Great 1,300 mile Arcade Picking Trip

Teknotoyz

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Location
BUFFALO, West Virginia
On occasion I have to travel for work, it's rare enough, but when it happens I try to make it fun for me during the non-work times too.
Pickings are slim here in WV, so I usually pick off Craigslist on trips as I go.

This trip I have to travel from West Virginia to Alabama for a 3 day conference.
The week before I went, I posted 2 want ads on Craigslist for Arcade Monitors, one in Lexington and one in Huntsville Alabama.
I also emailed Dale from Chattanooga Pinball (RLEVIN) to see if I could stop by and see his legendary warehouse.
Well, a few emails rolled in, 3 were of interest from Ralph in Lexington, Terry in Decatur, and Stephen in Huntsville.
A deal was struck with Ralph for some monitors including a minty 20EZ to pick up on the way through.
During this time I also spotted an XBOX store sign in Huntsville AL, not arcade, but cool. Emailed the seller and she held it for me to pick up Monday night when I rolled into Huntsville.

THE STOPS:

LEXINGTON/LOUISVILLE, KY:

Ralph is a collector located near Lexington, he doesn't work on Monitors, so had 12 or so he wanted to unload, I bought any WG, G07's or Sanyo's.
Funny thing was, he loaded all the monitors in the cab of his truck for me. He wasn't able to meet me during the day, so I simply stopped by and loaded the monitors into my van.
Shot him a paypal payment once I got loaded and took off towards Huntsville.
In the deal I got a burn free WG4600 tube, and a few others with very light burn, a couple that were burned black with pacman. In any case, all had chassis, so parts are good too!
He included a Sanyo 20EZ with no burn, said it was curling on the side, I snagged this as a spare!

IMG_7374.jpg


PICKED: 8 monitors

HUNTSVILLE, AL:

I rolled into Huntsville about 6pm, looked out the window and this billboard struck me as funny... only in Alabama!

IMG_7382.jpg


I decided to eat and gave Stephen a call, he was around so over to his house I went.
Stephen had a garage full of parts, I was impressed with his stash of stuff, we ended up making a deal on 6 monitors, 2 of which were darn near burn free and the others had good chassis's.
He pulled out other parts and PCB's, I ended up getting 3 really nice silent cooling fans and some additional parts chassis along with a 25K7000 chassis labeled "Needs capped". A nice spare for my NeoGeo!
I called the lady with the XBOX sign after leaving Stephen's place and went and got it, really nice sign, the original XBOX is still my favorite console of all time.
PICKED: 6 monitors, parts chassis's, 25K7000 chassis, XBOX sign, 3 fans.

DECATUR AL.:

http://s1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/Macpdaddy/GamerTerry/
Terry (yes, KLOV's own GamerTerry) was the Stop for the 2nd evening.
I got off work about 5pm and headed to Terry's storage units, 20 minute drive seemed to take forever!
He ended up having 4 storage units that he let me poke through, really a nice variety of things to look through.
If you see anything in the pictures, PM him, I'm sure he would be happy to sell as he is trying to drop some storage units.
Check out the shelves in this picture, yes that is TRON cabinet sides!

DSC06875.jpg


I tested Terry a little, he definitely knew what he had, but was very fair on his prices.
Terry ended up selling me more than I wanted to buy, but he extended me some credit to pay him back later.
A gesture of kindness/trust on his part, but I ended up spending about $100 more than I should have!
PICKED: DigDug manuals, Midway door, Rowe computer, Pole Position Bezel, populated pole position CP, Windjammer and Magical Drop II NeoGeo carts, Ms. Pacman board, Pacman marquee.

ATHENS, AL:

http://s1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/Macpdaddy/Bobby Young/
The third day I saw a Craigslist ad for a $50 Streetfighter machine.
I called to ask if he had anything else, and he told me to come and look, he had a bunch.
What I am starting to realize is that each day was getting bigger and bigger in terms of finds.
So, Bobby is the guy, Athens was a short drive from Huntsville, about 20 minutes also.
It seems to take forever when your excited to see arcade goods.
Anyway, Bobby had a LOT, he had about an entire row of storage units FULL of parts.

IMG_7416.jpg


Bobby was a little high on machines IMO, still lower than retail, OK keeping in mind that he has rent to pay!
The Street Fighter was actually nice, but a shell for the most part, MAME territory IMO.
I'll let the pictures do the talking, but Bobby wanted me to let anyone get his number if they see anything they want.
I ended up with a real nice catch tonight, Bobby knew what he had, but his parts were very reasonable!
PICKED: Gorf PCB w/ RGB board, Coin Doors, Pole Position power brick, some token mechs, a monitor bezel, a Joust CPO, Ms. Pac daughter card, Scramble Bezel, cracked Pole Position dash Bezel.

CHATTANOOGA, TN:

http://s1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/Macpdaddy/Chattanooga Pinball/
After the conference was finished I was headed home.
I had contacted Dale (KLOV's RLEVIN) about stopping and seeing his warehouse, he said to stop by.
The conference was over around noon, so I had time to make it to Chattanooga Pinball!

IMG_7428.jpg


Got there around 2pm and Dale was a little busy, so I browsed the store, some really nice machines!
But, no way this store was the 80,000 sq. ft warehouse, I was pretty disappointed.
Then Dale yelled across the store, "Hey Marc, lets go see the warehouse", OK, cool, there was more!
So I followed Dale over a few miles and we arrived at an old factory looking warehouse.

IMG_7531.jpg


As Dale led me on a quick tour, all I could think was WOW.
This place was huge, machines of every type were lined up throughout.

IMG_7474.jpg


Dale had to run, but gave me free reign to poke around and look and snap pictures.
It was fun, I mean, not the normal fun, this was FUN, I lost 3 hours quickly!
I had asked for a nice Pole position Dash bezel (first one I got in Athens was cracked), Dale told me to get my tools and pointed at a donor machine.
Always feel bad taking parts off a whole machine, but there were Pole Positions EVERYWHERE.
A good machine, but very trouble prone, I do hope the driving multi-board is made to save some of these cabinets.
Dale really made me a great deal on the parts I got!
With the tour, the poking around, the parts, I left feeling pretty good about the trip, this was my last stop.
PICKED: Pole Position dash Bezel, Pole Position Fan and vent cover, Galaxian cocktail glass.

I made it home the next day, the work part was OK, but the evenings really made this a fun trip!!
I have to thank GamerTerry and RLevin for their time and deals.
Enjoy the pictures, I'll be adding them in as I get a chance.

THE RESULTS:

IMG_7534.jpg


The Sanyo 20EZ works, needs capped and a B+ POT, sweet deal at $25
The Ms. Pacman board works without the daughter card, that was bad, but I picked up a spare, haven't tested yet. Paid $20 for this!
The Gorf cage worked minus a bad memory card, RGB board was bad too. Paid $30!
The burn free 4600 tube is now in my Q*Bert, looks awesome!

I've already sold or given away the burned tubes I won't use.
 
Last edited:
Q*Bert Benefitted greatly from this trip!

IMG_7574.jpg


IMG_7585.jpg


Blue with no pyramid burn, now that is nice!
Colors are great, camera is the culprit.
I left some posters on the top, anyone guess that movie? :D

IMG_7587.jpg
 
Last edited:
On occasion I have to travel for work, it's rare enough, but when it happens I try to make it fun for me during the non-work times too.
Pickings are slim here in WV, so I usually pick off Craigslist on trips as I go.

This trip I have to travel from West Virginia to Alabama for a 3 day conference.
The week before I went, I posted 2 want ads on Craigslist for Arcade Monitors, one in Lexington and one in Huntsville Alabama.
I also emailed Dale from Chattanooga Pinball (RLEVIN) to see if I could stop by and see his legendary warehouse.
Well, a few emails rolled in, 3 were of interest from Ralph in Lexington, Terry in Decatur, and Stephen in Huntsville.
A deal was struck with Ralph for some monitors including a minty 20EZ to pick up on the way through.
During this time I also spotted an XBOX store sign in Huntsville AL, not arcade, but cool. Emailed the seller and she held it for me to pick up Monday night when I rolled into Huntsville.

THE STOPS:

LEXINGTON/LOUISVILLE, KY:

Ralph is a collector located near Lexington, he doesn't work on Monitors, so had 12 or so he wanted to unload, I bought any WG, G07's or Sanyo's.
Funny thing was, he loaded all the monitors in the cab of his truck for me. He wasn't able to meet me during the day, so I simply stopped by and loaded the monitors into my van.
Shot him a paypal payment once I got loaded and took off towards Huntsville.
In the deal I got a burn free WG4600 tube, and a few others with very light burn, a couple that were burned black with pacman. In any case, all had chassis, so parts are good too!
He included a Sanyo 20EZ with no burn, said it was curling on the side, I snagged this as a spare!

IMG_7374.jpg


PICKED: 8 monitors

HUNTSVILLE, AL:

I rolled into Huntsville about 6pm, looked out the window and this billboard struck me as funny... only in Alabama!

IMG_7382.jpg


I decided to eat and gave Stephen a call, he was around so over to his house I went.
Stephen had a garage full of parts, I was impressed with his stash of stuff, we ended up making a deal on 6 monitors, 2 of which were darn near burn free and the others had good chassis's.
He pulled out other parts and PCB's, I ended up getting 3 really nice silent cooling fans and some additional parts chassis along with a 25K7000 chassis labeled "Needs capped". A nice spare for my NeoGeo!
I called the lady with the XBOX sign after leaving Stephen's place and went and got it, really nice sign, the original XBOX is still my favorite console of all time.
PICKED: 6 monitors, parts chassis's, 25K7000 chassis, XBOX sign, 3 fans.

DECATUR AL.:

http://s1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/Macpdaddy/GamerTerry/
Terry (yes, KLOV's own GamerTerry) was the Stop for the 2nd evening.
I got off work about 5pm and headed to Terry's storage units, 20 minute drive seemed to take forever!
He ended up having 4 storage units that he let me poke through, really a nice variety of things to look through.
If you see anything in the pictures, PM him, I'm sure he would be happy to sell as he is trying to drop some storage units.
Check out the shelves in this picture, yes that is TRON cabinet sides!

DSC06875.jpg


I tested Terry a little, he definitely knew what he had, but was very fair on his prices.
Terry ended up selling me more than I wanted to buy, but he extended me some credit to pay him back later.
A gesture of kindness/trust on his part, but I ended up spending about $100 more than I should have!
PICKED: DigDug manuals, Midway door, Rowe computer, Pole Position Bezel, populated pole position CP, Windjammer and Magical Drop II NeoGeo carts, Ms. Pacman board, Pacman marquee.

ATHENS, AL:

http://s1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/Macpdaddy/Bobby Young/
The third day I saw a Craigslist ad for a $50 Streetfighter machine.
I called to ask if he had anything else, and he told me to come and look, he had a bunch.
What I am starting to realize is that each day was getting bigger and bigger in terms of finds.
So, Bobby is the guy, Athens was a short drive from Huntsville, about 20 minutes also.
It seems to take forever when your excited to see arcade goods.
Anyway, Bobby had a LOT, he had about an entire row of storage units FULL of parts.

IMG_7416.jpg


Bobby was a little high on machines IMO, still lower than retail, OK keeping in mind that he has rent to pay!
The Street Fighter was actually nice, but a shell for the most part, MAME territory IMO.
I'll let the pictures do the talking, but Bobby wanted me to let anyone get his number if they see anything they want.
I ended up with a real nice catch tonight, Bobby knew what he had, but his parts were very reasonable!
PICKED: Gorf PCB w/ RGB board, Coin Doors, Pole Position power brick, some token mechs, a monitor bezel, a Joust CPO, Ms. Pac daughter card, Scramble Bezel, cracked Pole Position dash Bezel.

CHATTANOOGA, TN:

http://s1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/Macpdaddy/Chattanooga Pinball/
After the conference was finished I was headed home.
I had contacted Dale (KLOV's RLEVIN) about stopping and seeing his warehouse, he said to stop by.
The conference was over around noon, so I had time to make it to Chattanooga Pinball!

IMG_7428.jpg


Got there around 2pm and Dale was a little busy, so I browsed the store, some really nice machines!
But, no way this store was the 80,000 sq. ft warehouse, I was pretty disappointed.
Then Dale yelled across the store, "Hey Marc, lets go see the warehouse", OK, cool, there was more!
So I followed Dale over a few miles and we arrived at an old factory looking warehouse.

IMG_7531.jpg


As Dale led me on a quick tour, all I could think was WOW.
This place was huge, machines of every type were lined up throughout.

IMG_7474.jpg


Dale had to run, but gave me free reign to poke around and look and snap pictures.
It was fun, I mean, not the normal fun, this was FUN, I lost 3 hours quickly!
I had asked for a nice Pole position Dash bezel (first one I got in Athens was cracked), Dale told me to get my tools and pointed at a donor machine.
Always feel bad taking parts off a whole machine, but there were Pole Positions EVERYWHERE.
A good machine, but very trouble prone, I do hope the driving multi-board is made to save some of these cabinets.
Dale really made me a great deal on the parts I got!
With the tour, the poking around, the parts, I left feeling pretty good about the trip, this was my last stop.
PICKED: Pole Position dash Bezel, Pole Position Fan and vent cover, Galaxian cocktail glass.

I made it home the next day, the work part was OK, but the evenings really made this a fun trip!!
I have to thank GamerTerry and RLevin for their time and deals.
Enjoy the pictures, I'll be adding them in as I get a chance.

THE RESULTS:

IMG_7534.jpg


The Sanyo 20EZ works, needs capped and a B+ POT, sweet deal at $25
The Ms. Pacman board works without the daughter card, that was bad, but I picked up a spare, haven't tested yet. Paid $20 for this!
The Gorf cage worked minus a bad memory card, RGB board was bad too. Paid $30!
The burn free 4600 tube is now in my Q*Bert, looks awesome!

I've already sold or given away the burned tubes I won't use.

I would of never thought you got all that in that little ass van. Funny you should of seen the look on your face when you came into the warehouse it was priceless and funny. But everyone has that same look. I am so a warehouse junkie I love going thru old warehouse. For me it is not he deal or the games so much as it is the hunt love it
 
I would of never thought you got all that in that little ass van. Funny you should of seen the look on your face when you came into the warehouse it was priceless and funny. But everyone has that same look. I am so a warehouse junkie I love going thru old warehouse. For me it is not he deal or the games so much as it is the hunt love it

HAHA, yea, it's called VERY creative packing.
I was worried I was gonna crack a tube, but did manage to get every one home safe.

As far as the look on my face, glad thats where you were looking cause I needed a cold shower.
Your place is amazing, never seen anything like it before.
Had a good time, I appreciate the hospitality Dale.


IMG_7387.jpg
 
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