This is the little guy that I move games with. Whenever I move games in this trailer, I carefully wrap them in padding and a waterproof tarp to ensure that they aren't exposed to any moisture, and are protected from dust, pebbles, and other road hazards while en-route. It's low profile coupled with a fuel-efficient Saturn sedan for a tow vehicle yields as much as three times the mileage of pickup or box truck, allowing me to offer reasonable prices to collectors in the midwest even with gas prices today above $3.00/gallon.

November 14, 2003:

For a video game collector, this is the kind of almost unbelievable story that dreams (or perhaps nightmares) are made of.

In 2003, an investor purchased an old, condemned warehouse building in Kalamazoo with the intent of tearing it down and developing the desirable riverfront land on which it stood. As it turns out, the warehouse was the former home of Kalamazoo Amusements, which went out of business in 1982. The building was filled (and I mean filled) with vintage video games, pinball machines, jukeboxes, and other amusement devices dating from the 1960's right up to 1982, including hundreds of classic arcade games. The entire building was headed for the wrecking ball, contents included, but fortunately fate smiled on all those games, and a local collector was put in contact with that investor during a chance dinner conversation one evening. He in turn let other collectors know about the warehouse on the Internet, and most of the games were able to be sold off.

Unfortunately the building was unheated and literally falling apart, complete with large, gaping holes in the roof. Various critters such as raccoons had taken up residence inside, and some were even living in the games. After 20 years of abandonment in such an environment, many of the games were water damaged, rotted, moldy, or just plain vandalized beyond being salvageable, but we were thankfully still able to save hundreds of classic games from this location, and best of all, everyone who turned up had a great time.

To the right are photos of just one person's haul, someone who I helped to load his games in to his trailer. And below are some photos of the carnage, including what has to be the worst Pac-Man machine I have ever seen, anywhere. The next time I hear someone say that no video game is beyond restoration, I will surely point them to this image. :-)

I have quite a few really interesting photos from this warehouse, and will be posting more of them here as time permits.