her manager Ray was having a bonfire at the side of dead briers, nettles, and general arcade waste including a couple of stripped out old cabs and because it was close to the Abergele/Pensarn rail line a smoke complaint was made and the local fire brigade put her fire out… 3 days later I was working in there and she said how Knightleys (Bill Knightly was a previous mayor) could have such a massive fire and she got a telling off by Abergele fire brigade disgusted her……when her fire was just like a garden clearance on her car park! .

I almost felt awful admitting the other fire was Me, Colin & Dan !

When we used to tip fruit machines and arcade wreckage at Thorncliffes Abergele the worker queued up to help with hammers and spades as again , no matter how you empty bell fruit cabs there’s always a recess rear of cash trays that accommodates a few coins and down under reels etc .. and 2p pushers coins get in strange void places never seen and snatch trays below the slots which intercept 1p 5p token and small euros and foreign objects (washers etc)? Can be overlooked at disposal .

There are a few people on here who also need to have a handy cremation pit for the surplus unrestorable or dead unwanted casualties…. But they don’t make it known in case it annoys other collectors ?

A typical day at the tip costs from £72 per ton but pictures of carcasses or bonfire ashes help gambling commission to believe that CatC gaming machines don’t get circulated into the wild! See picture
And all that storage space freed up!

 

[Retroman839]

Astral leisure ascot
Took me round back and showed me the fire pit …
Still full of cheque Stubbs from their late father who started the company in the 70’s Stubbs for purchasing Pin tables / video games / pool tables / juke box’s /

The loft of the storage facility was lined with cabinets side panels so you could walk up on the cab sides to get access across without falling through Celling ..

She shows me a photo of her and her brother in a tree house made out of space invader cabs ..

And empty shelves that were full of PCB’s before that got burned in the pit ..

She was still puting namco / Bandai / games on Brittany ferries ..at 66 when I met her .

I went home with her last cocktail space invaders that her dad made the cross over to jamma looms
Switchable so you can hot swap taito classic to jamma with flick of a switch . A crush roller and a truxton . Almost left with a rare ascot pinball table but her brother just stepped in last minute and said he wanted to keep it

She also had a great mirror in this old barn I asked about but again they were reluctant to part with ..

It was George Thormby at the races .. had all these colourful prints On the mirror with gorge’s funny face at bottom in middle
And Stuff About his film where he is a jokey ..

I guess it would have been in the ascot race course once upon a time

 

[patloz]

This happens more frequently than you would believe!

In the 80s tendering for small arcade rentals on holiday parks we often inherited pushers ready loaded beds with 2p or sometimes 10ps and most fruit machines with part filled or even full pay tubes in the back…

One occasion I sometimes relay in conversation Luke Knightly funfair owner in Towyn had closed their Huge Millers Cottage camp arcade as it was being demolished for 3-4 static caravan bases instead….. He asked if I wanted the whole lot (he called it a container full) for £2k he would deliver it to our storage too….

Not wanting any old junk Dan and I went to see his 40ft Waltzer artic lorry plus another smaller container were jam full…

I suggested we help him empty off for his urgent retrieval of his waltzer ride for spring opening from his Rhyl storage ( he is not allowed to leave rides on the fairground since the Towyn floods in1990 and a massive write off insurance payout) . On this occasion all his vehicles and some containers were ok parked nearby the fair ground site…

Colin, Dan & I took our 6t & 3.5t vans across Golden Sands access road to the beach side of the North Wales railway and along behind the sea wall…

I said we will give him £500 for the stuff we wanted and burn the rest on the funfair site.
Video games among the haul included a 2gun Warzaid , a 2gun Ps attack , a starwars trilogy, Tekken3 , soul edge, and a few older assorted jamma s four or five pushers and some fruits and novelties, (2 ‘busy bee’ ping pong ball catch skill egg venders ful of eggs and cash boxes half full)

4 van fulls in a day the only item he wanted to keep was a Disco Maze bouncy castle rolled up at the back , first item off.

A 8 sided happy days pusher sold for £550 two days later so you could say the rest were free?

During the day with the help of his arcade tech David and fair manager Mike the rest burned …. Hundreds of coins rolled away from the ashes as they disintegrated and smoke could be seen 5 miles in every direction…..

A funny thing happened tho same day 2 miles west at Pensarn Pleasure Beach where I engineered for Sian Williams’ breakdowns …. Her manager Ray was having a bonfire at the side of dead briers, nettles, and general arcade waste including a couple of stripped out old cabs and because it was close to the Abergele/Pensarn rail line a smoke complaint was made and the local fire brigade put her fire out… 3 days later I was working in there and she said how Knightleys (Bill Knightly was a previous mayor) could have such a massive fire and she got a telling off by Abergele fire brigade disgusted her……when her fire was just like a garden clearance on her car park! .

I almost felt awful admitting the other fire was Me, Colin & Dan !

When we used to tip fruit machines and arcade wreckage at Thorncliffes Abergele the worker queued up to help with hammers and spades as again , no matter how you empty bell fruit cabs there’s always a recess rear of cash trays that accommodates a few coins and down under reels etc .. and 2p pushers coins get in strange void places never seen and snatch trays below the slots which intercept 1p 5p token and small euros and foreign objects (washers etc)? Can be overlooked at disposal .

There are a few people on here who also need to have a handy cremation pit for the surplus unrestorable or dead unwanted casualties…. But they don’t make it known in case it annoys other collectors ?

A typical day at the tip costs from £72 per ton but pictures of carcasses or bonfire ashes help gambling commission to believe that CatC gaming machines don’t get circulated into the wild! See picture
And all that storage space freed up!

I remember buying a "non working"Virtua Fighter from a pub in Bristol for £100 and the land lord didn't lift a finger helping us move it, He was watching me pop the locks whilst it stood at the back of the van ( as he didn't have the keys..... ) so I could get all the stuff out before i tipped it on its side so it wouldn't damage the tube and there was over £70 in the cash box.

Gave him a smile and a thumbs up , his face was a picture.

Also all that was wrong with it was the 5V was set too low, twist of the regulator and it was u and running.

Recon I have about $5 in quarters from my imported machines that were tucked away in the cabs on arrival.

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

S

This happens more frequently than you would believe!

In the 80s tendering for small arcade rentals on holiday parks we often inherited pushers ready loaded beds with 2p or sometimes 10ps and most fruit machines with part filled or even full pay tubes in the back…

One occasion I sometimes relay in conversation Luke Knightly funfair owner in Towyn had closed their Huge Millers Cottage camp arcade as it was being demolished for 3-4 static caravan bases instead….. He asked if I wanted the whole lot (he called it a container full) for £2k he would deliver it to our storage too….

Not wanting any old junk Dan and I went to see his 40ft Waltzer artic lorry plus another smaller container were jam full…

I suggested we help him empty off for his urgent retrieval of his waltzer ride for spring opening from his Rhyl storage ( he is not allowed to leave rides on the fairground since the Towyn floods in1990 and a massive write off insurance payout) . On this occasion all his vehicles and some containers were ok parked nearby the fair ground site…

Colin, Dan & I took our 6t & 3.5t vans across Golden Sands access road to the beach side of the North Wales railway and along behind the sea wall…

I said we will give him £500 for the stuff we wanted and burn the rest on the funfair site.
Video games among the haul included a 2gun Warzaid , a 2gun Ps attack , a starwars trilogy, Tekken3 , soul edge, and a few older assorted jamma s four or five pushers and some fruits and novelties, (2 ‘busy bee’ ping pong ball catch skill egg venders ful of eggs and cash boxes half full)

4 van fulls in a day the only item he wanted to keep was a Disco Maze bouncy castle rolled up at the back , first item off.

A 8 sided happy days pusher sold for £550 two days later so you could say the rest were free?

During the day with the help of his arcade tech David and fair manager Mike the rest burned …. Hundreds of coins rolled away from the ashes as they disintegrated and smoke could be seen 5 miles in every direction…..

A funny thing happened tho same day 2 miles west at Pensarn Pleasure Beach where I engineered for Sian Williams’ breakdowns …. Her manager Ray was having a bonfire at the side of dead briers, nettles, and general arcade waste including a couple of stripped out old cabs and because it was close to the Abergele/Pensarn rail line a smoke complaint was made and the local fire brigade put her fire out… 3 days later I was working in there and she said how Knightleys (Bill Knightly was a previous mayor) could have such a massive fire and she got a telling off by Abergele fire brigade disgusted her……when her fire was just like a garden clearance on her car park! .

I almost felt awful admitting the other fire was Me, Colin & Dan !

When we used to tip fruit machines and arcade wreckage at Thorncliffes Abergele the worker queued up to help with hammers and spades as again , no matter how you empty bell fruit cabs there’s always a recess rear of cash trays that accommodates a few coins and down under reels etc .. and 2p pushers coins get in strange void places never seen and snatch trays below the slots which intercept 1p 5p token and small euros and foreign objects (washers etc)? Can be overlooked at disposal .

There are a few people on here who also need to have a handy cremation pit for the surplus unrestorable or dead unwanted casualties…. But they don’t make it known in case it annoys other collectors ?

A typical day at the tip costs from £72 per ton but pictures of carcasses or bonfire ashes help gambling commission to believe that CatC gaming machines don’t get circulated into the wild! See picture
And all that storage space freed up!

Some great stories on ere. Awesome 🤩

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

I remember buying a "non working"Virtua Fighter from a pub in Bristol for £100 and the land lord didn't lift a finger helping us move it, He was watching me pop the locks whilst it stood at the back of the van ( as he didn't have the keys..... ) so I could get all the stuff out before i tipped it on its side so it wouldn't damage the tube and there was over £70 in the cash box.

Gave him a smile and a thumbs up , his face was a picture.

Also all that was wrong with it was the 5V was set too low, twist of the regulator and it was u and running.

Recon I have about $5 in quarters from my imported machines that were tucked away in the cabs on arrival.

Excellent buy. Shame you didn't get a picture of his boat race when he saw the cash box! 😂😂

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

Astral leisure ascot
Took me round back and showed me the fire pit …
Still full of cheque Stubbs from their late father who started the company in the 70’s Stubbs for purchasing Pin tables / video games / pool tables / juke box’s /

The loft of the storage facility was lined with cabinets side panels so you could walk up on the cab sides to get access across without falling through Celling ..

She shows me a photo of her and her brother in a tree house made out of space invader cabs ..

And empty shelves that were full of PCB’s before that got burned in the pit ..

She was still puting namco / Bandai / games on Brittany ferries ..at 66 when I met her .

I went home with her last cocktail space invaders that her dad made the cross over to jamma looms
Switchable so you can hot swap taito classic to jamma with flick of a switch . A crush roller and a truxton . Almost left with a rare ascot pinball table but her brother just stepped in last minute and said he wanted to keep it

She also had a great mirror in this old barn I asked about but again they were reluctant to part with ..

It was George Thormby at the races .. had all these colourful prints On the mirror with gorge’s funny face at bottom in middle
And Stuff About his film where he is a jokey ..

I guess it would have been in the ascot race course once upon a time

Awesome historical information and some nice finds. A Truxton in the mix is lovely 😍

 

[Venom]

I did get offered a free neo geo with games had it in back of my estate after dropping wife and baby at Nan's house.
But then there was no space to bring the cabinet and the family back. TBH the cab was a 4 sport version and had back missing and not powered on in years. In end I unloaded it and boouht 4 or 5 games of him for £20, shocktroopers , metal slug andros dunos and something else. TBH was having a lot of pain with another cabinet so that was kind of putting me off too. That was in fishponds in bristol 14 odd years ago, a few days later it was up on gumtree for £120 those were the days ! I have never paid for a cabinet I have a 14" woody I was given for free and a 2 platey supreme video cabinet. Both people just wanted rid as were clearing stuff out. Later the guy who gave me the supreme his 10 year old step daughter became really ill with liver failure and had to spend a lot at time at home and wanted a console , so I did give her one of my modded OG xboxes as a gift, and since then she has had a transplant and all good.

I think best bargain I paid for was somone on the jammaplus forum bought two pachilso and changes there mind and asked if I would split the costs and delivery so I ended up with a Thunderbirds one for £50 plus 1/2 can Martin postage !

I have all three items still as I see flipping items people give you is not nice !!


I still have that and looks like this one...

Thunderbirds Pachislo

 

[Retroman839]

I did get offered a free neo geo with games had it in back of my estate after dropping wife and baby at Nan's house.
But then there was no space to bring the cabinet and the family back. TBH the cab was a 4 sport version and had back missing and not powered on in years. In end I unloaded it and boouht 4 or 5 games of him for £20, shocktroopers , metal slug andros dunos and something else. TBH was having a lot of pain with another cabinet so that was kind of putting me off too. That was in fishponds in bristol 14 odd years ago, a few days later it was up on gumtree for £120 those were the days ! I have never paid for a cabinet I have a 14" woody I was given for free and a 2 platey supreme video cabinet. Both people just wanted rid as were clearing stuff out. Later the guy who gave me the supreme his 10 year old step daughter became really ill with liver failure and had to spend a lot at time at home and wanted a console , so I did give her one of my modded OG xboxes as a gift, and since then she has had a transplant and all good.

I think best bargain I paid for was somone on the jammaplus forum bought two pachilso and changes there mind and asked if I would split the costs and delivery so I ended up with a Thunderbirds one for £50 plus 1/2 can Martin postage !

I have all three items still as I see flipping items people give you is not nice !!


I still have that and looks like this one...

Thunderbirds Pachislo

Nice games to pick up all killer and no filler ,
Glad the girl is doing good too.👍

 

[Shoryu-stu]

I had a strange one ..

Dead guy
Died in prison
Hacked one of the first mobile phone networks in uk and took folks monies ..

Got enough years in prison that he died in prison.

Before all that he purchased lots of arcade games ( with his ill gotten gains I have no idea I don’t ask)

But his mum ran a cattery and all his cabs were out on sites in pubs
When cabs cab back they just sat in a catery ( Insert cats favourite arcade games here )

When I went to look at the stuff the guys brother who was handling the sale Would not let me power anything on to test .

So I had to buy it all unknown.

He left me alone in the old cat hotel it’s all those game PCB’s and cabs with an Extention lead plugged in on the floor infront of me ..

Do you think I plugged some cabs/pcbs up and tested or not ?as he had asked ?

Although I would love to be that guy that does what he is told ,
Sadly to say temptation just took over me ..

And he caught me playing a bit of neo geo ..

I think he did initially say to me to leave his property but he soon calmed down and did see the sence in what I had done and we agreed a sale ..

He just said he honestly wanted to sell these as not knowing if they worked or not ..
Still didn’t and he still wouldn’t let me test the PCB’s ..about 30

We agreed a price
Some worked but the one I wanted to work gradius 2 didn’t and still don’t but I’m working on it.

Caught playing neo geo tsk,tsk!

 

[Retroman839]

Try B4 u Buy

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

I had a strange one ..

Dead guy
Died in prison
Hacked one of the first mobile phone networks in uk and took folks monies ..

Got enough years in prison that he died in prison.

Before all that he purchased lots of arcade games ( with his ill gotten gains I have no idea I don’t ask)

But his mum ran a cattery and all his cabs were out on sites in pubs
When cabs cab back they just sat in a catery ( Insert cats favourite arcade games here )

When I went to look at the stuff the guys brother who was handling the sale Would not let me power anything on to test .

So I had to buy it all unknown.

He left me alone in the old cat hotel it’s all those game PCB’s and cabs with an Extention lead plugged in on the floor infront of me ..

Do you think I plugged some cabs/pcbs up and tested or not ?as he had asked ?

Although I would love to be that guy that does what he is told ,
Sadly to say temptation just took over me ..

And he caught me playing a bit of neo geo ..

I think he did initially say to me to leave his property but he soon calmed down and did see the sence in what I had done and we agreed a sale ..

He just said he honestly wanted to sell these as not knowing if they worked or not ..
Still didn’t and he still wouldn’t let me test the PCB’s ..about 30

We agreed a price
Some worked but the one I wanted to work gradius 2 didn’t and still don’t but I’m working on it.

Can't get the image out of my head of a load of cats sitting around arcade cabs! 😂 Cat's are quite good at arcade games as they have 9 lives...

 

[Retroman839]

Your not allowed to try these out before buying them ..

 

[Retroman839]

Errrrmmmm. This one’s ok

I’ll take one Meow geo please

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

View attachment 61566
Your not allowed to try these out before buying them ..