Bryans Foursquare
By Robert Rowland
•
Do any of you remember thal Bryans Foursquare that came up for auction on Ebay last
October? Well, that was me selling it for a local arcade owner who had owned it from
new, but decided that now the space it was taking up could be put to better use. He
didn't have the time to list the item himsett: so he asked me, adding "there will be a
drink in it for you." I jumped at the chance to be the person to advertise the Foursquare,
as I was very curious to see who would be showing interest "Put a reserve of one
thousand pounds on it" he said, "I don't fancy giving it away." So I listed it the same
night and set a reserve of £999.99.
The machine itself had been stored upstairs in the arcade for over twenty-five years.
The Foursquare consisted of three Elevenses and one Pilwin an four sections operating
on our current lp coin. The three Elevenses were set on all cups displaying WIN, which
gave a coin return. The Pilwin also displayed WIN WIN WfN in the moulh area, also
resulting in a lp return. Three of the sections used the same original folk-type key, but
the remaining section had a square Yale lock and key. On closer inspection of the doors,
I found that three of them had the number 199 just to the left of the payout knob, but the
door with the square lock didn't have any signs of a number. Finally, one of the
Elevenses had some damage to the backflash but the actual play area was not affected.
Overall, the machine was in excellent condition.
Within minutes of the list111g going live, the usual stream of questions started to
arrive, all asking the same thing: Do you have a Buy it Now price for this machine?
Every half hour that passed, the price increased, and after two hours the highest bid
stood at £700. At 11.34 the same night, the price went from red to green, meaning that
within just over five hours of the Foursquare being listed, the O\Vner's reserve price had
been met - and to think that he was worried that he may be giving il away!
The next seven days of the auction brought nothing, other than an increased number
of watchers which rose to sixty-eight. Later on that seventh day, the highest bidder
placed a higher bid on top, showing at £ l 045.00. The final day of the auction arrived,
and as each hour and minute ticked by, there was still no change. Finally, with seventy-
two seconds left, £1081.00 was bid. This was not enough though, because a new bidder
came in with seven seconds remaining and edged the others out for the final price of
£1120.00. Yet again on Ebay, the last bidder coming in won the item. What the hell
were those early bids all about? Not one of you got it. Some of you will maybe even
read this article - do you ever actually get anything at all? Or are you simply the front-
runner, wajting to be pipped at the post. I would really love to know!
Page 13