It is one thing to take a beat up "Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja" and turn it into a multi while making an effort to clean it up real good and give it a nice paint job, graphics, etc. It's not going to be worth much as an original Bad Dudes, but at the same time, taking an el-cheapo game that nobody wants and slapping an -in-1 board and trying to make a mint without making an effort to make the game look presentable is pretty lame in my book.
My original posting was not meant to be a commentary on people taking genuine classics (that should be restored/salvaged) and putting multis in them, but rather that I was SHOCKED at the sheer number of cheap to worthless cabinets that were being converted with -in-1 boards with no obvious attempt to make the machine look nice or presentable. It's especially bad when they take a jamma cabinet that has already been kitted from one dedicated machine to some OTHER jamma machine (with secondary artwork remnants) and THEN to a multi. Mismatched artwork, poor cabinet condition, etc. To ask more than $800 for a $50 cabinet with a $80 -in-1 board with no real effort to make the machine cosmetically appealing (hoping to trick someone who doesn't know the true value of such an item) is just wrong. I understand that people like to take advantage of an opportunity, by my opportunities don't come to me by taking advantage of other people.
As for my personal collection. I have a bit more than what is in the photos, but I haven't updated them in a while (except for the PS3 based pedestal with the plasma screen that I did over the holidays). I have been collecting games off and on since 1989, and over the years, I have only kept games that are in very nice shape or that I have a very personal attachment with. Some of them are home use only games and some of them I actually restored or modified myself. LOTS of them have multiple boards in them, while still being able to play the original game that the cabinet was designed for. Over the years, I have typically messed with collecting when business is slow or economic times are not the best. I suppose that it gives me something else to think about and work on. I have owned my own successful company for 18 years now, but as with EVERYONE (and people are LYING if they say otherwise) things have been pretty slow over the last 6-8 months. Which is probably one of the main reasons why I have been more active on here lately...
Lee