Posted: 5/24/2013 1:58:55 AM
By: Aaron Auzins
Starting in 2005, online sensation Kyle MacDonald powered through a journey that began with a lowly, red paperclip, and ended with his own two-story farmhouse. Drawing inspiration from MacDonald's year-long ordeal, a Michigan arcade is looking to follow suit and trade a series of items with the end goal of securing a Jersey Jack Wizard of Oz pinball machine.
If successful, in a way, the trades will take the Klassic Arcade of Gobles, Mich., through a full circle as the original item up for trade was a custom pinball. The ball (pictured) was designed with a swirl pattern by Matt Riesterer of Back Alley Creations. Riesterer was added to the Jersey Jack team in 2011 and worked on the Wizard of Oz pinball machine.
The arcade was established by Kevin Ketchum in Gobles in 2003 with the aim to bring classic video games and pinball machines to players in the area. The location also draws a crowd thanks to its offering of more than 100 varieties of glass-bottled sodas. With its Mr. Soda Pop label, the location even brews its own draft soda flavors to include Klassic Root Beer and the kiwi-flavored Frogger's Revenge. Complete with its own RC racetrack, the location spearheads the annual Midwest Soda Pop Festival, which will be entering its third year in 2013.
Even with the variety of offerings, Ketchum said pinball is still one of the most important aspects of his business.
"It's very important," he said. "There are lots of people that come to our arcade that have never played pinball before. Now they are hooked."
The Wizard of Oz pinball machine was released this year in a limited edition format as Jersey Jack's first company release. With its three playfields, 26-inch high definition monitor and animated backglass, Ketchum said the table is "the hottest game going right now."
Ketchum said launching the campaign wasn't difficult, as it only took setting up a blog page and deciding what item the trading would start with. Since the launch of the campaign, the starting pinball was traded for an Entex handheld Space Invader game, which was relatively quickly flipped over for a half-dozen nonfiction comics from the collection of Ryan Claytor. Ketchum said people have receptive of the campaign so far and looks forward to it picking up steam.
"So far, so good," he said. "I think it will take a little while to catch on."
The blog for the campaign is currently set up at http://klassicarcade.wordpress.com/, where interested traders can find out more.
"We will accept almost anything on trade," said Ketchum. "Everyone has something in their basement, closet, garage, they aren't using. Make us an offer - the worst we can say is 'no.'"