It appears that the show is geared towards folks who plan to attend more than one day; ideally four. If that's the case, that's your prerogative... its your show. I have been to all 4 shows and, like a few others have stated here, may consider not attending in the future. I know you have no control over it but some of the vendors had limited stock as well when compared to what they sell at other shows (i.e. Cointaker had significantly fewer items for sale as compared to other shows that I've attended and even compared to last year at Pintastic.) Just providing feedback in an effort to let you understand what a "one-day" attendee like myself considers when deciding to make the trip to a show.

That's exactly what we do. We limit it at certain times of the day for certain ticket packages. We are looking into doing a one day premium ticket. Will see.

Another way you could get access to that room is by volenteerong 4hr. Just a thought.

We do value your input and we are compiling a list of things to discuss. Cointaker decided they would come in a smaller compasity this year. I'm happy they continued to support us. Next year shoot them a email asking if they are bringing more stuff. Those kind of things are out of my control. Sorry

He had a work thing. Hope he comes back next year.

My friend and I had a great time at the show. It is awesome that this show exists.

I was in search of invisiglass and a colordmd (since I saw them as a sponsor) but could not find any vendor selling. I understand the show organizer would have a hard time telling vendors what they should sell.

I think some sort of an online registration for games that will be for sale at the flea market would be useful.

Full disclosure on the particular games that may only be in EBL could keep people from getting as upset.

Overall the show is still great. Like many other shows, the freeplay games are largely the result of the pinball community at large bringing games. I think there are two camps there - those who are bringing games to sell and those who are not. Personally, as someone who has owned almost 100 games over time now, I like the aspect of being able to sell games. Sadly, for whatever reason, the past few years selling games has been downright tough at Pintastic. Perhaps it is the fact that it is a more family oriented spread out kind of show. I don't know. There just doesn't seem to be that "swap meet" vibe that there is in Allentown.

Perhaps as an idea for improvement next year - maybe give some true incentives to brining a game that will not be for sale? As an example, I thought of bringing my Star Trek Pro since it was an easy out from my garage - but I have zero desire to sell it. I hate to say it, but a couple extra raffle tickets really isn't a great incentive, even with the bonus for top tier game. Fundamentally, other than that bonus, why would I bring a top tier game that I don't want to see beat (picked up and dropped, rocked back and forth etc...yes those things did happen)?

Well said! I was just thinking about typing something very similar. I think pintastic is more of a player show then a buying and selling show. People alway bitch about games leaving early but like you said some people aren't going to bring games if they don't have a realistic prospect of selling them. I know a few people who would have brought game that stayed home because they didn't believe that they could sell and it wasn't worth the hassle of renting a truck and bringing them.

If the show was more seller friendly as far as games leaving or people buying then maybe more games would be in the free play area.

As far as incentives that's kind of tough. I understand a $100 raffle win is a nice thing to have, but in the case of someone traveling like myself that meant another hotel night and trailer rental which is more than $100.

Every year I've attended I brought a game for free play with the hopes of selling it and every year I end up bringing it home. I know it's not the pricing I have on the game because it usually sells as soon as I get home.

I honestly would have been better off if I had just bought a pass and not brought anything but I like to try to support the show if I can.

Well the raffle tickets could win you $500 cash or one of many gift cert.

Next year we will be doing a free rock custom back panel light mod installed free also at the show if you bring a dmd or system 11 game or half off a under cab light kit with free install st the show.

That's only one of the new insentives we are going to offer.

I guess I'm selling my games to cheap lol I sold 4 at the show.

At the 2015 show, I sold an EM marked "not for sale" (as you know, everything is).
2016, had two for sale, but didn't sell either one (did make a trade, however).
2017, sold one of two I brought.
2018, not a nibble. This time the show definitely had a "I've come to play only" type of feel.
Any stats as to how many games were sold out of the freeplay area, and/or comparisons to previous years?

I brought 4 games. 3 were for sale, 2 sold. Previous years I didn't have any luck selling, but made deals after the show was over.

I brought my Rollergames and it sold. In it's place, I bought the Last Action Hero. Had to put something back into the stable.

You always have nice games. I would have been interested. Were they in the EBL? I was only in there 1 night briefly. I know I wanted to see Eric's Getaway & couldn't get near it when I went in there.

Gabe, I wanted your Shadow but it wasn't listed for sale.

Looking at the game cards, I see 22 where the back side was filled out with sale info. There may have been other sales.
.................David Marston

I brought 4 games and sold 3. The Space Shuttle was sold to a 1st time pin owner. Congratulations Mike and Lori!!!

That thing was beautiful and priced Right to boot.

If Pintastic is more of a play vs sell show that's fine. Lord knows I enjoy playing, especially new to me games (that Bally Joust EM being a perfect example...loved that layout)

If it's mainly a "play" show vs swap meet it just means I'm not bringing 8 games again. Anything that fits in a single truckload is fine....but if sales are tough (and they have been) then there's no point in pushing myself past my means. (AKA renting a UHaul or doing more than one trip)

Honestly, I feel like if everyone that could brought 1 or 2 games (personally I feel like 1 to put in free play not for sale and 1 for sale is my sweet spot) then you'd have full Freeplay room. If you want those A list titles though you've got to give owners some real reason to subject them to a show environment. Raffle tickets alone I don't feel is the answer.

Just my two cents.

No they were in the vendor hall free play. I still have SM that did not sell.

Ya that wasn't for sale that one came out nice with the light blue Titan rubbers

You stop by saying raffle tickets are not enough. Can you please make a few suggestions so we can make the show better. What would intise you to bring more dmd games?

Gabe I need your BSD machine.

Depends which route you want to go with the show I guess? Your bigger players around New England (which I am definitely not) tend to buy and sell a lot of games - and they use shows as places to do that. I don't think the general public coming to the show really knows that people are selling games.

Since you asked for constructive suggestions I will try to throw some out here. Perhaps first and foremost, in advertising for the show, maybe find a way to emphasize "you can come home with your first pinball machine" or something to that effect. As a second idea, how about a seminar geared toward first time pin owners? I'm thinking you could perhaps have some of the bigger players volunteer to present...maybe explain some of the challenges associated with owning one and how they approach things...maybe get Alan to talk about board repairs etc.

For whatever it's worth, it's hard to get those DMD games out there unless you either have someone willing to pack up their collection and just bring it (which I will definitely give you credit for, as well as Dave Madore, amongst others) or you create an environment where sellers feel they have a chance of making it worth their while.

It'd be nice if games that are for sale had a different color card or something to make it more obvious. The prices were pretty small and unnoticable, and I doubt most people are reading the info cards anyway

How hard would it be to make a Pintastic app? I must have lost 4 printed seminar schedules. I couldn't find the seminar schedule on the web site. If not an app, maybe have the schedules and games for sale easy to find on the site with up to date prices. Maybe a big white board or monitor with all the current games for sale and prices would help.

That was a beautiful Rollergames. Whoever bought it got a nice machine at a great price.

Funny you should mention his name....as he is one that I would call an embassador of pinball around New England....and not to mention a beast at moving games. Maybe we should have him give a seminar on how to move games and not break your back

11 games out of a nasty storage unit on Tuesday lol. 95 degrees and about 8 billion percent humidity

IMG_20180703_195305 (resized).jpg

Show off!

Yes we will be coloring game cards orange if the game is for sale .

Yes Brian was missed this year in the free play room his 15 system 11 games would have made a huge difference.

I would like to see one day admission price to allow access to the vendor hall at 9am, and not be restricted until 11am. As far as games for sale not clearly identified, I recommended last year to have a distinct color card for those machines. That apparently never happened.

What about a row reserved for machines to be sold in the free play area. Just a thought.

Reading through the previous posts, it sounds like people just aren't convinced that this is a sellers event. That needs to be addressed.

These are exactly my same thoughts, different color cards, and for a dedicated well marked for sale area, I brought 3 sold 1, didn't even realize my phone # was not on the card. That also should be addressed, once it becomes a seller / buyer show there will be tons of pins in free play, that's why Allentown is packed to the max, I always have good results there,

And here is the problem with that thinking.....those 15 system 11 games don't exist anymore. I don't know how many sold at the show but I'm fairly certain the idea was to sell them.

I beleve he sold 11 of the 15 last year.

How feasible would it be to have one or two food trucks come? Not sure how keen the hotel would be of the idea, but the fare at the concession stand isn’t the absolute greatest. Have them from say, 11-2 for lunch. Might liven up the selection a bit. I know visitors and staff were making BK runs and such so the demand is there.

I think the restaurants with in walking distance from the hotel are great. Food truck would not be aloud on hotel property unfortunately.

I was afraid of that...Ox tavern is pretty good, I agree.

Perhaps I missed a few good ones. A good idea might be to have a list of local venues, distance, etc. available.

The seafood place in front of the liquor store is phenomenal. Had dinner there two nights this year and everything was excellent.

I know a bunch of people who went over to Porter House and Ba Ba Sushi. Both excellent.

Diversity of good food in New England is my least worry. And while a food truck sausage grinder outside of the local Home Despot sounds good at the moment; it could be a major contribution to "Crop Dusting" later.

Well said

some of the games we had more then one of and the other was in freeplay. there was Houdini and TNA in vendor hall. They had them in Extra ball too. There was an Iron Maidan but they had those on the vendor hall floor too. Not sure how many other games we had mulitiple of, Metalica and Star Trek i believe we had in both as well. So now we are down to maybe 13 games total that were not in free play tops. 84 modern games were. Was not enough?

Just before I was gonna go after it too.....I saw you making the deal and was like damn I waited to long.

I put a deposit on this after I sold 2 games at the show. Picked it up today from Mike at Automated. Super pumped!

2018-07-07 20.32.47 (resized).jpg

@ejacques wrote: As a second idea, how about a seminar geared toward first time pin owners?

We had one! Friday at 1:00 PM.

@Playdium wrote: As far as games for sale not clearly identified, I recommended last year to have a distinct color card for those machines.

I know some other shows do that. The first step is to push people to pre-set the for sale data when they register the game. I've already commented on our plans for that aspect. We have conflicting needs for pre-printed base cards vs. print-on-demand for the whole card, and color would be a by-product of how we choose to print them. No matter what we do, there will be some cards printed at the show when the games arrive, so we'll also need a typographical distinction, even if we can arrange to have distinct color cards that meet our other constraints. I say all this to point out that we are faced with an engineering problem and we will take an engineering approach to making it better.

It's worth stating again that the online games list is also intended to serve as the advance list of what's for sale. You can also pull up that list at the show.

@Shredso wrote: Maybe a big white board or monitor with all the current games for sale and prices would help.

We're leaning toward monitors for other stuff, so we might be able to add this to the mix.

@Playdium also wrote: What about a row reserved for machines to be sold in the free play area.

This, too, works much better when people pre-set the for sale data when they register the game. We can use the count to estimate how much space to allot, and use our existing game-locator data to earmark games for that zone. It would be hard to guarantee that every for-sale game would be in such a cluster, but we ought to be able to cluster the majority. It would help us with game moves, too.
.................David Marston

People are asking collector quality prices for player quality games. The games that were priced right sold quickly. The games that are priced too high just don’t move.