Send me one and I will test it for ya. That way you don't have to install yours in the game

Jim sign me up for an unpainted one. Save you some grey matter.
I'll send you money now so you can buy some ventilation devices. Stat.

I would like one I don't care about the eyes or the color it is. It so much better than the stock one.

I think you are clear here. You are making a dinosaur head. No one has the copyright on a generic dinosaur. It's not like you are making Dino The Dinosaur from the Flintstones.

Anyone buying from you that lives in Indiana has to pay you sales tax, which you turn over to the state. Outside of that, it's up to the buyer's local laws and their own sense of duty to pay their state or not.

I will send CASH. Problem solved

We have been selling the Tron Arcade mod version 2.1 and 3.1 for a while now. The pinball community is just great to deal with. We take PayPal and never had an issue with anyone. We have found that the Golden rule applies very well here. So I would not worry about that one.

PayPal reports everything to the IRS so yes we pay taxes on the money just like all the rest of the money we make. You do need to keep track of your expenses for your taxes.

I hope that helps some.

Not sure Aurich wants to be giving legal/tax advice, but he's posted in a few threads about how he handled scaling up his translite operation, so it might be worth shooting him a PM to see if he has any pointers on tracking orders and payments, taxes, etc.

Paypal would probably be the easiest for buyers (and likely for you too) but I'm sure anyone following this thread would work with you if you wanted payment by money order (or even cash). People want this mod!

And I'm not an IP lawyer but I'd be extremely surprised if anyone tried to argue you owed a licensing fee for making a generic dinosaur sculpture.

Just do this to any one that doesn't do you right... release your T-Rex wrath upon them while they are on the toilet tumblr_n89m2zWcWa1t0n5z8o2_500.gif

I'm not a lawyer or an accountant, this isn't legal advice, blah blah. But I can tell you what I do.

I take money via Paypal, haven't had a single person try and screw me or anything. I've refunded a couple payments for various reasons (some were my fault) and that's painless. I've heard the nightmare stories, but my experience is the pinball collector community is full of solid people, haven't run into a bad egg yet.

I will say though that Paypal can be tricky, if they notice a sudden spike of money coming into your account they can lock it down, demand to know what you're selling, who your supplier is, proof that you're shipping it, etc. I had to deal with that. First person I talked to wasn't helpful, second one when I explained it was just hobby stuff on a forum totally got it and bypassed the BS, just asked for shipping numbers so they could see I was actually sending people what they paid for. Once I provided that my account was unlocked, no problems since. Something to keep in mind.

I report all my earnings to the IRS and pay taxes on them. I deduct all my expenses from that, the cost of printing, shipping, buying boxes and labels, supplies for prototyping etc.

Technically Paypal won't report anything to the IRS as long as you bring in under $20,000 a year, but I believe in keeping everything above board and legit. My books aren't necessarily organized, but I really do pay all my taxes, and I'd survive an audit (I hope I never have to test that!)

I'm already incorporated, so I just report the earnings as part of my corporate profit, my CPA handles all that. I don't know what your situation is, if you're filing under self employed income there's some crap you have to deal with, but it's not that hard, I did that for years before I got serious enough to incorporate. Not for pinball mods, my design company, just to be clear.

My real advice though? Charge as much as you need to. Don't worry about the price. If it's too much money for some people they can not buy it. I definitely don't look to gouge anyone on my projects, I feel like they're priced fairly for the market, but I factor everything into my price. Not just the cost of materials, and shipping, but all the time I have to spend managing orders, printing labels, folding boxes etc. It can seriously be a full time thing some days. And that's not factoring in the #1 cost: the time to develop things. I spend hours and hours getting the art right so I'm happy with it. And I know you feel me on that one! That time is precious, it's what makes the mod count.

I honestly don't think I've had a single person complain to me about my prices. But if they did I'd basically shrug. I wouldn't be a dick or anything, but if it's not worth it to you then don't buy it, these are just for fun. I'm not selling water in the middle of a desert.

I'm working on something new right now that's more ambitious than my previous projects. It will require multiple vendors and assembly and more prototyping and research than usual; if I end up offering it to people it will probably not be cheap. If people think it's too expensive I simply won't make it, I'll enjoy it on my personal machine (only hint I'm dropping!) and life will go on.

So figure out what you think you should charge. And then add 25% to that because you're probably being too conservative.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

I'm in for one! Just let me know how you want paid!

And when that cash is stolen in the mail, and not received by the seller what do you do? You are SOL in that scenario and it happens regularly. Risky sending cash in the mail.

I'm thinking Road Trip & Ca$h baby!

Sounds like a lawyer....

Notice my use of the very technical "blah blah", that's the sure sign.

You're making a totally unique toy as a replacement, there is no 'anything' you need to do here.

Isn't that legaleze?

Do you collect CA sales tax for residents of the state that order your products?

Just have people send a Postal Money Order. That's it...

I don't, and I'm honestly ignorant of that whole side of things. I guess if you're set up right that you can get a resale license, and then not pay sales tax on the materials you need to buy to sell? I dunno.

I'm used to running a business and paying taxes, but I'm not any kind of retail expert, my income is a service/consultant driven thing. This is just a hobby, it was never meant to be any kind of job or make serious money. I'm paying the IRS and that's about as far as my crazy advanced scheming goes.

Until you sell about 300 of these I would not worry about it. Bigger fish to fry.

I would love to wake up Christmas morning installing this beautiful guy in my machine. Santa, are you listening? I have been very nice this year.

Appreciate your efforts, the T-Rex looks amazing!

Since nobody else has said it, I'll go out on a limb and say this is possibly the best pinball mod that's been brought to the market. If pinball mods where art, this would be a masterpiece

It's been said!

More than a few times...

Good work !! Fantastic!!!
Are you selling they already??

The original dinosaur toy is what makes me want to add a JP to my collection. And holy hell, you took it to the next level. Redundant post among a sea of praise, but I just want to say good job man!

I can't wait to see what you're cooking up next.....

I guess I wouldn't sweat it too much. Now, if you collected the sales tax and didn't turn it over, then Governor Moonbeam might want to have a little chat with you!

Looks amazing! Your progress is just fantastic!

That T-rex looks intimidating

Every update is better than the next! Great job!

Lies, that's obviously the new Crying T-Rex mod!

Looks great, I'll go ahead and put myself on the waiting list.

And it is still as intimidating as it was yesterday

Indiana folks, like myself, can just pay cash.
Is there a line already ? And Jim, could you please put me on it ?
Please and thank you.

I want to like the latest t-rex the best, problem is I can't see it. Does anybody see it? Here kitty, kitty, kitty.

There is no line. There is no list. There is no cost.

Wait for a PM and or stay tuned.

Please don't cry sad Trex...

_{Post edited by BobC: added picture}

328953.jpg

I would be willing to pay cash as well. Even pick up in person for grins.