sandy lechtick

trained more than a hundred recruiters. 

Many know him through athletic competition -and his life-long achievements in sports- gymnastics, table tennis and paddle tennis.
 
Others have know him for his college days at U.C. Santa Barbara where he played guitar and sang with opera singer Melvin Stern in the UCSB Talent Show; created the UCSB Speakers Bureau and ran  for a seat on the Isla Vista City Council.
 
Yet others know him as one of the pre-eminent collectors in the Nation- vintage early to mid 1900’s coin-operated penny arcade machines, automatic music and mechanical advertising window displays.
 
Around the Covid period in 2020, he decided not to retire, but rewire. He continued his literary pursuits and recently completed his nearly 600-page book- Detour from Oblivion, The Legacy of Vista Del Mar, published in 2026.
 
Sandy’s background may provide perspective. He grew up in a toxic family environment, where he, his brother and sister were caught in a never-ending crossfire with warring parents. With attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a stuttering problem, he was held back in school. In his teens, he hooked up with the wrong crowd,  got in trouble with the police, and removed from the custody of his mother. He was made a ward of the state, and after returning from Sylacauga, he was placed in a 17-acre mental health treatment facility in Los Angeles and lived amongst one hundred kids. The two and a half years he spent at the former orphanage was so consequential, he wrote his story 50 years later- and interviewed two dozen Vista alumni, many who lived at the “Home” in the 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.  He wrote about their stories too.
 
Athletic competition was his salvation. He won the L.A. City Table Tennis Championships in junior high school, was captain and MVP of the Hamilton High School gymnastic team, competed at Los Angeles City College. After he started his first executive search firm and built it into one of the largest in Los Angeles, he segued into paddle tennis competition and won numerous singles and doubles Paddle Tennis championships in the 1980’s and 90’s.  He returned to table tennis competition in his 60’s is currently nationally ranked and received a bronze medal in the 2023 U.S. National Table Tennis Championships. He was interviewed by TV host Huel Houser in a segment on paddle tennis at Venice Beach.
 
At 50, Sandy began building a penny arcade coin-operated machine collection which has become one of the largest in the U.S. He- has hosted conventions, charity benefits and visits from collectors all over the Nation, from Australia, the UK and Japan. Lisa Welchel, actress, former Disney Mouseketeer and star of the “Collectors Call” television show did a show on Sandys 2,000+ square foot collection of more than 250 machines in 2023.
 
Sandy has written dozens of articles for legal and business publications, Coin-op Collectors Association magazines and been profiled in  antique collectible journals.