FB - 3rd Party Recent Scott Evans offers on FB

jcar302 said:
I think some of you guys overlook the fact that for the most part this hobby has a shelf life.
I know people who have been slowly selling off collections. None of them are doing it because of inflation, taxes etc.
For many the hobby has run it's course. They don't "need" the money, but they could do other things with it (besides, it's hard to downsize and take 20 games with you).
I run into kids all the time in their 20's that have never (literally never) been in an arcade and i live in a shore area where boardwalks are common place.
And if they have been in them the games are either redemption or massive. Nobody goes in there and says i wish i had this monstrosity at home.
This hobby is built on nostalgia, there is no nostalgia for generations that never went to arcades. Maybe there is some from visiting you guys with home arcades, but it's not enough to keep the market going.
It doesn't help either that for a few years it was kinda nuts during covid, it was like 10 years of collecting wrapped up in 4.
For the most part, i could sell every game i own except the playchoice and speed buggy and nobody would notice them missing.
If i had a high value collection of rare games, honestly i would have sold them a year ago.

And while the pinball market too is also down, it will live on. It's interactive and there is no Xbox or Playstation to replace it.
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Yeah Pinballs are a whole other genre all together, and I only own one grail I ever wanted, and it was a Rush Limited edition pin, which I was lucky to collect. If the pinball market starts to crash, I know a lot of people who are going to not be so happy if they were in it for the money.

Mark RL here called me up two years ago and told me that he was selling everything! That the arcade market was going to crash. I told him I do not care one way or the other because to me this is a part of my childhood that I will always cherish and no sweat off my back, I sold over half my collection anyways and made the profits I lost when I was a kid and gained profits as an adult, and I believe I could sell it all again for when the idea comes around where people forget this all happened and want to open up a vintage arcade ten years from now.

By then I will be 63 and probably not give a shit and need to sell anyways, and I will still profit from it one way or another, or keep these running until I die and leave behind a legacy to someone who has never seen these things and say wow these are so old!
 
DarkKobold said:
My dad is into model railroading. Most of his friends are in their 70s and 80s. He goes to train shows, and stuff mostly sits. That, to me, is what a hobby that is aging out looks like. I imagine we all have 40 more years before video game prices get to what they were pre-2010. That said, I don't know how many 70 year olds will be able to move 500lb+ arcade machines, so this part of the general video game hobby might end earlier. It's much easier to move 100 NES carts than it is to move a single Outrun arcade machine.
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I'm not sure I agree.

We have more of an entry level thing going here. Is this hobby growing by leaps and bounds? No, not at all. But there is still a nostalgia kick going.

How can we feed this? In my view, with human interest stories. Talk to your local newspaper editor when you open your arcade for your neighbors, and see if they'll cover it. Or approach the Living editor, and see if they'll cover it.

The article on your arcade may spur more people to thing "I can buy one of those? Wow!" and maybe get into it.

One of my most recent repairs was on a NFL Blitz / NBA Jam 2000 unit that a younger customer had purchased. He was in his mid-40's, so there is a group that is younger coming in.

Not everyone at the Chicago KLOV Holiday Dinner has completely gray or even white hair. A few are younger.

And I know some of the model railroad people - one is a friend. And yes, he's getting up there, and has a ton of gear, some multiples, so it's just like our hobby.
 
brmorr said:
Don't know why you guys don't see this for what it is. I am sure these guys are in their 50-60's. Game prices are at an all time high(I am sure some of these guys bought/collected these games 25+ years ago when they were bought for cheap.

Hate to say it, but they can't wait for another downtread in game prices, and hope it comes back up. If I had any rare games at the moment, I would be selling them too. 3, 4, 5, 6 thousand dollar games, I could use that money elsewhere down the road. Plus, there isn't going to be a ton of kids who want to play/collect these obscure games in 20 years.
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In 20 years I'll be 76 or dead. Yep, perfect time to cash in on my arcade retirement treasure. :p So much doom and gloom here. Was everyone in it for the money? Doh!
 
EVB said:
In 20 years I'll be 76 or dead. Yep, perfect time to cash in on my arcade retirement treasure. :p So much doom and gloom here. Was everyone in it for the money? Doh!
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In 20 years world war 3 will have happened and the world will be a nuclear wasteland. So I wouldn't really worry about game values. Enjoy them while you can!
 
EVB said:
In 20 years I'll be 76 or dead. Yep, perfect time to cash in on my arcade retirement treasure. :p So much doom and gloom here. Was everyone in it for the money? Doh!
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Sometimes? I have a few high dollar games I took in on trade for scratchbuilds that I need to get a certain amount for to at least break even. I've also restored a few a games strictly to sell, so yeah money is definitely one of my motivators in this hobby.
 
Phetishboy said:
Sometimes? I have a few high dollar games I took in on trade for scratchbuilds that I need to get a certain amount for to at least break even. I've also restored a few a games strictly to sell, so yeah money is definitely one of my motivators in this hobby.
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Then sell them now. For me it was never about the $$$ and all about having the games I want to play immediately available to me. That was literally it.
 
EVB said:
Then sell them now. For me it was never about the $$$ and all about having the games I want to play immediately available to me. That was literally it.
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Well that's how it started for me, but it has evolved in the 20 years I've been here. I plan to stick it out for the next 20, but I do have a few games I need to unload now.
 
There is way too much doom and gloom here. You make it sound like being 60 is nearly dead and the games have become a terrible burden at that point.

I'm not 60 yet, but I can safely say that moving a few games around or pulling a monitor out of a cabinet won't be an impossible task at 60.

I'm in the hobby because I enjoy it, and I only have 6 cabinets and it's been stable at 5-6 cabinets for 15+ years now, and I don't intend to get out of the hobby any time soon.

If I had 150-200 games at 60, I'd probably downsize too but I'd make the same decision at 40, lol. For that matter, the big players that are selling 150 games are mostly not leaving the hobby, they're downsizing to sane levels of cabinets.

I've worked my ass off in my jobs over the years and this isn't a make money thing for me; it's a relaxation and enjoyment thing. If I lose some money in the process then it's not a big deal to me.
 
demogo said:
There is way too much doom and gloom here. You make it sound like being 60 is nearly dead and the games have become a terrible burden at that point.

I'm not 60 yet, but I can safely say that moving a few games around or pulling a monitor out of a cabinet won't be an impossible task at 60.

I'm in the hobby because I enjoy it, and I only have 6 cabinets and it's been stable at 5-6 cabinets for 15+ years now, and I don't intend to get out of the hobby any time soon.

If I had 150-200 games at 60, I'd probably downsize too but I'd make the same decision at 40, lol. For that matter, the big players that are selling 150 games are mostly not leaving the hobby, they're downsizing to sane levels of cabinets.

I've worked my ass off in my jobs over the years and this isn't a make money thing for me; it's a relaxation and enjoyment thing. If I lose some money in the process then it's not a big deal to me.
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Man, 6 games, now that's some discipline. Haha!!! At some point I had 47 or more games then I started selling off some projects to eventually get down to 36 games for my big move. Now I'm back up to 39. It's like they attract each other and I can't help but facilitate that.
 
EVB said:
Man, 6 games, now that's some discipline. Haha!!! At some point I had 47 or more games then I started selling off some projects to eventually get down to 36 games for my big move. Now I'm back up to 39. It's like they attract each other and I can't help but facilitate that.
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To be fair, many of my games are set up with either multiple boards or as multi-games. My Gauntlet Dark Legacy cabinet has boards for 5 games in it, my Star Trek plays all of the Sega vector games, my MAME cab of course plays many games. Because things have been so steady for me over the years, I'm not burned out on the hobby, I don't feel the need to downsize an enormous collection, and I have pretty much everything that I want except for some high dollar games like Quantum and Major Havoc that I'd like to own someday but just want to play, not turn into investments.

That may be the difference between me and some others here; things are at a manageable size already for me so I don't feel any pressure to do anything, and I can see easily keeping these games for another 15 years or so before deciding which have to go and the few that will stay.

And one other comment. Kids (teens and 20 somethings) that come over are almost always amazed at the arcade games, want to play them, and some have gone to appreciate them as much as those of us that lived through that age in the 80's and 90's.
 
considering this community and the type of person it attracts, i doubt few if any of us were solely in this "for the money", at least not when it all began for each of us personally.

however, we're in uncertain times and some of us find ourselves in uncharted waters in several ways. life can throw us unexpected changes and challenges, and when the situation warrants, the extra cash and freedom (i.e., i'm not having to move dozens of huge games across town or several states) alleviates a burden that could complicate one's situation. there's a looming economic reckoning in all our futures happening 17 levels over our heads, and for those of us that aren't rich, cashing out provides the opportunity to hedge things (financially and beyond) a bit

the "right" or "wrong" time to sell (one game or a hundred) is wildly subjective. but game sales are definitely cooling, and the discerning arcade enthusiast wanting to parlay their interests into a beneficial opportunity may find that this is a smart season to do it. i unloaded over half my humble collection earlier this year and got several more to go - personally in my life situation, the time just feels right

EVB said:
Was everyone in it for the money? Doh!
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Um…has Scott posted anything more?
 
This hobby is mostly positive to me and therefore I usually have positive things to say but in the spirit of this thread I'll share what goes through my mind when I think about when to sell off most of my games.

TL;DR If/when my dream of moving happens, drastically and permanently reducing my collection is possible.

The one thing that discourages me about this hobby is the number of opportunities for us to host parties, the size of such parties, and the general interest I perceive from others has diminished quite a lot over the last 10 years for a number of reasons.

I love working on games. I find the whole maintenance aspect of it rewarding. But I also love seeing others relive their youth, discover fun and cool stuff from before their time, or just enjoy the fun, social aspect of an arcade, and that's happening a lot less. I've occasionally been asking myself if it's worth it, if that chapter of my life is closing and it's time to at least partially let it go. For the time being I don't see any big change happening because I don't need the money, I don't have any other use for the space, and I don't have a big pull for my time in some other direction. So I continue to enjoy the hobby anyway. But that could change.

For nearly 4 years I've wanted to move out of state. My dream all along has been lots of land out in the country with a bigger shop, a big game room, and land that lends itself to having a personal shooting range. Shooting and gunsmithing is another big interest of mine and being able to just walk across my yard to do that like I do with this hobby would hugely facilitate that. But my wife might have an easier time committing to such a move if we decide to only move a small number of my games and if we could remove the requirement for a big game room in properties we consider.

It's hard for me to imagine not moving within 5 years but I guess only time will tell what that means for my collection. I'll never have less than half a dozen of my faves plus a mame cab to cover everything else though.
 
EVB said:
I recall seeing an I,Robot for $7500 he listed. Not sure if it sold.
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With everything mentioned here, is Scott getting the prices for these that he wants? I am sure he has either paid these prices or lower and may have no choice but to let it go and take a loss or no gain at all, but I have to say because me and a lot of these people got into the hobby early enough, we can't lose really unless we paid stupid money for these grails we seek to start with, and the titles he has in his collection are some I could not even put a price on.

If Erik would have given me what I wanted for my whole collection and not cherry picked it like he did, I would be totally out of this hobby completely! But, he thought what I wanted for my whole collection was too high, yet went to Banning and spent twice as much and then probably lost his ass on these games auctioning them off. Or did he? That I cannot answer, but it still made no sense to me.

If anyone recalls, I could not even sell my space fury for 2500.00 and I, and another avid collector here, thought it was a steal of a deal. So, I decided to keep it, restore it and play it. A game that, at 4500.00 would have just gotten scarfed up just a few years ago.
 
Lunar…Battle!?!?! Gravitar prototype??
 
Oldworldman said:
Just this awesome warehouse raid. Lol he has it in his blood
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Not clear but Im 99% this was a joke. Specifically I think those are machines he already owns being loaded to move from one warehouse to somewhere else.

Im not up on the inside-baseball of major collectors but its known he owns a Marbleman already, correct?
 
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lol.

I'm reading this, and a lot of doom and gloom indeed about who is selling what.

My small collection - I'm not selling anything except Stargate if someone wants to offer me a good price for it. Otherwise, I'm set for a while, unless a unique bargain comes up.

I'm past the 60 milestone, and my appreciation for these marvels of our youth is not fading. No, not at all.

Others may feel differently. And that is just fine.
 
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