By Johnny Duckworth
When I began collecting, I found a few common
slots locally which sparked my interest, but that was
about all I could find until eBay came along. You nev-
er knew what might show up on eBay and it seemed
so easy to find something you didn't have. That only
pulled me deeper into the hobby and shortly after that
I started making the trip to Chicago twice a year to
look for even more treasures. I soon discovered that the
Chicago show was more like a magic show. Whenever
someone would pull anything out that was very desir-
able it would instantly disappear! If you are a veteran
collector you know what I am talking about. The supply
is short while the demand is still very high for quality
com-op.
wasn't so easy since the magazines were over 20 years
old and many of the collectors had sold everything or
even worse, passed on. It wasn't a total waste of time
since I did pick up a few nice machines including a Vic-
tor musical upright and a Fey Duo.
One lucky find that I stumbled upon was pictured in
a 1985 issue of the Coin Slot magazine. It was a Pace
Kitty owned by Fred Sagebaum in Butte, Montana. I
cal led Fred up and introduced myself and was very
happy to hear he still owned the machine but unfortu-
nately he wouldn't even think of selling it. Fred pur-
chased his first slot machine for $100, a Jennings silver
chief in 1972 out of a local garage filled with dozens
of machines. Fred has gathered up quite a collection of
Early on I felt that all the great coin-op machines slot machines since that time. Butte was home to one of
were already residing in someone else's collection. I the largest coin operated distributors in Montana, which
could only find photos of the early coin op machines was owned and operated by Harry B. Brinck. The H.B.
that I wanted in the slot magazines such as Coin Slot Brinck Company was a distributor of Pace slot ma-
and Loose Change. I spent a lot of my time trying to chines and Rockolajukeboxes. They also sold pinballs,
contact collectors that were mentioned in the maga- amusement games, & novelties. You will notice the re-
zines to see if the machine could even be acquired. It cent photo of the long abandoned Brinck building that
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