This hobby costs too damn much

[ChadTower]

Okay, the cost of this hobby is getting me to the point that I may well be done with it.  Looking back over the last two years, my family's finances were so much better off before I started buying/working on arcade games. 

We're in a really tight spot at the moment, and ironically, the check I wrote out for the TZ and Shadow JUST CLEARED this week.  I wrote it out in April, transferred the money into the account in April, and since the money was in, didn't verify that the check was cashed.  I will look back through my statements but the bank has already verified that it was only cashed once.  Assuming it had been cashed, it got lost in a major finance/work shift that we went through at the time.  I switched jobs to a much lesser paying job and switched to a once monthly pay schedule.  We could afford the cost at that time... but not now.  Especially not after the money that I had assumed went to that check leaked to other bills over the course of the summer the way money tends to do.  This is a Christmas wrecker type situation, I'm sure we've all had one, but my kids are 4 and 6 and I'll be damned if I let that happen here.

We also got a letter last week from the IRS stating that there was an inconsistency in our 2003 tax return and we now owe $650, due immediately.  I still have to verify that one too.

I'm to the point where I'm ready to sell off every machine I have and not get any more.  I'm tired of juggling everything else around the cost of this hobby.

[Stingray]

Sorry to hear that Chad. Hope you get it all sorted out soon. Having that IRS thing sprung on you couldn't have possibly been in any way fun.

-S

[ChadTower]

Well, I thought it sucked until the $1500+ check for the pins cleared when I assumed it had done so months ago.

What kind of idiots run a charity auction and then hold the checks for 5 months?

[Jabba]

I hear ya Chad. I had Revenue Canada come after me for $6000 this past year. My accountant forgot to file a seprate T4 that I gave him. This has seriously puyt a drain on everything else.

[Stingray]

What kind of idiots run a charity auction and then hold the checks for 5 months?

Perhaps the same idiots who run the "property owners association" where I live. The asociation seems to exist for no purpose other than to collect dues - they certainly don't do anything else. I've had checks I wrote to them not go through my bank account for an entire year.

-S

[GameOver]

Hey, it's cool.  Things tend to get desperate quick when everything seems to happen all at once.  You'll work it out.

I had to shell out 4k yesterday morning (rather unexpectedly) to replace a heat pump.  Gotta do whatcha gotta do. Funny how seperation of large chunks of money from your wallet puts a drain on you - I paid out the 4k @11am, and was wiped out for the rest of the day.

Hang in there.  And what would life be without games!!!  They'll help you get thru it.

[ChadTower]

Well, first thing first, I part out my VF2 cab and get what I can for the PCB, power supply, etc etc.  I need the cab out and I damn sure need the money.

[missioncontrol]

This hobby costs too damn much

someone else is having the same problem in the main forum



Edit:
well not exactly the exact probles, just the same title

[ChadTower]

$700... heh.  I'm looking at a couple grand, minimum.

Anyone know what a working VF2 PCB set goes for?

[fredster]

$35, and you have to show it works.

You are doing the wrong thing Chad.  I make money on my games.  I buy some scrap ones for cheap and retool them to make more.

I buy those multigame boards and re-configure it so that it sells.

I bought a dead ms pac for $35, put in a new jamma board and stuff (mostly from bob roberts), had a $150 in it, and sold it for $550.

I bought a raiden machine, fixed the monitor that was screwy, and sold it for $350.

Cocktail (was originally a pacman, converted to commando) put in a multigame board, put restricters on the joysticks, all for $400, sold it for $1150.

Take a look at that.  I sold all of them at auction too. 

[ChadTower]

No auctions here, all you have are ebay and local sales, both of which suck schlong for arcade sales.  You either have to sell to cheapass collectors like us, or nonarcade people who expect warranty for 5 years.

[ChadTower]

I do have a spare JAMMA cab, though.  Monitor is dead, but it's probably a cold solder joint as it went dead while I was doing a cap kit and gets no HV.  Maybe I should just slap a multigame board into it and sell it that way.  Too bad it has ---smurfy--- POW artwork.

[fredster]

Perfect!  That's the good ones!

There may be auctions.  You have to check the paper.  There are rare amusment auctions around everywhere, they are just ran by people who don't do it regularly.  Here in TN, we are blessed with 3, so there's one about every month and a half. Otherwise, look at this list - http://www.gameroommagazine.com/shows.htm

As far as the cab, Rip off the art, clean it, and go to the store and get semi-gloss latex.
Take a sander and get all the gunk off.  Paint it with a roller so it is thick and has a texture. As long as it's uniform, it's good.

Make it pretty.  Get some stickers or make them, then cover the CP with Plexi to cover that up.  Get the coin mechs to work.  And above all, fix the monitor so it looks crispy.  (hard with Bob gone) but it is important.  Get a Marquee that looks good either by making it with plexi and paint or actually buying one.

Then put out an ad in the paper.  I've sold 2 of those for $750 to private collectors with about $400 in it.   Rich guys with trophy wives.  Came in and were making a game room in their house.  They bought them, called from all over.

They love ms Pac.  A ms Pac sells the fastest.  They don't really care what it looks like as long as they can play it.  Tell them you give them a 30 day warranty.  Sell like hell man.

[ChadTower]

I'll definitely consider that.  The auction thing won't fly, there simply aren't any in this area other than one yearly.  I'm well hooked into the arcade scene here and the general lament is lack of auctions in New England.

The monitor actually just GOT a cap kit, that's what I was doing when I was too rough with the PCB and broke a solder joint someplace.  Need to get in and reflow.

I would have no problem slapping a multipac board in there, putting in some generic pac art, and selling it if I could get $500+ for it.

[fredster]

No need in putting the art on.  The ones I sold didn't have any art on the side.  One was a frogger type cab with woodgrain, and the other was just a dynamo type cab painted up nice with black.  The ones I sold at the auctions were both made from (get this) Birdie Kings.

I didn't even put CP art on the birdie kings.  Just punched some holes in the metal panels.  They all had a marquee that looked good.  I printed on velum paper then put it on plexi.  It said "Multigame" and had some vector art from the lib on it. 

The boards are cheaper than you think.  If you don't know where to get them, email me and I'll give you the contact.  They are on the rgvac too.

The simpler ones work the best.  I don't even know if they have the 4 game board anymore.  But people want one game to do many things, like mame.  But this one is an original machine, and being jamma, it's easy to work with.

All you have to do is put out an ad that says "Classic video game machine, play all your favorites on a standup commercial Video game machine.  Play all the favorites MsPac, Galaga, etc, etc. $750 with warranty".

Tell them that you made a machine and it's got all new parts and will last for years.  And if you did it right, it will last for years won't it?