major coin op site in the UK

[coppinpr]

This is an un a bashed plug for the coin op web site I and another collector now run in the UK . We bought an existing site based mostly around UK slots and have expanded and re designed it greatly to cover all kinds of coin op machines and coin op related subjects and we are adding pages weekly, please take a look and contact us with comments both good and bad,any thoughts on improvements,mistakes etc much appreciated.
Paul............
oh, dont forget to watch the video on the Sega Collection page for what has to be the most addictive "win a prize" machine ever made

http://www.penny-arcade.info

[Anglobritish]

Hi Guy's,
Nice site, but a lot of incorrect information, also it seems that you used a lot of pictures from articles published by me in www.coin-opcommunity.co.uk without my permission, if you are going to try to describe the history of various companies such as Gunter Wulff and Sega, you should get the facts correct. in my book "All My Life........A Showman" their is a full chapter called "The Gunter Wulff Story" along with the NSM story, and as I knew Gunter Wulff personally, I am sure my facts are more accurate than yours, your Jennings story, along with your Pace story, also your Buckley story is missing facts about their involvement with Maurice Shefras (Their British distributor) these manufacturers actually built machines for the British market, you do not show any pictures of these machines anywhere on your site under the headings of these companies Also you are crediting people for their contributions when they do not own the rights in the first place.

On your links page you mention www.coin-opcommunity.co.uk and particulery the Ruffler and Walker history that I wrote for that web site and of which I own the copyright, the comments on these articles alone clearly state that all content belong to me alone, So the content of your site is a little reckless as you have published pictures that still have the copyright of the original owners superimposed on them.

I know you have put a lot of work into your site, but most of it is third hand not the actual facts. I think most collectors on this site know that I deal in only original material that can be substanciated at the time they were reported in actual trade magazines. Your site is how the actual facts get distorted, collectors read sites like this and then pass on the same information to others collectors, this is how inaccuracies lead to wrong information being generated in good faith by collectors, I have seen this happen from time to time even on this very informative forum.

Freddy Bailey
The Official British Coin Machine Historian

[coppinpr]

Im sorry if we have stepped on your toes here,the intention of the site is purely to spread the word on coin op subjects my thinking is that the more people that see the info the better for the hobby in general ,keeping it hidden away dosnt seem to be a gain for anybody.

As to being incorrect,well that has to be a matter of opinion,need less to say I didnt make any of the content up,it was all researched through company records,publications and knowledgeable information like yours,in much the same way as you said you did when writing your book. You mention the lack of Shefras information on other companies pages,that is because those pages are about the root companies and Shafras will ,in time , get their own page. As I said in the first post, corrections to mistakes are always welcome, simply saying they are wrong doesn't really help us.

Perhaps im miss understanding you but you seem to say putting a link to other sites was wrong(?) such as the R&W link and the link to this site, I dont understand why that is wrong, it is ,after all the most common way to share information Im sorry if we have posted any photos that you have taken or that you have bought the rights to,if you let me know I can remove them or ,hopefully you will give us permission to use them if we credit them to you.
Once again Im sorry to have caused you such concern ,my only plan was to spread the word.
Paul............

[nvmos2]

Paul;

You've developed an excellent coin op site;
I'm sure it'll only get better as you refine it with constructive input and further research.
Since it encompases both American and European machines, it is interesting for all of us, not just those of us with European machines.

Thank You for making it available to the hobby!

[SLOT DYNASTY]

Paul:
Although I have been on the penny-arcade site several times, I have not gone over it as thoroughly as Freddy and others
may have. But I did dive into it a bit more, these last couple of days. I do agree with some of what Freddy has pointed out,
regarding the Slot Machine History. Being as my field of expertise, is more into the Trade Stimulator history, I found some
serious mistakes in there as well. So far, I have found three machines that should not be pictured in there. As they are
Bogus & Fake creations, tossed together by the "Las Vegas Butcher". Whom ever sent you the pix that you have posted, may
not have known that they were incorrect. I am willing to help you correct the mistakes, with proper photos if you wish.
Just let me know how to go about it, by contacting me at (slotdynasty@sbcglobal.net), and I will do my best to help you
make things right.
I worked with the late Dick Bueschel, on many of his book ventures, and I also authored many articles in our past trade
magazines, and the one thing I have always been a stickler with, is not to picture any machine, that is not correct. Many
collectors, (long time, as well as newbies), expect all books, or magazine articles, to show machines as they were from
the factory. Dick and I went over this on a regular basis, as some of his early book editions had several incorrect photos,
and even information. Several revisions were made, to correct much of it. Those were the days, when we did not know
as much about the hobby as we do now. There are still mistakes in several books, that have never been corrected.
Another thing to focus on, are the correct color schemes. Back when many of our publications were printed, all machines
were shown in black & white, so collectors really couldn't tell if a machine was correct or not. But ever since the age of
color hit our hobby, any machine pictured should be CORRECT. We see over-restored machines, with carnival-like paint
schemes on eBay, all the time. I just feel sorry for the buyers that have not done their homework, and have been snookered
by all the trashed machines.
So, Paul, You have a very fine, and informative site, so let's make it right for all to enjoy. I am here to help.
Regards, Bill

[Administrator]

Im sorry if we have stepped on your toes here,the intention of the site is purely to spread the word on coin op subjects my thinking is that the more people that see the info the better for the hobby in general ,keeping it hidden away dosnt seem to be a gain for anybody.

As to being incorrect,well that has to be a matter of opinion,need less to say I didnt make any of the content up,it was all researched through company records,publications and knowledgeable information like yours,in much the same way as you said you did when writing your book. You mention the lack of Shefras information on other companies pages,that is because those pages are about the root companies and Shafras will ,in time , get their own page. As I said in the first post, corrections to mistakes are always welcome, simply saying they are wrong doesn't really help us.

Perhaps im miss understanding you but you seem to say putting a link to other sites was wrong(?) such as the R&W link and the link to this site, I dont understand why that is wrong, it is ,after all the most common way to share information Im sorry if we have posted any photos that you have taken or that you have bought the rights to,if you let me know I can remove them or ,hopefully you will give us permission to use them if we credit them to you.
Once again Im sorry to have caused you such concern ,my only plan was to spread the word.
Paul............

Paul:

You or anyone else is welcome to post links to other coin-op related sites.

I think the issue that Freddy had was that some of the information that you have on your site is from his articles and he was not asked for permission regarding posting them.

Apparently, you also have some photos that are incorrect and Bill is willing to work with you about getting those corrected.

Administrator (AKA Dave)

[Anglobritish]

Hi Guy's,
Don't let us get out of context with this site, I have no problem with people that make new sites that will further the the coin operated machine hobby, but please try to make these sites real, you have some great content on the site, but it is obvious that you have grabbed information from various sources that is incorrect,

What makes me scratch my head is that collectors think because they have read it somewhere it is correct, that is not the case, I would like to know how many people was actually in the coin machine business, or as been around for the past 40 years, people like Bill Whealen who is probably the most knowledable authority on trade simulators in the world, why because he worked closely with people like Dick Bueschel who was a great researcher and talked to people who were operators, distributors and manufacturers at the time.

The best information on the industry comes from researching the actual trade magazines and periodicals of the time, in those magazines and periodicals, what was happening in the coin machine industry was reported at the time, I am blessed in as much as from the early 1950's both my late father and I was actually dealing with the likes of Jim Brian, Bill Ruffler, Morrie Shefras, Phil Shefras, Fred Walker, Mark Kraft, Ralph Horwitz, George Coughtrey, Oliver Whales, John Hollaway, Whittaker Brothers, who were the leading distributors and manufacturers in the U.K. from the early 1930's through the 1960's.

Solly Shefras was the Jennings Distributor in the 1930's, his son Morie Shefras was the Buckley distributor and a personal friend of the Buckley president Pat Buckley. John Hollaway of Samson Novelty Co, was the Mills Novelty Co, U.K. distributor for Europe from 1928 through 1935 when after the death of John Hollaway, Phillip Shefras took over the distribution of the Mills Novelty co, Mills manufactured the Chrome Bell and launched it in the U.K first. George Coughtrey was the largest distributor of Jennings machines in the World in 1962, the Jennings Governor was named after Coughtrey who was effectionately known as the "Governor", I could go on and on, because I was in the thick of it so to speak, there was several scandals surrounding many of these icons, that were not reported in the trade papers at the time, but because we were in the business at the time we found out about them.

There is many stories going around about Sega, about how they copied Mills machines in Japan, that is not true, nobody was closer to Marty Bromley founder of Sega, than I was, Marty supported financially Tony Mills the last of the Mills family, most of you collectors may not know this but from 1956 all of the Mills Bell0-O-Matic machine parts were produced by Service Games (Japan) and distributed through Service Games (Nevada) Inc. who was the official Mills Bell-O-Matic distributor for Nevada the only legal State allowed to operate slot machines with the exception of Maryland,

If you must start a new site for coin operated machine collectors, please try to make it a little more original, I can contridict much of what you are reporting, just like Bill can help you with Trade simulators and U.S made machines. I still socialize with the likes of the Rufflers, Shefras's, Hollaways, Horwitz as I was brought up with them.

Freddy Bailey
"Serving the Coin Machine Industry since !956"

[coppinpr]

ok, there are mistakes in my site perhaps more than in your "books" but there are mistakes in your books, I cant find anyone in the UK who actually has one of your books and the only review of one I can find is by the leading collector in Austrailia and in that it says there are many mistakes that shouldnt have been published,so, we all make mistakes. Im working to correct mistakes with the help of people on this site. Two things I do object to ,1. you keep saying you knew this person or that person better than anyone else and there fore everything he told you (or you think you remember him telling you)has to be true,it certainly is not 2, "the official UK slot machine historian" to be official you need to be appointed by an official body,in the UK there isnt one. As far as anyone on the forums in the Uk knows this is a title you bestowed on yourself,Im sure you know a great deal about UK slots but that dosent make you all knowing as you seem to say in every post. Its interesting that people on this site have offered to help me and that you have not,like I said before, just saying its wrong dosent help.

dont worry, I shant post again on this forum, I wouldnt want to upset the official uk slot historian now would I

[Anglobritish]

Playland Chapter 31.pdf

(553.13 KiB) Downloaded 532 times

In a response to your false accusations, I sent a response through Dave, who obviously did not wish to show it on his forum, a little dissapointing as I have never been accused of being a phony, I am attaching a chapter from a new book called Playland that is scheduled to be released shortly, it is nothing to do with coin machine collecting, but about the real operators that used these machines.

Freddy Bailey

[Dave]

Freddy:

I thought the email you sent to me was supposed to be an email to the original poster and not supposed to be put on the forum.

You didn't ask me to post it on the forum.

Dave