I went collecting this weekend. I found some great stuff. It started off with reading the classified section of the newspaper on friday. Thats when I saw this.
Standing Arcade Game, Double Dragon, needs work. $35 or best offer. Call ***-6275
So I called. Apparently the only thing wrong with the game was that the player one joystick wouldn't move down. So we went over there. The people who had the game lived in a very bad part of town, (the kind of street that makes you want to roll up your windows). We walked in to the run down house. The lady showed us the game, (Double Dragon, in a Defender cabinet, fairly good condition). My friend Dave who came along started working his magic right away, (keep in mind he doesn't know anything about arcade games).
Dave: Ok, this game has the wrong nameplate up at the top. Oh shit those are ball top controllers, they don't even make those anymore. So where is the key to the
coinbox?
The Lady: Umm, I don't think it ever had a key.
Dave: Just great, thats gonna cost a lot of
money to fix also. Paige, I don't think we should buy this.
Paige, (me): Well I might be able to use the
buttons or something.
Dave: Allright, we will give you $20 for it.
The Lady: Ok, just get it out of here.
Once we get it home, I take the back off. There is the key to the coin door taped inside. I look up at the joysticks from underneath and see that one of the leaf switches is broken, (I have a couple spares anyway). But the best part is the coin box was almost full. I still haven't counted all the quarters.
Saturday we hit a few garage sales. But we didn't find anything woth buying. We saw that the local Catholic Church was having a sale. So we headed over there. Jackpot. We spent $30 and took home all this stuff
Later that day we checked the paper again. I ended up getting a late 50's/early 60's Pachinko machine for $70, (Dave worked his magic again).
All in all this was a very successful weekend
10 years later the Panchinko went in the dumpster.