Showing posts with label fundraising. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

help wanted: 4 more price lists from Taito and Esco

UPDATE:

We have won all 4 price lists. Thank you to everyone who contributed.

¥17,300 Taito 1976~
¥7,750 Taito 1978-09
¥10,000 Taito 1979-03
¥2300 Esco Trading

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Another 4 rare price lists have hit the auctions and it's time to rattle that can again.

Prices on rare Japanese arcade ephemera is RIDICULOUS, but if we all work together we can make a large problem a bit smaller, get more materials digitized, and, hopefully, we can all come together and tank the market a bit. :)

New to this? Well previously we did a group buy of Sega & Taito price lists, and then a few months prior to that we did a MASSIVE community effort to purchase a huge run of Coin Journal magazines.

Want to pitch in to assist archiving Japan's arcade history? I can take PayPal or Wise at thetastates@gmail.com or if you're in Canada you can send e-transfer there.

Worried about whether I can reliably produce? Check the scans tag here or the research publications list of my eremeka project. (if you have been here before, yes I am trying to keep my pitch a bit tighter and leaning into my reputation)

So what are we looking at? 4 price lists from the 1970s:

Our friend Greg at the International Arcade Museum Library has agreed to pay for half the costs so any money you give us for these auctions is DOUBLED!

We are currently at ¥12k for each of the Taito price lists and ¥14,000 for the Esco Trading one. It is hard to say what they will go for, but the 1976 Taito will probably go for closer to ¥20,000 and I have a hard time estimating the Esco Trading one since so few have ever appeared! But if it's Japanese and has pinball on the cover and is from the 1970s, it's probably going to go for a lot of yen.

Thanks to everyone who keeps helping amazing things happen! And if you can't contribute at this time, thanks for being here anyways and cross your fingers for us.

UPDATES: Thank you to Agnes, William, James, Nazox, Joey. We've had more interested in the Esco, so here's a breakdown on the flyer contributions:

Taito flyers: (3000 + 1000 + 2000 + 800) x 2 = ¥13600 each
+ 1000 yen I'll put on the earliest Taito one
Esco: (4000 + 1500 + 2000 + 800 + 1800) x 2 = ¥20200

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

HELP WANTED: purchasing rare SEGA and TAITO price lists!

Update: we have purchased the price lists!

Thank you to everyone who contributed. These will get scanned by Detchibe and I can't wait to have them shared online.

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Hey remember last year when I put a call-out for help to purchase a massive run of Coin Journals? And then we were able to purchase the Coin Journals? And Detchibe has begun scanning them for us all?

I am back with a similar ask. I am looking for donations to help win these two auctions of extremely rare Sega and Taito price lists. Both of these auctions end on January 12th so we have a little bit of time to spread this around and shake that cup.

These will all be scanned at high res and shared openly on the Internet Archive.

The Auctions

Auction 1: Sega price lists

SEGA Price lists

This auction includes Sega price lists from:

1971-05
1971-09
1974-01
1978-05

Auction 2: Taito price lists

Taito price lists

This auction includes Taito price lists from 1975-03 and 1987-05.

Current Tally

We are currently at ¥69,945. That is ¥15,600 from my friend Flyercade and ¥15,000 from me.
+ $25 USD (~¥3900) from JeffC, thank you!
+ $50 USD (~¥7800) from Jason H, thank you!
+ ¥27645 from Jonny, thank you!

I think we will need at least ¥64,000 to win these. I'd ideally like even higher bids, and any excess funds can be rolled into the next purchases.

What will these sell for?

It is hard to predict how high these will go, but my estimate is that the Sega lot will sell for 50,000 to 60,000 yen. Let's look to prior auctions for guidance.

Sega 1971-05 price list sold for 5750.

Sega 1972-09 price list (EXTREMELY SOILED) sold for a staggering 9500. We purchased it and scanned it.

Sega 1973-01 price list (SOILED, DAMAGED) sold for 5350. We purchased it and scanned it.

Sega 1974-01 price list sold for 5850.

Sega 1978-05 price list came up previously, selling for ¥27,300!

Assuming 6000 for each of the early lists and ¥27,000 for the 1978 one, that is a ¥45,000 estimate for the Sega price lists.

Since 1971-05 and 1974-01 and 1978-05 had previously sold, my hope is that that will soften the competition.

Taito 1974-05 price list sold for ¥12,100.

Taito 1984-04 pricelist sold for ¥2300.

Taito 1985-03 price list sold for ¥2300.

I estimate ¥12,000 again on the 1975-03 and ¥2300 on the 1987, so about ¥14,300 total for the Taito price lists.

I'm guessing about ¥4000 for all fees and shipping costs.

How to contribute?

My email is thetastates@gmail.com and you can send PayPal to that address, Wise transfer, and e-transfer if you are in Canada.

Thursday, May 8, 2025

HELP WANTED: please donate so we can digitize Coin Journal issues!

Update: we won all of them!

Thank you all for your assistance. A full update with accounting will be shared once we have received them.

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We need your help to secure some early Coin Journal magazines!

We have a very special opportunity before us: a number of FULL YEAR RUNS of Coin Journal [月刊コインジャーナル] are up for auction, ending in 3 days. (plus some early standalone issues)

These will be very expensive to purchase, and I am asking for help from the broader arcade collector community. We can make this happen. These can all get scanned at 600 DPI and shared with everyone. But we need to win as many of these auctions as possible.

Current tally: $6021.61 USD
omg. WOW.

(includes the $3000 matching donation)

Every increase allows us to win more of these auctions! The goal amount is my estimate for winning all of the Coin Journal auctions.

Coin Journals from the 1980s will give everyone a deep look into the Japanese arcade industry. Researchers extract the game ranking charts, industry figures, interviews with developers and executives, and all of the industry news that would otherwise be lost. Lost Media fans find endless joy in the freshly unearthed game and prize advertisements. Game information and pictures will be utilized for my eremeka database project. Trade publications like these are filled with information that is not included in consumer-oriented magazines. These magazines will be accessible to the general public and even if you don't read Japanese (I use translation tools) the magazines are filled with delightful photographs and advertisements.

Some past issues we have digitized: Coin Journal 1989-06, 1992-08, 1993-07, 1996-05.

Donating:

You can send me PayPal at thetastates@gmail.com or if you're in Canada you can send me an e-transfer to thetastates@gmail.com. You can donate through Detchibe's Ko-Fi account, and add a note that the money is for Coin Journals. Any extra funds would be rolled in to future magazine purchases from Japan.

The auctions

Who is asking you for money?

Yeah, what's the big idea with an internet person asking you for money? If you are new to this blog, please see the SCANS tag and scroll back through the over 100 entries. Please see the archives of scans done by Detchibe and Hubz. Find us all on the Gaming Alexandria Discord.

If you've ever wanted to support a significant acquisition for arcade and videogame preservation, this is your chance.

Cost considerations

Prior auction results, for reference:

1976-09 single issue ¥31,500

1985-1986 8 loose issues ¥69,000

1986-05 single issue ¥15,000

1987-03 single issue ¥10,000

1988 3 loose issues ¥31,500

1988-01 single issue ¥11,500

1989 11 issues ¥52,000

1990 full run ¥51,000

1990-1992 12 loose issues ¥9277

1991-1993 10 loose issues ¥9150

1991-1994 9 loose issues ¥7750

1992 full run ¥14,500

We go from ¥31,500 for single issues from 1976 to about ¥10,000 per issue for the mid 1980s. That 1990 full run works out to ¥4250 per issue, but that 1992 run was just over ¥1200 per issue. You can see an inverse exponential scale at work here, with the 1980s and earlier being incredibly pricey.

I made a chart with some rough estimates for these upcoming auctions. We won't be able to get it all, but we can get some.

A set of issues from the year 2000 recently cost us about ¥17,000 (~$119 USD). The earlier the year, the more it will sell for. The early 1990s full year runs will probably sell for around ¥35,000 (~$245 USD). I imagine the 1980s runs will sell for far more, but I am hoping that there will be some voter fatigue to dampen the prices.

Shipping costs

Coin Journal and Amusement Industry magazines from the 1990s are huge. Averaged out over a large shipment, they cost about ¥1300 EACH just to get them here for scanning. That is ¥15,600 to ship a single year of issues. (about $110 USD)

The 1980s issues are thinner, but will still probably average about ¥900 each for shipping. That is ¥10,800 to ship a single year of issues. (about $76 USD)

Plan of attack

Unless we get a massive amount of donations in the brief time we have, we will have to use the money strategically. We won't be able to win if spread out bids out evenly, but if we bid live in the order things close, we can roll the money forward from lots we did not win.

Here are the auctions again, but with an image, and sorted by which auctions close first.