The Story Of The Greatest Arcade Game Auction Of All Time...

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Joe's Classic Video Games back with another cool arcade game video for you. Today we are going to talk about something we've never talked about before on our uh on our channel here. And uh this video is going to be a little different than they usually are. We've been meaning to do a video about this for years and we've um I decided to do it today. I don't know that we'll have many pictures of the actual games from this auction and I don't have any pictures of the actual auction, but uh I'm going to tell you about the greatest arcade game auction that I ever went to. Joe, would you agree? >> Yes. >> Joey agrees. So, there you have it. All right. So, I hope you enjoyed the video. All right. So, I am showing you a picture of the Sweet Union Flea Market in Monroe, North Carolina. So, uh, whenever we're brothers, if you didn't know, and whenever we were, uh, kids, we bought an arcade game from the local arcade at the mall and, uh, had one at our house. So, eventually, so we we grew up, we had one at our house, and eventually I got a job actually working for an operator and, uh, had them out on location with him, and we would put them out um, in places, etc., etc. Well, after I started working for him, one of the things we used to do was he would go to these arcade auctions and buy uh equipment. He would buy newer equipment that he put out on location was still operating. And you know, he was just in the industry and blah blah. So that's the first time I heard about these auctions and we started going to them. And you know, while you're there with him working or, you know, helping load trucks and stuff like that, you would see all this stuff sell real cheap. And Joey and I had always set up at the flea market. So whenever since we were kids, our dad set up the flea market all the time. So we had a booth at the flea market and Joey at the time was younger. I don't let me think how old you would have been. This would have been about 2003 or 2004, I think. So that makes you 19. Does that sound right? >> Sounds right. >> Joey's about 19. So uh um it's real fun going to these auctions. So, I start taking Joey to the auction or I guess pretty much >> I think they might have needed me or something that day. >> Yeah, maybe they hired him or something. I don't remember. But anyway, so we ended up going to the auction. So, we're standing there and remember we've got, you know, an arcade game at home. Our first one was Double Dribble and we turned it into a WWF Superstars and then we turned that into a Mortal Kombat 2 or tried to or something like that. Uh, Combat Tribes, we had a com we turned it into Combat Tribes at 1.2 too, which was all the cheaper games. That was stuff we liked. So, uh, we we started going to some of these auctions and you would see these games sell really cheap sometimes. And this was, you know, in the mid 2000s, so the some of the classic games, the bottom kind of fell out of them. So, they got real cheap there for a while, especially if they weren't like the big name stuff. So, anyway, um, every Saturday and Sunday we would be set up at the flea market. Well, I get word that there's going to be this auction in Sumpter, South Carolina. Or did you want to say anything else before we get to that part? >> No, go ahead. >> Okay. So, I get word that there's going to be this arcade auction in Sumpter, South Carolina. And so, uh, I was in Colombia on Friday and I drove by there and checked it out. They had a preview the day before. So, I go by and there's a bunch of cool arcade, you know, classic arcade games. Wow, this auction looks like it's going to be cool. There's parts all over the place, etc., etc. Do you remember anything else about that? but >> all kinds of stuff >> beforehand. No. >> Um, so anyway, so I tell Joey, "Hey, we might just have to shut down and not open up the auction, I mean the the flea market booth on Saturday, so we can go to this auction." And Joey liked going to the auctions anyways. So we agreed we're going to shut down the booth and go to this auction in Sumpter, South Carolina, which I think is about an hour and a half from our house. Right. So I had my truck and we we had it all planned out. We're going to load up both of our trucks. So Joey gets his truck ready. And what was your truck? >> I had an old jalapy. >> A jalapy. He said >> it was a 1990 >> 90 >> Ford. >> Ford fixer repair daily >> F-150, but it did have a Tommy gate on the back. Nice 8 foot bed. >> Yeah. >> So I thought I was ready. >> Yeah. So, we had already been buying arcade games at the other auctions and stuff and picking them up whenever we saw them and you know, so Joey had a lift gate on his like I had a liftgate on mine and we were selling them at the flea market at the time. We had some set up uh in our booth at the flea market. Should I show them a picture of the booth at the flea market? >> Yeah, probably. They need more pictures. >> They need more pictures. So, I'll show you what our booth looked like at the flea market around that time. All right. So, we were in this building about right now. Okay. All right. So, um we decide we're going to go down there and so I'm driving down and Joey's got his older truck and uh he blew the engine up or something. >> It overheated or something on the way down there. >> So, I had already been to this auction the day before. So, I knew there was all kinds of cool stuff there that we liked. So the way the way that we thought at the time was we wanted like WWF Superstars. We wanted Street Fighter 2, >> Double Dragon, >> Double Dragon, the the kind of the late 80s, early 90s stuff cuz it was really cheap and it was our favorite games that we played, you know, or that we liked, you know, um because we had played them on the Super Nintendo or the Nintendo or whatever. And uh it was just the stuff we were into and we we liked those. So we would buy the ones we liked, fix them up and sell them. So u we he broke down on the side of the road and we're like, "Well, damn. We got to get to this action." So we just abandoned this truck on the side of the highway. >> Yeah. I hadn't had it very long. I gave the neighbor $700 for it. And you know, it already had the Tommy gate on it. >> So it wasn't much of a truck. >> Yeah. That's right. That was Chris's truck. >> Yeah, it was Chris's truck. >> We got to blame him for this. >> Thank you, Chris. Thanks, Chris. >> Radiator >> radiator went out on it. Chris, now he's a nice guy. If we say that, he'll he'll leave me a radiator at the at the house. Anyway, um so, uh we abandoned his truck on the side of the road and I think we called Donnie and told him, >> "Hey, the Joey's truck's waiting on the side of the road for you." And I I talked to him yesterday about it and he said it was where 521 met back up with 521. So, I'll show you that next. >> I don't think we were very far from the house. >> Yeah, we weren't too We didn't make it far. Yeah. >> So, you can't tell much from this map, but this is Lancaster up here and 521 goes through it and then the bypass meets it back. Donnie said it was somewhere right around through here that we abandoned the truck, right? So, we're we keep going. We got to make it to this auction. So, we go down through Elgen and we're going down 521. And if you keep going eventually, I guess that's uh that might be It says Pleasant Hill, Heath Springs. Okay, you keep going. Now, we're in Kershaw. Uh I'm lost already. Oh no, Joe. We got lost going to the Oh, man. >> Whatever. So, anyway, eventually we end up in Sumpter, South Carolina. Let's see if if we keep going this way. There's DB. Are we lost still, Joe? Did we get lost again? >> Probably. >> There's Camden. I don't think we've went far enough. All right, so let me find Sumpter. All right, so we made it past Camden. We got down to the beautiful city of Sumpter. All right. So, we pull in. We finally find the place. And it's at what I thought was like an old car dealership or something. What do you remember about how it looked from the outside, Joe? >> It was an old building. >> Old building. >> Big >> big old building. >> Lots of games in there. >> Lots of games in there. Okay. So, I uh we went to this auction and I'm going we're going to tell you all about it, but uh for years we would tell people, man, we went to this one auction. It was crazy. It was in Sumpter, South Carolina. And uh so we're always thinking about this. It comes up from time to time. And I always thought, where in the world was that place? I can't remember where that address was. And so from time to time, I would go on Google Earth and kind of just look at something trying to find the building that that auction was in. And so the other day, I thought the same thing. Hey, let me go look around on Google Earth, see if I can find that building. It shouldn't be so hard. And I'm thinking about what it used to be like. And I find this place. So I remembered that the front was larger than the back. And then in the back there was a big area. It looked like it might have been like where they repaired cars or something. And the front I was thinking in my head was almost like a car showroom, you know, where they park the new vehicles inside the building and there's glass windows and stuff. Is that how you remembered it? >> Exactly how I remember it. >> And uh back from the front there were these offices with glass windows. kind of like where if you go in a car lot, they the dealer the the salespeople sit in there and you go in their office and they try to screw you out at 30% interest when you buy a brand new car. So, I found this place and I thought, "Huh, that looks about right." And I remembered that you parked over here and then but you could also drive around to the other side, right? So, I remembered that. So, I thought, I wonder if this is it. So, I uh I did the the uh Google Earth thing. I mean the the the Google Maps thing and I found this place. Now, what do you think, Joey? >> Not ringing any bells. >> Not ringing any bells, is it? See, that's what I thought at first. I was like, I don't know about this. I don't know about this. Okay. Now, what do you think about that, Joey? >> That's it. That's it. That's the one. >> Do you think that's it? >> Definitely it. >> Why Why would you say that's definitely it? because it's got that building over there behind it. You just showed me the the top view. >> So you you remember this building somehow? >> No, I don't remember that building at all. I thought that was where we parked. >> Yeah, that was where we parked. So you're saying the building behind it on the the top of you? >> Yep. >> But you think that's it? >> I think that's it. >> Okay. So this is in right now how it looks. So I'm going to go back. I found the date of the auction. The date was March something March 27th or something like that. 2007, right? So, if we go back to 2007 on Google Maps, that's how it looked. See, what was screwing me up was on the current picture, there's no there's no windows. And I remember there were windows in it, right? But if you go back to 2007, there were windows. They just boarded it up. >> Mhm. >> All right. So, we come in and we park over here. So, what I notic is there's no trucks there. You remember that? >> I remember >> there were only like three trucks, period. There was like a box truck and two pickup trucks and a couple SUVs and then like 10 cars and that was it. And the auction had already started or it was about to start. So, uh I'm I'm thinking to myself and I'm telling Joey, how are they going to move any of these games if they buy any of them? Right? Because that's just something that you notice at these auctions. If they don't show up with the truck, they can't buy more than a game or two because they don't have any room to haul it. And they had it set up where you could come back and pick them up. But that's not usually how people do it. Usually they buy them and and uh you know you take them with with you that day. So we pull in over here and park and again this is from 2007. So this is just what it looked like. So we pull in over here and we park and there's just 10 or 12 cars over here and uh we walk in through this door. Okay Joe. So what do you remember about the front room? >> All right. They had a ton of pinball machines in there. >> Yeah. And they were all kind of mix matched and a lot of them didn't have the heads on them, which is the whole point of the pinball machine. If they don't have the head on them, ain't much you can do with it. >> Yep. So, as I remember it, those were all kind of like right here in this part of the of the front room. And it was I don't even know that any of them were the whole machine. >> I think there were like 20 bases and 20 heads and none of them matched. So I remember there was a Captain Fantastic I think head but no no base. So somewhere there must have been a storage building with the opposite, you know, with the 20 bases that go with these heads and the 20 heads that go with these bases. And um the story supposedly was that this company Super Auctions that was running these arcade auctions everywhere was using this to store some of their stuff that they picked up here and there or that didn't sell at the auction or maybe they shield bit it too high and they had to take it back or something. Right. Um so we walk in those pinball machines are there. What else do you remember Jen about the front room? >> All right. So they had a lot of arcade games lined up all the same. So they'd have like 20 centipedes next to each other. >> Yeah. Then they'd have like all the Nintendos together like the Donkey Kongs and stuff like that. Then they'd have like 20 Pac-Man's all lined up next to each other. And the front room was the clean stuff that was pretty clean. >> Yeah. So it was So we go in and let me show you from the top down because uh you'll see a little better. So we park over here and we go in this door. And so Mhm. >> And we've been to How many arcade auctions have you say we've been to, Joe? >> Now, >> like, yeah, total. >> I don't know, probably hundred. >> Probably a hundred different ones. And this is the best one, right? And we'll show we'll tell you why here in a minute. Um, so we go in and there's offices. There's like an office here, an office here. There's a hallway here. There's an office here, and an office here. Okay. The pinball machines are all right here. And then there were parts and things all over the place. So here there was a doorway here. And so uh in this area they had all of these boxes. They had like tables set up and they had all of these boxes of arcade game boards piled up. You remember that Jay? >> Vaguely. >> They they would have like seven or eight boxes that were kit boxes. So, back in the day, if you ordered like Street Fighter 2, it would come in a large box uh that was about 5 in tall and 2 feet wide and, you know, 2 feet uh deep or whatever. And um you open it up and it has the board in it and the marquee and the control panel artwork and the side art and maybe a wiring harness and stuff like that. Well, that what they were doing was they were whoever had this stuff originally was taking the u the stuff and putting it in like let's say an old joust arcade game and then they were taking all of the stuff that made it joust and putting it back in this box. So you would open up one of the boxes and it would have the joust board set, the joust bezel, the joust marquee, um some stuff like that in it. So it was all real cool stuff, but you didn't really know what was in each box. and they would have like six or seven boxes with tape around them and they would sell the whole stack of boxes. And so most of them were going for like $40, $50. Um, if there was one that said something on the side that people particularly like, they might bid $100, something like that on it. So there's a whole bunch of that going on here. The games Joey was talking about in a row were all right here. There's like maybe five rows of games in the front and they were all cleaner stuff. So there would be like eight Miss Pac-Man's in a row that were all turned on. They could turn on a bunch of them at one time. And they'd been planning this out for a while, but apparently they didn't advertise it because there were only like 30 people there. You think I'm exaggerating if I say that, Joe? >> No, I don't think so. >> So there's like 30 people there's it. And um uh so they get over there to those games and they start selling them. So the first Miss Pac-Man, you know, that's the one everybody wants, right? So they bid it up to $500 or something, which at the time was like pretty good money that, you know, usually they sold for less than that. So then they go to the second Miss Pac-Man and it's $400 and then the third Miss Pac-Man and it's $250. And that's just how this kind of stuff works, right? And I'm thinking the whole time, there's not enough trucks to get all of these games out of the building, right? And they keep going and they keep going. And didn't we get a Samurai Showdown that like a white Samurai Showdown? Remember? Maybe we just saw one there. I know there was one there, but I don't remember if we bought it. >> Don't remember. So, there were Neo Geo had dedicated um Samurai Showdown 2 arcade games that were white. There was one of those there, I remember. And there was several Neo Geos in a row. I don't remember if we got any of those or not. So, I remember there were a couple Pacmania cabinets with the uh that plastic marquee that you know says that this 3D that says Pacmania on it. And uh is that where we got the Packland, you think? >> Yeah, I think so. >> So, we had a Packland and a tapper cabinet that we got at this auction. Now, most of the games weren't in really nice condition, but they weren't falling apart either. They were all solid and and pretty much complete, but um and the ones in the front room, I think every one of them worked, or they assumed every one of them worked. They were pointing them all in, right? So, anyway, they start selling them. And as they sell them, the prices are going down because people are running out of room and there's even people starting to say that they're running out of room. Um there was one gentleman there who was buying all kinds of stuff. I'm going to show you some of his stuff here in a little bit. um who who ended up buying several tractor trailer trucks full of these games, right? So anyway, the price starts dropping. So also in the front room, like I said, there were these offices. So one of the they all had glass fronts on them. There was four of them. So one of the offices, it was this one, um had all of their light guns in it. So the whole room was full of like HAP 45 pistols and the the shotguns and the the the Sammy rifles and stuff like that, right? And they auctioned off the entire room to one guy. I don't remember what it sold for, but it wasn't much. Um, do you remember? I remember the artwork one, but I don't remember what was in the other ones. >> Well, they had one with a bunch of the versus stuff in it. >> Yeah, that was in that artwork one. So, there there was uh one of them might have had like a whole bunch of coin doors in it or something, but they had it kind of sorted out and one of them might have had like all of their their bill acceptors or something like that. So anyway, if you went down this hallway, there was a room right here that was also a like an office or something. And it was maybe 15t long and 10t wide. Does that sound right? >> Don't remember. >> I don't remember. Anyway, it's full of artwork. So, it's all marquees and side art and stuff. And it had a bunch of these Nintendo Versus cases in it, which were like the, you know, where they they kept all of their, you know, whenever you bought a Versus kit, it would have the little chipset and the marquee and side art and well, not side art, marquee and and uh uh the little stickers and and instructions and stuff like that. We've actually got some of those that we picked up at that auction still here. So, we've literally still got a few of them sitting on our bench back here in the back. We didn't even have the building then, but we've been carrying these around for years. So, they were like little kits and inside like this one's Super Mario Brothers and it's just all the different versus stuff. So, as we were leaving there, the guy that bought that entire room of artwork, they sold the whole room to one guy was loading all the stuff up and he sold us all these I think for $5 a piece or it might have been $10 a piece, something like that. So over in the corner right here, there was a pallet that was about three feet high or four feet high, something like that. >> It was four or five feet high. >> Yeah. And it was full of Nintendo uh Playchoice kits. So, the bottom of the pallet, we didn't actually open those boxes, but it appeared to be like the the boards, the Play Choice board sets, which would have had the artwork and all that for the whole conversion kit to turn a game into a Nintendo Play Choice. And then the top part of the of the pallet was these small boxes that had like it would say Mike Tyson's Punch Out on the side, and it was sealed. And if one of them was open, if you opened it and looked in it, there would be, I think, six boxes inside. And each one was a Mike Tyson's Punchout game kit. So it would have the Play Choice cartridge and the little tiny marquee sign that you that you screwed to the top of the cabinet and um uh the instructions and stuff like that. So those little kits that there were the whole pallet had those in it. And so each box was like a different game. So one of them might have been Ninja Gayen and one of them was Mike Tyson's Punch Out. Do you remember anything about that, Joe? >> I remember the pallet, but I don't really remember too much about it. So I we always like Nintendo stuff, so I really wanted to get it, you know, and so we were trying not to look a little too uh interested, so we didn't even look at it that close, but we could tell what it was, right? And so we bid it up to $500 and uh it just kept going after that, but I think it ended up selling for 700 or something like that. Um >> I don't remember, but I was a little worried that, you know, the top ones might have had the games in it, but the ones in the middle of the pallet might have been empty. You know, I'm always skeptical. >> Yeah. So we didn't know exactly what was in it. you. But if you open the top couple cases, they were full of brand new Playch Choice games that hadn't been opened. And this is in 2007. So shortly after that, a whole bunch of them ended up on eBay. And I think people started that's probably where a lot of them came from was from that pallet. But it was probably worth all kinds of back then. The stuff wasn't worth anywhere near what it's worth now. But they were all sealed, you know, and I don't know if it had any of the g I know there's a couple Play Choice games that are really rare. I don't know if it had them or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. But how many games, how many cases would you say of the games might have been on that pallet? >> I have no idea. >> I was thinking there might have been 10 or 12 boxes with six in each one >> probably. >> So 60 or 70 uh game cartridges. And then I was thinking that there might have been eight or 10 of the board set boxes at the bottom that may or may not have had the board sets in it. It all looked sealed, you know. So, but whatever. So, that sold I was kind of disappointed we didn't get that. And then, um, what else did we get in the front? I don't think we got anything else in the front. So, about that time, they decide that they're going to go upstairs for the monitors. So, this is the side of that building. It's another reason I know it's the right building. So, there was some kind of stairway like right here. And you went upstairs to this part of the building up, which was above those little offices I'm talking about. And up there they had these wood benches on the side of the wall and it kind of looked like they'd been working on monitors in this building. So >> yeah, seemed that way. >> If this was all the super auction stuff, I don't know why they would be working on monitors, you know. So I it seems to me like an operator had to have been using this place just because of how the stuff was laid out. So we walked up there and I think I left and went because I wanted to go in the back room and I think Joey stayed up there. Uh and there were so there were monitors all over the place like down these benches on the walls and laying in the floor. And what happened up there, Joe? >> I think I bought a couple of the nicel looking monitors that were clean. You know, they had stuff up there that you could carry upstairs. So, they had single monitors. I think they had some control panels up there. It was all just kind of random stuff. >> That might have been where we got some of the ones that we have the boxes for. >> Maybe. >> I don't I don't remember. Um, but so on this building, you can see there's actually a doorway up here. There must have at some point been stairway outside or something. Um, so obviously there's something up there. This is this is definitely the right place. remember the the this trash bin or one like it was right there or something and that's where all of those um that's where all those back doors were >> and when we went to pick up we backed up right there. Yep. Okay. So, um so we do the monitor thing and then so then we go in the back room and that's where the fun happened. >> So this back room so you walk in there's a door back here from the front. You walk in and there is a line of games from about here all the way to about here. It didn't go all the way back. I'll show you on the other side here in a minute. There's a a line of of games. How many would you say was in each row on each side? >> Uh I'd say maybe 25 or 30. >> Maybe 30, something like that. And uh so there was a row and then behind it was a row and then there was another set of those two and then behind that was another set of those two. So that would be 30, 60, maybe a couple hundred games. Yep. >> Something like that. >> Okay. So, the guy we go down to this end with the auctioneer. Oh, and we went about right here and there was a fire truck, an Atari firet truck arcade game. And uh it sold real cheap. If you've ever seen that game, it's really fun. It's like a two-player game, but it's old school. What was Do you remember what was next to it? >> There was a Sinar cockpit. >> Sinar I was I was thinking yesterday I was like there was another cockpit and then I was thinking maybe it was a Sinar cockpit. So, let me show you um a a post that somebody made on KOV about this. So, this gentleman Steve23 on KOV was the guy that ended up buying a whole bunch of games and he mentioned on March 25th somebody was asking looking for pictures of an Atari firetruck and Steve said one sold today in the Sumpter, South Carolina auction for $30. So, this this firetruck game, which is really desirable, uh I sat there and watched it sell for 30 bucks. Problem was nobody had a truck they could put anything in. So unless somebody was waiting for that one game, they didn't have any room left. And so then the Sinestar next to it obviously sold for similar or even less. So Joey and I had already got enough games to fill up our one truck in the front room. Um and we go down here to where the game start and the guy it's like a Do you Do you remember what any of them were or anything on that little lot of five? >> I don't I don't remember what they were. >> It might have been like a golden tea. >> I don't think none of that happened yet, though. >> Oh, what do you think? Okay, go ahead. What do you think happened? >> So, here's what actually happened. >> Here's what really happened. >> So, we're kind of You may be wondering, why the heck didn't you buy the Sinister cockpit? Well, at the time, we didn't even know what Sinar was. >> Yeah, that's true. >> We were We were waiting on like the Double Dragon and the Superstars, you know. >> I'm pretty sure we got a Mario a Super Mario Brothers there. >> Yeah. So, we're still cherrypicking. We're they're going down the road and we're kind of cherrypicking what we're wanting at this point and we're getting anything we want for like 20 bucks. >> That's not how I remember it. >> Okay. So, we're going through we're buying we're still buying stuff for like 20 bucks and then you know we're getting anything we want for 20 bucks that are on these rows. But then they start getting the games that we don't even want. And that's when Ronnie's story takes place. >> I don't think it happened like that. I'll tell you how I remember it happening. If these people don't come in our store, I'll see if these they're coming in the store. Well, the customers spent all kinds of money, so Joey's happier now. >> Yeah, buddy. Making that money. >> So, that's not how I remember that happened. Okay. Joey was up here screwing around with the uh >> money over there with the monitors. >> I was back here in the back room looking at the cool stuff. So, we had our eyes on some games, right? And the whole time we're thinking, man, this stuff's got to go cheap. It's got to go cheap. It's got to go cheap. There's no nobody can move it. There's way too many games left. So, we walk down to the end. The guy starts at the first game and it's in my mind it's like a golden tea or something. Like a golden T97. >> I was thinking that, but you know. >> Yeah. So, it's like a golden T97 and it's kind of plain. Now, I know what you're thinking. Well, who the hell would want that? >> That was our bread and butter. Like, that's what you saw our picture at the flea market. We could sell that stuff really well, you know? So, if you get a good deal on it, you're going to sell it for $500 or $600. >> Mhm. >> And uh that was good money to us, you know, and so there's a golden tea there and it's kind of complete. And uh this is at the time though where stuff like that was just it wasn't the price went way down. And if people are going to buy something at the auction, they've got a specific game they want. So like maybe there's a Mr. Doo over in the middle aisle and the guy want really wants the Mr. Doo or something, right? So the guy says, "Who'll give me $20?" $20 $10. Who paid me $5 for this game? We're standing there looking at it. Nobody wants to buy it cuz we're waiting on the other stuff, right? And then he goes, "Who give me a dollar? Nobody will bid a dollar." So then he did this little trick that he I had seen him do it another one. He did it in Charlotte, too. He says, "All right, who'll give me a dollar for this one and the one next to it?" So the game next to it is something similarly weird. Like you don't remember any of them? So maybe a just a a u you know a Street Fighter 2 with no marquee on it or something like that. It's like it's something like that. And there they're not rotted cabinets or falling apart or anything. They're complete games that somebody had saved. You know, they just they needed a little bit of work. Um so he adds that one to it. Well, that just makes the problem worse because the whole issue is people can't move them and they sure can't move two of them that they don't work, right? So he adds a third one. He adds a fourth one. five games. Who will give me a dollar? And so finally I go, "Okay, I made a dollar." So I bought five freaking games for a dollar. And they they used to go around and write on the little sticker how much that you paid for the game. And the guy wrote 0.20. I bought the game for 20 cents. 20 cents. So that's what he's selling these damn games for at this auction, right? So then the guy moves on to the sixth game and it's the same thing. And he's like, "Nobody wants to bend on it." And so he he's he starts doing the same thing. So he's now he's trying to sell two of them. And somebody's like, "I you're making it worse. We can't buy it. We can't move it." And so another guy walks up that works at the auction company and he's like, "Man, you got to you got to stop that. I mean, we're just going to have to figure something else out." and he says, uh, they come up with, is there anything in here that anybody wants to bid on? And, yeah, I want to bid on this one. I want bid on that one. But at that point, there's only like six or seven people standing there. That's it. Everybody else that e had got their Miss Pac-Man that they wanted for their house, put it in their in their SUV, and drove off, you know. So, there was there's only just a few people left. I know our buddy Carrie was there. I don't know if he stayed all the way to the end or not. I think he did. >> I think he did. Um, and this gentleman, Steve, that we're going to look at some posts from, he was there, obviously. Um, and we were there and there was just a couple other people. It was the place, it was just a bad idea for an auction for these people. So, we walk around and I remember specifically, I think one guy went and bid on something first. And so, they they're like, "Who'll give me $5?" He bids $5 and none of us bid against him. So, he buys the game for $5. So, then he's like, the guy's like, "Any other ones?" They're like, "Yeah, okay." And so we walk around to the last island. There's there's I'm pretty sure there was a Super Mario Brothers that we wanted there and the damn thing's up and running. >> I'm pretty sure there was two double dragons. >> Yeah. And so we walk up and there Super Mario Brothers. Okay. You'll do five. Okay. Who Who else? Nobody else will bid. We get that one for $5. So now it's just shooting fish in a barrel. So we walk back around and like he said, there was a couple double dragons. $5 a piece. There might have been a WWF superstars. I keep thinking about that for some I think I was buying all the Pac-Man cabinets cuz I knew I could turn the Pac-Mans's into something else if I wanted to or fix them as a Pac-Man. >> So, yeah, we were buying stuff that had been kitted but was originally Pac-Man >> because you could make it a multi-game or something or or kitted into something else. >> And so, uh, we just walk around and we're buying games for $5 and we'd already ran out of room, but they had I think they Was it like the next day or like Tuesday that you could come back? >> Yeah. Well, I think we had already I think Donnie came with a trailer the first day and then >> Oh, yeah. Maybe he was coming down. I think he was coming. >> I think we called him and said, "Hey, get your ass down there with a trailer or something." >> I think the first day Donnie came down with a trailer and then me and Ronnie had to go back with his truck. I never did I never did get my truck fixed. >> Yeah. Like a month later. >> Yeah. So, uh um it So, long story shorter, we've been talking for an hour. Uh basically, you could buy any game you wanted in the back room for $5. And then uh we bought five for $1. When we went back on this back area back here, there was a wall that came in. And I'll show you why or maybe I will. So like this area here was actually like a outdoor. This was outdoors. So there the wall went like this. So the right here on this wall there were two I think there were three three Nintendo Play Choice dual monitor systems. Yep. >> And uh when we went back, we went back the next day or something. And when we went back to pick them up, some of some of our stuff up, they were still there. And there were still all kinds of games left that never sold that day, right? And so the the guy, we were thinking, "Hey, we can get some more cuz we had room for two more games on our on our truck or on our trailer or whatever." And so we go up to the guy, "Hey man, uh you we got room for two more games. Can we pick out two more games?" And he's like, "Yeah, you can have anything you want, $10 a piece." So, he raised the price on us. He doubled us. He doubled up on us. So, we bought two dedicated Nintendo Play Choice 10, uh, each with 10 carts in it for $10 a piece. That worked out pretty good. >> Yep. And we didn't know at the time till we got back, but they both were full of games. They both had 10 games in them. >> Yeah, they both had they both had the full complement of games in And I will like to say, >> yeah, >> people are probably like, well, I'm just gonna go to all the auctions. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> this ain't gonna happen again. >> It will never happen. We've been waiting. >> That's the whole part of the story. I've waited almost 20 years to even tell a soul. >> You know, the uh the whole point is back in the day, the arcade auctions were like a secret. >> Yeah. >> If there was an auction coming up, you didn't tell anybody. You just kept it to yourself and you you went and hoped to get a deal. >> Yeah. Well, nowadays everybody's like, "Well, who's going to the auction on February 18th? Let me know if you're going, what you bringing, and all this crap." Well, back in the day, it was a secret. Now, everybody gets on Facebook and rambles and tells everybody to the world. And then they wonder why the prices are higher. I mean, come on now, people. >> Come on, people. Come on, people. >> The point is, this ain't going to happen again. If you're planning on going to the auction and getting a game for a dollar, it ain't just g it ain't going to happen. Yeah, but back in 2007, >> back in 2007, >> 20 cents, I paid 20 happened. We bought it. We were there. We bought it, loaded it, and sold it. Waited 20 years to tell anybody. >> So now the auctions ain't even hardly worth going. >> Yeah. They're ruined now. So we can say whatever we want. >> I don't even go to the auctions anymore because the a lot of times the crap sells for more than what I can get for it here at my store. >> Yeah. >> And if it don't, the people just buy it back. You can actually buy your own stuff back. Yeah. >> So, it's kind of a waste of time to go anymore. But back in 2007 in Sumpter, Bor's a good one. >> So, we like we always like buying like the the cheaper stuff, you know, cuz there's more markup on it. You do better on it. Like, if you buy if you buy a game that's worth $1,000 and you pay $600 for it, yeah, you're going to make 400 bucks, but you got $600 sunk in it. If anything happens, you're screwed, right? So, we don't like that. We would rather buy a game for $150 that you can get $700 out of. you're in it less. You can sell it for less. So, your top price is lower. It's easier to sell because you got a larger market. You can find more people that have enough money to afford that. So, anyway, we racked up. We picked up so many cool games that uh and some of them worked. Some of them, you know, needed a power supply, a monitor rebuilt, whatever. >> I think we ended up getting about 50 games. I think Donnie came down with a trailer once or maybe even twice. >> Yeah. So, Joe was just reminding me that he thinks we've got pictures of them in our storage building. Yeah. >> Um, so I, uh, I'll put those up here at the end. Anything else you want to tell them about the great arcade auction of Sumpter, South Carolina, Jerry? >> It'll never happen again. >> It'll never happen. >> It only happened one time and I was there. >> We were there. Now, I'm going to read you some posts that Steve made on uh, KOV, which is the killer list of video games, talking about this auction. Just so you can see that I'm not lying. All right. So, here's Steve Sumpter auction. Things got crazy. This is March 25th, 2007. So, there was an arcade auction in Sumpter, South Carolina today. Apparently, nobody knew about it because hardly anybody showed up. The auction closed early because they ran out of bidders. I scored huge, which was my goal. I got 94 machines and 12 pallets of PC boards, control panels, power supplies, chips, etc., etc. Towards the end, I picked up 32 machines for 20 cents to $1 each. The cream of the crop was a beautiful battle zone for $50 and a mini battle zone for $30, plus a mini gorf, a mini missile command, a mini Tempest. Those were missing some parts, though. I I'll spend all summer and next winter just plugging in the 200 to 300 PCBs to see what they are and if they work. Unbelievable. It was crazy. I'll post the photos next week when the two to three tractor trailer loads get here. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention two more outr runs in nine pole positions. So here's Planters 49 who's in Camden which is not far from there. This was for sure a super crazy auction. Not the normal Super Auctions auction at all. I believe from what I heard was that the main room was old operator stuff that had to go. This was mostly classics and parts. Then they had another room warehouse full of Jamype games that I heard was all the leftover crap that Super Auctions had left over from other auctions. There were rooms full of monitors and other stuff too. Some dude bought an entire room full of trans lights, glass, art mares, etc. for $800. He's going to make a killing from selling all of it on eBay. I've seen so many cocktails. I've never seen so many cocktails at one place either. There were about 40 to 50 of them. I forgot about that. There were cocktails all over that front room. Although 99.9% of the stuff did not work, was not complete or just plain junk. I don't agree with that. Um, it was good to fix for fix it uppers and craploads of parts. I got a pallet load of Terminator 2 style guns and jet fighter joysticks I have to go through, plus about five or six Road Blaster steering wheels. I also got about 18 cabinets. So, Steve says, "The count just went up. The dude from Super Auctions called and I bought 35 to 40 more miscellaneous machines and eight 33in size machines. Basically, another tractor trailer load. I had hoped to have 200 machines in the next couple years, not weeks. So, here's a picture of Steve with some of the stuff uh that he bought at the auction so you can get an idea. Now, this is he didn't buy these for $5, but these are ones that he he was just saying what $30, $50. Picked up all this stuff. And again, like Joey said, you're never gonna see this again. It was like a moment in time and they they the auction company kind of got screwed. But and by the way, they never did any auctions after that. >> Nope. >> They basically abandoned this area. They didn't like that. That left a bad taste in their mouth. >> Put them out of business. >> Yeah. About about them. About got >> Okay, so Joker's Wild was there. Yeah, it is true. I went to the super auction in Sumpter, South Carolina. I bought a Pac-Man for $35. I also bought two 33inch games for $150. I also bought two rooms full of monitors for $5 each. I also got a Championship Sprint for $5, a 1942 for a dollar, a Kung Fu Master for a dollar. Some did not have boards. Some of the monitors were messed up, but all the cabinets were in great shape. That's how I remembered it. The cabinets were fine. Um, but you know, stuff wasn't working or maybe the marquee was missing or something. All right, folks. So, I was able to find some pictures. Now, what we did with these games whenever we got them was we had a store, a building that we had just bought in Jefferson, South Carolina just before this, like a few months before it. And it was this old kind of dilapidated building, but it had a really good roof on it. So, we moved those games into that building. It was like a 2,000 foot building, and we were in the process of renovating it. So, if you've seen our other channels, you've seen us working on some of these buildings and things. It's just something we that we do. So, all this kind of happened at the same time. So, I have pictures of the renovation and it shows the arcade games in the background. Now, if you look at this one here that says Magic Sword, this white game here in the front, if you look up on the marquee, there is a big white square white sticker. That's the Super Auctions sticker. So, uh that's different from the other company that we were buying games from. So, any of the one that you see, any of the pictures that you see with that little sticker, we got those at this auction. Um, so, uh, I see a magic sword here. There's a Bally RPM behind it, which kind of a weird one. And then you can see that Joe's got two or three Pac-Man style cabinets right there beside each other. Uh, and then some other things. So, there is a Frogger. Excuse the dust. Um, and then there's something there next to it that we probably got there as well. So, this was the type of stuff that we were buying for $5. Um, the Frogger we may have paid more for because it might have been in that front room. So, here is us loading up some games or unloading some games, something. And, uh, you can see that Frogger up on the truck. And you can see this Pac-Man here that Joe's standing next to. And if you look close at the top on that sticker, like I said, they used to write the price of the machine on it. And they have written $5 on it. So, this is one of the ones from that auction. We were literally going around saying, "Hey, I'll buy this Pac-Man for $5. Um, it was just the best auction ever." And this is the stuff we love. I love just some old game that, you know, may and that thing had probably been kitted or something. I don't know. I don't know. It still said Pac-Man. But, um, but the ones that are just a little junky and need some parts swapped and stuff cleaned up and maybe the monitor fixed and stuff like that is our favorite stuff to buy. So, um, just very cool. So, here is a versus golf over on the right, which is in a Pac-Man cabinet. So, it's a kitted. So, it's a Pac-Man that they put a a uh Nintendo versus kit in and then had golf installed in the Nintendo versus kit. So you could take out the golf chips and uh turn it into Super Mario Brothers or Castlevania or all kinds of stuff. And then next to that, I think that weird looking one is a um is a Capcom bowling that's been kitted into like a Mappy cabinet or something. And then next to that is a pole position. I don't know that we got that at that auction. And then next to that um is a Nintendo uh versus Red Tent cocktail. Uh, we may very well have got that at that auction. So, it was just this caliber of stuff. So, here's Joey hard at work with a 2x4. And in the background, you can see the double dragon all the way there at the end. Joey was saying he remembered getting a Double Dragon at it. Next to it, you see a blue Nintendo versus. I'm not sure which one that is. That's a That's a probably a Donkey Kong that was converted to a Versus cabinet. And then next to that, that red cabinet is a Pac-Man, but it's got Matt Mania in it. $5. Or maybe that was one of the 20 cent ones. Who knows? Uh, next to that is a Dr. Mario that's kitted into a Donkey Kong Jr. And then you've got a Pac-Man here, which may be that Pac-Man we were just looking at in the other pictures. So, this is our favorite type of stuff. Like I love these games, this type of stuff, this era and the kided games and I just love that crap. They're just they're just so fun and they're fun to work on and just neat to get a different game, you know, and I just it's just a fantastic auction. Lots of good memories. So here you can see the super auction sticker on the front of the double dragon and uh I think that's another Pac-Man maybe. I'm not sure. And then uh there's a track and a hypers sports. That's a dedicated hypers sports. And I remember that having the I remember taking the super auction sticker off of that whenever we finally worked on it. So we messed around with these for probably a year after this. Remember how the post was saying that there was a whole bunch of cocktail games there, too. If you look in the back in the middle, there's a couple cocktail cabinets we probably picked up at that same auction. And um so we I don't remember how many games we got, but um however many we got, we got a good deal on them. So here is a Tato plotting behind Joey, who looks like he's been working very hard. And a Mortal Kombat 2 in a kitted cabinet. So, you know, nothing special, but had the board in it and everything. And you can see we had to pay $10 for this one. So it was, you know, I mean, Mortal Kombat 2, you got to step up a little bit. So if you went to an auction today, that same game in that same, you know, weird cabinet would probably be 600 bucks at an auction. And we got it for $10. It's just it's just a really cool time. It's kind of one of those oneofa-kind experiences. You get to do that one time and then it doesn't happen anymore. But we had a blast. So, I think that's about it for all of the pictures. I hope you enjoyed the story and I hope it wasn't too boring. And uh we've been wanting to make a video kind of showing some of this stuff for a while. Um so we'll see you on the next one.