What is your biggest Arcade Regret??

[Netropolis]

I am wondering what everyone's biggest arcade regret is? 
Was it passing up at sweet ?  Selling a cabinet you later wanted back? Showing up an hour late for a CL only to find they just sold it?
Hooking up a power supply wrong and frying a board? 

I'll start with mine. 
I knew nothing about arcades except I wanted one. I drove 30 minutes to get what turned out to be a Jamaized DKjr Cab with a late 80's side scrolling shooter in it.  I had a 60-1 board ready to go.  Once I got it, I cleaned it up a little but pulled the Sanyo 20Ez *which did work just fine - and replaced it with an LCD (yea I know - it gets worse)...
I threw out the monitor on my next dump run.  About a week later I discovered Johns videos and my whole idea about Arcades changed.  I still regret throwing away that monitor.

I also passed up on a very good condition Star Castle Cabinet (working) for a very reasonable price because I didn't realize it was one of my old favourite games.  I thought it was Crystal Castles... Which I hate!  DOH!!  I know seeing one of those again in my area is next to impossible.

[dm73]

For now, Its been the ones that got away.

I've been home clearing and selling my parents house and the house after my parents passed away about a year ago now.

Since i'm selling and clearing out, i've discovered the hobby, and its helped to keep my sanity.
wo
But i've talked myself out of so many deals, good and probably bad because I have decided to hold off building the arcade until I finish this and resettle myself whereever i end up.

But i also have a bit of a photographic memory, so I remember them all....  including a northern michigan road trip that 3 or 4 stops would have netted about 8-10 games probably for about 1500

[Namco51]

Saw a DK3 for $300 very close by. For my area, that's a steal. I should have jumped on it, but I'm not really a classic arcade guy, I just have the one mame cab and decided to stick with that. I'll admit the 60-in-1 thought crossed my mind a few times but I think i'd have to have jamma'd it first.

[BadMonkey]

Wow, great topic. I do not consider myself a gamer. That being said, I have over 30 cabinets in my home. All I ever really wanted was an Evil Knievel pinball (which I have a home version and commercial). I traveled over 1000 miles in one day to pick up the commercial version. My first cab. I loved it. It had led's throughout. I decided to put regular bulbs back in it. Death was quick, and painful (for me). I have been chasing problems ever since as I haven't brought myself to take out the original boards. I have missed so many "deals" I can't remember them all. A EDOT and a cockpit for 200 stands out as one of my flounders. Hate myself for those two. My biggest regret is not starting my collection sooner when prices were not so high. I turned down a theater of magic for 4500 less than 2 years ago for being too high. It was mint with a custom rug. If you know it's a , don't hesitate. Ugh...

[DeLuSioNaL29]

For me, it's spending $500 on my Betson 27" Multisync monitor.  Now that I'm DEEP in the hobby, I realized I didn't really need it.

The other regret I have it making an "all in one" MAME control panel that played every game under the sun.  Simpler is better.

Here's my "Frankenpanel"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1hOz1CaZO0

Here's my simpler design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwZ1kilQYkk

Also, I'm now beginning to become a collector:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHtjw04-bdA

You live and learn.  :-)

DeLuSioNaL29

[randywhatson]

I got one for ya...

Last February, I came across a CL ad in Arkansas for 60 arcade machines. Called the guy. He wanted $5000 for everything. So I bought a plane ticket (I live in Baltimore), flew to Arkansas, rented a 26 foot U-Haul with a large trailer and headed to the guys place.

When I pulled into the driveway, I could see all kinds of 80's classics... he had centipede, burgertime, Nintendo cabs and tons more.

As I got closer, I noticed that almost every single game had been converted to some piece of crap game. The burgertime was a bottom of the ninth. The Robotron was converted. Game after game.

And to make it worse, the cabinets were so friggin swelled, they were basically garbage.

The guy had tons of stuff. Boxes and boxes of PCB's. Monitors brand new in box. Parts upon parts.

But since I was new, I had him load up the cabinets and headed home. There was some pretty cool stuff. A Spy Hunter, a centipede... and about 30 others (that's all I could fit. cut a for $2500).

On the way home, reality set in. I didn't have room for these things. The cabinets were junk. The parts were for crappy azz games. I didn't feel like renting a storage unit and my wife was already pizzed I did this in the first place.

So I headed straight to Hagerstown Coin Op... unloaded the games... got most of my money back and kept two DK cabs that were converted to VS. machines.

So my regret?

Why the HELL didn't I take all of those boxes and boxes of PCB's, Monitors, and all the NOS crap he had laying around. Much more money in those things and I could have filled the damn truck. Plus, I could have probably loaded the trailer with the "best of the best" of the cabinets.

In the words of the Asian guy next to me at the blackjack table when I lost $500 on a single hand:

OH, You So STUPID!!!

[BadMonkey]

Wow dude. Wow...

[Mr_Rampage]

Mine is a craigslist i did. Bought my first cabinet, a neo-geo. Turns out first time moving a machine and I am REALLY out of shape. 300+ pound machine vs scrawny "can barely lift 100 pounds" rampage. Yeah didn't go too well.

Anyways I eventually got it into my garage. Then i REALLY started looking at it. The machine itself """works""" but im pretty sure somewhere along the line someone either switched cabinets or something because theres no back door theres some weird square shape hole you cant really get to anything without having to unscrew the back yes i said UNSCREW the back...

The machine itself seemed to be in decent shape but i think it had too many buttons.... anyways long story short like a moron i paid 500 bucks for a machine thats too big to fit in my car, too heavy to move on my own, working with issues like the light isn't right...

I'm not put off the hobby but this machine really makes me think im a cabaret collector. small easy to move machines that wont blow my back out trying to move them . My regret is not buying a smaller machine for my first one!

[lesoleil70]

Not getting into this sooner.

[BertoDRINK1]

Same as above, I wish I got in years ago. I've always had a nice collection of old video games and even have my boys playing the old stuff from my Atari 2600, NES and on, they love it.  10 months ago my brother was in NYC and sent me a picture of the Barcade and I fell in love and kicked myself for not remembering about them and thinking about buy one. I jumped on CL and my first buy was an Atari Roadblasters in decent shape I probably paid a little to much but whatever. Since them I filled my garage with 10 games, a Cyberball 2072 TE at my mom's house and a Mercs and Blitz 99 at my brothers house I bought everything I could get a decent price on around me or close to my family. Most work but like most could use Cap kits or a new power supply and lots of cosmetic love.  my 2 most important projects from what I have that need to get working are Turbo SF 2 Hyper which I have my 3rd Pcb coming this week and should at least get me to play it, it had a bad C board, the 2nd is a Turbo Outrun that works and plays everything seems to work like the shaker motor but I have sync issues and the chassis is dead but testing it with another chassis I can't get it to sync. I got to get these guys running asap so I can play them SF2 is my all time favorite. Big thanks to John's Arcade video defiantly game me the confidence to get in the game and not be scared by a few problems. My Super Off Road when I picked that up the screen was super yellow, a pedal was stuck in full go, a steering wheel didn't work, it didn't take but 2 hours that Saturday morning to get everything working and playing with my kids

[kre8sion]

I was in college in Fairbanks, AK .. when I first saw Killer Instinct.. failed and skipped a lot of classes for that game  and never completed college. I don't blame it all on the game but it didn't help :p

[Danny Ogg]

Throwing away a "Star Trip" Coctail pinball i had in my room as a "tween" when i moved from my parents house. The boards for score and so was toast, but i could have saved the cab and the playfield.