Coin Slot Magazine - #010 - 1975 - July [International Arcade Museum]
( i. e. not exactly right ) , as well as talk that some of the real treasures
of the slot machine field were going to change hands at last. It took
three agonizingly long days to get the answers, and when they finally were
wrapped up there were some surprises, some disappointments, but
mod&ly .. .SHOCK I
It!s hard to say what the results will be over the
long haul as we're still to close to the event.
But there!s no question
that collecting history has been made, if only because so many of the
enthusiasts finally had a chance to get together and swap stories on the
floor, in the casinos, or at the shrine of all shrines, The Liberty Belle
Restaurant, the repository of the very first LIBERTY BELL machine
hand-crafted by Charley Fey three-quarters of a century ago. The
suggestion for an annual meeting of COIN SLOT enthusiasts was frequen
tly heard at the Liberty Belle Restaurant, and all over Reno.
As for the auction itself, the results were staggering. It's hard to say
what a coin machine is worth as there is no open market. But they can't
possibly be worth what some, of them sold for I A Jennings LITTLE
DUKE brought over a thousand dollars; Mills and Caille DOUBLES went
for $5, 000. and over; all of the floor model machines went for more than
the sealed bids and were sold from the floor. True, there were some
reasonable winning bids as can be seen in the following bid list, but in the
main, the selling prices were completely out of hand. It's almost a disser
vice to collectors to publish such prices, but they are a matter of public
record. We should recognize the fact that they are unrealistic. There
are reasons for this. First of all, people get emotionally carried away
at auctions, and prices run high. But at Harrah's, there were other rea
sons: the people at the auction I For many of the winning bidders, it was
an ego trip. They had the money, and just had to have the machine or
machines they came for, no matter what the cost. The other factor was
BIG MONEY. Antique slot machines are American 1 They originated here.
So, there are very few collections outside of this country. One foreign
buyer, reportedly had a line of credit of $50,000., and spent over $28,000.
of it at the auction alone, paying unheard-of prices.
What were the overall results of the auction? Well, for one thing, we
have all learned that it is sometimes hard to describe a machine accura
tely. Even Harrah's catalog was off base on a number of machines. For
another thing it is quite obvious that some machines have greater appeal
than others. The auction firmly established Caille floor machines, the
Jennings LITTLE DUKE, and the Watling ROL-A-TOP as "classics", while
virtually ignoring equally interesting machines, such as the A. C. Novelty
MULTI-BELL; Caille NEW DEAL, and others. This can only mean that
those of us who are lucky enough to have a "classic" machine have what
has been currently identified as the best of the litter. But these things
change.
Machine popularity can become a fad just like other things. But
for now, the record, speaks for itself— and here's a complete rundown on
Harrah's Pony Express Auction as far as gaming machines are concerned,
both for those who couldn't be there, and for those of us that had the time
of our lives at the First Slot Machine Auction.
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