It never ceases to amaze me, the extent that the Vegas Butcher will go through, to Scam our beloved collectors in this hobby.
Someone has spent a lot of time, making up a pattern for a FAKE marquee that never existed on the original machine shown
below. The Atlas "Base Ball" machine, NEVER HAD A MARQUEE ON ANY OF THESE MACHINES THAT LEFT THE FACTORY.
I have been a coin machine historian for many years, and worked extensively with the late Dick Bueschel, with many of his book
ventures, as well as authoring my own articles, in our past trade magazines. Dick and I traded many original advertisements, and
fliers, on a weekly basis. We had never seen any literature which depicted a marquee on top of this machine, of which I have a
few on file. I have had four of these models, (which were made by two different mfrs.), and still have two. I have restored, and
worked on a couple for other collectors. Have seen them in other collections, as well as live auctions, and absolutely "NONE OF
THEM HAVE HAD HOLES IN THE TOP OF THE CASE, TO MOUNT ANYTHING". The only one that will have NEW Holes in the top, will
be the one shown below.
The worst part of all this, is that the Made-Up pattern may look a bit better, but the castings that have come out of it, look like Crap.
The highlight areas are full of scratch lines, and gas holes. They even tried to make it look authentic, by curving it around the top,
and making the stipple pattern, which also doesn't match exact. Then on the backside, there is casting-crud in the corners, that have
to be milled-out. He says the frame is 'ready to mount'. I don't see any holes. The card is also a made-up Phoney. The funniest one, is
the second card, in the third pix. No manufacturer has ever put the same artwork on a card, that is on the machine playfield. They
even put the little round symbol that says "Penny Here". Now how stupid is that?
I just hope that none of our avid collectors, that have one of these machines, (of which there are not a great amount), fall for this
Made-Up FAKE marquee, and drill holes in the top of their machine to mount it. But, rest assured, someone will get snookered!
From now on, this is going to be the thread, that I will be listing all the FAKE, PHONEY, and CRAP castings that show up.