C.O.C.A. Times

Allwin de Luxe, priced
at $550. We finally left
the flea market at around
11:00 o'clock. My wife
and I had promised our
kids we would take them
to the Mall of America in
Minneapolis.
What
should have been a 90
minute drive turned into
a 4-1/2 hour drive
because of the many
antique shops on the way. In one shop, we found a
1920's Mills Puritan Trade Stimulator priced at
$1300.00. Ouch! I also found a double Neko, but it
was $595.00. We didn't find much else in the way
of coin-op machines. It was almost 3:30 when we
reached the Mall of America, and we were already
tired. But we spent about 3-1/2 hours working our
way through the mall. The mall is huge, filled with
shops, restaurants and attractions including an
amusement park and aquarium. And very expen-
sive. The one interesting thing, though, ithere is no
sales tax on clothing.
On Saturday morning, we stopped at the
Rochester Flea Market. The weather was rainy.
Luckily, there were more vendors inside the build-
ings than outside. We found a lot of nice advertising
here, although overall it was expensive and not as
nice as Oronco. We did find one nice chrome
Brookside on a stand for $100.00. I also found a
Cardinal Trade Stimulator, priced at $550.00, a
counter game machine priced at $250.00, and some
common gumball machines, all overpriced. We
walked away empty handed. We started back to
Milwaukee, this time taking a different route and
again hitting more antique shops. I didn't find any
coin-op machines, but my wife found a very ornate
antique left-handed mustache cup & saucer.
While I can definitely say these were very good
flea markets, I will probably not go back in the near
future. The competition for coin-op was fierce, and
I came back with the feeling we were always one-
step behind many other coin-op collectors.
for sale). We also saw scales, cash registers, trade
stimulators, advertising and various common gum-
ball machines. Prices were pretty high. One antique
dealer had a Columbus A, in good condition, but it
was $575 .00 firm.
Then we ran across a fellow
coin-op dealer that we knew
from the Chicago Show. His
booth had some very nice coin-
op machines ( ee photos).
As we were making a deal on an Imperial 1 cent
Cigarette Reel Trade Stimulator (see photo) which
we later purchased, two more fellow collectors from
the Milwaukee area showed up. They had called the
vendor before the show, and pre-purchased a num-
ber of items. They loaded up some really nice coin-
op machines into their van and left. The Imperial
Trade Stimulator we
purchased was m
good
condition,
although it is missing
the back door. One
unusual feature was a
1940 Arkansas tax
stamp in the window,
indicating a $1 annual
tax fee. The machine
will make a nice addition to my collection.
We also picked up some common machines for
resale, including a 1940's Regal, a 1940's Oak
Acom and a Northwestern '60. We also found a neat
English Penny Arcade Machine (see photo), called
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