Is selling fully built arcade machines profitable?

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dkersten:

--- Quote from: Mike A on June 06, 2017, 11:01:36 am ---The last thing I would want to do is turn my hobby into a job.

--- End quote ---
This

The first ~9 years of my post college adult life I earned a living off what started as a hobby (car stereo installation). It was good money at the time and the point in my life, and I really enjoyed what I did. Then one day I woke up and didn't want to go to work any more. It was no longer fun. Since then, I have done maybe 5 installs, 3 of which were big custom jobs. That was over the last 20 years. I have no desire to do it ever again. I even take my stuff to a guy I trained 25 years ago and pay him to do it. And I don't like to pay anyone to do something I can do. I despise the work that much. That's what turning a hobby into a business does for you.

I built 2 arcade machines for profit (well, I built them for fun but profited). In both cases it took being in the $2-3k range to make the time invested worth anything, and even then I made less than $10 per hour once all factors were considered. And any kind of service requires being on site. Thankfully in both cases, once the glamour of having a cool arcade machine with tons of games on it wore off, they never used it, so service was a non-issue. The market is pretty rich for this. The guy who bought my house wants to buy my mame cabinet or have me build him a new one. I turned down about 5 jobs that each would have put $1,000 or more in my pocket (for 60-100 hours of work each) because after building 3 machines back to back, I was burned out on it.

Bottom line, yes, you can make money, even at the $3k+ range. Is it a long term profit center? No. Long term at best it is going to eat you up in service calls. And while there are a ton of people who grew up in arcades now in their 40's and 50's with empty nests and lots of spare cash, in another decade they will mostly be too old to care any more, and if the cab doesn't come with a couch and a controller, it won't sell. So if you want to make a few for profit, do it, just don't think it is a long term business plan.

pbj:
There was a guy in Houston dealing pinball machines and home theaters. His gimmick was $100/mo 'service contracts' where he'd come out once a month and wipe a rag down the playfield. That would certainly cut down on the service calls and probably gave him lots of steady, easy income.

:dunno

ChadTower:

Ah, the 'home heating maintenance contract' model. HVAC companies here do exactly that. For like $75/month they will guarantee your water heater and boiler/furnace/whatever stays working perfectly. Nevermind that they're designed to work more or less troublefree for years at a time if you spend 45 minutes a season cleaning them out.

Howard_Casto:
Yeah and the thing is water heaters aren't that expensive to begin with. Hell as long as it isn't a super big one I don't even understand why you would pay someone to install one.... go to Lowes, throw it in the truck, unscrew the old one, screw the new one in. Of course you almost always have to fiddle with pipes/mounting because the new tank is inevitably a slightly different size than the old one, but it isn't that much work really. I've done several over the years and while I usually need a hand as they are heavy/awkward, it doesn't take more than a couple of hours.

Plumbers must be for muggles or something as I just don't get it.

pbj:
I'll pay you $50 to haul the old hot water heater out of my attic. It's laying across the ceiling beams in my guest room.

:dizzy:

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