Acquiring games outside of the US

SRS

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This might be a stupid question, but why is it that game cabinets are so rare outside of North America?

I have seen many posts from collectors in Australia, England, etc., stating how difficult it is to obtain cabinets, and I don't really understand why. I assume that back in the day when video games were at their peak that the games were around in countries other than the US, so where did they all go?
 
The UK is tiny in comparison to the States, so space is of a premium, I can only imagine that most operators scrapped the cabs as soon as fruit machines took their place in the arcades as there was no-where to move them. I also think there are some lame laws in place to prevent the cabs being sold out "officially" to Joe Public.

When I moved house earlier this year, the removal man told me (as he lugged my cab in to our new house) "cor not seen one of these for year, I remember in the 90's I used to have to pick loads of these up from arcades and smash em up and take them down the dump". I pointed out that a lot of them are probably worth a fair bit now, he just said well they were just taking up space back then.

We can only dream of the warehouse raids you get in the USA!!
 
Several years ago I sold my upright Discs of Tron to a fellow in England. Had to crate it using a non-wood pallet as they would not let it into the country with a wood one. PIA to find one.

He paid me a good bit of coin for it, but having not been able to locate another one (and mine was MINT) I'm sorry I sold it. Sellers remorse.

Tom
 
Most of the games from the 80's were converted or destroyed :(
There are not that many 'dedicated' cabs here in Australia and if they are, they cost a bomb.
 
I'm not sure that I entirely agree with the premise that cabs, in the UK at least, are rare / hard to find.

Think it's a case of UK collectors seeing loads of cabs for sale on US eBay. The point that some UK collectors seem to fail to grasp is that a cab for sale in New York is probably is probably out of the question for a potential buyer in California.

On the flip side, because the UK is so small, any cab that comes up for sale in the UK will be within daily travelling distance.

In any 12 month period most of the classics will come up for sale in the UK - either on eBay UK, or through the UK/European collector forums.
 
It seems that an enterprising person might do well if he or she were to be able to offer authentic repro cabinets in England, Australia, etc.
 
It seems that an enterprising person might do well if he or she were to be able to offer authentic repro cabinets in England, Australia, etc.

Well depends on 'repro' as most would want working cabs and dedicated games (not the 1066 in one boards) I know for me I want original (cab can be repro'd)
 
I'm not sure that I entirely agree with the premise that cabs, in the UK at least, are rare / hard to find.

Think it's a case of UK collectors seeing loads of cabs for sale on US eBay. The point that some UK collectors seem to fail to grasp is that a cab for sale in New York is probably is probably out of the question for a potential buyer in California.

On the flip side, because the UK is so small, any cab that comes up for sale in the UK will be within daily travelling distance.

In any 12 month period most of the classics will come up for sale in the UK - either on eBay UK, or through the UK/European collector forums.

2 differences!

you get hoarders who just jump on every cab they can get their hands on,they stack them up that they cant get to the others at the back,most wont/dont even work,everyday joe blogs dont stand a chance or dont get a shout in cos of these people.

then theres the people who have a few to a dozen cabs,that actualy get used.

too many people hold onto their cabs this is why they rarely come up,they have to get hit financialy for them to part with cabs,then there a few up for sale,then its quiet.

i wouldnt call 1 or 2 dedicated calssics coming up from time to time means that all is good here in uk,the buying scene is crap,to point where joe blogs dosnt have choice or cabs in the sweet zone price wise.

look at ebay.co.uk at any one given time and look at ebay.com and think about size and population saturation of the usa and uk.considering that there is actualy a high saturation of people in uk the for sale scene is sad and thats a generous statement.

generic cab land galore,well i suppose if thats a persons thing cool for them.

i think in reality i will never ever see my holy grail up for sale in this country this year,i never saw 1 last year,its galaga!!!!!!!

so if this year gos by and i dont see a galaga on lets say ebay,then thats 2 years that ebay never had a galaga cab on!thats sums uk up right to a tee,when you go looking for certain cabs nearly all the time you wont find them,it means you got to ask and pay silly money in most cases.
:(
 
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i think in reality i will never ever see my holy grail up for sale in this country this year,i never saw 1 last year,its galaga!!!!!!!

well, there were at least 6 galagas up for grabs in germany last year. ok, it's not england, but well within travelling distance. and as you can see, a pac or ms pac was also available ;)

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i'd say there are games which are much harder to catch in europe than a galaga!
 
A fair few operators with classic cabs also tend to hold on to them these days, thinking they are sitting on a mini fortune and refuse to sell them, and let them rot away. Its not uncommon to find games with controls not working, or screens half working, switched on and off every day. I saw an Asteroids cab being used to basically hold up a collapsing exit door. Its been there for years, looking more and more sorry for itself, will the op sell it! hell no, he has a great security door stop there without having to pay out for the door to be fixed! "a giant paper weight!"
 
2 differences!

you get hoarders who just jump on every cab they can get their hands on.......

i think in reality i will never ever see my holy grail up for sale in this country this year,i never saw 1 last year,its galaga!!!!!!!

:(

Yes, hoarders jump on every cab they can get their hands on. But those cabs do come up!!

Galaga is a poor example. I distinctly remember a Galaga (black cab, US import) coming up for sale on UK eBay last year.

Seriously, I can't think of any classics that haven't been up got sale, one way or another, in the UK over the last 12 months. I'm talking Defenders, Robotrons, Missile Commands, Tempests, Nintendo cabs, Pac cabs, Gravitars etc. And once you extend the reasonably travelling distance to incorporate mainland Europe, then I'm pretty sure you'll cover all bases.

By the way, if you can build a civilized relationship with other UK 'hoarders' you might find that they would be more inclined to trade with you .....

It's far too easy to look at US eBay and see all the classics come up for sale, and then bitch about how easy US collectors have it - try spending the next 12 months restricting your US ebay browsing soley to cabs available in Oregon, and extending your UK eBay browsing to incorporate the rest of Europe. Tthat may give you a different persecutive.
 
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Well depends on 'repro' as most would want working cabs and dedicated games (not the 1066 in one boards) I know for me I want original (cab can be repro'd)

as to why there are not many original cabs in aus i wish i knew.

so what cabs are you looking for OzTron ? (other than Tron/edot i mean )
 
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as to why there are not many original cabs in aus i wish i knew.

so what cabs are you looking for OzTron ? (other than Tron/edot i mean )

Gauntlet I and II
Dragon's Lair
Rolling Thunder
Marble Madness
Pyros (aka Wardner to us)
Cliff Hanger
Donkey Kong

There are others, but you catch my drift :D
 
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