$200 a night? Jesus Harold Christ, glad I’m local.

Just checked, wed night is 136. Did u book through pinballexpo.net?

Yeah, the show rate is $136 a night..

Hello all. This is the first year I am going for more than a half day. I am considering bringing my ghost in the shell, in progres home brew. I emailed rob to see what the deal is with bringing a game. But no response. I understand this is close to the show. Anyone I should reach out to.? Is there a home brew section in the vender hall again?

If anyone is looking for a Houdini, there will be some show specials. Api is going to have some games in the tournament and some in the free play room

Tournament games will be 6750
Free play gsmes will be 6500

We expect that the free play games will get more play, that's is why there is a bigger discount.

Feel free to contact myself or your favorite api distributor to reserve yours today.

Machines will be set up and maintained by api for the weekend. It will be up to the potential customer to pay for and remove the machine at the end of the show. Warranty period will begin the day after the machine is removed from the show.

Fyi, we (kingpin games) will double the factory warranty on and game purchased with this show special pricing.

We are staying at the Wyndham Hawthorne, 3 miles away. $75/ night including taxes. We don’t drink much during the show with a booth so driving not an issue. Costs us enough just to walk in the door as a long distance vendor so we try to save a few dollars where we can.

Free play Gsmes (those dam sausage fingers on the key board LOL

Pincades: We will do the same on the double warranty policy on show games.

See ya soon!!!!

When you're working, a penny saved is a penny earned. I used to always travel cheap when it was for my business. The cheaper the better. I wanted to come home with the most money .

I’m late to the party. I considering doing the same.

You probably get a free breakfast too. ? That's not included at the expo hotel. But there are restaurants around = more out of pocket costs for us.

Is parking a nightmare for those not staying on property?

No it’s fine. Even with a big truck and trailer. I helped Chris with Pinball Plating last year and had no issues parking the rig.

Lotsa room and no charge to park.

Yes! There's also Dunkin donuts that you can walk to from the Westin.

Plenty of parking last year, it's a big complex.

Parking is generally a nightmare, last year and maybe the one before that were exceptions as the crowds were way down. Friday night and saturday people used to have to find parking elsewhere and walk over.

Sooooo, no ExpoBrawl?

Parking during the morning and afternoon is pretty good. Once evening starts you will find a spot if lucky. All depends on how many activities the hotel has going on.

Correct.

Just sleep in your vehicle, in the parking lot, and get a gallon of water and up in the AM, shower in the parking lot and dry off before anyone awakens at 7-8 AM. You are good to go, done it plenty, nobody even knows. Cost is .79 USD per shower, 3-4 mins between open car/van doors, and the local hotels have free eats in the AM if you dare to act as if you are one of there. Go volunteer, its a gas (literally).

I know in years past Expo has always relied on the community and been a collectors show. With very little Media or outside advertising. This is been a concern of us even during this reboot. This was one of the main reason we got Roger Sharpe one of the great pinball marketing gurus. Roger has been doing some great publicity for us. We are in the Chicago magazine. We've also been in numerous trade Publications. We also went out and got this advertisement on CBS television in Chicago. also we've got a few Billboards that you should see on the way to pinball Expo this year. We are pulling out all the stops to make sure that this show is back on track and the show of shows. I truly want to thank all those who are supporting this show.

https://www.sendthisfile.com/9MdXzRUOgKpajVHebWWeJ8Rp

CHEERS... See you at Expo
David Fix

Pinball Expo Chicago Magazine (resized).jpg

294 ends right near there. and to get on 294 you will be going away from WI

David Fix i don't see that advertising campaign as a positive for *us*, the people that are classified as "pinheads". It's a positive for Berk, because it will raise his bottom line (more walk in money.) But for us, this type of thing sucks. It brings in people that only think about pinball one time a year. These types are hard on games, increase lines and congestion, don't understand the pinhead rules, and generally cause havoc.

For example, at our show (Ann Arbor pinball show), we do not advertise to the public. We do not do interview requests with TV or radio station. We avoid all that, and only market to pinball people. It works for us. Why do we avoid the public? because they suck. They just cause issues. Unlike pinheads, who we adore.

The classic example is if a game stops working mid-play. Say a slingshot locks on. Nearly every pinhead will reach down, and hit the power switch to shut it off, and go tell someone so it gets fixed. The public? They just walk away as the game explodes into a nasty smelly smokey mess.

My personal opinion is that you need to make your show better for pinheads. You can always get more public there. That's stupidly simple (just do the things that you did above with advertising.) But that does not make your pinball show better! In fact, i think it makes your show worse. I suggest you work on making your show better for the pinheads, and all the other stuff will just fall into place. Also vendors hate the general public, as they don't buy any parts, etc like pinheads do.

Remember, pinball is hard...

cfh I could not agree less with your opinion. While I dont like more people in lines the goal is to grow the hobby of pinball. Everyone on pinside wasn’t born playing pinball. If you want to help then be positive and help someone else enjoy what you think is so great about this hobby.

More people enjoying pinball the better.

I recommend not sniffing the solder vapors when you do repairs.

The question is: what is the primary goal of the show?

There probably is a good question to ask. Expo was always kind of a insiders show. It never really tried to expand to the outside world. Maybe we’re just spoiled with that, a show that catered to pinheads

My personal opinion is that pinball doesn’t need shows to create expansion. A lot of other things have happened that have done that for us. I’m actually a little bit sick of the whole expansion of pinball thing. It has created a demand issue when supply is limited, raised prices, and generally has made it more difficult for people that of been doing this a long time and have seen the change. I understand that that expansion was probably needed to save companies like Stern. But frankly, I kind a like pinball better 10 years ago when it was a tighter club. I yearn for the day of $3500 new stern games that were much more feature rich... sigh... them old days...

So we don't want non pinheads to go to pinball shows because they might not know to turn off the game when a malfunction occurs?

Let me give you guys an example of how this whole thing can go awry

Several years ago there was a show in Michigan called the Michigan pinball Expo. The guy that promoted the show was brilliant. Not only did he do all the things that Dave fix suggested above, but he had one more idea. At the local junior highs he held pinball seminars. He basically got the science teachers to let him bring a game in and explain the physics of pinball and how it worked. So you have all these middle schoolers touching and feeling a pinball machine in their science class. And then he gives flyers out all these kids. They bring the flyers home and say,” look dad, pinballs cool, we need to go to the show next weekend.”

So what happened? The show exploded. So many people went that every game had 10 people deep to play it. You could barely walk in the place. It was unbelievable. He managed to get all these people that only think about pinball this one time a year to come to the show

Now I know that all sounds really good, but it had a major problem. All the games were supplied by local collectors. They would spiff their games up, bring them to the show, watch them get beat to death for four days. Then bring their games home in filthy dirty broken condition. This lasted for probably five years and the collectors eventually just said,” screw it I’m not doing this anymore. I don’t need this much play wear and tear on my games”

The end result? the show folded. Not enough collectors were interested in bringing their games to the show anymore, so the whole thing just fell apart. Now there was probably some other reasons that this happened too. But I would say the bulk of it was, people would bring their nice games, and they would come back home in far less condition then they showed up. And this was due just to the amount of people and traffic and newbies beating their games to death

Another problem is the vendors. Because it was just the general public and not pinheads attending, the vendors didn’t really sell anything. So eventually he lost vendor support too.

It’s just something to think about.... I stand by my comment that if you can make a pinball show successful for pinheads, that the rest of it all just falls in place.

It’s seems to me that the organizers are trying hard to make a great show from a state of decline that had put a bad taste in the mouth of many enthusiasts. There are going to be hiccups this year. Plan on it. Nothing can be perfect during a major reorganization. I’d love to go, but schedule and geography wasn’t allow it this year.

Just scanning the thread there a a few, firmly committed, Negative Nellies posting regularly. Those posts are worthy of a bud light “Real men of genius” commercial.

Announcer: Today we salute you, Mr. Chicago Pinball Expo Hater Guy.

Singer: Mr. Chicago Pinball Expo Hater Guy!

Fill in the rest...

I understand clay's perspective, but you just cant exlude people. im friends with someone that runs an arcade. he is constantly having to tell both adults and kids not to chimp flip, not leave games running with balls (if you change your mind, reset the game). even with arcade games he has to tell people not to credit up because itll kick it out of attract mode and cause screen burn-in. he has rules posted everywhere but people dont read or dont care. if he made it an exclusive "club" theres no way he'd stay in business.

Did you know:

It was originally "Real American Heroes", then 9/11 happened and since people were upset that the commercials seemed to be mocking heroism, they changed it to "Real Men of Genius".

Underground Retrocade?

the Michigan pinball Expo had outstanding numbers. Like 5000 people through the door. that’s pretty incredible feat given that it was a brand new show. The organizer kicked ass and came up with many new ideas to bring Pinmaul to the masses.

I remember going to peoples houses to fix their one game, and their comment was, “that expo was awesome there were so many people.”But on the other hand, I remember talking to pinheads like say Terry from pinball life and he said, “ we went once. We’re never going back again, couldn’t even walk in the place”

So I guess it depends on what you’re trying to achieve. To me, I like the fact that expo was an insider shop. And it was never too crowded, But it still had a fair number of people. I would say they hit the mark pretty well

This is why at the Ann Arbor show we sell a set number of tickets. It always sells out so we hit our goal, but we keep the numbers workable so the places isnt too crowded. I mean you don’t want to place empty either that gives a whole different impression. But you don’t want it too crowded. You have to balance these things and that’s how we found to deal with it. No other show does it like that and I don’t expect any will. But that’s what we found works for us

But nobody's born a pinhead. If there's shows only for seasoned pinheads, it's going to be a very small turnout, and eventually the pinball curmudgeons that attend will no longer be alive. Turnouts decline, and then the show fades away.

Have the Mayor of Wheeling, IL show up and give him some sort of participation award. That will get the public informed more. Especially now with all the press regarding his election recall. Good or bad press is still press. 8D003AEF-3F1D-45FA-9806-0F1462B8ABDA (resized).png

I disagree. Both of the Sharpe brothers were born Pinheads. Same with my son. There's three right there.

Is he facing a recall because he sided with Mike?

I think he’s “cooking the books” on family properties, but still...to have Horcher make a showing would create some sort of stir.

https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20180919/cook-county-assessor-to-inspect-horcher-farm-in-wheeling

Pincinnati is limited. Ann Arbor is so great we wanted a similar vibe.

Vfw is like no other show (minus banning) as its run out of a facility that isn't rented, nor are external games needed.

Why the constant need to compare apples and oranges?

Every other show needs bodies through the door to hopefully cover expenses.

Shows folding because games get wear? It's the same everywhere

Clay and his crew run the best show in the country. There is little doubt of this.
But, as Flynn has said, you can't really compare it to anything else. Unlike some of the full time pin museums, it's only open a couple days a year, and unlike almost all other shows, it has an on-hand collection that is part of the geography and doesn't need to be built and torn down in a 4 day time span. I like a lot of shows for a lot of reasons. They all have their bright spots. It's not a competition...

Yeah. Only 1 room was left and for Saturday only. We just now decided to come. Going to Foo Fighters in Milwaukee that Wednesday.

I agree with Tamoore. Every show does "their thing" differently and arguably better. Chicago Expo's thing was industry people, and it was an industry type show. No other show could compete with that. I think doing a public cattle call will change that. Will it be better? i suspect not, but who knows? i've never seen the cattle call make for a better show. It does make for more profit, but that only helps the few, not the masses.

I've done promotions for our show for 12 years. Currently, the three things that work best for bringing in more people:
-Targeted Facebook advertising
-Twittering to all the local TV, newspapers, and radio 3 weeks before the show, a week before the show, and the day it's starting. Day of for TV works best if you want them to show up and do a story
-Telephone pole posters, I hire a company to hang 1800 on the streets and 200 in bars and other venues

Print advertising is less and less worth it these days. Radio and TV are way too expensive and usually don't pay off.

Michigan Pinball Expo was by far the worst pinball show I've ever been to. I went once and said never again. If Expo were to turn in to that, I'd never go again. It was a complete trash crowd that beat the shit out of the games.

I would some day love to make it out to the Ann Arbor show sounds like a great event.

But I disagree with excluding the non pinhead from shows. The only way this great hobby will continue and expand is if we show people how amazing pinball is. Playing video pinball can't compare to playing a real pinball machine. I have talked to multiple people who bought their first pinball machine at Pintastic. By the next years show they had 4 games and were bringing 2 for free play so other people could enjoy them. Share the love, at least that's how I feel.

one thing that clay neglected to mention is that we educate our patrons and there are enough staff constantly patrolling the aisles to make sure that:
- no one is abusing the games
- games are not left in a state where they were credited up, started and then left unattended mid-game. we reset them or end the game(s) in progress
- games are immediately turned off when something goes awry (a coil locked on or something electrical burning)
- quick to react to any minor failures (stuck balls, etc...
- the club members are passionate about the hobby and most are willing to chat about anything for those wanting to know or learn more

and because we have enough club members staffing the VFW shows, no one (other than clay) ever really feels overwhelmed or exhausted during the show

Well it depends on what the show people do with that money. What is known is, without $$, the show can't function. So if a show gets better with more $$ is down to how the show is ran. It doesn't mean it has to be bad, but a show with no $$ or resources... will be bad.

VFW really isn't a 'pinball show' as much more an 'open house for other pinheads'.

I'm sure it's great... I contributed when clay moved to the building. But I also know it's unique in how it functions, it's needs, and it's goals verse a recurring public show like the majority in the country... York, Allentown, SFGE, Expo, TPF, etc.

The irony is everyone complains about how bad expo is, the demographics of some, the odors, the logistics... then when change is happening, people fight that too. Majority of the complaints I hear about expo I don't see at the other significant east coast events.

For what it's worth I found out via flyer in a Marco order...