Let Them Eat Foosball

I was perusing Craigslist yesterday and I noticed a guy in Pasadena was selling an "antique foosball table" for $50. Now, I never really had any interest in foosball back in the day and frankly don't have much interest in it now either, but Pasadena is right around the corner from me so I clicked over to check it out.


Well, it was an actual coin-op table which I always like, but beyond that it didn't appeal to me, especially given my space demands and lukewarm interest to begin with, so I passed.

But out of curiosity I googled "antique foosball table" to see what else was out there and a really pretty one pops up.


Even if you didn't see the fine furniture pic, the description is so chock-full of pricey words you just know it's gonna cost a boatload - "Maitland Smith 3130-160 Napoleon Brown and Antique Aubergine Finished Foosball Table, Monkey & Lion Players". Oh man, they got monkeys AND lions, they talk about the finish, and they say "Aubergine" which is so far beyond the purview of my fanciness I don't even know what the heck it means!  Add cryptic numbers to that and that Napoleonic reference alone doubles the retail price right there. All for the low low price of $8,736!  But wait, there is an online store that has it on sale now for only $4,435.50 - you save $4,300.60!  PM me for the link if you wish to buy.

So I dig a little deeper to see if there are pricier foosball tables out there and sure enough - there are. Foosball for the rich and famous.  GRO Design developed a deluxe model for the discriminating table football enthusiast which they elegantly titled "11 - the Beautiful Game".  It doesn't look like any foosball table I've ever seen. It's sleek. It's futuristic. It's the foosball of Logan's Run. Trailer?  Trailer.




Note the dramatic lighting and camera angles - they really play this table up like it is a true piece of art. Well that is by design I would think because it is priced like a Rembrandt! Pricing STARTS from 48,500 euros. Did they mean pesos? No man - euros. That's over $63,000 U.S. dollars for this bad boy. And that is just for the classic black and white version - if you want something special done well that's extra. Honestly I prefer the wood myself, but if you are insanely rich and richly insane - you can buy your ultimate foosball table at www.11thegame.com.

P.S. I learned that foosball has a LOT of different names around the world.  My personal favorite - "fla-flu" from a region in Brazil. Close second - "baby foot" in Quebec.