stevearcade
The Trevor Horn of UKVAC
HOLY sh*t!!!
Post your OP Raid pix!!
- Thread starter Alpha1
- Start date
![url]]](http://[url="http://www.arcadeoll.com/pics/newwh/21.jpg%5b/img"]http://www.arcadeoll.com/pics/newwh/21.jpg[/img[/url]])
Germany 2006(ish)
Found a stash of games so me and Rav left Saturday morning at 5AM and drove to a ferry port. Spent ages on a ferry to the Hook of Holland, drove through Holland and after an eventfull night arrived to pick the games up Sunday morning around 9AM.
Made it back around 2AM Monday morning ready for work at 8, eurgh.
Alpha12011-11-04 21:51:18
Found a stash of games so me and Rav left Saturday morning at 5AM and drove to a ferry port. Spent ages on a ferry to the Hook of Holland, drove through Holland and after an eventfull night arrived to pick the games up Sunday morning around 9AM.
Made it back around 2AM Monday morning ready for work at 8, eurgh.
Alpha12011-11-04 21:51:18
Have there been any recent bulk buys? I've not seen much since I got in to the hobby on the scale of these. Did see the recent warehouse find in Holland on DLF but looked to be mostly modern stuff.
Must still be plenty of gems still hiding out there!
Must still be plenty of gems still hiding out there!
stevearcade
The Trevor Horn of UKVAC
Alpha1 said:
Ray: "Symmetrical cab stacking. Just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947"
Peter: "You're right, no human being would stack cabs like this"
Well, so far, I can't find any pics of the first one (Xmas / New Year 2000/1). Just to set things straight, the first one was a deail organised my Matouga (Gerard) and was a public UKVAC bulk deal. About a week before xmas he bailed on it (I really don't remember why, possibly, I never knew). I was new to UKVAC and just couldn't see why it could all be so hard so I stepped in and took it on in order to prevent it falling apart. I stumped up several thousand in cash, hired a van and set off. I needed help (oh, how true was that!!) and as Phil Eaton lived within 10 miles of me at the time he signed up for the trip, as did Andy who wasn't that far away either.
It was a great crack, totally new experience for me (and I think Phil!), and a miracle we got back in one piece. Not to mention how knackered we were after a non stop 13 hour drive there and then a longer one back due to being overloaded. One funny memory we have is of the seller. How nervous he was. These three British strangers turned up at his place, that was about as far North in Holland as you could get before you hit the sea, in the dark talked sh*t for a bit, went for kebabs and then some dodgy motel. In the morning we loaded up the Luton - and I really do mean loaded, (that's what I wish we had a picture of!!).
All the while he seemed to be getting a little more agitated. It wasn't until the last machine was on the van and the door closed that I even remembered to give him the money. Several thousand euros in notes. You could see the relief wash over him. He was a lot bigger than us, but all the same
. Ho hum. Sadly, we had to leave behind a Pole Position cockpit as we just couldn't fit it in, despite having paid for it!!
Where Matt Garret comes into it all is that when this lot got back to the UK they had to go somewhere so that all of the UKVAC buyers could descend from all over the country at various times and days to collect. Matt very graciously allowed us to store them in his Laser Quest venue that he'd only acquired a short while earlier (I think anyway!). Some collectors turned up that day and met us, but on the whole we dumped the games and ran. Odd thing is, I actually never had any cabs out of that deal. Me, Andy and Phil had about a dozen PCBs that we split between us as a freebie for doing it. There's a video somewhere that Scott Green took of Kips meet where he's going round filming and he asks me if I'd ever do it again. I think I say something like "f*ck no!". Yeah right
Anyway...
Below are two of a little pre-trip trip that I did to Holland in advance of the second big trip. This was a trip to organise a bigger deal but clearly you can't come back empty handed so I filled the car up. Obviously these are PCBs, but unlike some later deals that were boxes and boxes of unknown PCBs, these were known, quality and working PCBs. Well, IIRC, virtually all of them were known workers. Stuff like Galaga 88, Pacmania, etc. etc.
This one led to a later visit to Holland that was for a Luton van full of cabs. I also remember two smaller visits, one to Holland and Belgium for pins and vids (that was me and Pobster) and another where really, I was just the driver and the deal was P-Mans. Since that was his deal, not mine I won't go into detail.
Actually, that reminds me of another. I did two for P-Man, one was in a large red transit, and I distinctly remember another that was in a Luton. I remember the 2nd Luton one as much to Andy's dismay, he'd booked the wrong kind of ticket for us so when we came to drive on the passenger queue they laughed, sent us to the freight office, and one large bill later, we found ourselves on with the lorry drivers. Lovely lounge and food we had, but I'm guessing that was a painful lesson to learn, and probably hasn't been repeated again!! Live and learn as they say.
Anyway, looks like I don't really have any other pictures. It doesn't surprise me as I prefer to live the moment, not record it, so very rarely do I take photos. I do however have a lot of memories
Right, I'm late now - need to head out.
It was a great crack, totally new experience for me (and I think Phil!), and a miracle we got back in one piece. Not to mention how knackered we were after a non stop 13 hour drive there and then a longer one back due to being overloaded. One funny memory we have is of the seller. How nervous he was. These three British strangers turned up at his place, that was about as far North in Holland as you could get before you hit the sea, in the dark talked sh*t for a bit, went for kebabs and then some dodgy motel. In the morning we loaded up the Luton - and I really do mean loaded, (that's what I wish we had a picture of!!).
All the while he seemed to be getting a little more agitated. It wasn't until the last machine was on the van and the door closed that I even remembered to give him the money. Several thousand euros in notes. You could see the relief wash over him. He was a lot bigger than us, but all the same
Where Matt Garret comes into it all is that when this lot got back to the UK they had to go somewhere so that all of the UKVAC buyers could descend from all over the country at various times and days to collect. Matt very graciously allowed us to store them in his Laser Quest venue that he'd only acquired a short while earlier (I think anyway!). Some collectors turned up that day and met us, but on the whole we dumped the games and ran. Odd thing is, I actually never had any cabs out of that deal. Me, Andy and Phil had about a dozen PCBs that we split between us as a freebie for doing it. There's a video somewhere that Scott Green took of Kips meet where he's going round filming and he asks me if I'd ever do it again. I think I say something like "f*ck no!". Yeah right
Anyway...
Below are two of a little pre-trip trip that I did to Holland in advance of the second big trip. This was a trip to organise a bigger deal but clearly you can't come back empty handed so I filled the car up. Obviously these are PCBs, but unlike some later deals that were boxes and boxes of unknown PCBs, these were known, quality and working PCBs. Well, IIRC, virtually all of them were known workers. Stuff like Galaga 88, Pacmania, etc. etc.
This one led to a later visit to Holland that was for a Luton van full of cabs. I also remember two smaller visits, one to Holland and Belgium for pins and vids (that was me and Pobster) and another where really, I was just the driver and the deal was P-Mans. Since that was his deal, not mine I won't go into detail.
Actually, that reminds me of another. I did two for P-Man, one was in a large red transit, and I distinctly remember another that was in a Luton. I remember the 2nd Luton one as much to Andy's dismay, he'd booked the wrong kind of ticket for us so when we came to drive on the passenger queue they laughed, sent us to the freight office, and one large bill later, we found ourselves on with the lorry drivers. Lovely lounge and food we had, but I'm guessing that was a painful lesson to learn, and probably hasn't been repeated again!! Live and learn as they say.
Anyway, looks like I don't really have any other pictures. It doesn't surprise me as I prefer to live the moment, not record it, so very rarely do I take photos. I do however have a lot of memories
Right, I'm late now - need to head out.
Those stacked cabs surely were a mother of a health and safety risk! Interesting pictures and stories folks, you hear about these raids loads in the states, but would imagine it being quite rare in the UK. Not like its cheap to store things here either.
gridrunner
Ex-lurker!
I don't want to pull this thread off topic at all, but I really like seeing arcade graveyard pics. Does anyone have any interesting ones, especially from the UK?