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I'm sure we all get pumped up as soon as this item arrives in
the mail! |
As usual, this year I went to the show with Dave Lindquist and Don Smith.
Dave and I left Rochester Hills, Michigan thursday afternoon, golfed with Don at Egypt
Valley in Grand Rapids and spent the night. After 16 holes in the morning, we headed to
Chicago with Don's wife. Our plan was to meet my wife and Dave's at the Schaumburg
Marriott around 4:00 and then go to the auction and show while the women wasted money at
the mall. It's a small price to pay to have peace at the Expo!
We decided not to stay at the Ramada for the first time in 7 years. Having
to pay for parking last year in addition to the hotel being a dump and $35 more expensive
than the Marriott made this an easy decision. I heard they are blowing up that hotel.
That's a productive use of dynamite if you ask me.
Don sells his Jive Time:
Don decided to bring his Williams Jive Time to sell in
order to make room for his yearly purchase. Don had done a great job restoring this game
with his box of crayons! I figured he would be lucky to get $135. He was counting on $200
and planned to buy it back if it went for less. Early in the auction, Don won the bid for
the Jurassic Park, so he had no room to put the Jive Time if he bought it back, so it was
going to some lucky soul!
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Here's Don checking the game in: |
There's Carl Heller checking out a game while Don check's
in: |
I had to fix the damn game for Don after the ride to
Chicago! |
Don is checking to see if I did a good job fixing his game. |
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There's Don playing his last game before the
auction starts. |
Here we go . . . - Chris says that the Jive Time is "workin'
all the way" |
Don plays the game during the bidding. Dave and I
were laughing our heads off. don was pretty darn nervous! |
. . . "sold for $150" |
Who are these guys?
We managed to get some good pictures with some regulars
that most of us know. Check out the full sized versions.
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That's Carl Heller on the left and me on the
right. We met Carl at the show and spent some time together during the auction. I forget
what he bought, but we helped him load it. |
Gene & Don
Dave took this pic right after Don asked Gene to sell im a Fireball. Don is going to ask
him every year until Gene says yes just to shut him up. |
Russ & Dave
I've been sending Russ pics of my games for a few years. He's managed to get some of them
on the IPD. |
Don & Pat
That's Don looking smart. I wonder how Pat Lawlor managed to get in this picture. |
Dave, Tim, Clay
I snaped this picture and ended up with Clay and Tim Arnold in the background. |
A few pics from the Expo:
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Can't I get even one serious picure of these guys? No they
didn't win. They were borrowing |
Okay Don, I'll put this pic on my web page and tell the
whole world you won the big trophy. |
Smokin ! This one got a big laugh when it started smoking
just before the bidding. No "it's working all the way" on this
one! |
This Buckaroo was in pretty good shape. I don't know what
it went for, but it was more than I would have spent. |
To buy or not to buy. I dropped out at $150 and it went for
$160. With 3 projects in the basement, I didn't want another one even though I'd been
looking for an OXO for 3 years. |
Personally, I think the show was pretty lame this year. I only collect the
EM's, and there was not much there. I think Rob Berk's booth was the weakest it's ever
been. Before I could get there, someone had bought all the good games from the Pinball
Exchange. I will say that the Pinball Exchange had some pretty nice games for sale at
reasonable prices. I really missed having Steve Young there. I'm sure Mayfair jacked up
pricing a little bit because of that. Can't blame them - I would have done the same thing.
Looking through Gene Cunningham's pictures was fun. I almost didn't come back on Saturday.
I managed to get some good autographs at the autograph session this year. That was the
first time I had done that and I will do it again. I got Dave Christensen and Greg Kmiec
to autograph a Captain Flyer which I will hang up, and I also got my Cirqus Voltaire
flyers signed. Steve Kordek signed a flyer for me. I have several games that he did so
that will hang in my gameroom too.
Results of the show:
Dave only got a book. No machines at all. His
daughter broke her ankle and he and his wife had to go home early Saturday. Nice job
Melissa. Next time stay off that trampoline.
Don bought a Jurassic Park at the auction.
It's working fine. The biggest problem was getting it crammed into the Grand Cherokee. He
also bought a new backglass for his 4 Million BC and a German Fireball backglass from
someone who had an ad on the board outside the Expo Hall.
I was lucky on Saturday. We were originally
going to take the women downtown for the day because I had given up on the show after
Friday night. They decided to shop in Schaumburg which was fine with us, so Don and I went
back to the show. Right when we got there, someone was wheeling in a some old games by
Gene's booth. One of them was a Williams Strato-Flite. It was dirty, but everything was
there and the backglass was very nice. I picked up for $225 and it's already in my
gameroom and believe it or not, "workin' all the way"!
4 score reel contacts out of adjustment, and a good cleaning on the 10, 100, and 1,000
point relays is all it took. I will shop it over the Thanksgiving holidays. It looks nice
next to my Skylab. Since I just finished my gameroom, you should check back for my
gameroom pics in a couple of weeks to see the Strato-Flite. Don and I stayed the rest of
the day and played Pinball.
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