Or you could go hustle on making a game sale or doing a side gig of some kind to help afford to keep your own business afloat and take down your gofundme

Never met a business owner that only worked during their business' hours

NOPE! Me either!

I'm here on location, so not sure what you mean

That is actually a great analogy for the situation...

I still don't understand - you bragged about how you had enough money saved to make it through a year without being opened (if it came to that)...but you recently made a large bulk buy. So rather than mooch off of people, why not sell stuff you bought and make it on your own?

All set to go and ready for a great day

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Otaku’s new avatar rules lol

What’s that character’s role in q Bert?

An annoying little prick who just shows up every so often to disrupt your game

Looks great. Now all you need are customers.

I thought it was the gibberish speech and run-on sentences

The wife's slowly getting the hang of the Pinside thing and she's a lot more eloquent than I in the words department. This is more of the kind of thing I hope to do here with my return on my own account... being civil... sharing updates... (and bullshitting with @CrazyLevi).

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gameseum-in-ephrata-pa-now-re-open-80-cabinets-100-games

Y’all got married?

Got customers...

Early afternoon all-day-pass rush coming in, very typical for the summer. They are actually beating the timed passes so far since opening believe it or not, which is helpful. Up to 5 of those right now. Typically see a majority of those passea bought early in the day so people can get the most hours out of it (and comes with free re-entry so people usually leave and grab dinner and come back). Towards the night it obviously goes more towards the timed passes but also get the people planning to stay 3 hours or so buying the all-day passes at like 6 PM, so it's all over the place.

Sold over 20 of those last weekend alone, one family stayed 9 hours straight with it... it was nice. It's a bargain for 10 hours of fun! One of our best sellers, and it's really pulling into the lead since re-opening.

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This is all he has to tell them if they call...

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Otaku, Do you have a drinking or drug problem? Most of your posts are complete derails!!!

I tried to give you credit but you still come back for more harassment and publicity!!!

Yes. So are we!

Otaku Any chance you'd like to respond to the reason you created a shill account to blow smoke up everyone's ass? It seems unnecessary to create a false identity to further your agenda with how well things are going for you.

Why so upset? Having a business account (run by somebody else) and a personal account is usually how things are done. Good to seperate. I'm just one link in the chain, and want to keep personal opinions to myself.

Riiiiight..... This is so laughable. If you were a man of your word, we wouldn't even be reading any posts from you.

Not sure how one defines "very typical" with less than two summers of data in the books. That said...
With the all-day passes selling like hotcakes, 10,000 adoring customers just waiting to get in there, and this site being so important to you that you've returned (yet again...); I'm surprised you haven't donated to pinside in years.

Why are you still here and not running your business.....

He is...let a couple customers in, use computer for a minute, brag about it on social media, sit back down and check gofundme accounts and pinside/klov.

He is talking about your fake account where you pretended to be someone else. Have an answer now?

Who tried saying publicly to me that they would donate money to a game place if I did....well....I did.....what happened on their end?

He is referring to when you created the fake Pinside user XeXPinball and pretended to be someone else.

Why did you do that? Or do you still claim it wasn't you?

For reference: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gameseum-gaming-gala-sept-15?tq=&tu=xexpinball

Not me. He wears khakis. Lame. Sweatpants are all the rage.

I still can’t believe you posted a picture of you trying on pants in a changing room as proof That you had changed your sweatpants-only ways.

Let’s see a picture of you in public in pants without an elastic waistband or drawstring!!!

I told you I bought 'em, dammit Levi!

I wear a lot of jeans these days. Well, shorts now. Fucking hot this year.

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Sweatpants are still way sexier though. I just ordered a custom pair with Pinside embroided across the asscheeks in hot pink. I hope that quenches the extreme thirst of my wardrobe for some of those here hot and bothered.

Or maybe this? Double entendre.

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Lookin sharp bro. That's how you should look when you do your press interviews.

I actually picked out my outfit for my next big appearance.

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The early 90s called; they want their Glamour Shot back

10,000 customers per year?

Assuming you are open every day (never sick, no holidays etc) that works out to 27.4 customers per day. Let's call it 30 to be fair.

Each person spending $25, that is $750 daily revenue; with an annual revenue of $273,750 excluding any unknowns like vending machine income etc.
Why solicit go-fund me's?
Why the lack of new titles, or redemption games?
Why haven't you made good on old debts?

I have to ask, for clarification....What is your business plan, or growth strategy?

- Jim

I did this math, figured how many people per hour average he would see etc. After he said he had 2 today....

WasI going to comment, but just shook my head and stopped myself. Lol

I don't have any debts.

We're a retro arcade, I don't do new titles, and definitely no redemption stuff, so I think you're confusing that as some kind of loss. It's a different type of arcade. That's exactly what I and other retro arcades don't do (look at any others it's the same way), tickets and kiddie casino games are not part of this type of business and we actually get a lot of people coming in happy to not see them... part of the experience. They're so tired of the ticket games, Flappy Bird and other games they find at like D&B's. New pinball would probably be the exception, and that's planned for the future.

I don't have a firm cutoff on what games are too new, but definitely no redemption games period. It's like apples to oranges, two different types of arcades. I think they're actually called "redemption arcades" or "ticket centers" for that reason. Very different, the whole place. You either pick that kind, or this kind... not both. You gotta have a whole different setup and mindset to run ticket stuff. Not my thing, not a lot of people's thing anymore, and not really a great money maker. Retro stuff is way hotter these days. Plus sets me apart from the big corporate competitors who do redemption all day long, but can never touch retro stuff. I'm not trying to be Dave & Buster's competition... it's just two very different things, and people choose one or the other.

$25 is our most expensive option but there are lower tier options as well, so it's not necessarily 10,000 x $25.

(Sans Buzzy Buzzy Bee and Spider Stompin' because I bought those for the really young kids, and those play like classic games rather than ticket games, and don't have tickets in them. You would not believe how enticed grown men get over plastic bees )

Dude, redemption arcades make exponentially more money these days than an arcade like yours. Are you serious?

You do realize that everyone here knows that you are lying, correct? How do you expect anyone to take you serisouly?

No way. That's why a lot of small redemption places are falling by the wayside... it's lost its touch. Killed arcades in the late 80's, was really hot in the 90's and 2000's, and is fading fast now.

Chuck E. Cheese just went bankrupt, our local one closes this month. Dave & Busters' does okay but they have a ton of selection, have the monopoly, and I think they rely a lot on their food and drinks.

I think people realized it's stupid to pay $50 for a 50 cent prize, and how stale the games are in those places. It's like a half-baked game where you roll a coin down a chute over and over, to cash in and win a crappy prize. The games don't make sense without the prize, rely on the prize factor for fun factor, the prizes are lame, and the cost to win ratio is obviously very low even to consumers. My local ticket arcade closed about a year or two ago as well.

Coin drop, in general, doesn't pay the bills anymore, and the prizes certainly aren't adding much of a bonus. Any redemption arcade you find will either be corporate, gigantic, or most likely attached to another attraction (bowling alley, go-karting, food, family fun center, etc.)... it's not a great business.

Fair enough, subjectively speaking most pinsiders are against the redemption games. Most modern arcades however focus strongly on the ticket redemption versus classic games as it is a much higher revenue stream. Certainly they more strongly appeal to the younger generation over Space Invaders etc.

I asked about your business plan as a result. Did you find the magic location, the perfect combination of games, the reason to not have alcohol present to supplement income?

Zero sarcasm implied here; Share your wisdom and findings, please. I myself would be very interested in your discoveries, tweaking, and forecast.

- Jim

I have seen all of the acrimony in this thread. Some may be appropriate.

Regardless, you deserve credit for starting a new business, even more so at your younger age. I admire your pinball selections too. I hope you can reach new audiences and inspire the appreciation that we had as kids.

To be fair though, most of the modern arcade locations rely heavily on food and drink sales. Ticket redemption games appeal in that "kiddie casino" aspect. As they are heavily corporate, success is contingent on profit, not fun. The pandemic is weeding out a lot of these struggling locations.

Why no new titles if you are as successful as you say? Wouldn't the Stern offerings, or CGC remakes be a feasible addition? Maybe even rotate games in and out of the line up?

- Jim

Shhhhhhh.

That's scheduled for the next GoFundMe.

Tl;dr please

I appreciate your sincerity. I found a very centralized location, really tweaked the admission system to ensure a good financial situation (coin drop/card swipe doesn't work anywhere anymore as good as admission, that's for sure, admission is a wonderful thing), and honestly we get a TON of kids that go nuts for the games.

With as many games as we have now, the average person either goes for the 2 hour pass or all day pass. When we had less games, it was interesting because it was not this way, and it makes sense. Once we passed 70 games or so there was a really strong noticable shift over the course of a month that remains. It's nice. And it adds up. Family of 5 comes in for 3 hours, and it's $125. They leave smiling and wanting to come back for more, and we see a lot of families who come in at least two or three times a month, and if they don't, there's another family coming in anyways. We do get a lot of people who come in for an hour and end up staying 4-5 hours because they enjoy it so much, and you pay at the end, so the system accounts for that. It's all very upfront and we make it very clear, and thus anybody who stays longer than they mentioned when they came in, usually isn't doing so by accident. We make sure people know to watch the clock, because I'm not out to make money swindling people... if they go over they are pretty much always aware of it, did it because they wanted to, and are happy about it.

As for kids, especially with Stranger Things out now, the kids are really rabid about it, but even without that they really enjoy it. I was expecting mainly an adult prescence but it's actually about half and half. There also seems to be the same large animosity with young teenagers about ticket games and "how stupid the crappy prizes are at places like that" (thanks teenage angst), so I hear a lot from them about how much more they enjoy an arcade like this.

We have a pretty strong following with the local high school crowd and have become the local hangout for a lot of them which definitely helps too.

We get a lot of people coming in and I am really a social media/advertising expert so we get people coming in no problem (I think a lot of people, especially older folks, struggle in that department, I think it's a nice bonus of the age - social media is like second nature). It is not uncommon for us, in full honesty, to pull a bigger salary than if I were a surgeon per month (when not in COVID of course), and that's without having to dish out any of it for prizes, tickets, swipe cards, etc., I basically just keep the electricity on, keep the arcade stocked full and keep it fresh, and keep the games running well, and it works. I have a medical condition that gives me bouts of being unable to do much, so I also kind of shaped it to where I can take a few days off of doing anything but desk work now and then if I need to (a lot of our stuff is bulletproofed really strong inside, work smarter not harder, so I don't have a lot of failures). And it really can be hands off some days, because we don't even use coins, so not even any coin jams. It's a dream come true and a nice living, and even if it wanes in time and I only have half of the year I did last year, it would still turn a profit and be a decent career.

I'm sure there's some good secrets and tips in there, but I don't even know if I could rattle them off, even if I wanted to. I just have a knack for it.

It can be pretty hands off if need be but I do like to keep adding things, rotating things, doing special events, getting involved, etc., because I enjoy it. But no replacing tickets, no giving out prizes, no coin jams, etc.

I am very well versed in repair, even down to circuit boards, so I do all the repairs myself while somebody (usually my wife) mans the desk. It saves a lot of money to not have to outsource repairs or send boards out, and transistors are like what, 10 cents? So repairs are usually pretty cheap. Bonus of the old stuff is you can actually fix it for cheap, instead of replacing a whole assembly of non-servicable parts.

Probably will hire a high schooler at some point to take some of the load off, but haven't felt the need yet. We're hoping to buy a house in the next year or two, so I figure we may as well grind it hard and save up.

As for alcohol, I just haven't had the need... the numbers have been there without it, because I plan and operate my business to run without needing to rely on anything and be entirely self-propelling with just the games. We don't even do BYOB. No need, but also keeps things less rowdy I guess. Rather than pulling out all the cards at once I try to save them for the future if I ever get in a bind.

Same with food and drink. No need right now, but did start providing near-cost drinks and snacks because it makes people stay longer. Making money from the food and drinks isn't the point, so I went with near-cost. A $1.50 soda has turned a potential $10 sale into a $25 sale... times an entire family. Lots of people plan to leave, see we have drinks, and stay.

This was on purpose. I planned to spend the first year buying quantity of lesser expensive games to help fill the space and really get it packed in here, because especially with laymen, the visuals count. It worked, as described above, we noticed a large shift once the count passed a certain point. We started out a little empty and I expected to take a hit for that, so I decided to invest the first year's profits into mainly buying games back to back and fleshing out the space. Quantity, but quality at the same time, no junk or filler - I took middle ground and bought a lot of well-remembered 80's stuff for instance, rather than a bunch of crappy EMs or something like that. Mid 80's Williams stuff people went nuts for and doesn't break the bank. A lot of the people that come in here would rather play 20 old games than a brand new Stern if they had the choice anyways - it's completely backwards from the collector world, and the nice thing is Gorgar is just as beloved as Getaway (kind of refreshing honestly). So it relies less heavily than most think on what exact games you have or how new they are. A lot of times here the numbers impress more than what games you have (but I don't abuse that and just have a bunch of turd games either, I bring in good stuff). A lot of the stuff wins points for being old too, so it actually does better for me to have a well-remembered favorite than a newer game in some cases, not to mention it being cost-effective. It's completely backwards from the collector world, but here on the business end, our Pac-Man cabinet may be more valuable than a brand new Stern.

New Sterns and stuff were (were... we'll see) planned for year 2 (this year), now that I have successfully basically filled the building to its maximum, as planned. Year 2, with quantity done, will now be refining the selection and eliminating any games that don't get a lot of love and replacing them with fan favorites to really make an A-list selection.

I spent a good chunk last summer buying several tractor trailers I store some extra games in on some land (sold some of those games to make ends meet of course) that I will use to rotate games in and out now that we are full as well, to still keep things fresh even though we're filling up. Focus is definitely now shifting (when things go back to normal) to the more expensive games now that I've fulfilled everything else I wanted to do, and can justify saving up for months on end for a game, rather than trying to hammer down on ensuring we had 5 or more new games per month. Now that it's full in here, I can take a breath essentially. Which is good, because this year will probably be nothing but saving up a safety net again instead, and the collection is convieniently vast enough now to hold its own for quite some time and give anybody who comes in an absolutely fantastic experience, even if they come back multiple times.

People say sell some games, but it's not that easy... when you're charging admission, you gotta keep the place full and live up to expectations, and especially don't go in reverse. People notice missing games really particularly, even just one. When you are taking money upfront, you have to deliver of course. So it's not like I can liquidate half of my assets and expect nobody to notice or to not shoot myself in both feet in an instant. Pinside may dislike it but for longterm success these games aren't going anywhere, and if you look at any other arcades doing fundraisers, it's pretty much the same way for them - no liquidation. Too risky. The worst thing you can do during this low point is give people less reasons to come back.

Not many here see it but I know exactly what I am doing and there is tons of thought put into everything. The entire year was consistent and we never had a particularly rough month (until everybody started having a rough month, of course). Thanks again for talking shop and the sincerity, it was enjoyable!

Must be super busy at the arcade today.

Jesus don't get Steven the blowhard going. The guy is a textbook narcissist. Still haven't answered the question why you created an alt account and pretended to be someone else Steven. Sure have a lot of time on your hands to create customs sweatpants and write 20 paragraph diatribes of how great you are. Let's see the pics of your crowded arcade that is doing so well but not well enough that you aren't going to continually ask for hand outs.

Are you thinking he needs to be egged on into even longer rants and have more millennial illusions of self granger or further have self ego stroked?

Great...now you're making him scan his computer looking for old photos.