Talked w/my son today. He and his father were in the jukebox/pinball business several years ago in Arkansas.
They bought 4 VMC's when Stern's bankruptcy held an auction.
I'll digress a little...I'm sure you know Stern bought Seeburg in the 80's,
the VCM was the 1st model produced. After buying the co. he re-tooled the
line to include video game technology into the Seeburg style. Thus the VMC.
It was the 1st 200-selection jukebox.
Where vendors were required to type in titles for older jukeboxes,
the VMC had a keyboard, and a rare option on the back that plugs a scan tool into it.
Using that, you can scan over the title strip and automatically dump the titles into the machine.
This particular one was purchased new in the crate; it has never been on location.
It was not designed to play videos, just to display the title of the song on the screen,
which was new for that era.
Early 80's pinballs and jukeboxes had a battery in the circuit boards,
with a shelf life of about 4 - 5 yrs. After being stored for so many years
the batteries leaked acid and corroded the circuit boards.
This happened to all VCM's produced, whether in storage or on location.
The bottom fell out of the jukebox business in the early 80's and in '84 Stern took bankruptcy.
All the existing VMC's were tied up in the bankruptcy proceedings for 10 yrs.
The machines that were shipped to Europe went primarily to U.S. Naval Bases.
My son's father removed the circuit boards from 3 machines and sent them to a co. in Little Rock, AR
for repair at a cost of apprx. $100. After that, he sold a new repaired board one to a man in Hot Springs
for $3500 about 10 yrs. ago, sold a used one for $2000 a yr. later and took one used machine to an
auction in Memphis, which brought $1900.
This one has had the battery removed to prevent further corrosion.
It has the original owner's manual and keyboard with it.
