Candy cabinets are expensive because most are imported from Japan and people need to get back some of the items value upon selling. You could pay up to £800 for an Astro City as part of a bulk container shipment. Unless you strike lucky and acquire them from a business that has went bust you're not going to find these cabinets for cheap.
This is true. Also since candy cabs are even more niche than regular American (insert locale other than japan here). In my reckoning they are more rare to come across that and the rediculos amount of money you need to pay to import all add up so they will likely always stay an edge above in pricing unless its some super rare cabinet. Either way these cabinets are newer anyways and that in its self fetches a price. I one day wish to buy a candy cab my heart at the moment is set on a blast city (the egrets look nice too) but there's some really nice ones out there they are beautiful machines even if they are made of fiberglass. At the moment im running a naomi out of a wooden bartop arcade kit. It does the job for now. But this is no cheap hobby. I just got into the arcade scene at least on my first ever system. Ofc even when i got the Naomi for cheaper than average asking price (which was freaking awsome) with a game! The i/o board it self was almost the price of that auction and sanwa buttons and joys cost almost twice as much as the system it self. Then you get into the games and thats a whole new can of money. The price will go up even more for a dedicated system such as a shooting game, racer or other specific control setup. Don't let it discourage you though deals pop up every now and then and when you learn how to search for them you can get lucky. Ofc if your just restoring and reselling you only need to worry about one system and game at a time. But resell might be tricky after expenses you need to know the in's and outs of where the cheapest working units are popping up and such. Other wise your either gonna need to create an entire business out of it and that's likely hard enough as it with demand so low. I could see a hobby of building or restoring arcades maybe 3 at a time holding them and using them ofc and then slowly selling one or some number off then slowly starting over. It might not bring much profit but this is a hobby not a business. Just have fun spending money and learning.
Buy from the community, not from eBay. I see plenty of good condition, fully working woody JAMMA cabs with CRTs sell for around ~£150-£250. It can get *very* expensive if you buy original PCBs. When I got into the hobby, Bubble Bobble was about £60, it's now £300-£400(!) and don't even get me started on Cave shooters.
I got my Neo Geo that only needed minor repairs for $100 on eBay. I got lucky though, my deal i got is the exception, not the rule.
There is a very nice condition Maximum Force Cab for sale in my local town. 475$ If I had some more space and money to spare maybe I would even get it just because it looks so nice. Having a lightgun Cab is kind of nice.
Yeah but im just saying keep an eye out you can find some good deals every now and then i try and buy on the community but if its cheaper else where ill do that option.
That's pretty sweet. I always preferred Area 51, but that's just me. Actually, finding Area 51 Site 4 would probably be pretty difficult now. Only saw A51S4 at one arcade IIRC. I wanted to play through that but never got the chance. Any idea how much a Die Hard Arcade cabinet would fetch? That and House of the Dead would be my highest in demand.
