If your time is valued at all, the answer is no.

You do it for the first paragraph you wrote, and if you keep your expectations right there, then you will be happy.

Tsskinne is in Indiana and has some on location.

Not much in it ti be made, most of the $ you collect goes back into maintenance, expect to spend 3-4 hours a week cleaning, adjusting etc.

My wife & I own a retail store selling mid century furniture & we have 7 pins in there for people to play. We also hold bi-weekly tournaments. Our storefront is on a busy main street so we get a lot of foot traffic on the weekends. The pins make enough to pay for maintenance, but not much else. Typically the pins are being played all weekend. The rest of the week, not so much. I try to keep them all in great shape & stay on top of the maintenance, but it seems like there's always something to fix. If they were in a bar I imagine they might get played a bit more, but the maintenance would probably double & they would likely get wrecked cosmetically. If you want to keep your pins nice, I wouldn't put them in a bar. It could work for you in other venues though.

No.

Paging LTG

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Thumbs up!!

I enjoy the hobby and route my games. However, maintenance is a killer. It’s not like they’re broken all the time. You’ll have weeks and months where it’s fantastic, you’re making money, life is good!!!

BOOM! Suddenly something expensive and important breaks, or some stupid minor part in a VERY HARD TO REACH area gets messed up, and your time and money goes down the drain. That’s when you realize why people don’t route games anymore.

Also bonus points for that random asshole who comes in carves your game up because it’s funny, bends the shooter rod because they’re stupid, or just beats the piss out of your game for no reason. Love when I see my BOP or Fish Tales being used as a food and drink stand.

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Not really true. I check on my games about once every 2 weeks, takes only a few minutes. Been routing mostly stern pros for 4 years- very few minor issues. Minimal maintenance on newer stern pros

That’s why I have newer games. Less issues

Feel free to pm me with any questions or concerns

Did someone spill Brunswick stew on the game by accident?

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Do you guys that route games have insurance on your games? Ever had a game stolen or badly mistreated other than barf and being carved up.

Pinball games themselves need to change to adapt to the new generation. Confuse any casual player and you've lost them for good.

And re-think multiplayer games (the biggest earner). For example, I've come up with a new multiplayer idea for my Bond 60 game - it's simply called 'Nemesis'. If you want to know more, check my YouTube channel for the big reveal.

Sounds like your mind is made up, no amount of explanation will change that.

I would highly recommend you form a LLC and get good insurance to cover personal liability and equipment costs. Have a Laywer review a location contract spelling out your business plan and agreements. All it takes is some drunk idiot to fall and bang their head on your machine, or someone trying to slap save a ball and cut their finger on the side rail and threaten a lawsuit. Another pandemic could happen and business close with your pins in there and you might loose them or not be able get to them without proper agreements and documentation. Another fun situation is when a BLM riot breaks out and location gets windows broke out and people trying to break into your pins for the money. Make sure you cover yourself and your equipment.

Good luck and happy routing.

This is sound advise. Thank you for sharing.

I was a route tech for years, and worked for a company who’s objective was to make money. My former boss (RIP) had a simple formula. A location needed to make (our net share) at least the amount per month you would pay per month on a 3 year loan for the equipment. Also, the amount he used was at least $50 per guy each time to go to a location.

Again, that’s using OUR net share of the split after taxes, not the gross total.

It wasn’t written in stone and it seems a little overkill, but it helped put in perspective to us the cost of expenses and equipment. It also made the point of how important it was to fix stuff correctly the first time and avoid a second trip.

Oh, and Insurance, Insurance , Insurance!!!
LLC and proper permits too (and it’ll come out of your share).

First learn all you can. And decide now. Do you want to be an operator or not ? There is no in between. You sit down to dinner Friday night with your family and just start eating. Location calls up and wants that damn game fixed right now or out in the alley it goes. Burglars and fires work 24/7. And location won't want the game out of order while you wait for parts, if you can get them. ie your parts inventory will be huge.

Next up. Can you put games there ? Cities have limits and zoning ordinances. Don't rely on the internet. Haul your hind parts to the city hall in the city where you plan to operate any games. Find out about zoning. And then what licenses you all need and cost ( licensing may still reflect gambling games era, so could be high ) you may need a license on location, you, your business, and each individual game. I wouldn't risk without. Some cities have hefty fines or confiscate the equipment.

Don't forget your own insurance. Don't depend on anyone else. Might be worse case scenario, but if someone gets hurt or your game is blamed for a fire. You'll be the first one sued. And your wife won't want to hear how you just lost everything you own ( house, car, retirement ) in this venture.

And in a month or two when the players are bored, be ready to rotate games to keep interest and income up, they don't want excuses if income drops.

Think this through. Learn all you can. From operators, distributors, or organizations like the MOMA.

Best wishes if you move forward with this.

LTG : )

I might add. If your games are mint now. Don't plan on them coming back home that way.

LTG : )

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Wtf that was fast!!!!
Doesn’t Pinside have a NSFW/hide feature for a reason?

It’s back now, but it disappeared and reappeared for me 2 times.

Not a business model to make $$. If you like fixing things, well, yep. Things will break.

If you do everything right you might break even.

I have my own arcade. Yes.

No. I know operators that have. If you have coin op games. Things like pool balls, foosballs, air hockey pucks, darts, will disappear. My pool tables are on time so they pick up the balls and return them, so no problems there.

People generally know not to F'k with my games. There are those who will damage, or destroy things if they think they can or think no one is around. Years ago I had a few people come in and they didn't see me. One said "lets break something". I threw them all out. Even though he said I was kidding. I'm thinking if I turn my back they will break something. I followed them to their car and got their license plate number too, just in case any future problems. One time when my wife was working a man picked up my BSD and slammed it down so hard it killed the game. They took off. Came back the next day, only I was there. You should have seen how fast trouble makers can exit a business. That time wasn't about BSD, that was because they upset my wife who should be able to watch my business for a little bit without worry, I was a little more than protective of her.

Did have the side one game keyed.

Dealing with the public, you can plan on messes. Not on a game, yet. I had a man exit my bathroom and puked on the rug, he left. I got to clean it up. Next day I threw him out. I told him you couldn't have done that in the bathroom you were just in ? And when someone craps their pants, they will leave their underwear in the bathroom.

LTG : )

Yes, and it's working fine, for me at least.

LTG You da man! I would have done the same had someone messed with my wife/business also.

It wasn't removed. Anyone can mark an image as NSFW (including yourself on your own images). Please don't make assumptions of malace.

If you don't like when images are hidden, you can raise the threshold or disable it entirely in your forum settings.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/settings

Screenshot_20230115-153356-476.png

Yes. I noticed it's a little glitchy if an image is marked as NSFW and then you click the "load more posts" link when new posts appear, rather than refreshing or revisiting the thread.

You should also post this in the "Pinball horror pics" thread

i can see it . but would really like to unsee it !

There definitely is money to be made. But, location, location, location. I have 34 on route with most being at a high traffic brewery that hosts a league with nearly 50 people. I've kept detailed records of every machine and what each has brought in. I go to both of my locations one day a week to clean and fix with alternating weeks to collect.

.

Most will tell you no to avoid competition.

Only a couple operators I know in this thread and they are more encouraging.

LTG : )

Local guy here does really well with his games.

Ok, crapping your underwear Lloyd! Wow, that’s something next level to deal with.

It's a bit gross. Personally, it's not something I would prefer to jump out at me while scrolling through a thread without a little warning first. I'm sure there are a few others who might agree. But no, it's not something that would be moderated, and you received no moderation warning for it.

For future reference, any time a moderation action is taken on any of your posts (aside from a thread move or thread lock), you will see a message in your inbox about it and a reason why the action was taken.

Again, since marking an image as NSFW can be done by any Pinside member (and can be controlled by your forum settings) it is not considered a moderated action. The disappearing magic trick on images marked as NSFW seems to just be a bug, which clears when you refresh the page.

If you have any further questions on this subject, I would encourage you to open a moderator feedback thread.

As has been said…

location location location

Regulars who care about the equipment and help police abusers can make it less of a money loosing venture. Doing your own repairs and troubleshooting can make it closer to profitable if the tech skills are not also being used as your day job. Nobody pays themselves at tech wages when repairing a pinball machine, it’s mostly sweat equity. Keeping up the maintenance and cleaning is a must if you ever want to get a crowd of regulars to continue to patronize. Rotate the titles and get latest hardware helps draw a more regular user base. Buy a cheap vehicle that can haul at least one machine and run it to death, if it can haul 2 is better. Don’t treat the coin box as a slush fund, keep track of all ins and outs. Stock major common repair items, my rule, if something breaks, buy two- one for the immediate repair, one for spare. Move non earners on, no matter if it’s a personal favorite. Do not get attached to your equipment, commoditize your feelings. Make smart business decisions, watch for trends, try new ways of marketing, hold tournaments, leagues, and events.

And after all this, if you haven’t driven a spike through your head, you can pile all your hard earned returns on your bed and swim and bath in the piles of receipts, IOU’s, and Overdue Tax Notices. But hey, it’s only pinball.

That makes sense. I believe that’s what happened. After I hit “load more posts” the image disappeared. That is a very weird bug. But after a page refresh, it was back.

This has happened more times than you would believe at my arcade and my side job. I see at LEAST 7 pairs of shit-covered underpants stinking up the bathroom every year.
It blows my mind.
Who are these people?
How do you go commando after crapping your pants??????

HOW DO I NEVER NOTICE THESE PEOPLE??? You should be able to SMELL the guy who just crapped himself and left the evidence behind..
Insanity.

My arcade has a basket ball game, and they manage to steal a basketball or two every 6 months. I have cameras and I’ve reviewed the footage endlessly. Truly amazed at how well they conceal them. No clue why because ICE basket balls aren’t regulation size and they deflate extremely easily.
The public sucks and you will probably become jaded. Just today I finally caught these kids that have been destroying my games, breaking in and stealing money, tickets and prizes. Shoulda seen the little bastards face when I called him and his friends by name. The sheriff and I went a bit “scared straight” on them. It’s really saddening how kids today seem to get worse and worse. Their parents don’t give a shit and think that business owners are free babysitters. You’ve gotta be your own advocate in those cases.

Despite all that, the regulars usually make it worth it. I’ve met great people, and enjoy my loyal customers. Plenty of good families come in and talk about how they love introducing their kids to arcade games and the joy of pinball!

If your city has old arcade operator permit laws on the books you can petition to have them repealed. It's worked in the past. In this case it seemed to be a fairly straightforward process with no resistance offered.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/jun/15/amusement-devices-fees-repealed/
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/may/20/pac-man-gets-a-tax-break-city-of-spokane-considers/

I would say a big hell no just not worth it theses days

It’s likely it appeared that it was deleted.

If you are frequenting a thread, I notice around the time a pic gets tagged unsafe…there’s a small window in time the picture does disappear when it really hasn’t if you close out the browser etc it usually comes back. It’s somewhat of a bug.

This happens to me as my setting is “click to view” unsafe images since I scroll through pinside a lot at work during downtime waiting to get into a room.

(I see Forceflow confirms this too)

Speaking of brief moments in time I operated as well for a few years. It was a great experience but I wouldn’t do it again.

A lot of cases some of your regular players are employees of the business the equipment is in. When that’s the case…some spots will request a refresh and have a new game. I had one site that wanted a new game every time I collected like I carry machines around in my pocket.

I pulled my games out of a Dave and Busters esque bar/restaurant after trying it out for 6 months. It was a fun experience and I broke even but the time sink was killer. The icing on the cake was when the ramp broke off of my Whirlwind but no one turned the game off or notified anyone. People kept playing the game with a broken ramp in the middle of the playfield. Yep that was my cue... Made a pinball AirBnB in my downstairs apartment and never looked back.

With the popularity of the internet, that can be a problem if a location finds out what the new games are. It doesn't matter if the location does $100 a week. They want all the newest pins.

No longer do you have to worry about someone dropping off a Replay or Playmeter so they can find out the latest games.

LTG : )

If they get in right before collection time and get a decent payday chances are they’ll be back. If your lucky your cabinet will still be in once piece.

Bad thing about fires is when there’s a fire the fire department will follow up with water. I had a fish tales that was smokey AND soaked. Adjacent business in a strip mall had an overnight fire. Game was up against common wall.

If they use a crowbar on a corner of the cabinet, not so lucky.

Or foam.

LTG : )

And how much they are worth.

pinballplusMN has posted a couple of times of an account he had that was unattended and open 24/7. At the time there was a MM there but back when they were only $5K.

Years later someone else had the spot. They had 1 lower value pin and a couple vids.

I drove by there a couple years ago and guess what’s in the spot now?

Two plastic buffet tables for customers to set their stuff on. The last op probably figured it wasn’t worth having things there.

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