Took a little road trip today one state over to the Land of Lincoln, otherwise known as Illinois. I worked later than usual last night and prior to leaving work I checked my emails and then hopped onto "Craig's Helper", a Craigslist search engine, and typed in the keywords "Pop Machine". Absolutely nothing local here in Indiana, just the normal late 70's machines.......
I kept scrolling and found a listing in Champaign, IL. It was titled "Old Pepsi Pop Machine". I click on the ad link and what pops up? A VMC-81 PEPSI!!!!
So I grab the phone and dial the digits as fast as I can and a few rings later get a guy on the other end. I asked him if the pop machine was still available and he answered kind of incredulously, "Yeah, it's available, I JUST listed it yesterday"
He gave me a brief history on the machine. It's been in his possesion, in his garage for 30 years. He was working a construction job in Springfield, IL and the business owner was going to throw the machine away and he saved it. He had every intention of restoring, just never got around to it and now felt like it was a good time to sell.
Now came the pivotal part, the price! I asked him how much he wanted for it. A deep breath/sigh followed by the words that we all cringe at "Welp, have you looked at these things and what they go for on on EBay?" I thought for sure that I was done for. He informed me that guys were getting in upwards of $5000 for a totally restored one. I waited for him to finish and when he was done he sort of paused and then said, if you came to my house right now with $600 cash I'd sell it to you!
Needless to say I told him that I would give him a call back in about a half an hour to let him know either way. I contacted the Admiral (my wife!) and she gave me command authorization to seek out and obtain the machine, she ROCKS! So, I called the owner back and let him know that I would take the machine and we be out to pick it up tomorrow (today). I then asked him a very simple question. I told him I wasn't trying to be rude but that if he did get an offer of some astronomical amount and decided to take it over our deal that he at least give me a courtesy call so that I didn't make the 6 hour round trip in vain. He promised me that we had a deal and that the machine would be ready to be picked up around 4pm.
I showed up at around 3:50pm and he and a buddy were there to help me load it. I was better than expected!! Almost no rust to speak of and any visible rust is only very superficial surface/flash rust. The louvers are completely intact with no dents or breaks. It still has the original side decals, the bottle door glass, all panes, are intact. All of the bottle shelves are there and there is no corrosion to speak of inside or around the evaporator. A very solid machine! As you can see in the pictures it is missing the Coin Door and everything on it and behind it to include the following:
#1 - Large Coin Door
#2 - Coin Mech & Vending Handle
#3 - All (3) bezels, Coin Entry, Coin Return & Bottle Opener
#4 - Bottle opener
#5 - Cap Catcher
#6 - Coin Box
#7 - Coin Chute ("Duck Bill")
#8 - "Sold Out" Flag
Although not a 100% complete machine, It is very solid and the parts that are missing are obtainable.
While I was loading the machine I was trying to accomplish a few things at once. Load the machine, beat the impending rain and get out of there before he changed his mind! He kept mentioning that he "couldn't believe that he was letting it go". All that did was make me tie knots faster than I did in Boot Camp! As I was saying my goodbye's, he got 2 phone calls, both about the machine!
After a handshake and the requisite burn-out/flaming tire tracks in the driveway, I was out like trout! About an hour out of Champaign, I was talking with Signguy about a Popperette issue and I kept getting this weird number beeping in on my phone. Turns out it was the guy I just bought the machine from! I was trying to figure out what he could possibly want. Did I forget something? Was he mad at me? Did he want the machine back?
So, I called him back. He just wanted to let me know that he had just gotten a call from a lady who said that her father-in-law restores machines professionally and wanted to buy it from him. When she found out that it was already gone and how much it went for she freaked out and told him that she would have given $1200 for it!! He then let me know that he thought that he sold it to me for too cheap.
All I could muster was a "Sorry?" He said all was good and he felt ok about selling it to me and knew that it was going to a good home! Here are a few pic's of my $600 VMC-81 Pepsi! I'm totally STOKED!!!
