Auction Hunters: Season 2, Episode 4: “Disco and Dice.”
Allen and Ton went to Fort Lauderdale, FL, a place known for its leisure, luxury and expendable income. The local bidders warned them about G-Mar, a man who obviously wanted to make it clear that this was his territory.
Fact: Fort Lauderdale is 2300 miles from Los Angeles and has a population of 183,600 people.
Because of G-Mar’s high bidding, they lost some good looking units but they did win two before the day was done, and G-Mar wasn’t so happy about that.
Smalls Unit
They bid $250 for a unit of small items, but th
ey hoped there might be something worthwhile inside. The unit was full of books and boxes and some glass pitchers that weren’t worth much. But they did find an Excelsior’s pilot wheel worth $50.
Ton was excited when he found an ammo case, but disappointed to find it empty. No road trips to the gun range today. However the ammo case was an antique and valued at $50.
Allen found an 18th century clothes iron for $35, and then Ton
pulled a 1992 bar-top breathalyzer out from a box.
Fact: The first breathalyzer was invented in 1938 and called a Drunk-O-Meter
The guys tried it out and it still worked. It had a value of $140. Plus, they were still okay to drive.
Fact: Despite the myth, sucking on a penny will not beat a breathalyzer.
Wooden Horse Unit
Thanks to G-Mar the Haff-Ton team had to pay a whopping $3200 for their second 
unit. They were attracted to it by antique furniture, an old wooden horse and what appeared to be a pinball machine.
While rooting through some of the boxes they found a professional fly fishing reel worth $125 and five 1950s Silver Mexican Coins with a total value of $150.
As they started moving the antique furniture, some of the other people who had attended the
auction walked by and showed interested. Allen and Ton sold them the furniture for $1500, meaning they wouldn’t have to bother with the heavy lifting.
The wooden horse turned out to be an early 19th century folk art horse, carved and painted by hand. Allen was very impressed with the detail of the work. It was worth $700.
Fact: Some folk art horses are crafted from thousands of individual pieces of wood.
They then uncovered two games. The first was the pinball machine, w
hich was from 1978 and had a disco fever theme. It was in great condition with the original stencil art still intact.
Fact: The peak of disco’s popularity was during the mid to late 1970s.
They also found an 1898 dice gambling game. Players would put in a coin and then pop up the dice, hoping the combined numbers on the dice would equal something low and they could win a cigar.
Fact: Primitive “gambling” devices were popular in saloons in the 1800s.
They took the two games to Jason, a vintage games expert. He opened up the pinball machine to see inside, and while there was some battery acid damage, everything still looked pretty good. They plugged it in and it still worked perfectly.
He paid them $600 for it.
He was even more impressed with the dice game however and said it w
as very rare to find one that still worked, with the original glass and dice. He said it was worth $7000, and agreed to buy it from them for $5000.
Luck was definitely with the Haff-Ton team and they ended up having a successful day, despite G-Mar.
Auction Total:
Paid $3450
Sold: $10600
Profit: $7150
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