I wonder if it's due to those suburban garages, allowing people to pile up stuff for decades. That and having more cash to buy goodies than most of the rest of the world, of course.
Back in this era it was very rare for an arcade cabinet to be sold directly to the home. Aside from being very expensive, you had to buy from a distributor much like a car dealer. Most local distributors hated dealing with home owners (too many questions, couldn't fix it themselves, delivery was a bitch, etc).
Given this was found in a Chicago suburb I'm going to take a wild guess and say it was a Bally/Midway employee that kept it in their garage or basement for a few decades and then decided it just took up too much room. Or it was handed off to a friend or neighbor over the years but either way it really hasn't left the city and never saw hard use in an arcade. Galloping Ghost has taken great advantage of this situation and obtained many pieces that are more rare then Discs of Tron.
The reason I know this is because I have a few engineering sample games in my basement as well.
The Franklin Park factory is actually still in use. It now makes equipment for Life Fitness, which has a historical tie back to Bally.
Here's the factory back in 1982: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62s_BIYg5Gs
And today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UUpzCJaNrQ
All other things being equal, having the space to keep a large object you're not using is gonna be a big predictor for how many specimens end up in a safe storage situation for long enough to become antique.
So often it might be worth quite a bit it someone in another location, but especially after someone dies, there often isn’t the energy to deal with it. So on the street it goes.
You can find some people asking $6000 for a Hammond B3, but then someone can’t give away a D-152 outside of an urban area because folks don’t know what it is on a search. It better than a B3, essentially the deluxe model. But they weight nearly 500lbs and people don’t know how to turn them on to test even (it is a 2 step process)
Unfortunately I had to relocate for work and I couldn't take it with me. I tried to sell it, then I advertised to give it away. Eventually I had to take it to local "it recycling" facility rum by the council where they had me pay a fee for "disposal of a business grade it system" (fair enough). I wish I could've kept it.
I don't I could sell it if I wanted to. The drives alone seem to powered by washing machine motors.
This group usually tries to rescue things. https://vcfed.org
It’s impossiblely hard to keep all the machines working, but they're still fun to look up.
The large Scale systems museum. New Kensington, PA.
It's too bad the two top-level comments doubting this story have been downvoted into oblivion and dunked on for being cynical. We might not like that line of conversation, but I think it's a legitimate POV that adds to the discussion. This find just seems so...incredible. In what actual universe do you see these kinds of things just left out on the curb?? The only things I see on the curbs in my neighborhood are old junky furniture and kids' toys.
I subscribe to estate sale newsletters to find treasures like this, and have never seen something like this even for sale, let alone free by the side of the road. What an amazing read!
You never know what's in peoples' garages.