This information provided via the courtesy of Vintage Slots of Colorado, Inc.
If you have an antique coin machine and want to sell it, please send me
an email. If I am not interested in it, I will forward your email to a collector
who probably is.
The following information is the web version of Coin Op on CD which was a book all about antique coin machines and it was distributed on a CD-ROM. This book was written in 1995 and sold in 1996. Please take this into consideration when reading the articles. There are no plans to come out with version 2. However, we do plan on periodically updating the information on the web version.
The CD version of the book has pricing information as well as a dealer directory. Since the prices are out of date and many of the dealers/collectors may no longer be collecting the machine we have purposely left this information out of the web version. However, we do keep in contact with many dealers and collectors who are actively buying and selling machines and would be happy to put you in touch with one if you have a machine you are looking to sell.If you are looking to purchase an antique coin machine you may also send me
an email and I will put you in touch with a reputable dealer. Odds are, I will
not be selling the machine you are looking for (since I rarely sell any
machines).
Who Really Cares About Coin Machines
By Dick Bueschel
One of the more elegant dealers in the field of vintage coin machines is a gentleman named Larry Lubliner, working out of his Re-Finders organization (at 737 Barberry Road, Highland Park, IL 60035, tel.: 1-708-831-1102, FAX 1-708-831-1160 if you're interested) north of Chicago. Larry is one of those that finds the best, and sells for big numbers. Which has led to a long and loyal customer list.
It is that list that Larry is constantly attempting to expand. He figures out who and where the people might be that he can sell to, and then makes a very professional and concentrated effort to develop the potential. He is, to put it mildly, always thinking it out. It was this forward thinking that put Larry in Las Vegas last spring in a courageous and insightful attempt to expand the horizons of the field of vintage coin machine collecting. And that's where Larry died for our sins.
The hobby of coin machine collecting owes a lot to advanced thinkers like Larry, and the many others (who I will probably name as time and this column goes along) that have dug out, cleaned up, re-sold and inspired a legion of collectors that came into the fold because they saw something that was extraordinary, and were sold on the historical significance of the piece. Which led to more pieces. The fields of class collectibles have all been blessed with dealers and entrepreneurs that were able to project their enthusiasm and excitement to others, making them a member of the same following. Somewhere along the line a strange thing happens. Collectors become dealers, and dealers expand a hobby.
Until they start bumping into each other. In the field of vintage coin machines, that happens a lot. Which is why Larry is always on the lookout for new fields to conquer. And in physching that one out, Larry stumbled across a jewel of an opportunity. The Eleventh Annual IGBE (International Gaming Business Exposition) was scheduled for April 26-27 at the MGM Grands Hotel in Las Vegas, sponsored by the organization that helped bring the consciousness of gaming to the American public through press exposure, trade shows, seminars and a terrific exhibit hall presentation of what's new in slot machines.
To quote from the show's guidebook: "The gaming industry has grown into a $30 billion colossus. To put this into perspective, the combined revenue spent at the box office, on books, and on recorded music is $21 billion. The gaming industry, therefore, is 30% larger than three of America's largest entertainment industries combined! IGBE's goal is to help you benefit from this tremendous growth."
The point here is not how you feel about gaming in your area, or how others may promote or hinder the expansion of this industry. That's a very personal and local thing and everyone certainly has a right to their own opinion. The point, as Larry saw it, was that the leaders of the gaming industry would all be congregated at one point on the map for two days, and all he had to do to reach them was be there. Imagine. A $30 billion industry, leaning toward commercial ambience with its riverboats and a historical sense by virtue of being in Nevada, Atlantic City, and elsewhere around the country where the favored American pastime of chance taking has once again taken root. If the people in the gaming industry wouldn't be interested in the very finest in vintage slot machines and gambling apparatus, equipment and furnishings, who in the world would be? With that breakthrough thought in his head, Larry booked a double booth and proceeded to collect and then haul one of the finest collections of old slot machines and gambling paraphernalia out to Nevada for the show.
And what a booth. Tender loving care picked up fabulous old saloon swinging doors, held up on a rack to show how they worked in the past, with their elegant etched push-plates glimmering in the overhead lighting. Floor standing slot machines of the early 1900s were well in evidence, with a Mills DUPLEX, Mills ROULETTE, Caille CENTAUR and Mills DEWEY DOUBLE broadcasting the booth to all that walked by. The prices caught their attention, too. That DUPLEX carried a $65,000 ("How much is that, sir?" "65!" 65 what?") price tag, and the ROULETTE was clocked in at $45,000 ("It's worth it. I'm going to try and hit a jackpot to get it.").
Cast iron slot machines of the first decade of the 20th century gleamed on the glass shelves, priced in the $6,000 to $24,000 range. ("We call it Iron Mountain!"). Antique dice, holdouts, tip trays and even early casino culture pieces, including a framed 1946 calender from Reno's Bank Club (at $1,250) caught the eye. It was a "Brown Period" booth, and many said it was the best looking floor display at the show.
But other things were happening at the show, too. To keep that $30 billion industry fed and growing, Bally Gaming introduced their new line of slot machines. So did Australia's Aristocrat, Thunderbird Gaming, Japan's Universal, Games of Nevada, Betstar, IGT and others. Williams Industries of Chicago did one better. Long a pinball and video game maker, they leaped into the gaming industry with a new line of slot machines produced by their Williams Casino Gaming Products Division. Electronic casino management systems, chip makers, publishers, video lottery makers, architects and riverboat builders, among the exhibitors, were busy for two full days while the crowd surged through the exhibit halls. It is also estimated that just about everybody that went to the show stopped in at Larry's Re-Finders booth because it was so beautiful and unique. It was indeed a show stopper.
But no one bought anything. And wer're not just talking about the big ticket items. There were all sorts of smalls and gambling ephemera opieces in the booth, yet only one tip tray sold. A lot of business cards were passed back and forth as the most beautiful assemblage of vintage slot machines ever exposed at a trade show stopped people in their tracks as they walked by. The amazing thing was how many people in the gaming industry dropped in to say that they had a Jennings CHIEF, Watling ROL-A-TOP, Mills "Hightop" or other 30s, 40s and 50s slot machines in their offices or homes. And the conversation stopped there. As of eight weeks after the show there have been no call backs to Re-Finders about the exhibit or the machines.
The whole idea was a dud. But it shouldn't have been. The ambience of these machines would grace any riverboat, or casino saloon. Someday they'll want them, and the machines won't be available for any price. So it would seem that Larry spent a wad of dough on an idea, and proceeded to shoot himself in the foot.
But not quite. Because if his track record has anything to say about it, somebody in that crowd won't forget those machines. Another dealer, Allan Pall, said that, "All of us in this hobby owe Larry a lot. He has taken us where no one else had the courage to go. He cannot help but have made it easier to find and sell better machines in the future because he exposed so many people to the product. But too soon. It's a shame Larry took the hit. But we all gain."
So here's a word of thanks and encouragement to Larry Lubliner. You've taken us where we want to go, and we'll get there. Thanks for getting us started on the path.
The best looking exhibit at the IGBE (International Gaming Business Exposition) in April at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Larry Lubliner talks to a prospective client amid his outstanding collection of machines for sale.
They came. They saw. They concurred. The Re-Finders booth at the IGBE Show was the best assemblage of vintage slot machines and gambling items that many in the gaming business had ever seen.
What a gameroom this would make, from original old saloon swinging doors to the finest in cast iron slot machines and trade stimulators, brought to a Las Vegas trade show by vintage machine dealer Larry Lubliner.
Q. - Although I do not collect coin machines I enjoy your column. I own a Pulver machine with a figure inside. How much is it worth? I bought it when it was a $200-$300 item. Recently I saw notice of an auction sale where an item described much like mine brought over $3000. I would sell for that. Are these machines "hot" right now? A. W., Culpeper, VA.
A. - You're about a third of the way there with your circa 1910 Pulver KOLA-PEPSIN, the second of the tall porcelain case Pulver machines with the figure either dressed as the "Yellow Kid," "Buster Brown" or "Foxy Grandpa." A very nice machine! A fair market value for your machine these days is $1,250, or about half that or a little more if you're selling. That $3,000 plus Pulver was the "pointing hand" embossed tin casing cabinet KOLA-PEPSIN GUM of a decade earlier, with the tin cabinet version with children on the side going for even more bucks. These things are beautiful. As for being "hot," vending machines made before 1920 have recently been climbing in value while many other coin machines are standing still or even dropping.
Q. - Enclosed find pictures of a dixie cup 1› dispenser with a patent date of 12-16-13. Also a picture of a 25› cigarette dispenser. I'd appreciate knowing the value of these machines. C. H., Springfield, MO.
A. - Your DIXIE CUPS machine is a treasure. It was first made in the early decade of this century when there was great concern over transmitted diseases through the public use of drinking cups (washstands and fountains often had a tin cup that everyone used!). So the Individual Drinking Cup Company in Easton, Pennsylvania, produced this vender. They were picked up in droves for department stores before World War 1, where many people congregated and often wanted a drink. At a penny a cup the stores made money. Marshall Field's in Chicago had these until the 1960s, when they finally sold them off when the value of the cup far exceeded the penny required to vend.
The popular "Dixie Cup" as used in the machine eventually led to a change in the company name, becoming the Dixie Cup Company in the early 1930s, with offices in Easton, Chicago and elsewhere.
As for a value, when the venders from Field's hit the market in the 1970s they sold for $150. A dealer price today is $350, so there you have the wholesale and retail values.
Your cigarette machine is the CIGARETTE VENDOR, 7 COLUMN made by Stoner in Aurora, Illinois, in the late summer of 1953. While these cigarette machines are very nice and Deco looking they somehow haven't caught on. Yet! Where a dealer might have them in a shop, mall or show at $125 to $200 they go begging. At auctions they draw somewhere between $25 to $50. But that might change, and fast. Anything to do with cigarettes is gaining in value. Also, I am doing a book on collectible floor standing multi-column venders that will list them all with illustrations and their original manuals. If the past proves to be correct, once these machines are in a book they are highly collectible.
(c) Richard M. Bueschel, 1994