Renting out a machine

[USSEnterprise]

Has anyone ever done this? I was thinking, as a way to earn money, buying a classic arcade machine, completely shopping it, and then renting it to a bar or resturant. keep half the profits. What do you think?

[SirPoonga]

Get a galaga/ms pacman, othewise probably not worth it.  Heck, even with as expensive as galaga/ms pac might not be worth it.

If I get my asteroids fixed I might temporarily donate it to a local bar.  The owner was an arcade tech (owns several cool machines) and helped me with some stuff for my repair process.  Donate it until I can find a good cabinet for it.  I don't really care what happens to the cabinet it is currently in.

[rohan]

A local arcade around here rents out their classics for the backstage area at concerts(one of the recent ones was for Motley Crue and many others here in the O.C.)  It seems to be somewhat lucrative for them, but I had to help them fix a frogger cuz I guess one the guys roughed it up a bit backstage.

[USSEnterprise]

I was thinking a Ms. Pac Man, a Galaga, or a Frogger. Just have to find one somewhat cheap.

[RayB]

Check into your local and state laws regarding operating coin-operated devices for public use. You will probably at least need to pay for a tax sticker.

[unclet]

Does Todd at TNT-Amusements offer machines for rent?   Not sure

[Thenasty]

Does Todd at TNT-Amusements offer machines for rent?

[RayB]

Keep in mind there's a difference between "renting out" and "putting on location".

Renting out is where lets say someone has a party and wants some games for entertainment there. You charge a fixed price and the machine is set to Free Play. (and it stays there maybe a couple days). You'd have to supply the transport, installation and also have a contract. (What if the machine konks out? Do they get a refund? What are the terms?)

On location is what USS is talking about. You need to keep really accurate records so the pub owner won't think you're stiffing him (working coin counter, log book, etc). Chances are also, they have a contract already with someone who supplies ALL machines (games, bar top, vending machine, condom machine, etc). So there's alot of hoops to jump through to get a machine on location somewhere.

Nothing that's a business or involves services to other parties is ever going to be as simple as it seems.

[Karetaker]

I think there are better ways to make money. It's not an easy gig.

[Thenasty]

I think there are better ways to make money. It's not an easy gig.

I always say " Just get a job a McDonalds, you make more $$$ and food is free".

[geomartin]

The best bet in the coin-op industry are soda and snack machines.  I have a friend who has been doing it for years.  He has a snack machine at a drug rehab center that he says empties out almost daily.  At least with snack machines you can hit small business owners without getting noticed by the big route operators, who protect thier routes vigorously.

Geo

[USSEnterprise]

I tried McDonalds. I applied to many places. I newfound hobby is an expensive one. I need a friggin job.

[rchadd]

He has a snack machine at a drug rehab center that he says empties out almost daily.

[rchadd]

i was thinking about doing same thing here in the UK with my Centipede, Gorf machines, Frogger and Galaxian

but after thinking about it i do not think it would be a good earner

what happens if it breaks on site? who to repair monitor or pcb faults?

not sure about insurance liability either - how to verify the machine is safe for use by the public?

especially with hastle of transporting it and probably would require access to van. tabletop would be better option as could fit in back of car - but still would need assistant to  carry it.

i wondered about approaching companies regards placing the machine in their staff rooms and such like.

[ChadTower]

post hash munchies?

Withdrawal oral fixation satisfaction.  Can't smoke, gotta put something in your mouth.

[RayB]

i was thinking about doing same thing here in the UK with my Centipede, Gorf machines, Frogger and Galaxian

Expect your collection to get abused. :-(
Centipede could make money, Frogger maybe (in a place with lots of women). Gorf and Galaxian probably won't earn you crap.

[Q*Bert_OP]

Also consider security...My vending machine isn't sitting at home for no reason now...Some@$$#*!& jammed toothpicks in the lock

[Karetaker]

Like I said it's not an easy gig. Who is going to service it first of all. Nobody likes getting a call 9p.m. Friday night. Even though the game broke Tuesday, this is when they will call. The game is also at risk..... burglary, fire, vandalism. I can't count on my fingers and toes the amount of times I've been robbed. It's always fun when the Police confiscate a machine as "evidence". I've been to court to get machines out of a location that was a leased building.... It's funny what can happen when people fail to pay their rent. I had two brand new Crusin' Exotica's, A Rowe Storm, a cherry Dracula pinball, and a mint Pac-Man cocktail in a location. I turned on the news one morning while drinking my coffee and the place was on fire! I had insurance (thank God) but now I can't get insurance unless I want to take out a mortgage for it. How many horror stories do you want to hear?

Even if everything goes perfectly play will drop. With a classic it probably won't take long. Then you need to rotate it with something. If you buy another game, now you have one sitting. Then you'll start to look for a location for that game. Now your starting route. Operators won't take kindly to that.... it's a very cut throat business, sometimes literally. Even if after years of extreme stress somehow through all of it you manage to endure and build a decent business. You decide it's time to retire and pass it down to your children.... and this is when it will catch up with you and kill you. Yeah, I know what your thinking...."it's just something I'm going to do on the side". It's like a drug, it will slowly suck you in.... and then one day you'll wake up to the reality of being an "Operater".

Man I need a vacation.

[RayB]

Well said Karetaker! Someone needs to sticky your post!
 

[ChadTower]

How many horror stories do you want to hear?

I want to hear two more.

[geomartin]

Yeah the drug rehab place empties out the machine like crazy.  He tried to put a second machine in, but the centers management won't let him.  He told me they even buy the stuff that he pulls from other machines because of slow sales, like chewing gum. 

[Karetaker]

You got it ChadTower

1. I had a customer who owned his own pool table. It was an Irving Kaye Silver Shadow that looked like it had been dropped off of a building. I worked on this guy for years trying to get a pool table in there. I started getting to him through his manager. I took the manager of the club in a flyer with a Dynamo Top Brass table on it. I told the owner I would buy his table for $500, which was more than fair. The pool table was of course down a flight of stairs. After working this guy over for years, the manager and myself finally convinced him to let me put in a new Top Brass. I ordered the table, and if you've never ordered a new pool table, they come in basically a giant box. Since the table was going down a flight of concrete stairs I thought the smart thing to do would be to leave it in the box. That way it would be protected going down the stairs. It wasn't an easy move. There was a corner at the top and bottom of the stairs. With a great deal of struggle we got the Silver Shadow out and the new Top Brass in. Then I unpacked it. It was beautiful except for the one end. It had obviously been dropped on that end as it was smashed in. I was sick inside. The club had a pool league the next night so I had to get a table in there before the evening of the next day. The next day I drove two and a half hours down to the distributor I bought it from. I picked up yet another new table and drove back. This time I opened it up to make sure it was in new condition. It was, so I had to drag the damaged table back up the stairs and take the new one back in. I sold the Silver Shadow for $400. I ended up losing this location a few years later because the owner thought he deserved a new flat screen Mega-Touch. I wouldn't get him one because the up to date Maxx he had was only making $20 a week. You couldn't tell him that though. So he called someone who would put one in and I ended up having to drag that table back up those freaking steps again. If the location would have worked as a whole I would have bought one for him. It just wasn

[ChadTower]

For some reason, I find op stores fascinating.  Thanks!

[SirPeale]

Yeesh...those are some stories alright.  Now that I've been in the biz for a little while, I can confirm that these things not only are possible, but stuff like this happens a *lot*.

[ChadTower]

Let's hear some stories, Peale!

[2600]

I'm with Chadtower, more stories.

[SirPeale]

I don't have a lot of personal stories yet.  But...

Was presented with a Megatouch Gold machine that had booting issues.  Tried a number of things with no joy.  Finally discovered that the RAM wasn't seated correctly, and presto!  Fixed the machine.  Or so I thought...

In the process of fixing the machine I'd used a brand new riser card that we'd gotten from NECO.  It had the same result, so I put back the original.  Once reassembled, I left it alone.

Boss man said he wanted to send the machine to a bar about four hours north (along with other equipment) and stated the machine was ready.  I, along with everyone else there, playtested it, saw it was working, and included it on the truck.  It went north.

Several hours later, the guy that brought it north revealed something: it wasn't taking coins!  A machine that won't take coins on location is a useless machine to an op.  He spent at least a couple hours on it before declaring it unrepairable on site, and brought it back.

Long story short, it turns out that riser card somehow shorted out the coin circuitry on the board.  And the boss decided to swap out cards to test things out, and ended up shorting the board on the only other board we had, but at least determined what had caused the problem.  There was another board to be used from another machine (just had to swap the license keys) and that worked fine (of course, before doing that, he made sure to ditch that flakey riser board).  But that doesn't fix the problem of the two boards that won't accept credits.

So now what to do?  Send out the board?  Likely it won't even make the money that it would take to repair it.  Buy another board?  Same problem.  Troubleshoot it in spare time?  Sadly, this is likely the only option.  I have my suspicions as to what components were toasted on the board, but without schematics I can't confirm.  And the boss doesn't want anyone touching the boards now except him, so I'm guessing they will remain in stasis for at least six months.

[ChadTower]

I like those stories too.  I could read repair and op customer stories all day.  Thanks!

[M3talhead]

Woohoo!!!!! Story thread!!


Who's got the WORST story?? C'mon, someone has to have the mother of all coin-op nightmares.....lets hear it.

[RayB]

Back in my day... we had to stick coins into trees. We didn't have electrickyty. 

Course, the tree didn't do nuthin.

[HaRuMaN]

Back in my day... we had to stick coins into trees. We didn't have electrickyty. 

Course, the tree didn't do nuthin.

Man, I read this and almost shot Mountain Dew out my nose.... LOL.   

[Karetaker]

I had a pretty good story published in "Play Meter Magazine" several years ago.... but it's pretty long.

My Dad had probably the best I've heard.... or one of the best anyway. This was back in the day of the 45 jukebox. He went on a typical call. He had the Juke opened up and found the problem and proceeded to fix it. He got it working, closed it up and left. This was in the day before pagers and cell phones, so you had to call an answering service to see if you had any calls. The next time he check in the same location had called again. They said that they hated to run him back down as the location was a 45 minute drive. But, they said the jukebox was making some blood curdling ungodly noise. He drove back down to the location and gave the box a listen. Sure enough it was making the strangest noise he had ever heard coming from a jukebox. He had no idea what could be making such a sound. As soon as he opened the juke up he found out. He said as soon as he got the juke open a cat came springing out of the box and ran across the floor. The bar had a pet cat and my Dad unknowingly locked the cat in the jukebox on the first service call. All that AC, on those leaf switches, not to metion the mech scanning back and forth must have been awful on poor fluffy.

[USSEnterprise]

LMFAO

[nostrebor]

NICE!