Hello Pinsiders. Long time lurker ... first time poster

I have personally imported 3x 20' Containers out of Italy into New Zealand. Yes, thats over 100 pinball machines.

Mainly to bolster my own personal collection (I have 100+ machines in my house at present) and to replenish the New Zealand pinball supply, which is pretty low (a lot of machines were parted out in the 1990s and early 2000s for parts)

I always import full containers (36 machines, or a few less if you ship Pin2000s)

The containers are a mixed bag. Some are ok, some are crap. Most are average. These are generally NOT COLLECTOR QUALITY MACHINES!

For you guys from the States, you would be foolish to import machines ... you have 1000's in the States as it is, there is no reason to import B-grade machines. I look on ebay.com all the time with envy at the selection and prices you guys can get. Over here, we *REALLY* don't have enough machines to go around, so I choose to import them. I am introducing a lot of new people to pinball as a hobby, I view it as doing my little bit to advance the hobby of pinball playing and collecting in NZ.

Yes, I probably make a (very) small profit on a container. But as a business man, I would make a LOT more bringing in containers of sofas (I used to import 90-100 40ft HC a year of furniture) with ZERO EFFORT. Bringing all these pinball machines up to even just a "saleable standard" takes me 100's of hours. Not commercially viable IMO but it is more of a hobby to me. Plus I get a few machines for my collection that I simply can not get here in NZ, as there aren't any!

If you wanted to do it, be prepared to invest around $50,000 USD in a 20' container, and to pay for storage for 6 months while you do them up. I am lucky, I own a few warehouses with container unloading facilities I can use at no cost. Most people forget about this massive cost when they import things. It's all very well to import "cheap anything" but add on warehousing costs for 6 months and they are not cheap anymore. I've seen a lot of importers go down the toilet as they don't know the real costs of importing.

I have no idea on the import duties etc in the USA, but factor in port charges, container charges, trucking charges, devanning charges etc etc into the mix and costs go up a lot.

A group buy is asking for arguments and problems. Everyone will want the other guys machines and feel ripped. If there is ONE GUY with a spare $50,000 USD and a big warehouse he owns, it may work. But be prepared to spend 100's of man hours to make maybe $5-10k profit by the time you've finished. Hardly worth it when you live in the "garden of eden" of pinball machines ....

Just my opinion

cheers
Dave