What's your best arcade scores for less than $50

A free, in tact, space duel on side of the road in the trash...8/10 cab.

$20 mario bros slim body, had sound issue. Solid cab, 5/10 cosmetically.

$40 galaga at a yard sale. Non working...parted it out. I kept montior and chassis and switching power supply. I trashed bezel and cab..cab was un-saveable...1/10 cab.

And on super bowl sunday i picked up a $33 centipede non working, 7/10 cad cosmetically.

Over $50?...a $75 non working asteroids in a pristine lunar lander cab.
 
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Free DK, Pac, Tron from same guy. Friend left them in his garage years ago and he just wanted them gone. He said he got over 50 emails from craigslist, I was very lucky. That was 5 years ago.

$100 for Major Havoc (tempest conversion) and Star Castle. CL ad read two old arcade games without saying the names. MH played blind, SC was dead. I eventually got the MH working but had to part the SC. That was 6 years ago.

A couple great deals recently but no huge home runs the past few years. Stuff has dried up and it's too easy to check values on stuff.
 
$50 Carnival
$35 Space Invaders Deluxe
$10 Karate Champ
$75 Tutankham
$55 280 Zzzzap
$99 Roadblasters
Free Pole Position Cockpit
Free Anti Aircraft
$85 Rush n Attack

Well I guess my list is $99 and under, but close enough.
 
I got a FREE 1000 Mile Rally in a Dynamo 25" cabinet... dead when I got it... all i had to do was push the two boards together... fully working.

I got not one, but TWO Gauntlet Dark Legacy cabinets... one was semi-working (would reset constantly) the other was also semi-working (also would reset)... for $50.00. When I got them home, I was able to get one working 100% with a voltage adjustment and the other was truly screwed...would reset regardless. To make matters even sweeter, I found $19.00 in quarters in the two cabinets making my total investment $31.00.

I got a Two Crude in an Atari Galaga 88 cabinet... for $50. It was offered at a local titty bar for $125. I went to take a gander (grin) and it was pretty beat up. I started to walk and the guy asked what I'd pay for it. I offered $50.00 and he told me to load it up...

I got a TRON for $50.00... i think it was... but it looked like this (left) but ended up looking like this (right)... but not at $50.00 :)

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Free working cocktail Donkey Kong Jr.
Free Mr. and Mrs. Pac Man pinball (picking up this weekend--non working but complete)

Those are through friend/family connections though... I never grab free shit from CL or here. never fast enough or close enough.
 
Free:
Punchout
Asteroids Deluxe (Mint, HUO ?)
Gunfight (Mint)
Wizard of Wor

$50:
Space Invaders
Stunt Cycle
Firetruck
Star Castle
Space Encounters

There are probably more that I don't remember. I worked
for Fun 'n Games in the early 80's and they sold me all the old
B&W stuff cheap.

$75 (I know, doesn't count):
Star Wars
 
The first game I ever got was free. It was a Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom in a Simpsons cab. My buddy was the manager at MJR and they were throwing it away. He called me up and I scooped it.



Other one was on FB swap 4 years ago. $40 for a Stratovox.

 
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Oh wait, I remembered a few more.

I picked up this Ikari Warriors in a Mad Planets cab for $45 about 3 years ago:



And I also picked up this eyesore for $25 a couple of years ago too:

 
I bought two Playchoice countertops for 50 bucks packed with games at a Goodwill in the early 2000's. Of course I wish I still had one of them...
 
found a free super zaxxon once curbside

bought a Nintendo red tent off of shopgoodwill years back for 5 bucks

got around 10 games in a overflow lot @ a socal superauctions years back for $1 (in that lot was a discs of tron arcade with a missing pcb/tempest mini/ninty cab/outrun and others) :)
 
beautiful tron friz!

I got a FREE 1000 Mile Rally in a Dynamo 25" cabinet... dead when I got it... all i had to do was push the two boards together... fully working.

I got not one, but TWO Gauntlet Dark Legacy cabinets... one was semi-working (would reset constantly) the other was also semi-working (also would reset)... for $50.00. When I got them home, I was able to get one working 100% with a voltage adjustment and the other was truly screwed...would reset regardless. To make matters even sweeter, I found $19.00 in quarters in the two cabinets making my total investment $31.00.

I got a Two Crude in an Atari Galaga 88 cabinet... for $50. It was offered at a local titty bar for $125. I went to take a gander (grin) and it was pretty beat up. I started to walk and the guy asked what I'd pay for it. I offered $50.00 and he told me to load it up...

I got a TRON for $50.00... i think it was... but it looked like this (left) but ended up looking like this (right)... but not at $50.00 :)

attachment.php
 
Not under $50, but close for the best two deals I can think of:

$60 Chiller - just had a collapsed monitor. Although, needed to pay shipping, but the game itself was only $60, lol.

$100 4 player Eliminator - working!
 
A Tempest and a dozen boxed Colecovision games for $100. I flipped the Colecovision games for over $100 right away, so that's a free Tempest* in my book.

*it needed a fuse
 
Non-working Missile Command for free! The arcade gods were smiling at me on that day. Another cheapie (not under $50, though) was my Devil's Dare pin for $80!
 
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