IN short, yes you can make money.

Longer answer, it will depend greatly on your location/town/games/etc...

As others have said, do it for the love of pinball and it is all good. If you are legitimately doing it to make money, then you could make more cash doing almost anything else with your time. I kept track for a short while and time/$$$ invested vs payout was so small I quickly stopped paying attention to the time spent.

The rewards are in meeting new people, sharing pinball with them, and seeing that spark when they figure out 'it"

I whole heartedly encourage anyone to give it a try that is going in with the right attitude up front.

There are some people showing an 18 month payoff on games (That SWpro thread) and that would be a dream come true for most.

Others I have spoken to the payoff is MUCH longer.

often, other operators are happy to have someone come in that is ONLY doing pins. Dan, we can talk more about this if you want some pointers in person.

in short, most operators know that pinball is the least return. However, many bars request pins so it can be a win/win.

I have 2 friends that operated in the 90s. The number 1 issue they had to deal with....

Coin jams because the coin box was too full!!!!!!!!!! EVERY WEEK!!!!!

1 place had 4 TAF all lined up in a 20 pin row and they were emptying the $400 in quarters form each one once a WEEK!!!!

4 month payoff must have been amazing!

the worst (to fix) story I know of is one operator being pissed at another back in the early 90s. He took a can of Great Stuff and unloaded it through the coin doors of a few of his rivals games.

I saw 1 such game in an old barn and was told this story. The game was not pretty.

important advice if you do decide to put games out

Buy some new coin mechs. Mechs are a PITA and always nice to have some nice new spares to easily drop in so you can take the old one home to ultrasonicate/clean and adjust.

Put new beer seal on old games. Reality is that even well intentioned pinheads sometimes spill entire beers on games. A fresh beer seal and properly adjusted lock down bar can mean the difference between a hell of a mess and not a big deal.

did you catch the person that did it?

or did it happen spontaneously?

very cool he took ownership of it. sucks, but that is cool.

I bet he will never smack a game again