Yes, you are correct on almost all of theses facts. Except 1 little detail you left out. Or should I say "Your disappointed in not winning the Star Trek Pro?". I am disappointed more than you, as it was my $20.00 that bought your tickets and I was looking for a return on my investment ! Yes, thanks to all it was fun and I heard from some people that said they did not come last year because of where it was at. Hat's off to ED and his staff and to all the friendly people that were there. I left sad . As I had 1 machine 4 sale and sold 3! I did not want to sale the other 2 . So, now I am scrambling to get a copy of them back. Oh, Berry, I did get 1 back just a few minutes ago ! Dang Star Trek LE's are pricy now

You only meant to sell 1 and sold 3? Seriously?

I didn't get a single offer on my Future Spa or my Multicade. Future Spa for 700 bucks and a multicade for 400? Really?

FS for $700 is a steal of a deal. Straight up. I dont know what is wrong with people, honestly. The raiden was off the chain too.

I might have a semi-trade deal working on the raiden+60-in-1, but I'd still sell it outright if someone is interested. If I do the trade deal, the boards and marquee will go on ebay, and the 60-in-1 will be sold for cost.... no doubt to someone local to take it, turn it around, and sell it to some schmuck for 800$...

This is one of the best run, best venue shows I've been to, and Ed asked me for feedback on what could be improved and I honestly did not have anything I could come up with (and I usually can) ...

It's alot of work and Ed and the rest of the people at the show had been so helpful it's really a great reflection on where this show is going to go in the upcoming years.

[email protected]

I moved to Texas last year so this was my first TPF. I used to volunteer every year at the NW Pinball and Arcade show, which is a blast and great show. I am very impressed with how smooth this show went. Load in/out was easy, made easier as I just had 2 vids and didn't have the need to backup at the door. Getting my passes, lanyard and swag was very simple and the people were extremely nice. Thanks to all involved in planning and running this show as I had a blast and I can;t wait for next year - Barry

I did put a order in for 3 medieval madness machines, no not all for me of course. Great game and I always wonder what's all the hype in this game? of course I couldn't ever play one because they were 16K to 24K and the op wouldn't let you play them and I understand. WOW what a great game. This is the best show we have ever attended.

Yes, I was for the rest of Saturday & Sunday night. I love pinball but I dislike selling my pins. My prices are high for a reason, I want to run you off. Unfortunately this person called my bluff. It's the OCD I have.

I've been going to TPF since all the way back in the Halcyon days of 2012, and I have to say, I am HIGHLY disappointed in the complete and total lack of b!tching about the event.

I mean, are we not pinball people?! Nothing makes us happy! Where are the complaints about food? Where are the equally loud and contradicting demands for Louder/Quieter music? Why is no one outraged by the choice of wall paper in the hotel, or the carpet pattern in the big showroom? Surely someone must be upset that the hotel had an in-house Starbucks instead of a Seattle's Best!

All I hear is "Hotel was perfect" and "The area was great for food" and "How awesome was the parking, right?".

I swear, it's like I don't even know you people anymore.

There were some skeevy magicians there. Curious lack of costumed anthropomorphic imitators, too.

Yes, this is a little odd on this forum ... must be a conspiracy ...

My first tpf! It was great and mostly due to the hard work and smiles from the volunteers! I choked in the state finals but still came away with some hardware, some new friends and lots of great memories. Shout out to Marcus and the rest of the tourney team for their great attitudes. I will be back! Thx!

Skeevy means "unpleasant, squalid, or distasteful." Nah, I dont think that is a correct assessment. Just so happens a pro magician is a pinball enthusiast and came out to play. Nothing wrong with showing a few tricks... Even Barry Sanders was impressed... which is impressive in itself.

The Ninja Turtles had stuff to do at the sewer. Plus I warned them that the grouch over at Elevation Games had sharp objects.

The show was the best I have ever been to. The hotel was perfect and the convention center is high class all the way.

Great job Ed and team, we had a blast. The only thing you need to fix is the size of the font on the name tags, I couldn't see who's name was on the tag.

LOL, I thought the same thing. It was pretty funny. The TPF team should be proud. Simply put, it's the best pinball show in the country.

This was my first TPF and can't say enough good things about it. Please try and book the same location every year and I will fly from NJ every year. The Embassy Suites was great and being connected to the convention center made it so convenient. Please try and book the same venue next year!

Thanks to everyone on the Planning team for an incredible weekend! Great work!
Ed

Best hotel and location in the 5 years I have been going. They should book the hotel for next year.

+1 for having it at the same venue next year.

Can't thank the organizers enough for planning such a great show.

This was my first pinball festival/expo/show so I can't compare to others but it was amazing. Venue was perfect and the show was well run. Met lots of nice people having a great weekend.

HUGE thanks to anyone who brought a machine. The amount and variety of machines truly makes this an amazing event.

Since it's Pinside I will try to lob one complaint (at the venue): Sound system was pretty bad. The only time I could clearly understand an announcement was standing next to the announcer. Even at the 2:30 awards with most machines off it was a struggle.

Definitely back in 2015!

(Sigh) I just knew that was going to come back to bite me.

Great Show TPF crew. Next year can I ride around on a Segway? ( AKA Paul Blart Mall Cop)

Maybe you can show your "3rd wife" around the place so she doesn't get lost.

This was my first Texas pinball festival and it was great. I brought my game and was an easy load in, even at 2:30 on Friday when everyone was trying to get things finished up. One of the guys working the unload area even helped get the game out of the car which was appreciated. I did not have to deal with load out as I sold my game but was a little concerned it would take a while, but sounds like you could go out multiple doors instead of just the one on the backside of the hall.

Venue was great, I liked the free breakfast in the lobby and close to some great restaurants. I have 2 suggestions though. 1. The world record attempt was very disorganized, I was outside the hall in the long line that I thought was for the world record attempt, only come to find out that the line was actually on the other side of the hall, and you had to have a sticker, ticket, and some peice of paper to fill out for the record attempt, I never got anything except for a ticket so I'm assuming I was not counted which is fine. I found out later if you were in the hall before the record attempt that you would have had all of the info you needed but did not figure it out in time. Oh well. and 2, I would have loved to have personally said thanks to the organizers, but until the end at the last day when the guy was up on stage I had no idea who any of them were. I really appreciate everyone that was there helping out though made for a great weekend and I will be back next year.

My wife said she thought the elevator voice was that of Paris Hilton's.Ha!
That would give a new meaning to( going down Mr Tyler).Did anyone go
across the street to the Fast Pitch sports bar?Wow,not your neighborhood
Hooters!Anyway Ed same place next year is just fine with me also.
Oh one more thing,how bout that lunch truck?

My feedback...
Can we get a police force on the floor to make sure people are being respectful?
I'm only slightly kidding...
One of my co-exhibitors told me that walked up on my Stern Star Trek LE and there was a big wet ring on the glass.
He wiped it with my shop towels; and it was on the inside.

This means some d1ckhe4d had placed a bottle/can/whatever on my machine while he played it - Even tho CLEARLY there was a pingulp installed for that purpose.

Mark my words here people... If I ever catch one of you do that to my machine... I'm going to politely ask you to get out of my space. Including turning off the machine mid-ball. If I see you do in on someone else's machine - "A discussion" will be an issue.

A guy did the same thing to my Hulk LE but he was asked to remove his drink. He politely issued an apology. I do not think he even realized it, until we pointed it out. We had brought 1 game for play, so that people wouldn't get mad because they can't play them. It's hard to sell product as a vendor when someone is playing the game. Customers do not want to lean over the game and look. So we decided to bring 1 to play. We only had 1 a-hole that gave us an attitude he didn't stay in the building long. Over 400 pins and 3 are not on free play and people freak out. There were some really nice pins at the show. It cost allot of money to do a show as a vendor and we want to really make everyone happy, but like my mom always said "Son you can't please everyone". Plus, what the guy didn't know, was the game he wanted to play, had been purchased and ask by the buyer not to be played. Even though it wouldn't have been on free play anyway as it's used to show product. We did allow players to play them for the world record. We turned off the Hulk LE late Saturday night as the person who bought it wanted it turned off free play. I can't tell the customer "NO". Not unless you want to loss customers.
I agree Zitt people should respect your games, you didn't have to bring them.

Going to try and be constructive here. This is a justification for your business model.

As a Pinhead - I'll tell you TPF is a social gathering. I have fellow pinheads I travel with. I visit with the TPF vendors and buy from them for supporting the show.

What you did was basically show me what not to do. I want to see the mods/ products in action. I want to be able to play them ... see how they interact with the system. See how they stand up to the abuse of high volume traffic. When I and my friend (who owns all NIB sterns); walked into your off limits booth... we both left with money in our pockets and no desire to do business with you.

Your booth felt like a high pressure luxury car dealer.... looking down at your nose to us little people.

Your math is off. There were about 230ish pins. Your 3 pins offlimits. Most of the auction pins off limits because the owners didn't want them "broke" before or after the Auction. Let's call it 20 pins total. Now... many of the machines don't survive TPF intact. By Sunday; I wager at least another 30 pins were down due to repair. So; your booth took real estate for an off limits demo of your products. You did the pinball show no favors and you turned me and several other off of your products. Good show for you? Glad to hear it.

Plus, what the guy didn't know, was the game he wanted to play, had been purchased and ask by the buyer not to be played. Even though it wouldn't have been on free play anyway as it's used to show product. We did allow players to play them for the world record. We turned off the Hulk LE late Saturday night as the person who bought it wanted it turned off free play. I can't tell the customer "NO". Not unless you want to loss customers.

Actually; that's exactly what you were REQUIRED to do. TPF rules SPECIFICALLY state that pins for sale must remain on the floor on free play for the entire event. What you in effect did was protect your "customer" fraudulently from a $60 charge from TPF. Yes; I know that as a vendor - you don't have to follow the same rules the rest of us do. But in doing so; you've alienated this customer. A customer who spends a lot of cash on mods for his machines.

Simply put - I vote with my dollars. And I follow the rules.
My ST:MU pin was a temperamental bitch the first 12hrs of the show. As a exhibitor; I worked my ass off to get the machine functional. IF I hadn't done so; I wouldn't have taken the best of show award. One of my helpers tried to convince me that early shutdown was acceptable... everyone was doing it. I didn't allow that to happen. My pins are for the enjoyment of everyone at the show. I was under obligation to leave them "online" until 2:30pm when the awards were started. That's what I did. I didn't turn off my machines, put "out of order" on them, or put them in Paid mode.

All of the non-available pins due to greed makes the show less appealing and nothing more than a pinball show room. That isn't why MOST of us go to these events. That isn't why I spend $600 to take my Star Trek Pins to the show.

So; It's my humble opinion that vendors with "demo machines" set to "off limits" be 86ed from the show. Same for auction pins... they should be charged the full $60 w/o free exhibitor passes. Machines like this should be grouped together off the floor somewhere.... not intermingled with the rest of the free play machines. It's confusing and disrespectful to the rest of the exhibitors.

I had ranted about the 3 pins being off but Zitt covered it best. I don't have anything constructive or nice to say about it. I will just leave it at that.

_{Post edited by Rat_Tomago: I was very harsh}

Actually, I have thought long and hard and I have some feedback on the show: the discounted room rate is great. How about trying to negotiate a discount on rentals or mileage with Penske/Budget/U-Haul to encourage more trailers/more pins? I live in Houston and bringing games after mileage is close to $500 - a big hit. I'm doing it next year, but I'd like to pay less if possible.

Aside from that, great show!

Well that's why we had a Hulk LE. So you could see how the product stands up to the abuse oh high volume traffic. Even though the ball never even touches our product. So there was a game there to do this on. We are not there to win awards, We are there to offer a product that many like at discounted rates and save shipping cost. Plus, show off the product to pinball owners who have no clue about forum. We had a new employee helping this year and he asked us to turn on IM. 15 minutes later he begged to turn it off as the traffic inside the booth was so thick that no sales were going on. Sales stopped as people could even get to the other two machines still off.
I am not sure I agree that machines to show product makes you high dollar car dealer? Even though we did here quite often we had a nice booth. Anyway, last year we had none on and this year we brought 1 to play. If you have a machine for sell and I bought it, and said I do not want anyone else playing this? (Could break as you stated) you would tell me no? I would just back out of the deal. It would be their machine, it doesn't matter if you agree with them or not. Anyway, glad you saved some money and sorry you feel that way. It was one of our most successful shows we have ever had so we are very pleased.

I guess what I really would like to know is this:

Would you rather a vender be there so you can buy their products at better pricing?
or
a vendor not be there at all?

Also, we want to know this, as we really do what to please as many as we can. If we bring 6 machines next year and keep them all on free play and use 4 machines off so people can see the product. Would that make people happy? or would the complaint still be there because they couldn't play the 4?

sorry minnesota13 the thread went this way…..

I've said this in a few other posts, but it deserves repeating. Great show. Thanks to all the organizers, volunteers, vendors, fellow collectors, Stern, JJP and the rest. I had an awesome weekend. Great idea having Evan Smith available to repair games. He helped my small group several times and kept our games going all weekend.

I gotta say I really enjoyed the show this year. This was my third year and the Hotel was by far the best, it was fabulous. Everyone seemed very friendly and accommodating (unlike last year).
This was the first year I tried any serious tournament play but I could tell it was much smoother than last year. The swap meet, that was run by the DFW Pinball League this year, was the biggest and best so far. Good jobs guys!
Thanks to the organizers and all that volunteered and all who brought machines!

First, it's awesome you were wanting to seek out the organizers to thank them. I know they appreciate the kind words they get. And I wholeheartedly agree with you!

Second, for next year, if you have the TPF 2014 program/brochure, it has pictures of Ed, Kim, Paul, and Ken. Also, Paul was wearing a massive Flavor Flav-sized "TPF Organizer" button on his lanyard.

This is a TPF rule and part of the privilege of letting your "for sale" machine be seen by hundreds of people. This ensures that as machines are sold the floor doesn't start emptying out.

From the terms & conditions page (http://texaspinball.com/tpf/exhibitors/terms-conditions):

"Vendors/Exhibitors agree to leave machines in service until 2:30 pm on Sunday, March 30th, 2014 and will inform buyers that machines purchased are not to be transported from the premises before that time and date. Games removed before this time period that cannot be replaced by another machine will be subject to a $60 early exit fee. Removal tickets can be purchased at the registration table."

My personal opinion? If the choice is between a vendor with machines that aren't playable versus a booth full of playable machines, I'll take the playable machines. In this particular instance for me personally, I have a four year old little boy who *really* wanted to play the Iron Man and there wasn't another Iron Man on the floor. Sure, my son isn't your target customer audience - but not only was he an exhibitor as the contents of his living room were on the floor for everyone to play at their leisure, but he was an attendee just like every other person there.

It would make more logical sense to me if you had two examples of the same machine, one playable and offset from the rest of your booth, the other close to your products so you can use it as your "new car demo" example as you are explaining and demonstrating products to customers. I don't know if that's a feasible idea, but it is a better compromise than having three machines sitting there as brightly lit and clean dead weight.

We see what your saying all 3 machines not playable and had different product in them. It not feasible to bring two machines, nor would we run out and buy another machine for thousands of dollars to push a $70.00 product. Last year we had none on free play so we felt like having 1 on free play would be better than last year. We are trying to find a fix to make more happy but not sure how yet. We were thinking of going to do the Allentown show but do to the distance in drive time we would only bring 1 machine. So now we are canceling that show. It's not worth our reputation. We try to go out of our way for customers. I guess to say we only had 1 on free play wasn't true, We have a Street Fighter 2 that was not our game on free play. The buyer wanted the game turned off after he bought it and the seller said yes he would. Out of our control and we pulled the unit from the booth at the end of the night. I would assume that the buyer and seller doesn't want anything to happen to the game and I understand that.

I like you guys. I buy your products and I enjoyed talking with you and Barry. That said, bringing $10,000 off limits pins to a show like TPF isn't the best way to make an impression on new customers. You would be better off having one of your super nice games for display only with the mirrors so people can see and then bring 3 other games for people to play. Don't bring a $10,000 restored Funhouse if it isn't really for sale. You say you didn't want to sell those other machines.....then why even bring them? I 'get' what you are saying, I just think you are going to alienate more people than bring in new customers with your format.

There are other ways to deal with traffic in your booth to keep people buying stuff and also allowing them to play games.

Believe me, had I had the money I would have taken Future Spa off of your hands. I love that game, I am just pin broke at the moment. I tried to get my dad to get it, but he didn't like it as much as me

Nothing was wrong with the magician or his magic. His unofficial marketer was a slight annoyance, however.

Hey, i'll take that. Slight is far better than "major", so I would say I am making marketable progress in a positive direction.

Here is my gripe, if you bring a machine don't list it on the TPF lineup. There were several games that were never on free play or never even turned on the entire show. Example, why is big bang bar listed on the game lineup whenever not even one game was logged on it, from what I can tell.

As we have now learned, "Game AT the show" is not the same as "Games available to PLAY at the show".

In the case of BBB, the machine came into the auction from a private owner with a $20,000 reserve. The owner also said "I dont want anyone to play the machine". They brought it out in case anyone wanted to pay the $20k (it was about $2k short in the bidding) so that they could take it home from the auction...

Otherwise it would not have been there at all.

I was lobbying to at least have it booted up in attract mode (the art package is UNREAL on the game), but alas this was also shot down.

Games like that shouldn't be on the main show floor, IMHO. Set aside a corner or room for them so they aren't in the way of what 90% of people come their for, which is games they can PLAY

Our machines were never on the machine list on the TPF lineup. We think we have figured out how to fix the problem. Now, it will just take time to put it into place. GOV gave us some food for thought….Thanks

I could care less if a game is for sale, playable or whatever.
The owner took the time to bring something to the show that we all like, a pinball machine.
The Funhouse was spectacular and I was glad to have the opportunity to see it.
I also find it a bit humorous that everyone was telling the guy in Corpus with the Acrylic Pinball that he should bring the machine even though it would not be playable or for sale.

LOL!! YEP!!

Did I wanna play? Sure! Did I appreciate just being able to see such a beautiful machine a a consolation? Yep!

In a perfect world, every machine would be on free play and work 100% of the time. But when this is not possible, the 2nd best thing is getting to look at the game at all...

Honestly I was excited to see a BBB at all... even not plugged in just sitting there. To me... thats more exciting than a BBB in some dudes house 1000 miles away. I would love to PLAY it, but if thats not possible, at least I get to look at it and see it up close.

The Pinball Mirrors Funhouse was like a jewel... so beautiful. I had fun just standing next to it.

TPF-2014

The Good:
- Embassy Suites Hotel & Convention Center -- good fit for TPF
- hotel staff and conv center staff were friendly
- parking (I parked outside in one of the spots along the perimeter and had easy access to my truck and no problems all weekend)
- elec power supply -- was fine in general. We had no problems in the ArkLaTex Pinball Club section.
I only heard of one or two small problems with someone else's machine where it was plugged in at.
- great restaurant across the street that we could walk to
- TPF organizers and vols. Most everything seemed to run fairly smooth including check-in & set-up.
A guy even helped me with unloading my pinball machine Fri early afternoon.
- nice variety of pins available to play (e-m's through the newest 2013/2014 modern pins).
- The Pinsmith pinball repair service tech was impressive. Good that he was at TPF to help out fixing machines.
- The Guinness World Record attempt Fri 5 pm was a fun event. Good idea. Was happy to participate.
- guest speakers line-up was great. I sat through and listened to several on Sat.
(Missed Steve's talk on Fri night, but I have sat in on his talks at past TPF shows and past Hou Arcade Expos. It was really nice to see Steve R. make the effort to come again to TPF.)
- glad Dirty Donnie made it to TPF. He was as friendly as the last show I saw him at (Hou Arcade Expo).
- Tournament area -- Things seemed to go well this year. Way to go!
- Elevation Games handing out beer huggers -- That worked out great. Thanks.
- After Hours Party Sat night from Midnight to 3 am -- Enjoyed it. Played more pinball.
- the complimentary breakfast buffet set-up was pretty good.
- Oh, the chef cookin the omlettes during breakfast hrs downstairs in hotel was fast and did a great job

The Bad:
- I'm drawing a blank here.
Edit: Charging a fee for wifi for internet service at this hotel was sort of lame.
I decided to just use the hotspot on my phone instead of paying the extra hotel fee.

The Ugly:
- Some people at the festival seemed to be overweight.
Might want to work on that this Spring, so you can look good in your swimsuit this summer.

Seemed to me like tear-down went quite well Sun afternoon.

When I left at 5 pm, it looked like about 75% of the machines were already loaded out or at least ready to be loaded up. I noticed several people helping others out after they got their pins loaded up for the trip home. I helped out for an hour or so.

everyone was great during tear-down. all so helpful with each other.

that reminds me.
i found a silver dolly close to the back. it had a little american flag on a cross bar facing the back side.
i told one of the local dallas guys who had pins there & helps organize local events.
hope it finds its way home.

Ed and Paul were both looking for dollies when we left at six or so. I haven't heard if they found them or not.