A fascinating almost cloak and dagger scenario has been played out in the past three years and things are really hotting up.

Due to a dying industry commercially but a thriving industry with home sales, demand has far outweighed supply of these rare machines. With Australia and the USA almost totally sold out of all remaining stock the battleground has been set in Europe for the almost extinct Pinball Machine.

With the four major pinball producing companies calling it a day in the 90's all bar a small and dwindling output of machines by Stern; panic buying appeared with all available machines being snapped up by collectors, home buyers and distributors. Operators stopped trading their remaining stock and held onto what they had left and prices sky rocked with some machines increasing to unparalleled prices.  The trend was repeated worldwide and the hunt began to find the last remaining stocks of machines in areas that perhaps had not caught onto the news yet.

Australia , The second largest supplier of pinball machines to the home market first turned to Asia which by nature had very few pinball machines. These however were largely in very bad condition with rust, water damage and oxidization a regular occurrence. Many an importer was left heartbroken and holding losses of tens of thousands of dollars when their containers arrived with wrecked stock a far cry from what was promised.

None the less they were all snapped up; Every last one of them.

Most were dressed up as best as possible and many were fire sold for a pittance.

Meanwhile the US was heading abroad to Latin America in search of more machines for their irrepressible customers.

What they found were just as bad. Many machines found were badly abused, graffiti strewn and had been placed in seaside townships where the salt in the air had all but destroyed machines worth thousands of dollars each.

Still they were all bought, this time with Australia fighting hard to grab them at the same time. South America had never had it so good and prices quickly escalated with almost an auction mentality facing off one buyer against the other for the highest bidder.  Machines would arrive with parts missing, entire circuit boards gone, no computer, no wiring etc rendering many a pinball a final journey straight to the junk heap. Top models promised, Cheap models arriving.

It didn't matter, the bottom line… if you wanted to keep the doors open you had to have stock, at any cost.

And people started realizing this. There was money to be made, big money.

Distributors started getting e-mails offering container loads of machines from third party countries on behalf of another un-named company so the machines could not be viewed. All promised to be in good working order. Offers that seemed too good to be true. They usually were.  Paid for containers of machines never showed up, fortunes of borrowed money were lost, and if they did show up none were working or in good condition. “They were fine when they left” the standard reply.

Europe meanwhile was the holy grail of pinball stockpiles with over 40% of pinball's exported directly to their various countries. And for the most part they were good, very good. Worshipped by a big pinball fan base who loved their machines, they were nearly always well looked after. The problem however, the major countries knew what they were worth.

England , France , Germany , the Netherlands etc were right on the ball of current economics and their pinball machines were priced often in Euros as much as they were being sold overseas retail in dollars.

Realising this, the hunt began in earnest to find pockets in smaller European countries and isolated areas of the major's that may have a cache of machines and not be aware of current values.

The Australian's and the American's had the same idea. Companies from both sides of the States were out in force looking to buy whatever they could find, and all of it.

At the beginning of 2005 an Australian company Bumper Action Amusements after painstaking and often fruitless searching discovered the holy grail of stock, hidden in a tiny village a top of the Italian Alps far away from any major city. A wheeler dealer there had bought out all known pinball machines from operators near and beyond and had been hording them ever since. Secret negotiations began immediately, airline tickets were booked and the race was on. Appointments were made to visit two other known operators in Italy at the same time. Nothing was to be said. There was also another cache of machines on the other side of Italy available at a much higher price and of questionable quality but it was also to be purchased if possible. This second lot of machines was the first Port of Call.

Upon arrival at the airport the Managing Director of Bumper Action Del Reiss was met by the owner of the company with this second lot of pinballs…and two American businessmen from New York City . It was too late. They had bought every pinball in stock immediately regardless of condition leaving nothing.

The stock was not good with Reiss quoting one of the American's as stating “Boy we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel now with this lot”

One of the business men asked Reiss “Hey buddy where are you heading, now that you've missed out on these”? Did they expect an honest answer.

The next day Reiss set off after several diversions to make sure he was not followed up to the Mountains. A week later the company had secured over 200 prime quality pinballs and beaten the “yanks” in finding probably the largest remaining stock in one place available in the world.

With stock selling rapidly the hunt never ends as country after country is scoured though for containers of remaining stock. American representatives are in Europe almost full time looking for opportunities to buy. No further stock was found in 2005 by Bumper Action.

In 2006 Bumper Action scored again purchasing virtually every pinball machine left in Malta and rendering that country void of Pinball machines. The total sum this time, just 36 machines.

The Battle continues in earnest with the eventual outcome being sadly a loss for both sides.