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I've been looking at a Sun Chief that has been "refurbished, restored, whatever". It's absolutely gorgeous but as it looks so good and he has several, I'm leery of paying an original price for a repro. Does anyone know if there are repro light up Sun Chiefs available?

tmhatting wrote:I've been looking at a Sun Chief that has been "refurbished, restored, whatever". It's absolutely gorgeous but as it looks so good and he has several, I'm leery of paying an original price for a repro. Does anyone know if there are repro light up Sun Chiefs available?

Yes, there are some repro Sun Chiefs out there. A guy in the Chicago area did them (I don't know if he is still doing them or not). His reproductions were really good and I don't think most people could tell the difference. I don't think I could.

I don't think the mechanisms were reproduction, just the case and/or the castings.

The problem with Jennings castings is if you take an original and replate it and if the plater is really good, the castings look so good that they look new.

Reproduction Sun Chiefs are not near as prevalent as the "Mills Classics" are.

Are there any original stickers on the inside of the cabinet?

Are you buying it from a dealer or a private party?

Dave

I was visiting Frank Zygmunt's warehouse in Westmont, Il near Chicago. The place is filled with an amazing range of coin-op from slots to pins to jukes to a little bit of everything else. I'm under the impression that an original Sun Chief might go for $2600 which I believe is what he wants for these. The question is: Are they original or not and what are they worth if they aren't.

tmhatting wrote:I was visiting Frank Zygmunt's warehouse in Westmont, Il near Chicago. The place is filled with an amazing range of coin-op from slots to pins to jukes to a little bit of everything else. I'm under the impression that an original Sun Chief might go for $2600 which I believe is what he wants for these. The question is: Are they original or not and what are they worth if they aren't.

If you are buying from a dealer, any dealer, then I would not hesitate to ask for a letter of authenticity if you have any doubts about the machine.

Make sure the letter does not have any vaque words like "old/new" or "remanufactured" in it.

If the dealer hesitates then I would walk away.

Please note that a restored machine might have a new award card and/or new reel strips and that is OK. The big thing to look out for is new castings and/or cabinet and/or mechanism.