What kinds of games are generally available at auctions?
There will be at most a handful of recent games (i.e. less than two years old) because the newer games are still making money hand-over-fist for their operators, and the operators will be loathe to auction off their best money-makers. There will be a few older games (pre-1985), but as most of these have already worked their way through multiple conversions, so don’t expect to find them every time. As of this writing (early 1993), you can expect to find the following distribution of games: – New games (post-1990) ———– 5% – Middle-aged games (1985-1990) — 75% – Old games (pre-1985) ———— 20% Of the “old games”, only half of them can usually be considered “classics”, so don’t be surprised if you go to an auction and find yourself interested in only three or four games. The reason for this distribution is that games from the 1985-1990 era can still make money in arcades, but they’re far enough past their prime that their original owners are now looking to free up space for
There will be at most a handful of recent games (i.e. less than two years old) because the newer games are still making money hand-over-fist for their operators, and the operators will be loathe to auction off their best money-makers. There will be a few older games (pre-1985), but as most of these have already worked their way through multiple conversions, so don’t expect to find them every time.
