It took only 60 seconds for Dan Morphy to sell a vintage slot machine for $80,000 Saturday morning.
Morphy’s Denver, Pennsylvania, auction company became something of a novelty to Nevada gaming regulators in August, when he sought a distributor’s license to sell slot machines in the state. Regulators approved, and he had one of his first opportunities to use the license over the weekend.
There were 22 gambling devices and 150 other coin-operated machines for sale at the two-day event, at which 1,045 coin-op and advertising objects were auctioned to collectors at Morphy’s Las Vegas auction house and gallery near The Orleans.
It takes about an hour for Morphy to rattle through 60 sales. Once he gets in rhythm, he can double an opening bid to a final sale in seconds.
In the middle of the second hour of sales, Morphy rolled out one of the big prizes of the day — a 50-cent Caille Bros. Big Six Double Upright vintage slot machine. The 1904 slot was described in a catalog as “an excellent restoration of a rare original machine” with nickel plating on iron castings in a tiger-stripe oak cabinet.
The catalog projected a sale of between $90,000 and $125,000, and the opening bid was $45,000.
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