SPRINGFIELD, OHIO
by John Carini
We took a short trip in September to Springfield, OH. I
had read about the Springfield, Oh flea market in the
Antique Trader and it sounded like a good one.
Especially on the dates we were going to attend - it was
labeled a flea market extravaganza, huge! I also figured
we would pass through Indianapolis where we had
already discovered a few nice antique malls. We started
out at 3:00 am Friday morning, so we could get to the
flea market before it opened at noon. Unfortunately, it
was raining hard, and the weather report said rain all day.
So, we decided we should visit most of the antique shops
on Friday, and do the flea market on Saturday when it
was expected to clear.
way we saw signs for an antique town, not far off the
freeway, Waynesville. Waynesville is known for its
antique shops, but the town's main street has been
dubbed "America's Most Haunted." According to
Ripley's Believe It or Not, four sisters wee simultane-
ously killed by a ball of lightning that came down the
chimney of their farmhouse and struck them all, though
each was in a different room. We didn't find any ghosts
there, but we did visit a number of small antique shops
in town. Too bad there wasn't much coin-op to be found.
However, one shop - fashioned after an old drug store,
had some incredible chewing gum displays.
Unfortunately they were display only and not for sale.
First we stopped at Webb's Antique mall in Centerville,
In. We had visited this shop before and found it to be a
wonderful antique shop. I picked up a Mercury Marvel
Trade stimulator for $250 (see
photo). It's in nice original condi-
tion. The shop also had other coin-
op machines, such as Imp 's
($265.), 1940's stamp machines, a
Silver King ($145), cash registers,
juke boxes and old advertising
which were priced above book
value.
By the time we got to Springfield, it was almost 7:00 pm.
We knew the shops would be open late because of the
flea market. There are 2 huge malls within a mile of each
other, practically right across the street from where the
flea market is held. We start- r - - - - ----.-:=i.,,.,....,_,..,.
ed off at the Springfield
Antique Center. We spent
over an hour there and found
a number of coin-op
machines
including
a
Billiards
Automation
machine (see photo). This
1930's mini-pool table
machine was made by ABT Co. It was priced at $2195.
, __
We also found a 1960's aspirin machine
• ~ '
priced at $125. (see photo). In the last
I
"!~::.,,,,,
aisle, we found 2 coin-op machines -
Skeet Shoot and The Hunter, priced at
-c~ ... •
$150. and $225 . respectively. Near the
check out counters we found 2 old
~, .., •• tJ
~ 1930's Pinball machines, Ballyhoo and
. . . . . . .
a Five Star Final, priced at $750. each.
-· ,
- We wanted to save our cash for the flea
market the next day, but purchased a Sun peanut
machine, painted black.
After Webb's we decided to try the Brass Armadillo in
Cincinnati. My wife drove, and I awoke to find she had
stopped at an old school house that had been converted
to an antique shop on the side of the road. I told her and
my son to check it out, and continued to snooze in the
car. They came to get me, and told me I really should go
in. Inside, I found a Master, Regal hot nut, and a blue
Silver King all lined up next to each other on the count-
er. They weren 't priced. The store owner was on the
phone and looked pissed that we had actually interrupt-
ed his call to ask the prices. He threw out some ridicu-
lously high prices. I thought I could negotiate a fair price
on the Master, but he told me he could easily get $450.
down south. I stared in amazement, and told him I was a
dealer and had similar machines and would be glad to
sell them to him for a mere fraction of the price. We
moved on.
iii;'
We drove to the next mall, The AAA I-70 Antique Mall,
which was less than a mile away. It was 8:30, and the
~ - - - - - mall was scheduled to close at 9:00 so
we knew we didn't have much time.
There we found a 1940's Silver King
hot nut machine with a cracked globe
priced at $129. We tried to bargain, but
they wouldn't budge much. Then we
found a Pix Match machine (see photo)
priced at $880. In the case directly
~ ~ = ~ ~ = i J across from the match machine we
We stopped at the Cincinnati Brass Armadillo. I like this
chain of antique shops and have visited Brass Armadillo
shops in other large cities, like Denver, Des Moines, and
Phoenix. The shop was large and had lots of nice adver-
tising, but we only found a few common coin-op
machines. We decided to head to Springfield. On the
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