You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider cyberslunk.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
I've been very curious, reading a lot about operating a pinball machine on a route and figured someone must know. Say you bought a brand new Stern of something really popular and put in on location in a bar or someplace profitable, how much in 2020 would you say that could make you a month?
Quoted from LesManley:That depends on so many different variables. Which game, what location, is it maintained, how much per play, etc...
Most people with options are not going to travel to a destination for a single pin, so you would end up with mainly whatever casual traffic that location gets that cares enough to drop money into whatever themed single game you have there. The short answer is most likely not enough to justify doing it.
Say it's Stranger Things in a really hip new bar that's perfectly maintained and on for $1 a play. How many would you say you need to justify the income?
Quoted from CrazyLevi:I can see you haven’t put a lot of thought into this.
You may “make” a few hundred bucks in a good month with your new pin. Divide that in half with the location.
Most likely, that one game will make less money the next month, and less still the month after that as players tire of it and the game starts to get beat up.
This is when you rotate a different game in there.
So now you have two pins. And so on.
I wouldn’t “operate” a single pin on anything other than a total lark.
That's the type of answer I was looking for
Quoted from freeplay3:Not much. I have a route. I do pinball because I love pinball. A good spot may do 3 or 4 hundred for a month or two, then the next big thing comes out and it's doing 80 bucks a month. Games like JP, SW, GB that are huge names will make money longer then something like IMDN. While IMDN is considered a great game by pinheads, you make your money on the casual player.
Would you consider this your primary occupation or just a side gig? How many games do you have?
Quoted from LesManley:$1.00 unless you fix the lock post and the one way gate before you route it because that's how much you'd probably get before it broke and jammed up the balls on you.
I couldn't resist, and yes I know from personal experience.
Ha, that's really too bad. Hopefully they fix their QC issues
I know my question sounded naïve, but I was mainly asking about 1 to get a base common value to expand on from there. I suppose that is not the way to go about thinking of this, as I need to have several as you all said. It's hard to even imagine taking care of that many, I admire what you guys do. It seems like a lot of work and I'm interested in it for that reason as well as the emotional satisfaction of that type of work. This is all currently just a pie in the sky dream of mine, but wanted to get some advice from professionals, so thank you for reaching out to me with info. I'm always thinking of side ways to make income and this seems like a potential one. I wish you pinballers all the best
Quoted from tullster:The phone app is the best thing to happen to jukes in years. Customers don't even need to get off their barstools, and will have music wars. The metal folk will piss off the country folk and vice versa. They can do it anonymously too, and don't even need to be present to send "Seasons in the Sun" as a gift for all to enjoy.
The cut AMI or Touchtunes takes off the top sucks, but it's the price you pay to do business these days.
Yup, when I go to the bar my buddies drop tons of cash on these apps playing ridiculous songs
Are there any good arcade/coin op resources online/in print? I read through a State of the Coin-Op industry infographic but it was from 2015. It brought things up such as what makes the most money, with pinball being around $44 and things like a pool table being $90. Internet enabled jukeboxes I believe were the highest over $100.
Quoted from MrBally:Go to a real brick and mortar distributor and discuss entering the Operating business with them. Most of the sales guys worked in game /vending Operating at some point. Don't rely on the ones who primarily sell pins to hobbyists/collectors, they are valuable but cater to a different market and most don't have route operating experience.
Alternately, call your state Operator's association and ask to attend a meeting and consider joining the association. Subscribe to RePlay Magazine. Read the articles, consider attending the annual industry trade show.
This will help you decide if the business is right for you. Everyone who started a route placed a first machine into a location. Some may have had another three in their truck, but it all starts with one.
Thank you for this wisdom, I somehow missed this message glancing through the thread. Great advice, thank you sir.
You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider cyberslunk.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-much-could-you-make-off-operating-1-pin?tu=cyberslunk and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
