Do any of you actually make any real money from this hobby?

[mcseforsale]

I don't want to know how much.  I don't want to know exactly what services/products you sell.  I just want to know if anyone here actually makes enough money to offset their "normal" income?  Of course, you could always tell. 

AJ

[BadMouth]

Oh, it offsets my normal income alright.

[mcseforsale]

What products do you sell?  Cab?  CPs?  What's the money generation?  I don't want numbers...I just want to help my growing family.

I'm wanting to get some cash to offset the old salary, and I want to do something interesting, but I don't see any way of making money in this thing.

I also love to restore old BMX bikes, but that doesn't make money either.

AJ

Oh, it offsets my normal income alright.

[BadMouth]

Offsets as in it counteracts my income.  As in they cancel each other out.  As in I have no money left by the time I get my income and then spend it on this hobby.  The only time I sell things is when I buy stuff, end up not using it, and sell it at a loss. 

[yotsuya]

I've helped one guy build a MAME cab, and that's led to me talking to another guy about building one, but I really didn't profit off that first guy. The second guy, however, is helping to fund our summer vacation.

[ed12]

as a  lover of this industry
yes i make a income from it
i make no bone's for it either
help ppl fix the machine's of what ever flavour they have is worth ever dollar i charge
the fact is the smile at the end of the day and the thank-you
it's about that simple
from a coils to a cd head the full range
board repair etc etc etc i could go on all day and night
but the etc etc get's the point across

ed

[jennifer]

     Somebody has made a bundle, cause Jennifer has spent a fortune, I love the hobby so its not about the money...However after many years of collecting restoring things, and finally getting the toolbox, workbench, paintbooth and 2 trucks with liftgates paid off, the money just comes back and I cant stop it.

[Nephasth]

I've made back probably pretty close to what I've put in doing little odd jobs here an there and selling parts I had no use for. If you're in this hobby for the fun, don't ever expect to make enough "decent" money at it. Once you expect to make x amount for your efforts, the fun is lost.

[danny_galaga]

Indirectly since from mame I got into collecting consoles. I now sell a few modded controllers, not so much offsetting my income as offsetting the cost of the hobby (",)

[Louis Tully]

.

[CoryBee]

I have made some decent moneys from making Bartops. Has been fun, I love to build things and this feels much more real than designing\soldering up circuits\PCBs. My normal work moneys has been untouched by this as I keep the costs down in producing them and almost always get a deposit from people before building them. I already have a few to do when I return to the "Good ol' USofA". One slab of MDF costs about $30 in Sacramento, cheaper if my friend is working and can hook me up with a 20% - 40% discount. Can make 4 bartops with this, 3 of them if they are all 2-player ones.

 

[HaRuMaN]

My controller hacks pay for my arcade / console gaming habit.

[Paul Olson]

The MAME part of my hobby is a complete money pit. I think I have probably broke even on the dedicated games I have sold over the years (around 50 of them now), but if I sold the ones I have now, I probably wouldn't maintain that. I only bought really cheap games until 2011, so it was pretty easy to sell them for what I paid.

I briefly thought about selling games and doing repairs for a living, but by the time I had bought and sold two games for the sole purpose of making money, I already hated it. It is way more fun to just through money at a hobby.

[Le Chuck]

I've made money with pinball and some with spare part sales on the arcade side.  It's never been a goal and those funds have always been dumped right back into the hobby.  I'm definitely at a net loss financially but a net gain on the happiness quotient. 

[kahlid74]

I don't make any money but I also spend like an open fire-hose.

[Cynicaster]

OP, I'm pretty sure you meant to ask if anybody makes enough money to "supplement" their income, not "offset" it. 

What do you mean by "this hobby", specifically?  I ask because I think there's quite a difference between the central theme of this site and arcade collecting proper.  Different customers, different knowledge requirements, different products of interest, etc. 

I'm not surprised to hear that some folks are able to make an income in the servicing/repairing of coin operated machines.  Even if they're not as popular as they once were, they're still out there generating money for people, and therefore need to be kept up and running by somebody. 

As for the specific hobby that is this site's raison d'etre, I think that's probably a lot more challenging to make profitable and worthwhile.  In the last two years I've had at least 10 people inquire with varying levels of seriousness about hiring me to build them a cabinet after they saw mine ("DUDE, this is so awesome!  What would you charge to build me one?").  But with what mine cost me to build and, most importantly of all, the time it took to do it, the price I would need to charge in order to make it worthwhile would be absurd, so I just encourage them to do it themselves or buy a kit.  Part of me really wishes I could do what they're asking, because I know that they look at the project as too overwhelming and just end up forgetting about it, whereas if I accepted the job of doing the heavy lifting for them I'd be bringing more people into the hobby (and, I'd have cabinets to play on while at friends' houses--haha).  If I had a big CNC rig and could mass produce the cabinets, that would probably be the only way to get something to market at a price that would be conducive to the "impulse buy".       

I'm not saying I think it's not possible to make money, I'm just saying it's going to take more than a love of the hobby to monetize it. 

[ChadTower]

Yep.  I've had people approach me and ask me to build a MAME cab for them.  When I itemize the parts needed and a token amount for beer/pizza during the labor, they get pissed off and accuse me of trying to make money off a friend. 

Nobody outside the hobby ever believes you when you tell them how much a good MAME cab costs to build.

[Well Fed Games]

Mom: "Son, why don't you build these cabinets and then sell them?"

Me: "Because a finished cabinet is usually less valuable than the parts I bought to make one."

Mom: "...?"

Me: "Yes, I know it makes no sense."

[yotsuya]

Yep.  I've had people approach me and ask me to build a MAME cab for them.  When I itemize the parts needed and a token amount for beer/pizza during the labor, they get pissed off and accuse me of trying to make money off a friend. 

Nobody outside the hobby ever believes you when you tell them how much a good MAME cab costs to build.

QFT. They want one, but don't want to pay.

[mgb]

I make some decent money working on game equipment for others.
After getting into Mame and starting on my first controller, I wanted to get more into actual machines and I found one and repaired it. I really don't have the room for doing a bunch of cabs at home but I enjoy working on them so I hooked up with a Roller Rink owner who needed someone to come in and do repairs as needed.
From there I started putting ads in Craigslist and I have been going to peoples homes and repairing their machines for over 5 years now.
Recently I hooked up with these guys that own a mobile arcade for birthday partys.
So this hobby has payed for itself plus other bills.

[Gray_Area]

Offsets as in it counteracts my income. 

Yah, like that wasn't obvious. I could hear your tone of voice. I immediately laughed.

[Ond]

I'd hate to think what money I've actually sunk into this hobby, no regrets though, In terms of creative satisfaction worth every cent.  Maybe in the future just as an experiment I'll build a more traditional cab for the purpose of selling and see what I can get for it.  Funny thing, I showed a work associate my current full size cab project and he got all excited and said "you could get these mass produced in China and make a fortune"   about his comment I thought to myself, "you really don't get it do you" .  Don't get me wrong I'm not against people making money from their hobbies, that would be very satisfying in itself, but it should be a happy by-product rather than the goal.

[mcseforsale]

Yeah, I guess it's not being gotten.  The question really is, do you make enough money to pay for the hobby, then perhaps, make a cab purely for profit. 

I made the Gunslinger for a family member.  Now, everyone sees it and says it's worth XX dollars.  Now, I can't compete with other hobbyists, but, if someone was willing to give me money to make a cab based on what they see...and how long it takes me to make, I'd happily build them one.

So, I built a Kneivel slim cab and gave it to my parents-in-law.  Someone saw it and asked me how much to build them one.  So, what's the answer?  I know Kneivel builds for $$ since there's no way in hell, unless he lives in a 50000 sq. ft. mansion that he keeps all these, that he's not selling them. 

While building their machine, I figured I had about $6oo into it.  When building mine....well, let's say project creep...mmmkay?  But still...how would you charge a friend or acquaintance?  What's the price....get a deposit for materials...sign a contract with a specific date?  A bud of mine wants a bar-top.  I figure I can get about $500 into the thing.  What to sell it for then, for all my work?

Now, I do have a competitor....monster arcades is just around the corner and he's basically a CNC shop that sells on ebay.  I'm sure his stuff is nice.  But, I'm not sure he can reach the right audience.

AJ

[WindDrake]

When I had more free time, I was doing a stand-in Tech job here and there for a local arcade. Never made enough doing that to cover the first cab, though. 

[kahlid74]

Yeah, I guess it's not being gotten.  The question really is, do you make enough money to pay for the hobby, then perhaps, make a cab purely for profit. 

I made the Gunslinger for a family member.  Now, everyone sees it and says it's worth XX dollars.  Now, I can't compete with other hobbyists, but, if someone was willing to give me money to make a cab based on what they see...and how long it takes me to make, I'd happily build them one.

So, I built a Kneivel slim cab and gave it to my parents-in-law.  Someone saw it and asked me how much to build them one.  So, what's the answer?  I know Kneivel builds for $$ since there's no way in hell, unless he lives in a 50000 sq. ft. mansion that he keeps all these, that he's not selling them. 

While building their machine, I figured I had about $6oo into it.  When building mine....well, let's say project creep...mmmkay?  But still...how would you charge a friend or acquaintance?  What's the price....get a deposit for materials...sign a contract with a specific date?  A bud of mine wants a bar-top.  I figure I can get about $500 into the thing.  What to sell it for then, for all my work?

Now, I do have a competitor....monster arcades is just around the corner and he's basically a CNC shop that sells on ebay.  I'm sure his stuff is nice.  But, I'm not sure he can reach the right audience.

AJ

I think for the most part your question was answered with the above responses, but the part that isn't is what you charge for an hour of your labor.  I don't have a good estimate on that, but I would personally relate it to a different set of proprietors.  I would see what the base $/hour is for cabinet makers (for any wood working) and the base $/hour for a computer tech and then use a combination scale of that.

I also don't sell cabinets because the Roms aspect of it has liability I don't want to be a part of.

[Gray_Area]

Along the same lines as building for yourself for fun, do you want to build something for someone else? If yes, and you want to be compensated, regardless of relation, do it up business-like.

[yaksplat]

I'm at a net zero state right now. 

I made a minimal amount from the two cabinets that I built for friends.  But I just considered that practice.  However, it did cover the cost of wood and a few other things in the build of my cabinet.  The biggest thing was experience. 

From building control panels, I've offset everything that I've spent on my cabinet.  That was part of selling the idea to my wife.  I can build this machine and by doing so, I can prove to other people that I have the capability and skill to build.

[michelevit]

I've made some money, not much, but enough to justify my woodworking tools and making saw dust in the garage.

I typically only build commissioned cabinets. When one is commissioned I actually build a twin of it at the same time. The first goes to its commissioner and its twin is eventually sold on craigslist. Its usually not twice as much work to build two cabinets at once (especially since they are identical)

The customer will decide on button colors, layout, and artwork. I use pentium 4s and CRTS which I pick up on Craigslist for not much $.
I came up with a modular upright design which works really well.