TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online
Game Over? Not At Arcade's Auction
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Published: April 27, 2008
ST. PETE BEACH - Nostalgia wasn't enough to keep the St. Pete Beach Amusement Center in business, but it brought hordes of people to the venerable arcade Saturday for a chance to own a piece of their past.
The arcade, which closed Wednesday after more than 45 years, auctioned off more than 200 classic games and vintage machines. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger and other watershed games of the digital era went to the highest bidders.
The center on Blind Pass Road, which opened in 1962, was a popular spot in its heyday.
But higher costs, including property taxes and insurance, and the rise of Xboxes, Nintendos and PlayStations made it impossible to keep the arcade open.
Lenny Stamos, who has owned the center for six years, was bittersweet about the going-out-of business sale.
"It's an opportunity for people to own these games and kind of relive their childhood," he said. "And for us, my wife and I, we need to move on.
"This has become the type of business where, with so much new advancement, some of these kids have more computer power in their telephones than the best video games," he said. "So times have changed. We have a lot of animosity about it."
Hundreds of people, including families with young children, crammed into the 5,500-square-foot center for the auction, which started at 10 a.m. and lasted until midafternoon.
On most games the bidding was intense, with prices starting at $100 or $200 and quickly escalating to several hundred or even a few thousand.
Wesley Bicheiel, 31, a bar manager, drove more than 100 miles from Cape Coral for the auction.
He left a bit disappointed that he was able to buy only one game, the multigame Arcade Legends, for $1,100.
"I was actually hoping to get like 10 or 20 for a couple hundred bucks apiece," he said. "But that wasn't happening. Everything was going to way, way more than what we thought."
Jason Harrison, 28, a graphic designer from Tampa, won a Donkey Kong Junior game with a top bid of $500.
"I wasn't really looking for anything in particular," he said. "I used to play it all the time, and it was in my price range."
Among the highest bids was one for $1,700 that Amy Krueger of Seminole placed to win a Last Action Hero pinball game for the family game room.
Her husband Gordon, a dentist, grew up on St. Pete Beach playing games at the center, she said.
"It'll be sad to see it go," she said. "It's been like an icon here in this area."
Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or cmoncada@tampatrib.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( BrianH ) on April 27, 2008 at 10:33 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
THANKS FOR THIS VALUABLE FOLLOW-UP TO THE IMPORTANT THREE-PART STORY YOU PUBLISHED DURING THE WEEK ABOUT THIS EARTH-SHATTERING EVENT!!!!
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Posted by ( MELISSASBOO ) on April 28, 2008 at 1:15 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
They may have been able to stay open if they had ever paid to install air conditioner. It was crazy hot in there!
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