Super Auctions in Costa Mesa, May 7th, 2005 Super Auctions has been the sole arcade video game and pinball auction in Southern California until recently.(Read my review of their new competition) For this auction Super Auctions had a large selection of arcade video games and pinball machines. This auction was also heavily advertised on the radio so attendance was extremely high. Because of this there were no real deals to be had and I left, empty handed, before the end of the auction. Unfortunately Super Auctions kept up its practice of phantom bidding and we witnessed it repeatedly throughout the day. The new bidders who had never been to an auction had no idea and were more than willing to go along with it. Some ridiculous prices were made for games, a Track & Field converted to a Mortal Combat went for over $600.00! A Frogger went for over $500.00, a dedicated Gyrus for more than $450.00. Super auctions charges a 13% buyers fee and 7.75% sales tax so add 21% to the auction price to get the real cost of a game. There are cameraphone pics from this auction at the bottom of the article. Game Selection Super Auctions brought out a very nice selection of classic arcade video games and some newer machines. It was about 1/3 classics and 2/3 newer 25" games. The classics made up the first row of 50 to 75 games. Bidding was at a fast pace and the auction probably ended around 8pm or so. This is just a guess since I left early. The Pinball selection was good, most of them were in nice shape. A Medieval Madness went for $5,000.00 and a new in box Simpsons Party Pinball sold for $3,400.00. Addams Family (2 of them) and Twilight Zones ( 2 of them) sold for roughly $3,500.00 each as well. Again, attendance had a big part on the prices of these pinball machines. Opinion of Super Auctions Overall with Super Auctions if you've done any research you know how they operate. Shill bidding and phantom bidding are accepted no matter how illegal it is in California. However, beggers can't be choosers and they really are the only game in town so what can you do? The game selection was pretty good in my opinion, but I'd rather see 2 rows of classics next time. Lots of Neo-Geo 4 cart systems were offered. Most sold for $400.00 or higher. There were some good points to this weekends Super Auctions event. They gave away a cash prize of $1000.00, but I didn't see who won it. Throughout the day they gave away smaller prizes like $100.00 off your total due, or $300.00 off the total. They tossed out a lot of T-shirts and See's candy bars to the crowd as well as constantly thanking everyone for coming out. I suspect this has everything to do with last weekends Cashman Auctions. Is Super Auctions getting nervous about competition? Overall I would rate this Super Auctions event with a B-. If prices were better(something they cannot control) that would have made a big difference. Partial price list from Super Auctions courtesy of ChaosJohn on the KLOV message boards. Ms PacMan $700 |
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