Arcade Labor Day Weekends

For many video game collectors, there is no item more desirable in the whole wide world than their own authentic arcade machine. It’s another Arcade Weekends, and remember, Winners Don’t Use Drugs.

I will point out every week that arcade units purchased from auction sites usually have inflated prices — unless you live close enough to the seller that you can pick the unit up yourself. Many sellers know this and list their items as Local Pick-Ups only (marked here as LPUs). If you DO live near any of today’s sellers, some of these deals aren’t bad.

From Bridgewater, Virginia: Nintendo Vs. Red Tent Machine, BIN at $695 or best offer, freight shipping possible. The “Red Tent” was the lesser-known cousin of the Playchoice-10, and is more of a Playchoice-2. This version contains Golf and Pinball, but you can switch one of those out for Vs. Super Mario Bros. if you can find it.

From Calhoun, Georgia: Donkey Kong, LPU, BIN at $550 but ends soon with a reserve not met at $150.

From Jacksonville, Florida: Crazy-cheap Centipede cocktail, BIN at $725 but reserve not met at $102.50, freight shipping possible.

From Windham, Maine: Jr. Pac-Man, BIN at $575 or best offer, freight shipping possible. There were a lot of Pac-Man sequels and spinoffs, including a “Professor Pac-Man” where you just answered multiple-choice questions, and “Baby Pac-Man” which is the most valuable of them all, as it’s half-pinball and can’t be emulated. Maybe we’ll see either of those someday.