Polk Re-Issues

[thepennyarcade]

I just saw this character slot on ebay and there it has a certificate of authenticity of a polk re-issue.
Does this mean that the person who holds the certificate can make up to 50 of these character slots?
Wow, talk about seeing a Wild West Posse!!!

[Midcoast Vintage]

What this refers to is James Schneider had a deal with Frank Polk to do some correct re-issues of his figures.
There is an article in one of the '80's or '90's LOOSE CHANGE magazines with the details about the re-issues.

[Anglobritish]

Hi,
Frank Polk did make a deal to reproduce his machines, the deal was put together through the late Ron Brooks in Virginia City, Ron acted as the agent for Frank Polk, it was announced in one of the Loose Change magazines, I will look it up and post it on the CoinOpCollectorForum.

Some of the members seem to think that Chris Davis is the best Authority on the Frank Polk subject, although Chrid had the largest collection, the best authority on Frank Polk figures is John Herman in Los Angeles, in 1981 I bought the only two soldiers that Frank Polk carved, I paid $22,000 + fees, at that time this was the highest price paid for Frank Polk figures.

In the late 1970's The Bucket of Blood casino in Virginia City threw out around 20 Polk figures, Ron Brooks who had a turn of the century store that he created across the street from the casino, he took the figures in, I was once on vacation in the area, and met Ron Brookes (An ex Hells Angel), I drank with him for three day's to get him to sell me a Polk Miner with a Pace mechanism in it. I had to finally buy his Auburn Roadster as well. I paid $9,000 for the Polk figure and $23,000 for the Auburn, Frank Polk then came and signed all of Ron's Polk figures. Ron was a great character.

Freddy Bailey

[TheFatman]

Fred ... thanks so much for the info. This is great info. I appreciate your love and devotion to this industry. Aint nothing nowhere like it.
Dave F

[clubconsoles]

Some of the members seem to think that Chris Davis is the best Authority on the Frank Polk subject, although Chrid had the largest collection, the best authority on Frank Polk figures is John Herman in Los Angeles, in 1981 I bought the only two soldiers that Frank Polk carved, I paid $22,000 + fees, at that time this was the highest price paid for Frank Polk figures.
Freddy Bailey

Hi Freddy
Yes it was me who thought Chris Davis was the primary source of info on Polks, it seems I was incorrect.
Thanks for the info, this forum will obviously benefit from your vast knowledge in coin op.

Best Wishes

Nigel

[YourBestBet]

Hi,
Frank Polk did make a deal to reproduce his machines, the deal was put together through the late Ron Brooks in Virginia City, Ron acted as the agent for Frank Polk, it was announced in one of the Loose Change magazines, I will look it up and post it on the CoinOpCollectorForum.

Some of the members seem to think that Chris Davis is the best Authority on the Frank Polk subject, although Chrid had the largest collection, the best authority on Frank Polk figures is John Herman in Los Angeles, in 1981 I bought the only two soldiers that Frank Polk carved, I paid $22,000 + fees, at that time this was the highest price paid for Frank Polk figures.

In the late 1970's The Bucket of Blood casino in Virginia City threw out around 20 Polk figures, Ron Brooks who had a turn of the century store that he created across the street from the casino, he took the figures in, I was once on vacation in the area, and met Ron Brookes (An ex Hells Angel), I drank with him for three day's to get him to sell me a Polk Miner with a Pace mechanism in it. I had to finally buy his Auburn Roadster as well. I paid $9,000 for the Polk figure and $23,000 for the Auburn, Frank Polk then came and signed all of Ron's Polk figures. Ron was a great character.

Freddy Bailey

I am no expert on recent sales prices of Polk figures, however, $22k in 1981 is quite an investment! In today's dollars at a conservative 2% inflation we're talking over $80k!! I hope there's a market out there that will pay $40k per Polk figure.

[Anglobritish]

Sir,
What you are saying is very understandable, but what very many collectors still do not understand is what is a really good collectable for them to collect.

Take for instance the Wurlitzer 1015 jukebox, many years ago collectors were scrambling to buy this famous model, not understanding at the time (Including my self) that Wurlitzer made more than 54,000 of this model, while making only 12,000 of the model 1080, surely in theory the 1080 should have been more collectable than the 1015 simply because of the production run.

it is the same with the "Little Duke" model, the very first Little Duke models were made at the request of Edward Bignell who was the Jennings distributor for France & the French Colonies,he suggested the design of the the machine that was based on the ever popular rotating discs that were so popular on games with the Europeans at the time,

Jennings made 3 models for Europe, one for France with the geometrical symbols, and the other two models were for the German and English markets using Totalisatorr numbers.

It was not until these machines were a success, that Jennings introduced it to the U. S. market, they called it the "Little Duke" after the Royalty of Europe, they also introduced "The Duchess" slot machine also based of the European Royalty, ense the Duke & Duchess series. By the way Jennings produced more than 7,000 Little Dukes in 27 days after they introduced the 3 jackpot version in 1934.

So to answer your question why would a Polk figure demand such a price all those years ago, I felt at the time that my best investments for my collection would be of collecting machines with the shortest run production. Skelly Mfg Co, was producing specialized characters for the Northern Nevada casino's in the Reno area, they could never get the legs of their characters to look right, they got in touch with Frank Polk who was great at carvings in wood, he would go on to carve 92 of the various style of characters (see attached list) mainly Cowboys and Indians, he carved several sit down characters, but only two soldiers, one confederate and one Union Soldier, so not only was they more valuable because he made only one of each, but for one collector to get the opportunity to get both machines was a once in a lifetime chance, I was at the time prepared to pay upto $50,000 for the pair, at the time I was sitting with Roy Harrington, who commented to me, "That is why so mainly collectors cannot see the value of such rare machines".

It cannot be fathomed just how many machines of one model was produces all those years ago, in my book there is a picture of David Rockola receiving a check for $25,000 deposit for 1,000 Jigsaw Pinball games from one New York operator alone, what does that say about the rarity of a machine, Rock-Ola was producing 1,000-1,500 of any one model per day.

I hope you can understand the complexity of my thinking.

Freddy Bailey

[Billyzap]

Hmmm being a collector and a dealer.....I would say that there is two ways to approach a purchase.....as a dealer the optimum situation is to buy a collectible at it's lowest price and then sell it at the best price possible for a profit...as a collector I don't care what I pay for something if I really want it and it is priced in reason.....and if someone is happy with what they acquired then what is the difference of what they paid....hopefully when one does decide to sell their collection they will have scored a few or more steals to balance that overpriced got to have piece....also as a collector one should be collecting for the joy of finding ,learning about it and preserving it.....not the monetary value .....in the end any collectible is worth only what someone will pay for it....the money spent on those two Polk figures was not just on the purchase but I suspect more on the adventure of finding and acquiring them

[madd58]

Mr. Freddy Bailey, Would LOVE to see a picture of your Incredible Civil war Polks!
Thanks,
Mark D.
Naples,FL

[oldslotman]

I too would love to see some pictures.