The quest for a Spin Luck

[vespacar]

This is my story on how I got my spin luck:

This machine as to most members here know is on that list of machines that you want to buy. The problem is that they rarely come up for sale at dealers and on ebay and when they do they tend to be rather expensive. I've bid on a few but have always come up short. Anyway as you know VGC has decided to sell some of his machines and at a reasonable price. As I've said before when a deal comes up be ready to jump on it and the bonus of playing the machine before buying it. So I e-mail his to make arrangements to come down saturday and check out the machine. I work in toronto operating the Queen streetcar from 6:30pm to 3:30 am, sunday-thursday, anyway on the way home from work the weather report says 4 to 6 inches of snow friday night into sat morning. There's no way I'am going to drive 4 hours on way (5 hours as I'd find out later) in a snow storm and especialy through buffalo, snow captial of the east coast. So the decision has to be made, go now or go next week and by that time who knows who may have bought it. So I bite the bullet and decide to go for it, e-mail VGC that I'am on my way and change my clothes and into the car I go.

A couple of coffees later I get to the border, 6am and since I work this late on sundays no problem staying awake and the customs officer did'nt even want to see my passport, though she was wondering why I'd drive down to Cleavland for a slot machine.

New York I 90 was no problem as I was early enough to miss rush hour traffic set cruise control at 75mph and wait for the sun to come up. Made it to the Ohio part of the I 90 and it was time to fill up the car and breakfast and more coffee, (body says sleep, mind says "get spin luck") you gotta love a truck stops that sell really highly caffinated and strong coffee (thats what the urn said) and it was. Now wide awake and on a caffene high I arrive in cleavland at 9:30 am and dig out my "Mapquest" maps that I printed out. After following their directions and getting lost in the bad part of cleavland Ive decided that Mapquest really sucks and will never use them again. I finally get into VGC's hood and give him a call. After waking him up (sorry about that as I had to change plans due to the weather) I head over to his house.

VGC's got a great collection of machines and took his time on showing me most and letting me play them. There really is no subsitute for playing the machines, even though you hear about them on the pachitalk and the pics in the museum, playing them is great and that can change your opinion on a machine. Wanted by NET was one of those, based on Super Blackjack but in a western theme, same case but because its a japanese themed machine it sells for cheaper, well worth getting. Beast Sapp was another machine that was fun, and you gotta love that screen, and you don't realize how big it is until you see it live. Hit the fever bonus on Sonic after about 20 seconds of playing (why can't I hit like that in Vegas), a pachinko machine will be my next purchase. Anyway I'am here for the spin luck and there it was. Not to be disappointed and that machine is comming home with me. The best part of buying from VGC is that he also has the best prices on tokens, so why not pick up a extra 1000 since I'am there. Thanks for two tone token and some different parlor ones. We talked about the tokens and how many he buys, half a million tokens at a time, and I'am still trying to wrap my head around that, 500,000 tokens, now I know why he can sell them so cheap, Volume. Wish I could have spent more time there but I still have to drive home and I've already been up for 24 hours.

Stopped for a couple of hours sleep in the I-90, cars are not good to sleep in so lets just get home and get into bed. I get to the border around 6:30 pm and they ask me the usual questions (how long away etc) when I say I've got a slot machine they flag me and off I go to the office. As I'am about to pay taxes on the machine I get the *****y customs lady saying " I think slot machines are banned" and the fun begins. I tell them that I own 4 and they were sent Fex-ex, stores in toronto sell them and even zellers has sold them. That did'nt matter to her. "Just cause shops are selling them does not make them legal to import them" was her reply. 1 hour later of her trying to find a way of not letting me bring the machine she gave up. But not before making me unpack the machine and putting a quarter in it to make sure it would not accept quarters (machine was unplugged, but I'am not saying anything) I ask how I can avoid this problem in the future and they said they'd add a note to my file (nice to know that I have one, and if you're a canadian so do you) so the next time it won't happen (ya right) . Stop at Ikea to pick up new table and go home and go to sleep.

That's my quest for a Spin Luck, and yes I'd do it over again!!

Cheers,
James

[slotter]

James, I really enjoyed that story! Thanks for putting it up.

Cool that you made the trip and got back home safely. I would have done the same as you did if I wanted that SL badly enough.

[Lazarus]

Maybe next time don't call it a slot machine. Just say a pachislo. If they ask for more maybe a type of video game? Oh, and welcome to the club!

[vespacar]

Maybe next time don't call it a slot machine. Just say a pachislo. If they ask for more maybe a type of video game? Oh, and welcome to the club!

Thought about that, and in my experence it's still worth telling the truth, if they think that you are lying, or decieving them in any way they can take the machine on that reason alone. The problem was that I did have 3 machines shipped up from Gaku by fedex and had no problems and they are for sale in stores in the city so I did'nt think I'd have any trouble at all.

Get the wrong person at the wrong time, at customs, and most of us have been there. You know what happens. The worst words that you can hear from a customs officer is the following " Can I get some more male officers over here please". you can almost hear the rubber latex glove snap. This happened to 4 guys that were in the back of a Limo that I was driving and the customs officer found a small joint holder. I still cringe at those words!

Cheers,
James

[arbycoffee]

truth is always the way to go

[vgc]

Thanks for shopping with me Vespacar. It was a Pleasure talking with you. I hope my hair didnt scare you too much. Sorry to hear about customs giving you a hard time. Enjoy the Machine. I will finish playing out the Sonic Fever Bonus Tomorrow and get some Video of it. Thanks Again, Mike : )

[karma]

Hi James,

Very eventful story. As you know, we've shared similar Canadian Border Officer incidents with these machines. Tell the truth, let them do their job and ask you all the questions, check the vehicle, the machine, etc. and pay them any value over the declared amount allowed. God forbid you had any liquor or tobacco products on you ; i )

My attempt at a smoking emoticon. Anyhow, we're planning our next trip down to Texas during reading week to see Gaku. This time, bigger truck with trailer hitch and small trailer. Should be interesting. We're deciding on the final details and will keep people posted.

All the best. John