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Do any of you actually make any real money from this hobby?
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:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on February 17, 2013, 01:40:46 pm ---
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.
--- End quote ---
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.
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