Arcade Collecting > Arcade1Up & Similar

Ordered a pallet of Arcade1ups - what could possibly go wrong?

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leapinlew:

--- Quote from: SlammedNiss on February 24, 2019, 12:40:17 am ---
--- Quote from: leapinlew on February 23, 2019, 11:09:09 pm ---The CP artwork is crap. They scratch, scuff, etc. way easy. The models I got weren't floor models. None of them had a ton of wear and tear, but I wouldn't be comfortable selling them as is.

--- End quote ---
Did you get on the a1up website and order the replacement CP covers? No receipt is necessary to order them. Just takes a while to get them so you might have them sold before they arrive.

--- End quote ---

Yes I did! Only the Street Fighter arrived quickly. The Pac-Man, Asteroids and Centipede haven't arrived. That really should be stop one for anyone who owns any of these cabinets.

leapinlew:
At this point, some Walmarts around me have been on a much more aggressive price reduction. All cabinets are $199, and some places have them for $150. I have the modded cabinet listed for $425 and it had been on Craigslist for over a week with very little interest. Some people wanting to offer very little, and others who are asking questions because they want to do the same mod to their cabinets, but no one wanting to buy. While selling this last functional cabinet, I realized that I would have been better off to not mod the cabinet at all. I should've just sold it for $100 and I would've broke even. Because I paid $200 for the artwork and 60-n-1 upgrades, I had to sell this cabinet for $300 to break even.

Since I was getting no action at $425, I lowered the price to $350. The good news is, I wasn't feeling pressured. Worse case, this cabinet would go in the kids playroom and I would have invested $300 into a 60-n-1 cabinet for them. After another few days, I guy messaged about the cabinet and he seemed very interested. He lived local and came by and purchased it for $350.

And that's where I stand today. I made $50, I have 2 non-functional Arcade1up's, and a bluetooth speaker. I don't think there is a world where this would have been considered a money making gig, but at least I can say I only lost some of my time, and not my shirt. So, this isn't a win, but it isn't a loss.

leapinlew:
I'll break up my post-action lessons learned into 2 parts. What I learned about selling arcade games and what I think about Arcade1up.

What I learned about selling arcade games

* I prefer to meet my buyers in person. I used Craigslist and Ebay. I had 1 buyer on Ebay, but I chickened out and canceled the sale. I just didn't trust these cabinets to make it to their destination unharmed. Since these were customer returns, I felt a little guilty, like I was selling them someone elses problems. Even if they were New in Box, I didn't think it was right. I know I wouldn't want to buy someone elses problems. That's why I provided the 24 hour return policy.
* Everyone who wanted a cabinet, paid full price. I'm not sure what the lesson is here, but I noticed everyone who wanted the cabinet, paid the asking price. Everyone who negotiated before even coming over, would evaporate
* I forgot how much I hated dealing with potential buyers. Lots of questions, flakey people, etc. I had this issue selling real cabinets, one at a time a couple times a year. This was multiplied by having several Craigslist ads running at once
* Arcades aren't selling well. At least, these particular arcades. I've sold lots of cabinets, and was always successful selling them in the $850 range. I thought these cabinets would easily go for $500 if I included a riser. Not so. I was getting very little action at $425. I got very little interest at $350 also. I notice lots of the full size cabinets are languishing on Craigslist too. Not sure if this is the masses having their demands met or if this just how things our in my region of the country

What I learned about Arcade1ups

* I think build quality, collectively, is poor, but I think there are good and bad spots of these cabinets. The worst offender is the artwork. The Control Panel has well known issues. This can be resolved by the overlay. The overlay is an absolute must. The marquee is unlit, but is acceptable. The sideart was surprisingly poor. If all you are doing is looking at it, it's fine, but it's a sticker that peels away from it's backing pretty easily. Any excessive handling of the cabinet and it starts to peel up at the edges. This may or may not be a problem - just depends on the person
* The construction of the cabinet is acceptable. I think 1/2" MDF isn't a great choice to build with, but to assemble a cabinet that already has all the lock/cam style joinery in it already is fine with me. I think these are decent candidates to build from.
* The controls and LCD panel are too subjective for me to judge. I was happy with them, but YMMV. Not much else to say here, except if you don't know what to think, you should put hands and eyes on one
* Arcade1up has support, but it requires lots of patience. Either patience to talk to someone or patience waiting for parts to arrive
* Long term build quality on these isn't like an arcade. If you move a lot, or plan on moving this cabinet a little, the moves will take their toll on the stock cabinet.
* Price if you plan on keeping it stock should be $150-$200. If you want to mod it, I would wait for a free donor cabinet. It'll happen as people tire of these cabinets and/or they begin to fail outside of the short 3 month warranty window
I think everyone knows I'm a proponent for giving these cabinets a chance. I still am and I'd like our attitudes collectively as a group reflect that, but I've adjusted my expectations downwards for these cabinets.

Bottom Line. I won't do this again. I'm happy to be on the other side. I'm slightly worried about why my judgement thought this was an ok idea to begin with, lol.

leapinlew:
And just to be clear -

I'm being fully transparent with you guys. Purchasing this pallet was a dumb ass move for me. I kicked myself several times during this whole process. At one point, I had 600lbs of Arcade1Up's in my garage and $1,000 less in my bank account. I'm not a huge risk taker. $1,000 isn't a ton of money to us, but it's more than I had in the arcade slush fund, so as far as I was concerned, I had taken on debt by taking money out of the household.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's made a decision that was instantly regretted. I decided to share how mine worked out. I didn't lose money, but I didn't make any either. I got lucky the cabinets all mostly worked and I got lucky to find buyers.

Anyhow, carry-on fellow arcaders!

wp34:
Thanks for sharing Lew.  I found this very interesting and appreciate you be open with the process.

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