This is addressed to "KaChing" and anyone else out there who is relatively new to this hobby and wants to learn more about the history and machines themselves. You can find all of the coin op books you could possibly want at Crow River Trading Co.. Crow River is owned and run by Roger Hilden and Roger is one of the good guys and will be happy to help you any way he can. For those of you who don't know, Roger is also a source for ABT coin slides and parts for the various ABT gun games. You can get to Crow River at
www.crowriver.com..
Probably the three best books that any coin op collector can have in their coin op reference library are Marshall Fey's "Slot Machines - America's Favorite Gaming Device" , Dick Bueschel's "Guide To Vintage Trade Stimulators & Counter Games" , and Bill Enes' "Silent Salesman Too" for all kinds of gumball, peanut, and vending machines. Actually, all of the Bueschel coin op books are worth owning and reading. Crow River has all three of these books in stock. If you browse through these three books and don't get excited about coin operated machines in general and want to learn more about them and own a few of your own, you need to find another hobby.
As for the discussion on COCA, one of the primary benefits of being a member in my opinion was getting the list of members. When it first came out, the members were listed alphabetically by town and state and there was a code so you could tell what each member was primarily interested in. You were also given the member's phone number and email address so you could contact them as needed. Now, the current list, dated January 27. 2005, is now called the "COCA Customer Contact LIst" and only gives you a list of names by state (I guess the international members don't count) and that person's phone number and fax number. Fax number? The list is no longer in alphabetical order so if you are looking for someone, no longer gives the town the member lives in, and no longer includes the member's email address if they have one. I don't know what "volunteer" decided that the members no longer needed or would like to have this information. I suppose it is the same one or group that considers the list of members list "their" customer contact list. I for one don't like it one bit, but obviously my vote doesn't count.
I was one of the early participants in this forum. When Dave first put it together, I went to some effort to make sure that all of the COCA members were informed about it. I also brought it to the attention of the COCA brain trust and suggested that COCA could and should do something exactly like the forum as an added benefit of membership. Apparently, that fell on deaf ears. I also suggested that COCA make it possible for the members to send out a mass email all of the other members who wanted to participate in such a system so that you could ask for help locating a part, put out the word that you had reproduced some paper, etc., etc, in a timely manner without having to wait 3 or 4 months for the next issue of the COCA Times to come out. You see how well that was received. I was told there was a privacy issue (BS) and it would be too much work for the volunteers. Never stopped the President from sending out his "thoughts from the top" or whatever he called it. Now we aren't even given each other's email addresses. I guess the brain trust just doesn't want "their customers" talking to one another. Fortunately, I have all the old lists so if anyone needs a town or an email address, feel free to contact me and I will give it to you if I have it.
By the way, in case some of you are wondering if I am just one of the ones who like to bitch and never participates or contributes anything, I am the resident "expert" on old amusement tokens for the club. If you go to the COCA website and "ask the expert" a question about old amusement tokens, your question comes to me. I also got permission from Steve Alpert, the guy who wrote the book on amusement tokens, to recycle his old columns and articles from The Coin Slot magazine in the COCA Times. Only one such article has been run so far, but there are more where that one came from.
Finally, I am lucky enough to have a complete set of The Coin Slot magazine and Loose Change magazine, plus most of the other coin op magazines that have come and gone over the last 15 or 20 years. These magazines are crammed full of good articles, most of which are just as interesting and informative today as they were when they were written. A lot of the guys who wrote those articles are still around and some of them are COCA members. Why do the articles have to be brand new? Not everyone is fortunate enough to have or have access to The Coin Slot or the early issues of Loose Change. There is a ton of stuff out there and most members would be happy to see it in the Times.
For those of you who like to know who they have been listening to, my name is Ric Gandy. I live in Lafayette, Louisiana. My email address is
antiqueslots@juno.com. My eBay User ID is "dr.token". I don't have a fax machine, but my phone number is (337) 988-4183. Contrary to what Craig Smith thinks, I am a collector. I am not a dealer. I will be more than happy to help any COCA member with a few exceptions - like Dan said, there are some members we like less than others - and anyone like KaChing who may have a question about coin op or old amusement tokens any way I can.