# Pinball Auction Prices are Crazy!

**Source:** Cary Hardy  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2021-09-12  
**Duration:** 11m 7s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njtX9310IAg

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## Analysis

Cary Hardy reviews auction prices from the Pinball Museum in Banning, California's collection liquidation, highlighting inflated prices for classic machines (Waterworld $4,900, Street Fighter 2 $4,800, Stargate $5,300). He expresses concern about shill bidding practices at auctions, questions the legitimacy of some pricing, and warns that these auction results may artificially inflate the secondary market and mislead collectors about fair machine values.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Pinball Museum in Banning, California is auctioning off their entire collection expected to reach approximately $7 million total — _Direct statement about ongoing auction event with documented prices_
- [HIGH] Over $1 million has been fetched from 336 items auctioned so far, averaging $3,000 per item — _Cary Hardy collected auction data at the time of filming_
- [MEDIUM] Gottlieb System 3 games are prominently represented in the high-priced auction items — _Cary observed pattern while reviewing auction listings_
- [MEDIUM] Shill bidding and buyback practices have become increasingly common at pinball/arcade auctions — _Cary's personal observation from attending auctions over several years, noted increased prevalence in recent visits_
- [HIGH] Auction prices do not include the 25% buyer's fee added on top — _Cary explicitly states this multiple times throughout the video_
- [MEDIUM] Inflated auction prices will likely mislead collectors into overvaluing their own machines at similar prices — _Cary's opinion expressed as concern about market distortion_
- [MEDIUM] Freddy (Nightmare on Elm Street) pinball was purchased by Cary for $600, later sold for $2,000-$2,500 range before this auction saw $5,000+ pricing — _Cary's personal transaction history cited as comparison_

### Notable Quotes

> "I used to go to these auctions quite often... but it wasn't till the last time I started going which was probably a couple of years ago I noticed that the shill bids and buybacks were happening much more often and I literally just kind of lost interest"
> — **Cary Hardy**, early_middle
> _Explains his withdrawal from auction participation due to integrity concerns_

> "If you are not getting the money that you want, put a reserve on it. Sell it online and request what you want to get out of it. Don't go through all the effort in bringing it to an auction and then shilling the shit out of it"
> — **Cary Hardy**, middle
> _Direct critique of auctioneer manipulation tactics_

> "you're gonna have a lot of people that think because the price is sold for this much at this auction therefore their machine must be worth that too but that's just not the case"
> — **Cary Hardy**, late_middle
> _Core concern about auction prices creating false market expectations_

> "I'm hoping that everybody that buying these games for these ridiculously bloated prices gets what they want and they're happy if you spend your money you get something that you want congratulations just know you spent way too much money for what you're getting"
> — **Cary Hardy**, late
> _Summary judgment on buyer overpayment_

> "Goodness gracious, these prices are crazy"
> — **Cary Hardy**, middle
> _Repeated refrain expressing shock at pricing levels_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Cary Hardy | person | YouTube content creator specializing in pinball commentary, auction analyst, and former auction attendee |
| Pinball Museum Banning | organization | Pinball and arcade museum in Banning, California conducting large-scale collection liquidation auction |
| Waterworld | game | Pinball machine that sold for $4,900 at Pinball Museum auction |
| Street Fighter 2 | game | Pinball machine themed after Street Fighter 2 video game, sold for $4,800; Cary criticizes art package quality |
| Stargate | game | Pinball machine that sold for $5,300; Cary mocks repetitive 'shoot up the middle' gameplay instruction |
| Freddy | game | Nightmare on Elm Street themed pinball machine; Cary purchased originally for $600, sold for $2,000-$2,500, auctioned at $5,000+ |
| Gottlieb System 3 | product | Premier Gottlieb pinball machines from System 3 generation disproportionately represented in high-price auction items |
| Hollywood Heat | game | Pinball machine sold for $3,500 at auction |
| Rocky | game | Rocky-themed pinball machine that sold for $10,000 at auction |
| Raven | game | Pinball machine described by Cary as 'one of the ugliest games ever', sold for $2,400 |
| Barbed Wire | game | Rare pinball machine sold for $3,600 at auction |
| Rescue 911 | game | Pinball machine sold for $3,700; Cary expresses surprise at pricing |
| Lethal Weapon 3 | game | Pinball machine sold for $5,000 at auction |
| Last Action Hero | game | Pinball machine sold at auction; Cary uses as reference point for his own machine valuation |
| Dead Guy Ale | product | Rogue Ales beverage Cary Hardy is drinking during video commentary |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Auction pricing and market distortion, Shill bidding and auction integrity, Secondary market valuation concerns, Pinball Museum collection liquidation event
- **Secondary:** Game condition and rarity assessment, Collector expectations vs. reality, Auctioneer marketing and hyperbole
- **Mentioned:** Arcade game pricing trends

### Sentiment

**Negative** (-0.75) — Cary expresses frustration with inflated auction prices, skepticism about auction practices (shill bidding), and concern about market distortion. While not hostile, his tone is critical and dismissive of both auction organizers and buyers who pay premium prices. He maintains some neutrality by acknowledging buyer satisfaction but emphasizes they overpaid significantly.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Shill bidding and buyback practices are increasing frequency at pinball/arcade auctions, reducing market transparency and auction integrity (confidence: medium) — Cary's personal observation from multi-year auction attendance noting sharp increase in manipulation tactics in recent years
- **[design_philosophy]** Street Fighter 2 pinball criticized for poor art package execution (character likenesses) despite commanding high auction price of $4,800 (confidence: high) — Cary's direct commentary: 'Chun Li does not look like Chun Li, Ken does not look like Ken' yet sold for $4,800
- **[market_signal]** Auction-driven price inflation creating false benchmarks for private sellers and collectors, potentially distorting fair market expectations (confidence: medium) — Cary's explicit warning that buyers will assume their machines match auction prices, creating valuation inflation downstream
- **[market_signal]** Pinball Museum auction achieving $1M+ from 336 items at $3,000 average, signaling strong demand for classic machines despite quality concerns (confidence: high) — Cary documented auction data showing 336 items fetched over $1M with projection to $7M total
- **[market_signal]** Secondary market pricing for classic pinball machines showing significant inflation, with outliers like Freddy increasing from $2,000-$2,500 range to $5,000+ (confidence: medium) — Cary's personal transaction history comparison and multiple game-specific price commentary
- **[sentiment_shift]** Decline in collector interest in attending traditional pinball auctions due to perceived manipulation and unfair bidding practices (confidence: medium) — Cary explicitly states he lost interest in attending auctions after observing shill bidding prevalence

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## Transcript

 Third and final call, Donald, 3065 here, 6600. So what's your way, $6,500? If you had any doubts that fentanyl is not spreading throughout the U.S., I think the prices that these machines are going for is a prime example of why I think that drugs may be related. What's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So if that sounds interesting to you then hit that subscribe button down below. I am currently drinking Dead Guy Ale Rogue. This is also one of my favorites. I will be drinking this. I haven't had a lot. I've had enough. So currently going on as we speak... oh my god! Robocop Data East right 6500 what? So the pinball museum in Banning California is auctioning off their entire collection and supposedly it could reach a total of seven million dollars for all of their items combined obviously so i have taken the liberty of uh grabbing everything that they had at that point in time they are still selling so this number has obviously changed but since i collected the data they have already fetched over a million dollars with 336 items auctioned off that is averaging at least three thousand dollars per item i've also gone through and just kind of highlighted certain games where i really was just like really so for instance they and i just happen to notice that a lot of these games that i'm highlighting just happen to be gotlib system threes gotlib that's Got Lieb System 3s, so their premier selection. And so Waterworld sold for $4,900. Now, granted, these machines are more than likely in probably pretty damn good condition. They kept on stating that in great condition and they're rare. But if you've ever been to a pinball slash arcade auction, then you damn well know that the auctioneers are always going to be talking up these items and making them sound much more rare and valuable than they actually are I used to go to these auctions quite often Whenever they would show up once every other month or two here in texas around me and like i said i used to go to them i would buy games from them as well but it wasn't till the last time i started going which was probably a couple of years ago i noticed that the shill bids and buybacks were happening happening much more often and i literally just kind of lost interest i'm like no this is it's not even it's not even interesting and I'm not excited about it anymore. I lost complete interest because, like I said, you had a bunch of people that were just shill bidding stuff up and you had the people that were just buying their games back. I'm like, if you are not getting the money that you want, put a reserve on it. Sell it online and request what you want to get out of it. Don't go through all the effort in bringing it to an auction and then Win Schilling the shit out of it in hopes that you're going to get what you want. I digress. Third and final call, then I'll through. So, what'd you weigh? $5,000. $5,000 for a Lethal Weapon 3? Water World. $4,900. And I must add also that this does not include the 25% buyer's fee that's going to be on top of all these prices that I'm saying. Goodness gracious, these prices are crazy. Wow. So, when you see Hollywood Heat for $3,500, it's like, what? rocky pinball was ten thousand dollars man raven raven pinball guys twenty four hundred dollars you could almost not even pay me to own that game and it sold for 2400 without the buyer's fee obviously so one of the ugliest games ever is finally reached a point to where it's over two grand barbed wire 3,600 bucks you don't see barbed wire very often so I'm kind of like okay I'm not too like uh still not a great game but it's just not you don't see it very often but then you have rescue 911 that sold for 3,700 dollars what oh my god that's where I'm just like but then it gets even better because then you have street fighter 2 for 4800 dollars what i'm like i i love street fighter 2 the game and then when i see the pinball machine that has one of the worst art packages ever they just like completely hand the the chun li does not look like chun li ken does not look like ken whatever still 4800 bucks for a street fighter 2 freddy nightmare on elm street 5 bucks i still remember when i purchased that game for the first time i got it for 600 bucks now granted there was dirt daubers nests all in it but still the fact remains as i was able to purchase the game get it cleaned up and yeah and the game was around the i'd say two to twenty five hundred dollar mark whenever i sold it that's what it averaged out then you have stargate fifty three hundred dollars that's right guys someone just spent fifty three hundred dollars plus buyer's fee to have a game that's gonna consistently and repetitively keep telling you to shoot up the middle 6200 one time so it's you a six thousand one hundred dollars well at least it comes with a manual but i don't see it still being 6100 bucks before the buyer's fee i had to keep stressing that but you paid 6100 for something that you're gonna get to hear have to fight have to crow oh you're gonna hear that so often and i want you to remember how much you spent for that game too and then they've done a whole bunch of like arcade uh pricings and everything and i'm not as savvy on the arcade game prices as i am in the pinball prices but it looks like a lot of those are selling for quite a bit of money as well and i've been watching i've been watching it here what's going on here and by all means i'm gonna be interjecting on certain games for the pricing pricing that i'm seeing and it's just funny to see certain games sell for what they're selling for so like for instance like like my last action hero i'm like okay so you have what would they consider a really good condition you know last action hero and it sold for that much where i'm like what the hell can i get for mine and that's what the problem is i think with this is that you're gonna have a lot of people that think because the price is sold for this much at this auction therefore their machine must be worth that too but that's just not the case so i feel like this is really gonna mess with the market a little bit because you're gonna have people that think because it's sold at auction for x amount of dollars and therefore theirs is worth the same amount and i don't know there's any kind of shill bidding going on for this auction or anything like that there could be i just haven bothered to care to investigate to watch the internet bidders numbers to see if there any kind of correlation or anything like that because I honestly don care I hoping that everybody that buying these games for these ridiculously bloated prices gets what they want and they're happy if you spend your money you get something that you want congratulations just know you spent way too much money for what you're getting especially for some of these games I mean really rescue 9-1-1 huh now they're about to get into their EM selection which I'm gonna see what the prices look like in there I would like to hope that the EM should sell for a good amount cheaper but who knows I mean there's not really much else to say about this I just wanted to share this with you guys out there I will put a link in the description down below Of course, by the time you probably click on the link, the auction may not be going anymore, but you should still be able to see what the games sold for in their little Rolodex right there. This is basically going on this weekend, I believe today, and then it's going to be going on again on the 24th or the 26th, I believe. because there's a lot of games and a lot of things to sell there. They're only on item 360 some odd machine out of 1,200 or 1,300 items. So they still got a while to go before they get through all of their stuff. So how do you feel about the prices that you are seeing that these games are going for? Like I said, obviously this is going to affect the market in some way, but I don't think it's going to make a really deep impact on the market but it definitely will do something more than likely negatively to those of us out there that like to pay a fair price for games let me know what you think about this in the comment section down below if you'd like what you've seen here maybe not the pricing but give me the thumbs up that really helps out the channel and by all means be sure to hit the subscribe button ding my dong that way you can be notified of whenever I upload something for your viewing pleasure. And until next time, guys, peace out. So what'd you weigh? $7,300. $7,300 for a day to eat turtles? I'm done. Whatever. Thank you.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: c97cdc91-6835-4ad3-938d-ecb4155fa8b4*