What rentals in my area? Lmao

I think the rental would be a cool idea if it was a rent to own deal. Even at a markup might be worth it.

$200 a month around here for renting a pin. MMR, MBr, Iron Maiden, Jurassic Park, GOTG etc. I wouldn’t pay more than 200 per month, that seems like a fair deal for a rental

These are the prices I was quoted the other day

My current list of games:
$200 Pool Sharks
$250
Space Jam, WWE Wrestlemania, Dracula

$300
AFM, Funhouse, Whirlwind, Creature From The Black Lagoon

$350 Deadpool pro, Ghostbusters Prem, Iron Man, Kiss Prem, TRON, Walking Dead Pro,

$400
Octoberfest, Spider-Man Vault,

Jay bird where in illinois were you quoted those prices?

That sounds too low when you factor in travel time, set up, breakdown, wear and tear, risk, etc.

$200 a month if you go pick up the pin. I think delivery would be $100. So first month $300, then $200 a month going forward. This is the going price in NC area. Of course each area of the country varies and could be more or less.

I’m currently renting a GOTG pro right now, $200 a month.

Schaumburg, not sure if he still has all of those, I sent you a PM

I wish we could rent pins in Louisiana. Totally not an option though. I’d heard of renting pins in the Dallas area.

Around here it is about $300 per month (including delivery and setup), with consecutive months being cheaper. EMs would be cheaper, but no one wants those. Everyone wants the newest games. One friend I have locally here has rented 9 or more of his games for the time being that are usually on route so people are doing it here locally.

our info is here:
pends which game (3 pricing tiers)
cant rent a 1k game same price as an 8k game honestly.
distance, if steps are involved are also factors.

argamingrentals.com

imagine if the renter is an hour away (one way) and it gets played so much things break, the owner is making trips back and fourth to repair.
too cheap
get the game back, have to do full shop job, etc. i have seen rented games get more than 1000 plays in a month.

In a home or being routed? I have heard of operators leasing machines.

I would totally drive to and from Houston to get to rent new games. Does anyone know if renting machines is an option in Houston? If so, where?

Yeah, I contacted both of the big route operators here and neither of them had the slightest interest in renting machines out. I guess they'd prefer no income to the hassles of renting? Talked to both of our barcades as well, and neither of them wants to do rentals either. Guess it really depends where you are in the country.

I have a Aerosmith Prem rented $400 a mo
Breakshot $200 mo.

been kicking around the idea of trying a few more. But want my games in the bars...whenever they open.

I do min 4 months. Then they can trade for a different game.

175-275 were the options from my renter.

175 for games like firepower, silver ball mania etc.

275 for Johnny mnemonic and a couple others.

I paid 200 for a Gottlieb silver slugger for the month. All delivery and maintenance fees included!

Another place in town has offered 200, there is another Place where the games are 400.

Some are renting out in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. I've been approached by about a half dozen people asking me if i would rent my pins out. It just seems like too much risk...in multiple forms.

Joystix

https://www.joystixgames.com/product-category/game-rentals/pinball-game-rentals/

I think it's hilarious that an Octoberfest is 400$ a month and one of the most expensive games to rent on your list while there are a lot better games listed in the other categories!
Wouldn't even want to play that one for free, let alone pay a premium price for it

Oktoberfest is a heck of a game... but you also rated JJP POTC a 3 out of 10 so maybe you just don’t like fun, jam packed games.

Obviously everyone's business is their own, but I don't get charging $400 or $500 a month to rent a pinball machine. You wouldn't normally make that much money off a pin after splitting with the location, would you? And machines on location can get broken or damaged just as easily as ones at home. Besides, speaking for myself, any pin in my house gets taken care of much better than any at a bar or traditional arcade.

Have you seen the way some non-pinheads play sometimes? I've literally seen kids and "special" people slam the flippers bam,bam,bam,bam nonstop until the ball drains, and then bam,bam,bam,bam until ball 2 drains, and then bam,bam,bam,bam continually until ball 3 drains. Makes me cringe everytime it happens. I'm honestly surprised that you don't get more blown flipper coils from location pins.

But anyway, I think a short interview with the prospective renter could weed out people unsuited to having your games in their house, and you could charge a deposit if you were worried about any damage. It seems like some operators are thinking they'd get calls all the time to come over and fix things. I just don't think that's what would actually happen. Surely the only people interested in pin rentals are actual pinheads that wouldn't break stuff, and that would know how to take off the glass to remove a stuck ball.

Obviously, operators have to do what they're comfortable with. I just don't understand why having a pin in a responsible pinheads house is any more of a risk than having it in a bar or arcade, or why/how it would be any more of a maintenance problem. But that's just my thinking. I'm of the "rent out pins to make a little money while they're sitting idle" mindset.

You likely represent a "best case scenario," however. There will always be people that mistreat them. What about the renter's kids, friends, and random other people they may know? What about if they place drinks on games, smoke constantly around them, have dogs that pee on them, etc? Once the renter is out of sight, they can (and will) do whatever they want...just ask people that rent out homes.

You then have the issue of tech calls. I am sure some people would take immaculate care of them...but i am also sure there are people that would call every week or even each day asking questions and requesting tweaks. There will also be the ones that try to fix it themselves and end up doing far more damage.

What happens if they decide to just steal it...or someone sees it being delivered and they break in and steal it? What if they decide not to pay and make you go through endless hoops to recover the money and/or machine?

How about if someone playing it has covid-19...or herpes...or HIV...or the flesh eating virus? Maybe not...but also...maybe so.

The point is that there are a lot of things to consider, and there is a very wide range of personalities that could/would rent/use these games. Even with interviews and contracts, some people simply dont care.

There is value to anything, you just have to ask what that number is. 50 a week just isnt worth it. 500 a week (at least for me) would be, but everyone is different. The going rate seems to be about 200-500 a month with a 3-6 month contract. At those prices, i wouldnt consider renting unless i was destitute. The market will settle it, though.

I hear you and appreciate your perspective, but I also think you're talking about a worst case scenario. Many of those same things could also happen at a bar or pizza place. And there are a lot of solutions to the issues that you bring up:

Worried about them not paying you, require the renter to pre-pay. Easy enough.
Worried about unusual damage, require a refundable deposit. Easy enough.
Worried about pet damage? Pinball machines have metal legs, so it would be basically impossible for a dog to damage them with teeth or urine.

Worried about cats on top of the glass, then say no homes with cats.
Worried about drinks, then make sure they all have pin-gulbs attached.
Worried about strangers/friends not following the rules? Well we're in a lockdown so they shouldn't be having people over anyway.
Worried about a machine being stolen? Happens all the time to machines at locations when they're closed. But with the lockdowns, everyone is basically home all the time now, so it'd be damn hard to rob someone's house.

Worried about the renter just mistreating the game in any number of ways? Only rent to someone who all ready has at least 1 pin, and when you drop the game off see how their game looks, and see how their home looks. Don't like what you see, then don't drop the game off. Very different from home/apartment rentals where you have to take the renters word. When you're dropping off a pin, you can actually see how the renter is living and how they take care of their games.

Or lastly, just only rent to people you trust or can verify their integrity in some way. Easy enough.

But as I said, that's just what makes sense to me. Every operator has to do what makes sense for them.

A good general price range is 10% of the value of the game for a month rental, with a two month minimum. So games like JM, JY, NGG etc would be 300 a month. Pinbot and such 200 a month. Newer sterns 400-450. I also give the option of opening a brand new stern pro for 500 a month.

I saw someone else mention lease/rent to own. My rule on that is that half of the rental fee is able to be applied to the purchase price. IE: I set up a Ghostbusters pro for rental, Purchase price is 4500. Rental price is 450/month. after the 2 month rental, the renter likes the game and wants to keep it. their price is then 4050. (4500 for the game, minus 50% of rental fee (900/2=450)

@vidgameseller, thanks for sharing your rental structure and glad to see our pricing and program are reasonable. I started renting monthly as an experiment since we were closing the showroom and needed to keep the business going. Started with people we knew from tournaments at the shop or the community, but that quickly grew to fresh faces and how to establish trust. Now in our sixth week, we have five customers whose rental came to term and they have rolled on to month two. Today, thanks to this post we are extending our trust with our first “pick up and take it with you” rental to ThisNotes4U who is driving over 2 hours to rent a Ghostbusters Pro. We’ve previously delivered, set up, signed the contract and taken a picture of the game in home for some sense of security. Pinheads are generally good people and we feel better having set the game up in their home or garage versus seeing them drive off and hope their not heading for the state line!

Getting games into people’s homes is what it’s really about for me: Growing the Pinball Owner community to bring future people to the hobby and give families the chance to see how much (or little) they enjoy having a pinball machine in their homes.

Thanks and much love to my Little Shop Of Games crew, who are helping to make this experiment a new facet of our business: David LSOG-Dave / Dennis Estenze / Jon-Paul Pfunk237 / Jason Pinball7507

Marshall Dickson
Little Shop Of Games
813-951-1602

F84F655D-6CBF-408E-82F3-29855C01627F (resized).jpeg

C1B2EABF-964C-4A82-9E0E-4AE8E74A37E5 (resized).jpeg

Does Charlie rent them by the month though? I know he does the destination parties and receptions and what not, I didn’t know he would rent/lease mid term as contemplated in this thread.

A local couple rented a Stern JP for a month or two from Charlie. Probably will be limited games he is willing to rent.

Have you tried to reach out to the mystic krewe of silver ball folks @tigerlaw?

I to am renting a machine from Marshall. Actually swapping out an EHOH today for a Wonka. Cant recommend him enough for both sales and rentals.

We are renting games. $200-350/month. 2 month minimum. Free delivery, set up and pick up are all included in that price.

Breakdown is as follows:

Stern LE, Chicago gaming LE, JJP LE, or any game valued over $8,000. = $350/month.

Stern Pros, higher value DMD games, American Pinball Games, Spooky Games = $300/month

Mid Range DMD games, WPC 95, Stern Sam and Whitestar games = $250/month

Everything else = $200/month.

We are giving the money to our employees that we make with this venture. Some are still working. Some are not. Rent, bills, whatever we can do to improve their lives in the short term. I am grateful to everyone that reached out to us to lease a game while this is all going on. Hopefully it will be not too much longer but I intend to throw a huge celebration specifically for all those that supported us, catered, free beer and booze and some live entertainment once we are back on our feet!

We service PA, WV, OH and MD. The lease is for Western PA, Eastern OH and northern WV.

Thank you for your kind words.

cjmjmm2006 Are you still doing the home leases?

there's a local place near me that's doing monthly rentals. rates are $200/mo for one pin, $300/mo for two, and no extra cost for transport if you're in the area.

Silver_spinner in Michigan is a great source for rentals. I got a JP and DP, excellent communication and very professional. Good selection of pins from EM’s to modern titles.
Argamingrentals.com

Holy shit, I'm in the wrong line of work.