Ha Ha - i was too stuffed last night to write anything more....
So - back to the beginning. There is an older guy in Townsville that used to operate many pinballs, jukeboxes and arcades back in the day, and i'd always heard about the fact that he had a few machines in some containers. There were a few other guys around town that knew about them as well (couple of them forum members, some have actually seen them), but the owner wanted pretty big $$$ for them and was always going to get them going. Apparently these were under his house for a few years, then were moved to the containers a number of years ago - most were in reasonable shape at the time of the move.
This guy lives north of Townsville in the hills where there is no phone service, so it took over a week of trying once i got his number. Initially he wasn't too keen, but i told him i would love to have a look and offer a fair price on the machines depending on condition. (By the way, i've been on leave for the last two weeks and wanted to line this up at the start, not on my last day - today!). Eventually we lined up a time, and i picked him up in Townsville where he was staying, and we drove about 20k's north of town to a block with a few old cars lying down and some containers. I had taken a notebook and pen, torch and a heap of straps...ohh and quite a few grand cash in various pockets of my shorts....
With some excitement, and also at the same time prepared to be a bit underwhelmed, we cracked open the red container. The first view was boxes of junk, old paint tins and general rubbish. So we pulled a bit of stuff out of the way, to walk in the first metre.
I do have to apologise for the lack and quality of photos as i didn't want to get to excited (or be too keen), so only took my phone.
We spent prob 10-15 mins moving boxes of stuff away, mainly junk, hepas of old VHS tapes, a few coin mechs, rusted coils, paint, and mainly unidentified objects. Some boxes were full of sink plugs, or light fittings, presumably bought at an auction and saved for that rainy day when they would be needed! As we moved a bit of stuff, a couple of pinnies started to become visible, standing on their backs, along with a daytona off to the left. We clambered over the top of the pinnies (this guy would be in his 70's but still very spritely - great bloke to talk to as well) and i cracked out the torch to get a decent view...
It was a little disappointing as there had been leaks from the container roof, which he had not expected. There were 2 Fishtales that we looked at first, one of which had some moisture damage on top of the headbox, a T2 that looked half solid on the front of it (all we could see), a Diner and Street Fighter 2 that looked really nasty - cabinets all weetbix style and rusted areas of metal. I also poked the torch down the playfield of Dracula and ALL the ramps were brown with corrosion. So there were 2 FT, BSD, Wipe out, SF2, Diner, Stargate, T2, Whirlwind, Bram Stokers Dracula, most of which needed serious work. I could see that he was expecting them to be in far better condition. I had also brought my tablet, and had put some pictures of one of the possum pin restorations (see here for those that are unaware of this reference
http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=9757.msg126624#msg126624. I asked what he thought they were worth, and he didn't know, so i started at the price i got the possum pins for, but stated that there were a couple of solid looking machines that hopefully wouldn't need too much work (keeping in mind i could only see 10cm of playfield max, and couldn't see inside the headbox's - so i told him i was assuming that all boards were present). Anyway, he said we should look in the other container (white one) as he thought there were a couple in there.
So we crack open the next container, and there is still piles of junk everywhere, but some machines that look slightly better off without too much moisture damage. 2 Dr who, Party Zone, Getaway, Lethal Weapon 3, Indiana Jones and Judge Dredd. All of these were did not have cabinets that were falling apart, except for Indy, which the cab was pretty nasty. There also was another Daytona in this container! So i upped my price due to these extra machines, also bumping it a bit more as these were in better condition. He told me he though he might try and get them going, and i could see that would never happen. He also kept mentioning that the Getaway was in reasonable nick (which it was) and he might be able to sell it for $2000 (fair enough). He also said that he would go home for a week or two and think about it.....i knew i would never get them if this was the case. So then i decided to rip some cash out and show him i was serious. I told him i was keen to do a deal, and wanted to do it ASAP while i was on leave, and had access to a trailer and a mate. So he came up with a counter offer which was $1k over my offer, so i thought about it a bit, then offered $500 less than his offer, and told him to keep the Getaway, so we shook hands and the deal was done!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, he almost got offended when i told him i would get a mate to help move them, he said 'I might be old, but i'm fit and strong". So i had the box trailer on our car, so we started to move the junk out of the first container, and put 4 machines on thier ends in the trailer - this took well over an hour. The only photos i have is this one as we moved stuff out of the first container
By now it was about 4:30 pm, and i called a mate with a big trailer and we went back into Town to his place. It was interesting having a chat to this guy as we were driving as he told me about how he used to go overseas and buy Daytona's as they were cheaper 2nd hand over there, and how they were pulling over $600 a week in their heyday, also a few other stories of driving around siting machines and how it was good money. So then we headed back out with the big trailer, and it was getting quite close to dark by the time we started getting into the 2nd container.
This dodgy pic is all i have sorry
Anyway, with 3 of us, we got them out fairly quickly - most were in OK condition (relatively speaking) with solid enough cabs, still no views of the playfields or backboxes, we just put them on the trailer. So while he packed the junk back into the 2nd container, my mate and i got the rest of the machines from the 1st container. I would have loved to have strapped a GoPro camera to my head, it was pretty sad, but funnay at the same time, as i tried to put the SF2 on a trolley to move it out, the cabinet actually crumbled and the whole machine sort of sunk on itself about 300mm as the back of it gave way! Anyway, it was well and truly dark now, so strapped all the machines on, and headed home. The guy said he had a heap of boards and other stuff which i could have, and that he would do a big clean up (of the containers and in his house) and let me know when to pick it up. From talking to another local guy up here, some of the boards he has at his house are from some of the machines.
So we arrived home with two trailers and 16 pinball machines - the two worst ones - Diner and SF2 were on the back which my wife was a little concerned by as she saw these first!
So we started to upload them - the SF2 and Diner proved a bit of a challenge as the cabs were terrible
Good example of an Aussie delivered SF2...
2x Dr Who plus PZ
BSD (the other machines on legs are the ones i'm yet to get to of the possum pins)
Stargate and Whirlwind
JD in reasonable nick
I also got a box of manuals, so hope most are there. Legs are all shagged, many cabs will need replacing. I think it was a fair deal, as most are worth very little to those who aren't keen on putting the hours in - although as i open a few machines up, i hope NOT to find too many nasty surprises! So all in all, a great adventure, and i'm not sure what else to say, except as i start opening some up i will take some 'glamour?' shots and add to the thread. Pretty much i reckon i've got myself contented for the next 5 years for pinball projects, although the 'project' machine where you give it a quick strip down, new rubbers and change the batteries is a thing of the past with these machines!
