Wanted: Rock-Ola Black Magic Dice Machine

[Dave]

I am looking for a Rock Ola Black Magic dice machine.

Machine must be complete and in reasonable working order.

Thanks

Dave

[altort]

Dave
how was the one at the VCA auction? I spoke to Pete about it, but I did not bid on it. Cool machine.

[Dave]

I was not at the auction but there were several photos of it put on the VCA site. I appreciate VCA putting the additional photos of it on their site.

I also checked into it a few weeks ago and learned the history.

It went for $1,400 which is a really good price. Let me put it this way. There was a reason it went so cheap.

[marsonion]

It went for $1,400 which is a really good price. Let me put it this way. There was a reason it went so cheap.

...A reason so sordid it's downright unspeakable--?

[coinmachines]

The Black Magic is a battery operated machine. The battery was left inside the machine and as it deteriorated over the years, severely damaged the mechanism. The mechanism is pot metal and some of it appeared to be beyond repair.

[altort]

Ya Pete told me it was in rear bad shape, to bad looks like at best it will be a display piece

[SLOT DYNASTY]

I am looking for a Rock Ola Black Msgic dice machine.

Machine must be complete and in reasonable working order.

Thanks

Dave

BOY! You didn't waste a moment of time, getting this feeler out, after our chit-chat.
It's going to be very interesting to see if you can pry one of the other two or three,
from wherever they reside. Like I said, the one that I seen at the FUN FAIR many
years ago, could have been the same one that I saw a pix of several months before.
If that's the case, there are only two others, plus the rough one at the VCA auction,
which makes a total of four, or maybe five, if the one that Jeff restored a year or so
ago, is another. There has to be a couple more out there, that no one is talking about.
OK fellas, lets fess-up! Dave is on the hunt. Some day I may send you a pix, to
really get you 'fired-up'!

[Midcoast Vintage]

in 1087 i was at tom noel's house in vrgas, and he just just gotten a black magic, and, a cherry jitters.
i am sure tom's collection is long gone,.
whether or not his is among the one's bill is accounting for or not, i don't know.

[Dave]

Well, it only took 3.5 years after posting the original request for a Black Magic for me to finally find one!!!

If you follow the auctions you know where I got it. I was hoping it would be a sleeper in the auction. No such luck. There were several people who also really wanted it.

This is the 2nd one that I have seen in 30 years of collecting. This is the only one that I have ever seen that is in working condition.

This machine is very similar to the Western Mysterious Eye (kind of like the Buckley Bones is like the Bally Reliance). The Mysterious Eye is much more plentiful.

I just completed a video describing the machine and going into great detail on how it works.

The video will be uploaded to youTube in the next day or so.

I think this machine is bone stock original. When I bought it I thought it was an older restoration. However, after closely examining it I am pretty sure it has never been restored and saw very little use. It still has the original schematics on the back door as well as the original inspection sticker. The machine still has the original battery tray and was never converted to run off a transformer.

[SLOT DYNASTY]

David:
Congrats, and welcome to the "Black Magic" Club. You think it took you a long time to turn one up.
Well, it took me a bunch of years to get mine. At the time, I had never seen or heard of one, that
was owned by any collector or dealer. I started my search, just after getting an original advertisement
from the late Dick Bueschel. A few years later, I got a call from one of my pickers, who found five diff.
machines, in Alaska of all places, and it was in the group. I was like a kid-in-a-candy-store when it
arrived. It was still a few years after that, when I seen the second one, at the Fun Fair in Pasadena. It
was there on set-up day, for a brief time, and disappeared. I found out later, that someone had only
dropped it off for a customer, and it went right to their vehicle. I never found out where it went at the
time, but I think it was the one that Tom Noel acquired, as it was around the same time as the 'Cherry
Jitters" episode. The third one I saw, was from a long time collector that I had known for many years,
and never knew he had it. That one sold at a small auction, just afterwards. I have seen it sell for a
second time, and knew it was the same one, as it was a repaint in a very light yellow, not even close
to the original color. A forth one turned up a few years ago. Then the fifth, was the one in bad shape,
at a previous VCA auction, and now the sixth, that Dave just acquired at VCA. So, this makes at least
six to date.
Bill