*** I received permission from the owner to post this on KLOV ***
**** This may be somewhat off topic for this sub-forum, but not sure where to put it? Everything pictured is for sale. The owner does not yet have a KLOV account, so PM myself or
@TheNickDuong if you have serious interest, and we should be able to connect you with owner.****
As a relative newcomer to this arcade collecting hobby thingy, I've been mesmerized by previous recounts from veteran KLOV members of their epic barn finds and operator raids. It has intrigued me to speculate on the notion that there still are more arcade treasures to be found, perhaps hidden somewhere nearby.... albeit 5 months late, this is such a story.
Earlier in the new year, my fellow local arcade aficionado (and addiction enabler)
@TheNickDuong, sends me this message:
Um.... yes! I was in back to back work meetings, but couldn't help being distracted by the gravity of the text. Where is it? How many games? Who all knows about it? Do I need to take out a second mortgage? What if there is a Varkon?!!? More info would emerge over the following few days and we were able to confirm a date and time; Sunday afternoon, January 14th. There would be three of us meeting at the site, a storage facility, and then later move on to a farm location. EXCITING!
The location is in Tulare County, CA, known for dairies, cotton, and citrus... not tech, and especially not arcade games. In fact, it hosts the "World Ag Expo" every February ( I do also love me some tractors). The day finally arrived, I loaded my truck with a dolly, straps, tool kit,
@GothGirl 's VAG hardcover, and my camera. On the 50 minute drive, I stopped by the bank so that I could have bit a bargaining cash in my pocket, and then arrived right on time at the storage address. The three of us anxiously awaited the appearance of the seller. Because of my nervous excitement, the minutes seemed like hours, but he arrived not too long after, and we followed him into the facility towards his storage unit. And then he tells us, "This is the first storage locker of six that I have here."
Six lockers???!? What the what??
He unlocks it and rolls up the door. Here is what we see:
He then says, "Oh yeah, there is a back door on some of these too.", and proceeds to roll up the rear door. Here is that initial view:
I asked what the dimension were of this unit, but he wasn't sure. I estimate it is at least 12' x 30', and it is packed full of games. With 5 more units to open up, and another location to travel to, we were running out of afternoon daylight fast. It wasn't feasible for us to pull out all the cabinets to get a better look. But.... I wasn't opposed to parkouring my way up and over to get a some more photos:
That's all the photos I took at the first unit. On to the next units in my subsequent posts....