He said he plans to watch the rest of the sale online.Īt the auction Tarnow said he met a couple of guys who came on behalf of private collectors, with lists of games to buy and no concerns about price. In the first weekend of the auction, he was able to help a friend buy a rare Force II pinball machine, an early 1980s game with an alien/space combat motif. Garrison Tarnow, 73, who calls himself a pinhead, is a tournament player from La Quinta who had been to the museum before and was “very depressed” at the news it was closing. The man won the bidding, and “when he came in to get it, he was elated,” Campbell said. Most everyone was excited about what they bought – especially one man who Campbell said scored a Guinness World Record at the museum on Flipper Pool and wanted to buy the machine he’d played. A limited edition Addams Family Gold pinball machine fetched the weekend’s highest price, $22,500. The first weekend, every available item was sold and about 800 people showed up to browse or buy, with thousands more bidding or watching online from all over the world, Campbell said.
Pinball museum will auction games its plus#
People came to bid on early electro-mechanical games and one of the first-ever video games, plus rarities such as the “Big Lebowski” pinball (with scenes and catch phrases from the movie) and a “Walking Dead” game signed by actor Norman Reedus. 10, was “like a funeral” for Johnathon Weeks, seeing the games he and his father collected over the years get sold off and wheeled out of the building.
“I think it’s going to be great for pinball.” Challenge and camaraderie Some of the pieces will be squirreled away by collectors, but plenty will find a corner in a bar or barber shop for patrons to play. He said he’s bummed the museum had to close, but is happy to see hundreds of new buyers registered for the auction. “It helps that I’m really into the product that I’m selling, so I can segue and talk about some of the equipment.” The auctioneer he hired for one event canceled last-minute, so “I just picked up a microphone and started doing it,” he said. When business tanked around 2008 during the recession, Campbell decided to auction some games. That blossomed into buying and selling coin-operated machines himself, and soon he needed a warehouse. While John Weeks bought his first game as a teenager and opened an arcade in Long Beach in 1979, Campbell always had the passion but came to the business later.Īfter working his way up to operations manager in the logistics industry, Campbell found himself at an arcade auction in the mid-1990s and – being a “forward looker” – realized he could improve things and began helping buyers and sellers ship games across the country, he said. This is where Campbell – the “captain” of Captain’s Auction Warehouse in Anaheim – comes in.Ī couple years younger than the elder Weeks, Campbell also grew up playing pinball and arcade games. They knew exactly who could handle such a unique collection, Weeks said, adding, “you’re not gonna call Sotheby’s.” The unlikely auctioneer So they picked out a few games to keep – including some the father and son had bought together – and decided to sell the rest. They’d already leased out the Banning museum building and faced a ticking clock to empty it, Weeks said. They’d planned to move the collection and found a space in Palm Springs, but the costs to fix up the new location were exorbitant. This Friday through Sunday, Anaheim arcade enthusiast and auctioneer Chris Campbell will finish selling the collection, with nearly 600 games on the block including pinball machines with “Star Wars” and rock band AC/DC themes, and classic arcade games from industry pioneers Atari and Sega.
It was a one-of-a-kind collection that will never again be assembled in one place, but its pieces are going out into the world to spread the joy of pinball. First a private space to house their extensive collection, it became a destination for pinheads and arcade enthusiasts.īut a confluence of unfortunate circumstances have forced the pair to close the museum for good, and this weekend they’ll finish auctioning off the 1,354 pinball and arcade machines that drew thousands to their tournaments and other special events. More than fun, it was a passion project for father and son John and Johnathon Weeks, who owned the vast majority of the games there. If you’ve ever driven the 10 freeway out toward Joshua Tree, you may have noticed a squat warehouse building next to the Banning Municipal Airport, seen its sign and thought the Museum of Pinball sounded like fun.
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