FORUM

We were going to bring you a British slot machine value database (based upon auction sale prices), but several collectors have already voiced some concern about this. Perhaps it doesn't serve the collector's best interests to make this information readily available to the world. Certainly, price lists unless read with due skepticism and qualification can be very misleading. What do you think? You decide.

Place your vote; we'll see how it looks after a few months, then in the true spirit of democracy we'll do what we damn well please. Just kidding. Please vote.

Price guides are helpful for the naive seller or beginning collector. They have become much less useful after the advent of the international auction forums like Ebay. Knowledge is no longer a selling requirement. Collectors know that condition is a very important factor in price. Beginners are sometimes unable to assess condition or even completeness accurately. A price guide tends to relay a false sense of value if not mated with a degree of experience. Adding the pluses against the minuses, I think that a price guide would tend to mislead as much as educate. Therefore, I vote NO.

I'm closing this topic now. The poll went against publishing values by one vote! I'm happy to abide by that result though. The only meaningful value database I could produce would entail a mammoth task of trawling through dozens of auction catalogues dating back a couple of decades and compiling a list of averages. I'm not sure this would produce a very meaningful guide anyway, given changes in the collector status of some machines (Bryans went up, earlier wall machines went down) plus the changing economic climate. Instead, I'll continue to publish the results of major British auctions in the Arena.