Money found in games you bought.

How much money have you found in games you bought?


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I've found quarters from the 60s through the 80s in a lot of the cabinets I've worked on. At the arcade they're running at, people still occasionally put money into them despite them being set with a coin-up button, being labeled, and being told at the register upon paying the entry fee not to put money into them because they have coin-up buttons.

I consider the coins as tips for a job well done.
 
Just found $28.85 in an ocean hunter last month bringing the grand total down to $21.15 for the total purchase
 

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My Neo Geo 4-slot had:

1848 tokens (all from varying establishments, 23.4lbs worth)
$40.92 in actual money
And a Canadian Nickel 😂
 
When I went to get my PolePosition cockpit there was a bunch of quarters in the bottom of the coinbox.... a buddy that went with me pointed it out and the seller grabbed em all up... so I got nuthin 😕

Looked to be 2-3 bucks... but the seller picked it clean. I did find O N E measly quarter in the bottom of the cabinet that fell out of some obscure corner after I transported it 650 miles standing on its nose. lol

In my Tempest CT I found $1.30 in the wood rails under the coin box.... can't explain the nickle though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-D
 
When I went to get my PolePosition cockpit there was a bunch of quarters in the bottom of the coinbox.... a buddy that went with me pointed it out and the seller grabbed em all up... so I got nuthin 😕

Looked to be 2-3 bucks... but the seller picked it clean. I did find O N E measly quarter in the bottom of the cabinet that fell out of some obscure corner after I transported it 650 miles standing on its nose. lol

In my Tempest CT I found $1.30 in the wood rails under the coin box.... can't explain the nickle though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-D
Sounds like an old joke I heard. Who gave you the nickel? She said, "All off them".
 
Only really interesting things I've found was a ticket from Aladdin's Castle in my Qbert machine and a few tokens from CiCi's pizza in my change machine. Which makes sense since the guy I got it from said he bought it from the local CiCi's when they closed down
 
A cab I thought was all cleaned out had almost $5 worth of quarters in one coin cute/mech this week.

A while back I bought a Street Fighter, the guy didn't have the keys and when I leaned it back on the dolly he heard the quarters jingle and said "hey maybe you'll get a few bucks in there". It had $89.75 in the bucket!
 

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I picked up several games at one time and found in a space invaders cabaret 127.50 in quarters…. the coin bucket was full….
 
Apparently the "Greatest Generation" was a bunch of cheats. I took the bottom off of the coin box for my Chicken Sam conversion and found 13 cents. Dates were ranging from early 20's to the middle 40's
 

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I could've swore I replied to this thread at least 10+ years ago (but it looks like I didn't?).

Craziest for me was when I bought 4 games out of a closing arcade for $100 total in the early 00s. As I started moving them, I could hear a bunch of quarters jingling n' jangling inside. I asked the owner if he wanted to cash them out before I officially took them. Nope! He just wanted them gone.

Each game wound up having just over $25 in quarters in their bucket. Yay free games!
 
$75 in my Xenon pinball.
A nickel in my Chicago Coin Superscore.
Around $150 in an Ops Megatouch he had stored on the top floor. I asked him if he wanted me to check it to see if it had any money, and he said no, it was cleaned out. I found the key to one of the two devices, and then the second one in a massive box of keys, so I went upstairs (no AC, hot summer day) and pulled the back open. The dollar bill unit was stuffed full, and the coin box was loaded.

I turned it all in to him in a plastic bag. KaChing!
 
I just pulled out the coin box for the first time this morning in my Ms. Pac-Man and found a ROM chip and a 1987 nickel!

I don't know the value of the ROM, but the nickel is worth exactly five cents.
 
I could've swore I replied to this thread at least 10+ years ago (but it looks like I didn't?).

Craziest for me was when I bought 4 games out of a closing arcade for $100 total in the early 00s. As I started moving them, I could hear a bunch of quarters jingling n' jangling inside. I asked the owner if he wanted to cash them out before I officially took them. Nope! He just wanted them gone.

Each game wound up having just over $25 in quarters in their bucket. Yay free games!
Which is why he went out of business.

Sweat the pennies (and quarters) and the dollars come.
 
Since this thread always seems to get revived. I bought a vending machine(newer candy/chips) out of a office building that needed to be cleaned out. No keys or anything stating who it belonged to. Ended up having over $450+ in bills and change in it. I only paid like $300 for it, so I was up before ever putting it back out to vend snacks!!
 
~$80 in a Viper Phase 1 I picked up at an auction a while ago. The whole floor was covered in coins.

~$20 in a Joust I picked up from another collector. He knew there was some change in there but didn't want to drill the locks and apparently doesn't know how to pick them.
 
My last pick up had a nice penny in it.

I'm rich now, and the game ended up costing $99.99 after that big rebate.
 
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