You paid what for that? 1 1

[FlyingDonut]

I have a 1981 first edition Galaga machine in my basement - it needs to be fixed up but it (mostly) works. I was at one point ranked in the top-20 in the world on Galaga. I'm pretty sure the talent pool was about 25 people at the time, so that probably explains it. I did very much impress my children at a beach trip about 10 years ago by playing for six hours on a single quarter on an old school Galaga machine at the beach in North Carolina.

I would pay a great deal of money for a working Track and Field game - they're almost all broken now. I'd also love to get a Zaxxon game - there's a working one in a comic store in Rheinbeck, New York but I haven't seen another working one in years.

[FlyingDonut]

Zaxxon:
 

[FlyingDonut]

Track and Field:

 

[davidpg]

On 10/30/2023 at 1:37 PM, FlyingDonut said:

Track and Field:

 

Avid arcard player here as well, starting in the early 80s.  We played Track and Field a lot, and guys started using spray paint caps on their fingers to get maximum running speed hitting the two buttons

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

On 10/29/2023 at 11:48 PM, JollyComics said:

I played for 4.5 hours on one quarter and got 477,300 points on Asteroids.

I did that once on the same game. I got hemorrhoids.  

[VintageComics]

On 10/30/2023 at 5:58 AM, namisgr said:

And 20 cents apiece for these comics:

      

I remember that book. 

CGC said it was trimmed but you'd bought it off the newsstand originally. 

70's Marvels QP was ATROCIOUS and I've seen many books that looked 'trimmed' but weren't.

Iron Man #55 is a big one. The back cover on that book always has a weird edge and it looks like someone has trimmed the book when it's from the publisher that way. 

[VintageComics]

Great posts! 

Sorry gang, had a busy weekend and my car broke to top it off. 

More pics coming shortly...

[fast eddie]

I've been eyeing up a vintage GORF machine,,,,,,, that, comics and pinball was my crack in my early teens,,,,,,, not sure what I would tell my wife when it appears in my shop,,,,,hmmmmmmmmm

[Nick Furious]

On 10/30/2023 at 5:10 AM, Ken Aldred said:

You paid how much for the first appearance of Crackerjack Jackson?

Glad to see I'm not the only one who has it burned into my memory that Overstreet noted Hulk 182 as first appearance of Crackerjack Jackson.  But for some reason I remember it as Crackajack.  I also remember 182 being paired with 180 as having the same value back in the day.   

[Telegan]

On 10/30/2023 at 12:30 AM, davidking623 said:

I just played a Pac Man at Costco like 6 or 7 times getting killed every time it felt like the original and stood just as tall as I remember . They wanted around 600 for it and when I went back a few days later they were all gone , I was surprised . Not that I was buying it ,just surprised they were all gone . Now i am gonna go search Ebay did I miss out on the new flip . 

If it's the one I'm thinking about, that arcade has about 10-15 games on it including PacMan, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, etc.  You can get smaller versions of it for $199-$299.  Walmart sells the $299 version, I think.  I had a co-worker who used to build those arcades and run them using a Raspberry Pi/emulator, from what I recall.  I don't know the legalities of that, though.  I've seen you can play them on various websites, but ... ain't the same.

[davidking623]

On 10/30/2023 at 9:55 PM, Telegan said:

If it's the one I'm thinking about, that arcade has about 10-15 games on it including PacMan, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, etc.  You can get smaller versions of it for $199-$299.  Walmart sells the $299 version, I think.  I had a co-worker who used to build those arcades and run them using a Raspberry Pi/emulator, from what I recall.  I don't know the legalities of that, though.  I've seen you can play them on various websites, but ... ain't the same.

I don't know 100% for sure it seems like it was basically geared as a pacman machine it was stout , tall and but not the same as the ones that came out as video games , but it did not seem to have other games on it although I was not looking for sure . Of course I can't go see it they were all gone so next time I go I will dig a little deeper to see if they were moved possibly . I really suck at Pac Man so spending 700 on it was not justified for me , although It seemed worth it if you really like that game and are good at it , maybe .

[Telegan]

On 10/31/2023 at 12:02 AM, davidking623 said:

I don't know 100% for sure it seems like it was basically geared as a pacman machine it was stout , tall and but not the same as the ones that came out as video games , but it did not seem to have other games on it although I was not looking for sure . Of course I can't go see it they were all gone so next time I go I will dig a little deeper to see if they were moved possibly . I really suck at Pac Man so spending 700 on it was not justified for me , although It seemed worth it if you really like that game and are good at it , maybe .

I had to look it up, but yeah, this is the company that makes them : https://arcade1up.com/.  I'm guessing you played the PacMan XL version.  If so, that's what I have bookmarked at Costco.  lol.  They have different variants and they seem to have multiple games on them even though it just says "Pac-Man" on them, so I know I'd have the ability to suck at all of them (but think of the quarters I'd "save"!). lol.  I was tempted to get one a while back, but decided not to.  I really should delete that bookmark.

[lou_fine]

On 10/30/2023 at 2:32 AM, namisgr said:

I paid 25 cents each in 1974 for these comics, part of over a thousand books bought off the rack between 1972 and '76.

       

 

On 10/30/2023 at 2:58 AM, namisgr said:

And 20 cents apiece for these comics:

       

Don't you absolutely hate it when the cost to get a book graded and slabbed is infinite times more than it had cost you to buy it in the first place, and the reason why most of the longer time collectors still keeps them raw until it comes time to sell them.    

Then again, I guess it's not really such a bad thing since it's an indication you got yourself a steal of a deal compared to the current market prices, which you clearly did with all of your books by keeping them in such fantastic condition after all these long years.    

Edited October 31, 2023 by lou_fine

[Ken Aldred]

On 10/31/2023 at 3:24 AM, Nick Furious said:

Glad to see I'm not the only one who has it burned into my memory that Overstreet noted Hulk 182 as first appearance of Crackerjack Jackson.  But for some reason I remember it as Crackajack.  I also remember 182 being paired with 180 as having the same value back in the day.   

I was working from memory.

Googled it just now and you’re right.

[davidking623]

On 10/30/2023 at 10:09 PM, Telegan said:

I had to look it up, but yeah, this is the company that makes them : https://arcade1up.com/.  I'm guessing you played the PacMan XL version.  If so, that's what I have bookmarked at Costco.  lol.  They have different variants and they seem to have multiple games on them even though it just says "Pac-Man" on them, so I know I'd have the ability to suck at all of them (but think of the quarters I'd "save"!). lol.  I was tempted to get one a while back, but decided not to.  I really should delete that bookmark.

Thanks for the insight ! I wish I had looked at it better for fun . I can hardly wait to go to see if its any where in the store   Out of curisity I see it has Galaga on it , I have never played that I think . Does the controls on it seem similar to the orginal game ? Thanks in advance oh and its cheaper on costco website 

[Robot Man]

On 10/30/2023 at 2:58 AM, namisgr said:

And 20 cents apiece for these comics:

       

Me too. As well as most of the other keys of that era. Still have most of them. Oddly, they really aren’t that important to me anymore other than the obviously financial gain I will get when I do sell them.

[Robot Man]

When I was about 12 my dad took me down to Hollywood while he had some business. He gave me $5. And dropped me off at Cherokee Bookstore. I was kind of collecting comics but really looking to get every MAD magazine. I had never paid any more than cover price for any of them.

While walking up the staircase in the back where the comics were, I saw a MAD #9 tacked up on the wall in a plastic bag. I was floored as I had never seen one that old and had no idea MAD started out as a comic book. It was priced at $3. I was shocked. But I HAD to have it. I went up and spent the other $2. On basically cover priced MADs and comics.

When my dad picked me up, he asked what I bought and I showed him. He blew a gasket on the MAD 9. I thought he was going to go up and demand the money back. All the way home is grumbled and said “you paid that much for that?”.

This was a turning point for me. From that point on, I was no longer just a reader but a collector and realized if I wanted vintage comics, I would have to pay up for them.

And, Roy, hope you are in a much better place in life now…

[Ken Aldred]

On 10/31/2023 at 3:14 PM, Robot Man said:

When my dad picked me up, he asked what I bought and I showed him. He blew a gasket on the MAD 9. I thought he was going to go up and demand the money back. All the way home is grumbled and said “you paid that much for that?”.

This was a turning point for me. From that point on, I was no longer just a reader but a collector and realized if I wanted vintage comics, I would have to pay up for them

I never discussed how much my American ND import cent copies or vintage back issues cost, as I knew it’d cause a meltdown, and dad could be quite ferocious and intimidating in a disagreement.  Better not to cause a scene.  That said, I really didn’t have that much to spend, anyway. I struggled.  But, even if a comic had cost £2, cover price at the time being 12p, I suspect a berserker response would have been provoked.

Edited October 31, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[VintageComics]

On 10/31/2023 at 11:14 AM, Robot Man said:

And, Roy, hope you are in a much better place in life now…

I've been in the best place of my life since Jan 1st 2020 when I decided never to have a bad day again. 

As a NYE promise to myself, I made a vow to take every negative and spin it to a positive. That meant turning obstacles into lessons and it made all the difference in the world. 

I was taught the phrase "Amor Fati" by a friend of almost 30 years. The phrase means "love fate" in Latin.

It basically means that no matter WHAT life throws at you, you choose to learn from it and move on rather than wrestle with it, and once this because the guiding pattern in your life you learn to love everything fate throws at you, even the adversity because it's teaching you something and making you better. 

That means you don't get emotionally invested in things you can't control and you take charge of the things you can to raise your baseline to the best place it can be. 

I genuinely haven't had a bad day in 4 years now. That doesn't mean bad things didn't happen. I've lost many friends to suicide and overdose, I have a history of mental illness in my immediate family, we had the "thing we can't speak about" which was difficult for everyone for years, I've had all sorts of road blocks show up in my life (this place included) and while it sounds implausible, and many may not even believe it I have never had a bad day since. 

I've been genuinely happy, peaceful and content every day.

And I've been sharing that message openly to everyone in my circles because there was a time I didn't believe it was possible and now I want to share it with others to enrich their lives. 

I'm not sure why you think I wasn't in a better place. I've been in the same place for 4 years and I love it. 

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by VintageComics

[VintageComics]

Going to start adding more pics from our weekend. 

Edited October 31, 2023 by VintageComics