MIKE WOLFE: Whoa. [music playing]
Holy crap.
I may fall through that bad boy.
No, and if he does--
Yeah, that thing, that's solid oak, baby.
MIKE WOLFE (VOICEOVER): The great thing about this pick
is the amount of discovery.
This is not a big space, but there
are so many cracks and crevices that you have to dig stuff out.
Here, let's move this neon.
I can see where this is going.
MIKE WOLFE (VOICEOVER): When you look at this many layers
in a building, you start to think
about the chronological time of how long it took to do this.
All right.
Now, I can get this off.
[yells, grunts]
MIKE WOLF: The signs go against the wall.
The workbench goes against the wall.
The display case goes on top.
And then, the filing cabinet, and then the dresser,
and all that stuff-- and then all of a sudden,
you know, you're just backing your way out of the building.
All right, here we go.
MIKE WOLFE (VOICEOVER): So basically,
I'm digging for artifacts, man.
Oh, it's a big Coke.
MIKE WOLFE (VOICEOVER): You know?
I'm deconstructing the scene to get to the porcelain.
[grunts]
There's another one underneath it.
All right, we'll put this one right here.
You guys are getting style cramped.
All right, then there's another sign right here.
Oh, this thing is roped.
Woo. - Any more in there?
Dang.
No, I think that's it.
We've got one spot down there.
- Yeah. - So we got one--
And then, you've got a little spot on the end down here.
--two, three, four, five.
Yeah. But where's the other one?
What's it look like?
Behind you.
How about $1,400 for the pair?
They've got some wambo jamboes on them.
All right, Big Daddy. It's your stuff.
You make the decision.
Shake his hand.
All right, man.
Thank you, buddy.
Woo!
We're moving some stuff here.
It needs to go.
If he doesn't want it, move it on.
Yeah, and I love it.
I love that he's asking you before, too.
That's pretty damn cool. - Well, I mean--
And I love that you're into it.
Because not a lot of young guys into it.
MIKE WOLFE (VOICEOVER): It was a really interesting
time in America when pinball was, like,
at its full throttle, man.
You know, "Pinball Wizard," The Who.
We had a place by us called the Land of Oz.
You walked in there, and it was this bing, bing, bing,
bing, bing, bing, bing, bgin.
I mean, it sounded like Vegas on a Saturday night.
It's actually got the key to the coin mechanism.
That's a big rat's nest in there.
There's a big one.
Well, it was in there when I got it then.
MIKE WOLFE: [chuckles]
I've never seen this machine, so it
was interesting enough for me to want to send pics to Dave.
We got a guy named Dave in Nashville that works for us.
And he's kind of like, the local pinball guru dude.
Dave is the guy that's been working
for us for a number of years.
He does a lot of mechanical work on cars and motorcycles,
but he's also a huge collector.
And he specializes in a few things,
one of them being pinball.
I've never seen this machine before.
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): Well, I mean, that's not surprising.
I don't think a lot of people have.
This one is super, super rare.
They made 85 of these, is what I could find.
And--
Really?
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): Yes, 85.
What year is it from?
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): '75, '76, I think,
is right when they made them.
OK.
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): The thing about it
is it's a super rare machine.
It wasn't a super fun machine to play.
You know, if you can find one, a Bally collector
is going to be the person to buy this,
not, like, a guy to put it in his garage or anything
like that. So--
MIKE WOLFE: OK.
So what you're saying, basically,
is, the person that would spend the money on this machine
would be a serious enthusiast, serious collector.
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): Right.
MIKE WOLFE (VOICEOVER): After going through all
of that effort to produce a machine, and they only made 85,
you know, you want to know the story behind that.
You know?
And you start to speculate on why they
only made 85 of these machines.
But the thing is, it's like, their loss is our gain, man.
Because this is the rarest Bally that there is.
So for the first time now, I'm seeing
on the right-hand side of the game,
it's extremely scratched up.
The left side that I sent you the photograph of--
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): Right.
MIKE WOLFE: --is, I'd say, probably, on a scale
of 1 to 10, I'd say a 7.
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): OK.
The right-hand side is like, more like a 4.
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): Still, to like, a major collector,
that just means he's going to have to put it in the far
right corner of his room.
[chuckles] All right.
So what are you thinking value-wise, man?
You're the pinball guy.
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): I'd say the Bally--
to a Bally guy as it sits right now, probably $3-- grand.
Just the way it sits right now without even firing it up
or anything?
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): Without doing anything to it, yep.
OK.
So for the Bally guy, this is the Holy Grail.
DIAMOND DAVE (ON PHONE): It is, yep.
All right, buddy. I appreciate you.
I bought the pinball machine from the man
that I bought my pool hall equipment from.
I gave him 250 bucks for it.
You know, who knows it's going to be that rare?
I had no idea.
You heard what he had to say.
Is it something you guys would sell?
Yeah.
MIKE WOLFE: What are you thinking?
From what he had to say, what are you guys thinking?
I'm thinking we all got to make a profit.
Then would you do $1,500 on it?
That leaves you a little room, doesn't it?
That leaves me some--
a decent amount of room.
How about $1,750?
All right.
He's got me excited about it, man.
I've never seen the machine.
And the fact that he said it was so rare is a big deal.
- Thank you. - So thank you.
Yes, sir.
All right.