Candy Cab from rklok.nl - what's your experience

littlemegagamer

Hello everyone!

I am happy to join this community. I am an Arcade enthusiast and retro game collector like many of you. I am a member of several arcade forums and I created a little YouTube channel lately where I share my retrogaming projects every now and then.

I was looking online for a Japanese Candy Cab in Ireland and a couple of threads came up from here saying that several of you have bought Candy Cabinets from ronnie@rklok.nl.

Now, before sending an email to Ronnie and opening a commitment I would like to know what's your experience regarding Cady Cabinets bought from ronnie@rklok.nl:

1) Does it sell serviced and tested Cabs?

2) Does he send plenty of pictures or videos of the pieces that you want to buy?

3) In particular, does the monitor come in good condition?

4) I am very curious about the shipping, what kind of shipping is it? how much does it cost, how long does it take, and does the Cab come very well packed? I am also assuming that you will be able to arrange the delivery date considering the size of the item.

5) What kind of range price we are talking about?

Thanks

o1s1n

I bought two from him over ten years ago when things were a lot cheaper. I'd say the service is still the same now, just quite a bit more expensive. Cabinets that were 700 euro back then seem to be about 1.5k now.

His cabs are tested and some are rebuilt, really depends on what you're ordering. If it's a high end cabinet it might even have been resprayed.

Lots of the usual stuff like Astros etc would just be cleaned, tested and then sent out. He'll let you know the condition of the monitor if it has burn in etc and some photos of it working, but it definitely won't have been serviced.

Both of my monitors arrived working fine but did benefit from some pot refinement on my side. I'd say most of his cabinets would be like this. I did have cap kits in both chassis serviced though just to guarantee a bit of longevity in both machines.

He ships them on a wooden palette covered in a heavy duty cardboard box. He really has that part of the process down to a fine art. Both arrived at my front door in perfect condition (I'd some issues with the delivery men but that's another story entirely)

Cost 200 shipped back then but I'd say that's increased.

geotrig

1) Does it sell serviced and tested Cabs?

The thing to remember here is they are 10-20-30 year old arcade cabinets,while he does some servicing on them, anything can get a littlke knocked in transti

3) In particular, does the monitor come in good condition?

most of these will probably have minor burn , my tupence worth is that isn't a problem as mostly isnt visabile in any game. most candys have superior picture quality monitors than most but not everyone services the chassis so get good and handy with a soldering iron !

4) I am very curious about the shipping, what kind of shipping is it? how much does it cost, how long does it take, and does the Cab come very well packed? I am also assuming that you will be able to arrange the delivery date considering the size of the item.

no , probably in most cases they all ship to schedule and will probably ring you and let you know what day they will be delivering

5) What kind of range price we are talking about?

last I saw Astro from ronnie where about 1900-2k at least FOR CAB and 200-300 for shipping always dearer for ireland.

What cab you looking for ?

geotrig

He ships them on a wooden palette covered in a heavy duty cardboard box. He really has that part of the process down to a fine art. Both arrived at my front door in perfect condition (I'd some issues with the delivery men but that's another story entirely)

I've brought cabs in just strapped to pallets over the years and never had an issue not from Ronnie but having cardboard wrapped around does help to be fair !

littlemegagamer

@o1s1n @geotrig Thank you very much for sharing this info. It's good to know that he is a reliable guy and the shipping is accurate!

Colonel Panic

I bought one from him during the pandemic. Nice to deal with and the cabinet was as he described.

It came on a palette. And arrived in under two weeks.

He’s up front about monitor burn in. There was none on mine but I needed to tweak the colours and alignment.

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921597#Comment_121921597

"Cabinets that were 700 euro" That is a great price!

2K It would be acceptable for a collector just if it comes in great condition.

1.5K is ok...

"I did have cap kits in both chassis serviced though just to guarantee a bit of longevity in both machines"

sorry, do you mean that you did a recap or that it came with a recap kit (to be installed)

Thanks

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921699#Comment_121921699

"I saw Astro from ronnie where about 1900-2k at least FOR CAB and 200-300 for shipping"

yep as I said before, it's pricey, but I would go for one if it is in perfect condition (as a desperate collector :)

"What cab you looking for ?"

I would like to get a Sega Astro City (...I have always wanted one). I would love to get one from someone in Ireland... from a video game collector to another one...

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921938#Comment_121921938

Thanks for your comment!

Perhaps, the geometry and colour adjustments were related to the previous board that was running...

Anyway, good to hear about another positive experience.

May I ask you if the price was above or below 2k (shipping excluded)?

Colonel Panic

Ah the alignment might’ve been but rest, not so much. Now most boards I try look pretty good without tweaking.

I bought an Aero City it was about a grand plus 200 shipping.

That is more than most here paid a few years before and prices have continued to rise since I got it in 2020.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921961#Comment_121921961

Oh this was a separate thing to Ronnie entirely, one of the lads here did a cap kit on one monitor and I sent the chassis off on the other monitor to a guy in the UK called Grantspain who offers a recap service.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922653#Comment_121922653

Yeah compared to prices these days, a grand is a steal. Was having a look back trough my newsletters from Ronnie and here was the pricing on the last Astro he had in.

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922716#Comment_121922716

That's very helpful, thanks!

Could you tell me when was this email? I subscribed a few days ago to the newsletter, but I haven't received any email yet.

Also, do his emails come with attached pictures of what is on sale or does that happen just when you get in touch with him?

ondafly

I bought my New Astro City from Ronnie back in 2011 - glad to hear hes still at it. I paid 875 all in back then and that included a step down invertor, multi slot MVS and dsub 15 conversion on the monitor. I cheekily asked him to throw in a game, but in typical no bullshit dutch he responded nope. To my surprise it arrived with Last Blade in the MVS :)

These Astro candies are 30 years old now - and mine is still happily ticking along. 2k might seem like a lot of money, and it really is but I have to say I consider them priceless and really are a great thing to own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FripR_XncEw

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922784#Comment_121922784

This was a bit before that, think I got it back in December! He usually has links to photos of the cabinet in his emails alright, with the monitor running.

If you're looking for an Astro specifically I'd say get in touch and see if he has any in store. It's definitely one of the easier cabinets to get your hands on so I'd be surprised if he doesn't have one already to go or at least a few coming down the line.

How are the doors to your house width wise? I ask as the Astro is one of those cabinets that doesn't have a quick detach control panel. You can remove it but you've to take a bit more of the cabinet's front panelling off.

CathalDublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922716#Comment_121922716

Was just about to post this.

They seem to have been creeping up by €100 every few months, I see astros in October were €1795, and last Jan-July €1495

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922784#Comment_121922784

He hasn’t sent any newsletters since January, it’s usually between 2 and 4 he sends out/month, some of them have a single cab and some multiple, they seem to sell fast too, often they’re gone within a couple hours, that being said don’t rush and wait for the one you want.

geotrig

He could be just waiting on a new container to arrive,Prices in Japan were running high for the last while on all cabs and a good lot more containers going to the US as well for the last year or 2 with the strong dollar so strong competition on available stocks. I think Astro were just the stragglers in an increasing expensive hobby

o1s1n

He also seems to put stuff up on his facebook account quite a bit that doesn't come up in the newsletters.

This just went up yesterday.

littlemegagamer

I love your post guys! 😍 I am dreaming it!

I know that it’s not the best moment to buy them now… something that I should have done before…. But now I having a strong inspiration!

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922922#Comment_121922922

That’s a good question about the door.

I had a look recently, so it won’t pass from the porch and either from most of the doors in the house, so I am gonna leave it in the garage for a couple of days, take a part, and them bring it disassembled upstairs in the game room… also I will need to make space in the game room because I have four crt right now…. Lots of hassle…. but I will… just waiting in the hope I could get one locally, but I think that would be Ronnie the guy…

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121923975#Comment_121923975

I will try to find him of Facebook too, thanks for the tip!

littlemegagamer

What payment method does he accept? Does he leave a kind of invoice for the purchase?

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121923975#Comment_121923975

how I can find him on Facebook please?

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121924364#Comment_121924364

If you search 'rklok' he should come up.

Here's a link for ya:

https://www.facebook.com/rklok.japanesestuff

dav09

I haven't bought candy cabinets but I've bought Japanese rhythm games from him and can't really fault him. Shipping is about 250 give or take, also he seems to have a lot of stock so you may get lucky if you contact or else can put stuff on future containers. One of the main reason for candy cabinets price rises is they are getting more scare in Japan with a big home market there now.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925733#Comment_121925733

I'm actually amazed he's still able to turn up some of the stuff he does after so many years. Saw on Facebook he's currently fixing up yet another pair of Neo Geo SC19s

dav09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925807#Comment_121925807

It is, although they are out there, I've sourced some stuff direct from Japan and they can be found. Another great place for finds now is China, there are TONNES of cabinets there, a lot of the used Japanese stuff got shipped there back in the day, there's a guy on Facebook who will ship individually worldwide JCL, usually fully restored.

https://jclgames.com/collections/all

o1s1n

I hadn't seen that website at all, thanks for the link! Super tasty SNK U4 for sale at the moment.

https://jclgames.com/products/retro-restore-snk-u4-25-arcade-cabs-for-sale

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925852#Comment_121925852

Great link! Do you know anyone that have bought stuff from them?

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121926570#Comment_121926570

I'd say I know of at least 10+ people in Ireland who have imported cabinets from Ronnie in the Netherlands, a couple from Jeff in the UK but haven't heard of anyone bringing one in from China.

Not saying people haven't (I'm sure a few have!) but you'd be going for more of an unknown experience than the Ronnie one around these parts.

I'd be really interested to see what the shipping from China would be, I'd imagine not cheap!

littlemegagamer

I tried to create a cart to check the shipping cost but it doesn't let me change the country. It is stuck to US

o1s1n

To make it even stranger, it says it costs $1.39 to ship standard post to the US 😁

littlemegagamer

mmmmh 😯

geotrig

Not with them but others used to charge 600-700 for a cab port to port before the world went mad and estimate 3 month wait for shipment to get to europe, there is probably a few other charges as well on top of all that

geotrig

my own view on a lot of the cabs that came out of china a few years ago is they where very average stock , most cabs that came in before 2012 were decent to excellent and the blasts around 2007-2010 were like new !

dav09

I have it's usually LCL or crate shipped, shared container space. Vewlixes/LCD candy cabinets ship nice as they usually fold down very compact but never shipped a single cab, it would definitely be more economical to ship multiple, I tried (and failed) at doing a group by a while back here.

And as @geotrig said a lot of the stuff coming out now is a real mixed bag, some is really bad, buying any arcade stuff from china is usually a risk. Shipping has calmed back to similar levels pre-covid but be careful with port fees, handling fees, import changes, etc.

80s Synth Pop

There is a european take on candy cabs on adverts right now

http://www.adverts.ie/33340866

sega naomi.

The CRT is usually vga (31k 640x480) but the ad says it's wired for jamma so it could be a tri-sync CRT covering cga, ega, vga. That is exactly what you want as you can play everything from 80's to 00's.

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121930909#Comment_121930909

nice cab! VGA only I think... I have just a small spot for a cab and I hope will be an astro city ...I am still try to convince my wife :)

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121927069#Comment_121927069

I found online comments of people that received cabs with monitor issues from JCL, although they received in advance videos of the monitor working (?) ...maybe something happened during the shipping.. clients are both Americans and they were very happy about the customer service...

Personally, I am attracted of the idea to get a full restored cab (aesthetically at least), but I would prefer to get a cab with some history on... of course in average good conditions...

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925852#Comment_121925852

Thanks for that, the Afterburner cab looks sweet!!

dav09

Those Afterburner Climax cabinets are quite common, I could find a few in Ireland if anyone wanted one. Keeping the Lindbergs running and actually moving the things are the tough work.

As for the fake New Netflix City/Converted Naomi. You could get a real Naomi for half the price, chop it and do it yourself, loads of guides online. I even probably have one if someone wanted to take on the project. You can easily get signal converters too so it doesn't really matter if VGA or not (unless your picky about sync, which a lot of Naomi's are multi sync.)

As for monitors, anything with monitors are tricky. I've probably shipped hundreds of cabs at this stage and I can say a good percentage go out of whack but are easily adjusted, the knobs tent to move for sync during shipping, very easy to retune. But anything with monitors is tricky a, they break commonly and are always a risk particularly in shipping, if they're off for too long or get damp (often in containers, you HAVE to dry them out). Thankfully there are guys in Europe who repair them (just send the chassis not the whole monitor).

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121931350#Comment_121931350

I read this as - I have a Lindberg and want to move on :) I'm interested

unky chop chop

I've got cabs of Ronnie , arrived within week and a half. On a pallet strapped and boxed at your front door . Not had a problem. A small wire came loose on the trisync monitor chassis on the astro city in transit and my heart sank with I first powered it up 😅 I've not used him in about 6 years though

unky chop chop

Now I'm on the hunt for a sega rally ...sitdown or upright

unky chop chop

Bloody England and Brexit , always a good source for cabs and now it's off the radar

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121939590#Comment_121939590

Was an Astro with a trisync monitor like the one for the Blast?

I guess it was half price 6 years ago compare to now!

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121939600#Comment_121939600

Good luck for the hunt! that would be a good piece. I would love to have a space one day to fit one of them!

littlemegagamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121939626#Comment_121939626

Yep! you cant skip the custom now... not even for smaller purchases

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121940236#Comment_121940236

Didn't think of that, you'd get nailed to the wall with taxes on a cabinet from the UK. Anyone importing cabinets to the UK must be having a very hard time.

80s Synth Pop

Remember pre brexit you could get Martin to collect a cab anywhere in uk to palletise in his warehouse then pay transland €100 to deliver to your door for €100. Simple and no fees.

I'd say arcade art shop and arcadeworlduk online stores are feeling the pinch of brexit. I don't even use amazon.co.uk anymore, just amazon.de.

Just a shame the EU hasn't come up with any postage fee subsidies for Ireland/EU postage. The UK subsidises the postage costs from NI to the rest of UK but we pay exorbitant prices on postage to/from the EU.

geotrig

amazon uk is grand no changes there to be honest,

Ive always used a man in van setup for collecting cabs which was always cheaper than the martin/transland route but could be slightly limited on area of collection at times , and while brexit has changed the amount that can offer this , there is a slight work around .

I brought in cab cab last year with a man in a van for circa 150ish, cheaper than the above martin /transland route. Guy brought it in ,in the back of van as part of a house move which happens quite a lot still .just saying 😉

dav09

Unless you're looking for really dedicated stuff i.e. Japanese or rare games there's still plenty of stuff in Ireland if you look hard enough. Italy and even eastern Europe like Greece has lots too, just be careful with quality/ sellers sometimes.

Transland is currently around 150 for UK to ire + customs fee and vat so just over 200, if you're bringing in anything big/ oversized they know how to charge though (i.e. Cycraft the size of a car isn't cheap, trust me). I've read of people using the likes of Border Parcel Motel to accept pallets UK to NI and get them collected again to bring them down south then but not sure the legality of that loophole or if there are any downsides, as customs/vat not charged, never used it myself though.