COCA, short for "Coin-Op Collectors Association" (and that, not "Coin-Operated Collectors Association," is the name we adopted at the club's inception) is the largest group of coin-op collectors around. The primary benefits of membership are an informative magazine published thrice yearly, and admission to the semi-annual meetings held in conjunction with each of the semi-annual Chicagoland shows. The meetings feature guest speakers considered to be experts in their coin-op field (thus making them coin-operated experts), and the chance to meet and talk to other collectors in person rather than through email.
The Chicagoland show is the best show around for old coin-op. It's declined slowly and steadily from what it was when I first attended in 1995, but for serious collectors it's still worth the trip even if you have to fly. Friday admission is $50, and that'll get you in Saturday and Sunday as well. Don't try to save money by waiting till Saturday; the bargains and one-of-a-kind finds will be packed away into the vehicles of folks who attended Friday.
Erick Johnson is an advanced collector and was a mentor of mine in the hobby. Many of the historical facts and trivia you can read on my site I learned from Erick. Some of them might even be accurate. In the late 1990's Erick sold much of his collection to finance the purchase of a plane and some land for a retirement home, but kept active in the hobby and has built his collection back up since then. As of November 2019 his site shows just a tiny fraction of what he owns, but what he's not posted is a vending collector's wet dream. His stuff is top-notch. As a side note, seeing Erick liberate so much money so quickly in the late 1990's was an epiphany for me and made me realize that the money we spend on machines isn't gone---it's just changed forms. I made sure my wife realized that, too.
Chad Boekleheide has built an excellent collection despite living in South Dakota 12 miles from his next nearest neighbor and 46 miles from a town.
Bob Barnes is a Chicago-area collector who favors Columbus and has the nicest collection of Columbus machines I've seen.
