Your most exciting finds

Thanks Pat and Jim for your stories. I have a few stories but I'll share one that happened to a friend of mine, which was not as successful. Our local funeral home director contacted my friend and asked hime if he wanted to buy an old coke machine that had the door missing(for $200 or $300 I think, it's been probably 7 years ago, and I can't remember for sure). We all new that the director had a beat up square top that was missing the door. My friend turned another friend on to the deal because he didn't want it, assuming that the director was talking about the square top. His friend came down and bought it. Turned out to be a coke vendo 44, missing the coin door, that had been used in the funeral home years ago and had been stored in the back room when it quit cooling. Bottom line is, You must check out every lead and you can't assume anything. My friend learned the hard way.

What's the best soda machine you've acquired and the story behind it? It's hard to beat the feeling you get when you find a great drink machine that's been hidden away for years. '>

[Pat Pixley]

I have two  machine's that I found .  The First one is a cavalier c-51 Im the second owner  the first owner  was the
local fire dept.  they built a new building and the machine  went to fire cheifs  garage  and that were I found it  And gave him $450. for it . The  Other  one was in the classified
ads  as a chest pop cooler called on it the person told me there was a guy coming the next day to look at it, we got talking
about machines I had just scrapped out A vendo V-63
He said he need parts for the one he had  I when to look
at this cooler and it was a 7 up Ideal  55B slider and it was in great shape
it got  cold  the coin mech. worked it just need new paint,
So  some parts & $100. and it was mine . And wow what a great feeling that was.
 : '>

[Jim]

Excellent topic!

My story starts like this...
I was at work on a Fri. morning browsing through a new Bargain Trader (publication for selling merchandise) when I noticed the familiar shape of a rounded soda machine inthe background of a picture. So, I read the ad and to my surprise it was an old Pepsi machine. I called to see if it was still available and get additional info...

I convinced my boss to allow me a couple of hours to go look at the machine...  '>  While enroute, I came across a garage sale and saw two pinballs which I purchased for a couple hundred dollars!  

Upon arrival to the location of the Pepsi machine, to my surprise it was a Jacobs 56 (Pepsi Lite-Up) that was complete, in good shape and functioning properly! Unfortunately, the owner wasn't very negotiable since he brought it down from N.Y. when he moved and thought it was worth a lot...  '>  

We settled on $1500 for the Jacobs 56!  
 
All in all, it was a good day... '>

I just picked up a complete and functioning Cavalier 96 for $200 out of the local classifieds. When I picked it up, 12 hours after the ad debuted the guy told me he had 14 calls. Read 'em early!!