For decades, the Starburst Coinop Auctions have served as a recurring fixture on the Canadian collecting calendar, drawing buyers and sellers to the Toronto area for a chance to bid on everything from full sized arcade cabinets to smaller coin operated novelties and parts. For many CGCC.ca members, these auctions represent one of the most reliable ways to source both common and rare pieces for a growing collection.
How the Auctions Work
Held periodically at a dedicated location, the auctions bring together consignments from a wide range of sources, including retiring arcade operators, estate liquidations, and individual collectors looking to thin out their own holdings. Inventory varies significantly from auction to auction, which is part of the appeal for regular attendees, since no two events offer quite the same selection, and genuinely rare or unusual pieces occasionally surface without much advance notice.
Attendees are encouraged to review the auction guide, typically made available through the coin-op section of relevant community resources, ahead of time in order to plan which lots are worth focused attention on auction day. Given the pace at which lots move through a live auction, arriving prepared with a clear sense of priorities tends to produce far better results than attempting to evaluate everything on the fly.
What Tends to Show Up
Full sized arcade cabinets, both working and non working, make up a significant portion of typical auction inventory, alongside pinball machines, jukeboxes, and a rotating selection of smaller items like control panels, marquees, and individual replacement parts. For restoration focused collectors, this parts availability is often just as valuable as the complete machines on offer, providing a source for hard to find components that might otherwise require extensive individual searching.
Strategy for First Time Bidders
Experienced attendees generally advise newcomers to spend their first auction primarily observing rather than aggressively bidding, in order to get a feel for pricing patterns, bidding pace, and the overall rhythm of the event before committing significant funds. Setting a firm personal budget in advance, and resisting the temptation to exceed it in the heat of a competitive bidding moment, is advice that comes up repeatedly among veteran collectors reflecting on lessons learned from their own early auction experiences.
Bringing a means of safely transporting purchases, particularly for larger items like full sized cabinets, is another practical consideration first timers sometimes overlook until they find themselves standing next to a winning bid with no immediate way to get it home.
A Social Hub as Much as a Marketplace
Beyond the transactional side, the Starburst auctions function as an important social gathering point for the Canadian collecting community, similar in spirit to the larger Toronto Pinball and Gameroom Show. Regular attendees often know each other well, and the event provides a natural venue for trading knowledge, catching up on community news, and forming the kind of ongoing relationships that make the broader collecting hobby feel like a genuine community rather than a purely transactional pursuit. For CGCC.ca members within reach of the Toronto area, keeping an eye on upcoming auction dates remains one of the most consistently recommended ways to stay actively engaged with the local collecting scene.
