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What do people think of this machine? I know that buffalo nickels don't have a lick of silver in them, and $500.00 for shipping seems excessive (I would pick it up)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Watling-Treasur ... 1c4c758ea4

Thanks, Lambert

What do I think of this machine?
1) It may look 'Tits' to some, but it's way over-restored. Never left the factory like this.
2) Starting price not excessively out-of-line, but BIN is insane.
3) $500 shipping? Must be sending it in a Rolls Royce!
4) A supply of Buffalo Nickels, BFD! Guess he figures their worth $400 + $100 shipping.
5) Two forms to fill out before shipping? GMAB!
6) Very cautious with picture-taking, not to show a serial no., or mention one, (if it even has one).
As this could very well be a Fake, with repro castings, in a 'lesser-models' case, even though it has
the correct side panels. This is a machine that should only be purchased in original condition, unless
you know the history of it, and can trust the seller. The market has been flooded with reproduction
"Treasury's" since the 80's, and the castings are not shrunk, because they were being made from the
original factory match-plates, which have changed hands, two or more times. I'm sure that our friend
'watlingboy' can offer much more on the subject, than anyone else.

My biggest issue with this is that the castings were plated instead of polished like the originals would have been. Also plating tends to brittle up the castings as well as other parts that are plated but should not have been.

Seller shows two shot of the back of the mechanism, but does NOT show the most important mechanism feature of a tresury... the second coin return.
Ask the seller to post, or, send you a good clear photo of that [part of the mechanism.
There was recently listed a treasury, which did include that photo, and the crucial casting looked like a re-cast to me.

Bill is correct, it is best to buy these unrestored because of all of the reproductions. However, this one is real but it has been ruined, my opinion, because the castings have been brass or gold plated with an incorrect paint job on the castings and the inside bottom of case should be natural and not black. Also someone took a lot of time to bead blast the mechanism and then carefully paint parts of it gray, bad idea. Looks like it was a nice machine before this happened to it. Really nice original strips. Here's why it is original, correct goose neck slide behind head, this is unique to the Treasury and not the Blue Seal. Case is original because of stamped serial on wood block, splines in bottom of case and plugs in the front edge for the rods going through case. Finally, I can see the second coin return flopper in the middle of the head, this part only was used on the Treasury. The second coin return chute on the side of the mech may or may not be there. The majority of these were pot metal and while putting the mech back in, this part was easily snapped off which I guess is why towards the end of production, they went to brass.

Watlingboy

A thanks to everyone the responded. I decided not to bid, and no one else did either as it close without any bids (doesn't mean that someone isn't contacting the seller on the side). The seller did post these additional pictures at someone request. Do they show the correct second coin return? Thank You, Lambert

The first picture, from the back of the mech, shows the second coin detector. The front picture shows the coin return chute on the right side frame, just under the head. As stated, this is an original Treasury mech. Because of all the fakes that have been made, most people don't know what to look for on the mech and therefore are afraid to bid on a restored Treasury, unrestored machines bring more money. This same thing has happened to other machines which have been faked in large quantities. The Jennings Witch is a perfect example.

Watlingboy