Thoughts on 5/2/15 VCA / Morphy auction

[Dave]

Finally found some time to share my thoughts on the auction.

The auction was very well attended.

Tons of 3 reeler machines. Most of them restored (over restored in many cases). If you were looking for a 3 reeler then this was a good auction. They went pretty cheap. In most cases they went for less than what it would cost just for the restoration. The Mills Dice, Triplex, and Double Bell went pretty cheap. I didn't look at these machines so I don't know what condition they were in.

The Pace Royal Comet went really cheap for $3,540 (post juice). I went and looked at it afterwards and saw why. Horrible restoration. The machine was a real beater in my opinion. The Royal Double brought in $15,340 (post juice) and had a so-so restoration on it. The Royal Double is a really hard machine to find though so whoever bought it could have it restored properly and have a nice machine.

I ended up buying two machines but not at the auction. One was in Michigan and the other was in Denver (I am from Denver but heard about the machine in Vegas and bought it when I was in Vegas).

I flew into Vegas on Wednesday and left late Saturday night. When I booked my return flight I assumed the gambling stuff would be mainly on Saturday (like previously). Wrong assumption on that one. The two machines I was interested in were the Black Magic dice machine and the Mills Duplex. I sure wish Morphy would get his catalogs out in a more timely manner.

So, I decided to do a phone bid on Sunday. I assumed the 18% juice was the same for live or phone. I have since found out that phone bids are 20%. I didn't get either machines but I would have been really annoyed if I had got the Duplex and had to pay an extra 2% juice. I was not the high bidder on either machine so the point is moot.

The good stuff, like always, brought good prices. For example, $295,000 for the Caille Roulette, $112,000 for the Duplex, $46,000 for the Caille Silver Cup, $95,000 for the Caille Black Cat, $76,000 for the Mills Lone Star, and $64,000 for the Caille Lion. All these prices include the 18% juice.

The Evans Roll-Ette brought in almost $57,000. I think the one that sold at the Fey auction (2006) sold for $12,500 (included the juice).

I found the descriptions in the catalog to be much more accurate than in the past.

I was so busy I didn't get much poker time in. Probably only about 8 hours at the tables. All sessions were profitable so that was good.

All in all, I had a good time. Great catching up with folks and also meeting other collectors.

[Midcoast Vintage]

While I did not attend, I watched the auction on the internet.
With a few exceptions, other than the 3 reelers... which was probably a soft market due to the fact that there way too many for one auction... I felt for the most part, prices were strong, and, indicated a healthy market for the straight, better quality items.
Granted there were a few surprise on both the high, and, low end, but the price that truly amazed me, was the price realized for the TINY TIM GOLF MACHINE, a small table top game similar in size to a PEO BASEBALL GAME.
it brought $9500.00 before the juice was added.
While not a common machine, there are a few of them around.
Did anyone else think this an exceptionally high price for such a machine?
The lot # was 908.
Here is a link to that machine.
http://morphyauctions.hibid.com/lot/191 ... f&selCat=0

[Dave]

I know nothing about that machine. The estimate was $4K - $6K so I think the price also surprised Morphy.

Speaking of estimates. There was a discussion the night before the auction and one person thought the estimates were too high for most pieces.

With a few exceptions, I think the estimates fell in line with what the prices actually achieved. In more cases than not, the estimates were a bit on the low side.

I also heard from multiple people that arcade is dead and that the arcade pieces were going to go cheap.

I am not an arcade person but it appeared to me that the arcade pieces brought good prices.

[Midcoast Vintage]

i have been dealing with coin machines for over 40 years, and, ALWAYS people have said that arcade machines were down or dead, yet, the GOOD pieces
have always brought strong money.
I would say that after the prices realized at this auction, we won't have to hear that anymore.
Arcade machines are nice to have around, as, they are entertaining and fun to play.

[Anglobritish]

Hi Guy's,
I have been off of the scene for awhile, had an accident on the ice in my State. When you talk about arcade machines being a little dead, I feel that there are so many more slot machine collectors than there are arcade machine collectors, I fell into that trap 30 years ago, because I was ignorant of the fact on the number of machines produced, since I started researching more over the years, I found that what I thought was a rare slot machine 30 years ago, was in fact not true, why, because when the slot machine manufacturers produced a model, they made literally 1,000's per day, when a company such as Exhibit, Bally and Mutoscope produced an arcade game, it was rare if the complete production run went over 5,000 machines, why would that be, well firstly there was not as many types of locations that could accomadate an arcade game as easily as a slot machine, and in those day's most operators could put a slot machine in the trunk of a car or even on the back seat, while most arcade games required a small truck to deliver and install a game. Also a slot machine could earn in one day as much as an arcade game could earn in a week if not longer, another factor was that if an operator installed a slot machine in a location, it would stay there much longer than an arcade game, that the location would want updating every time a new game was available, it is the same with operating today, the location always wants something new.

Freddy Bailey

[Anglobritish]

Hi Guy's,
I have been off of the scene for awhile, had an accident on the ice in my State. When you talk about arcade machines being a little dead, I feel that there are so many more slot machine collectors than there are arcade machine collectors, I fell into that trap 30 years ago, because I was ignorant of the fact on the number of machines produced, since I started researching more over the years, I found that what I thought was a rare slot machine 30 years ago, was in fact not true, why, because when the slot machine manufacturers produced a model, they made literally 1,000's per day, when a company such as Exhibit, Bally and Mutoscope produced an arcade game, it was rare if the complete production run went over 5,000 machines, why would that be, well firstly there was not as many types of locations that could accomadate an arcade game as easily as a slot machine, and in those day's most operators could put a slot machine in the trunk of a car or even on the back seat, while most arcade games required a small truck to deliver and install a game. Also a slot machine could earn in one day as much as an arcade game could earn in a week if not longer, another factor was that if an operator installed a slot machine in a location, it would stay there much longer than an arcade game, that the location would want updating every time a new game was available, it is the same with operating today, the location always wants something new.

Freddy Bailey

[nvmos2]

Freddy;

Did you really mean to say:

Hi Guy's,
........ when the slot machine manufacturers produced a model, they made literally 1,000's per day, ................
Freddy Bailey

It would be interesting to see production figures for various models,
but from looking at the serial number list, it appears that even in their heyday,
Mills was more in the range of 1500- 2000 machines per month; and that would be a combined total for all their various models.

Jim

[SLOT DYNASTY]

All-in-All, I think that this last Morphy auction, was one of the best Vegas venues since the days of Roy Arrington.
There was an excellent grouping in all fields. Several excellent, and hard to find Victorian Uprights. Many Trade
Stimulators that are not often seen, (and luckily, only a couple of the Butchers creations, which shouldn't have
dirtied the group in the first place), but didn't bring that much. Also an excellent showing of Venders, and an
even better selection of Arcade machines, both large & small, that haven't made a showing in any live auctions
in quite some time. Even though there was a good sampling of three reelers, (some hard-to-find), there was way
too many, and some 'very over-restored'. Many of the good Slots, didn't bring what they should have. The Morphy
crew should be proud of this sale. I haven't heard any bad stories as yet, and hopefully we won't. We need to have
more coin-op auctions with good quality merchandise, and run correctly. One of the key ingredients of getting the
best possible on-line bidding, is having multiple photos of the key items, which Morphy has been noted for in the past.
It is also a shame, that we lost Bob Levy when we did, as his working with Morphy, would have, I'm sure, kept all of
the Bogus, Fake, Repro, and Poorly Restored machines, off the block, as he did not like Junk machines.

[SLOT DYNASTY]

While I did not attend, I watched the auction on the internet.
With a few exceptions, other than the 3 reelers... which was probably a soft market due to the fact that there way too many for one auction... I felt for the most part, prices were strong, and, indicated a healthy market for the straight, better quality items.
Granted there were a few surprise on both the high, and, low end, but the price that truly amazed me, was the price realized for the TINY TIM GOLF MACHINE, a small table top game similar in size to a PEO BASEBALL GAME.
it brought $9500.00 before the juice was added.
While not a common machine, there are a few of them around.
Did anyone else think this an exceptionally high price for such a machine?

I didn't get a chance to even view the auction on-line this time around, because of being away, and out-of-the-loop
with family issues. Even though I am still not back to normal, I have been able to catch up on the auction results, and
a little eBay nosing around.
Even though that "Tiny Tim Golf" is a really nice machine, and not many around, I did think that the price was a bit
out-of-line. On the high side, I would have put it closer to the $6,000.00 range. But, 'What do I know'!

[Dave]

All-in-All, I think that this last Morphy auction, was one of the best Vegas venues since the days of Roy Arrington.
There was an excellent grouping in all fields. Several excellent, and hard to find Victorian Uprights. Many Trade
Stimulators that are not often seen, (and luckily, only a couple of the Butchers creations, which shouldn't have
dirtied the group in the first place), but didn't bring that much. Also an excellent showing of Venders, and an
even better selection of Arcade machines, both large & small, that haven't made a showing in any live auctions
in quite some time. Even though there was a good sampling of three reelers, (some hard-to-find), there was way
too many, and some 'very over-restored'. Many of the good Slots, didn't bring what they should have. The Morphy
crew should be proud of this sale. I haven't heard any bad stories as yet, and hopefully we won't. We need to have
more coin-op auctions with good quality merchandise, and run correctly. One of the key ingredients of getting the
best possible on-line bidding, is having multiple photos of the key items, which Morphy has been noted for in the past.
It is also a shame, that we lost Bob Levy when we did, as his working with Morphy, would have, I'm sure, kept all of
the Bogus, Fake, Repro, and Poorly Restored machines, off the block, as he did not like Junk machines.

Speaking of fakes, there was a Jennings Witch in the catalog that was advertised as a fake. I walked around the auction and I never did see it.
When it came up it brought virtually no money, whoever converted the Model B to the witch should have just left it as a Model B.