Smashing a Championship Sprint
Smashing arcade cabinets is a very touchy subject for sure, at least amongst the hard-core collector. Let’s face it, if you collect for any length of time, it is almost unavoidable. Why do people smash arcade cabinets? There are a lot of reasons; running out of space, found a better cabinet, no time to restore, moving and can’t take it with, or just looking to part it out on Chase the Chuck Wagon for cash. Are these good reasons? Maybe, maybe not. I’m all for saving the classic arcade cabinets, but sometimes you can only do so much.
In the years I’ve been collecting I’ve only had to smash cabinets a handful of times. I have some criteria for smashing a cabinet and if the cab is still around by the time I make it to the end of my list, well, it meets Mr. Sledge. The first victim I’ll share was a Championship Sprint cabinet. This game was acquired in a trade and had Paperboy installed. The Championship Sprint parts were included. After having no luck selling the game (Paperboy), probably because of the cabinet color, I parted it out and quickly sold the guts. I then tried to sell it as Championship Sprint and had similar luck. Parted it and quickly sold the parts. I pulled the monitor for my shelf and then offered the cab up for free. No takers, so here we go.
I was able to get the majority of the game into one trash can, with only a few pieces left out side for pickup. I was sad to see it go, but with limited space in the game room I have to be picky about what stays. The parts were used to restore two other classics, a good death for sure.
Tags: arcade event, parting out, smashing cabinets