Most money found in a game machine thread

i'm having a hard time believing the early 1980's classic games having full buckets of quarters in them....

when you go to move/load these cabinets. they tilt on an angle (appliance dolly, etc),
and you would hear 1000s of coins falling all over the place making it rain.

It's happened on my deals more than once. You don't hear the coins falling until you are tilting it onto your truck and by that point its loaded and you've made the deal. See ya lata sucka! I've had a Ms. Pac w/ $60 in quarters in it that I got for free and a Ms. Pac/Galaga reunion cab with $80 in quarters in it that I paid $200 bucks for.

Pro Tip...dont ever drill the lock until you have the game at home in your posession!
 
i'm having a hard time believing the early 1980's classic games having full buckets of quarters in them....

when you go to move/load these cabinets. they tilt on an angle (appliance dolly, etc),
and you would hear 1000s of coins falling all over the place making it rain.

Many of the early 80's classic games came with metal covers for the coin boxes like found on pinball machines. Centipede is the only one of mine that I can think of off the top of my head, but seems like either my Ms. Pac or Galaga also came the same way. So there would be no rain if the covers stayed in place, but i am sure that most of those coin boxes have liberated themselves from the covers by now.


My centipede came from my uncle who is probably the reason why I collect these things. He wasn't a full scale operator, but purchased a Galaga, Centipede, and stargate brand new to put in a truck-stop/restaurant in a semi-rural area of Alabama between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. A little over a week after they were on location he got a call from the location that the coin slots were jammed in the Galaga (or maybe it was the stargate). He found the coin box so full that it had backed all the way up to the rejects. The other two were almost half full. He immediately called the distributor and ordered another 10 machines.

About a week later he got another call from the location. This time the mother of the child who had robbed both pickle jars that the family had been saving quarters in for years wanted their money back.


To get on track with the post, I have had hundreds of machines come through my hands. Most I have ever found was about $20 in the bottom of a machine, but never more than a dollar or two in quarters actually in the coin box, and that happened rarely.
 
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About a week later he got another call from the location. This time the mother of the child who had robbed both pickle jars that the family had been saving quarters in for years wanted their money back.

HAH! hilarious, did he tell them to GTFO and spank their kid until his ass bled?

cuz that's their problem. if their dumbass kid stole their $, too bad so sad.

why are people so stupid these days thinking they have a right to that money back? feh
 
HAH! hilarious, did he tell them to GTFO and spank their kid until his ass bled?

cuz that's their problem. if their dumbass kid stole their $, too bad so sad.

why are people so stupid these days thinking they have a right to that money back? feh

He didn't give any of the money back, and the location held on to their half as well. Unfortunately he had his hopes of being filthy rich dashed as he never collected money like that again. It was his first two weeks with machines on location, in the early 80's when these machines were brand new. So while people certainly are that stupid "these days", I guess they were just as stupid back in the good old days
 
Bought a change machine for $50.

It was unlocked when I bought it. Brought it home and found a $5 bill in the bill acceptor and another $6 in loose quarters.
 
so a namco bowl-a-rama i purchased (won at an auction actually), had some surprise change in it, as such:

namco-bowl-a-rama-money-inside.jpg


forgot the exact amount, but i figure it's relevant to this thread!

EDIT: looks like $6.65 :)
 
Picked up a Free Toobin from a dentists office. It had died years earlier and the dentist wanted room for the new multigame. As I was wheeling it out, I was leaving a trail of coins behind me.

All in all, $75 worth of quarters, a crap ton of coins from all over the world and some little green army men.

Not a bad day! I fixed the game and sold it years later.

Tom
 
Just bought a cash register at an auction for $10.

It will not open the cash drawer. So I took it apart when I got home. Found a $5 bill from 1985 in there. This thing has been used in a long time.
 
Picked up a Free Toobin from a dentists office. It had died years earlier and the dentist wanted room for the new multigame. As I was wheeling it out, I was leaving a trail of coins behind me.

All in all, $75 worth of quarters, a crap ton of coins from all over the world and some little green army men.

Not a bad day! I fixed the game and sold it years later.

Tom

Pics of the army men?
 
I picked up a Megatouch XL for $25 on CL and the owner included the manuals and inside the envelope was $50. It was months before i even checked ther envelope. I was actually about to throw it away but figured i would look inside for any stickers/marquees first. LOL
 
I found a Donkey Kong Jr. in a Donkey Kong (yeah that's where they come from).


In all seriousness, I found about 5 bucks of change in my Track and Field.
 
I found close to $20 of quarters shoved into a coin mech of a Donkey Kong I bought. Apparently people didn't realize the one side was jammed up and they would continue to add to the jam.
 
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