Rent to a house.
Wait until 2022.
Sell them for a tidy profit and piece of mind.

Sounds like the brewery has more to worry about than your pins. If they had the traffic, so would you. Is there a space issue in which you believe the brewer will exchange you for something else?

Seconded. I rented from a local operator for 2 months at the beginning of lockdown and we've since had 2 more operators get into the game. There's a market there for it.

That's is what has happened over here.

Where sites that have had to shut down, the operators (or owners) of machines have offered them out to people to rent on a weekly or monthly basis. A great opportunity for people to play machines in their own homes, as well as a secure income stream for operators. Win - Win.

Not an operator, but spraying some of this on your machines periodically and putting up a sticker or two may give customers the illusion of safety. Photos from localish arcade inside.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bio-cide-does-it-work#post-5734443

I went to the Silverball Museum in Delray Beach, FL last Friday. They are enforcing masks and have hand sanitizer and wipes - everywhere. They also have a bunch of Skee-Ball machines and request that patrons put on gloves before playing them (provided - no gloves required for pinball, but you can certainly wear them if you would like to).

I went earlier in the day when they opened and had the place pretty much to myself for a couple of hours. I'm not sure if they are limiting the number of people allowed inside, but it's a pretty big place. There were probably 10 others in there when I left.

I felt perfectly comfortable going there and used hand sanitizer and common sense. I would not have gone in if it was packed full of people.

How about all of the casinos & Racinos in Ohio that are open, are they providing safety or an illusion of safety? They are packed most of the time. If you want safety, you don't go to places like casinos or arcades. There are enough people that are going though.

Heck, the Reno Nevada area gambling market Revenue is actually higher than it was a year ago. And this is with the 50% reduction in gaming positions mandate.

Meant to post this here but accidentally put it in other thread.

This is what we are using at my location.
https://globalshieldsolutions.com/product-category/sd-90/
https://www.kaltja360.world/sd-90-faq

I'm not a scientist or doctor. I have no idea if it truly works. But it gives me and my customers a bit of peace of mind. Still masking up, still washing hands, still sanitizing.

I agree with the other posters that I don't think there's anything you can do to get people into those establishments. I will say that having hand sanitizer dispensers near the games would probably make people more likely to feel safe playing them if they are in the place but that's about it. Contactless payment would be great too (money is dirty to begin with) but that's a tough and expensive thing to pull off.

Marketing is what gets people in front of the machine, and most of that is handled by the table being in a busy location. Beyond that, you (or the location owner) would need to setup things like tournaments, competitions, or discounted games. If the bar isn't getting heavy foot traffic, nobody is looking at or playing your machine.

Unless the location is renting the machine from you, the table sitting idle isn't a big deal. It's not costing you anything, it's a delayed ROI and reduced maintenance costs. If they are renting and the bar owner doesn't want to continue the contract to save cash, offer to temporarily reduce or wave monthly costs in favor of a revenue split.

To get the machine paying for itself, other than moving the table to a busier location, the other main option is short term rental contracts for $250-300/month like others noted. That requires some hauling capability to pick up and drop off tables, liability paperwork with the renter for damages, and possibly new or altered insurance for you (Pinball machine bursts into flames and takes the renter's house with it).

In New York City there are a few places open. One uses large floor-to-ceiling shower curtains.

I predict as things get leaner the market will suffer from a glut of location machines looking for new home homes. Additionally, home players looking to pay bills will have to decide between eating and a $5000 toy. Those will flood the market as well.

It is the sole opinion of this author that luxury items will become harder to sell and prices will drop. Liquidate now as you can’t eat a dormant machine. When, if ever, it looks like routing a machine will become worth it, there will be plenty out there for dog sh!t cheap.

Check out my pinball photo book. Pinside market.

523C2175-77AD-4947-A3D4-A917E9637580 (resized).jpeg

High Score for week wins a case of beer? It worked in 1985.

The staff at 1up Greenwood Village are constantly spraying and writing the machines down.

this is what gets me. vending machines, atm are still on. restrooms with manual flush and door handles still are happening. when you get gas or go to a store and exchange money and get change with a human worker, lots of hand touching money swapping going on there.
games are no different and have been singled out IMO. turn off all of the pop and snack machines and atm then, same touching.
people know to wash hands, play with gloves , whatever. if young kids are in question, make sure a parent or guardian is present to assure rules are being followed.

At least we had the place all to ourselves

Screenshot_20201030-200507_Gallery (resized).jpg

The sky is falling!

That guy looks like he's prepping for a gold shower for crying out loud.

Yo’mamma still doing that? Tell,her she gotta shave that Coochie if we want $20 more.

I’d sell my pinball machines before I let any one of my 14 kids starve.

What are you talking about?

Just got back from Las Vegas and I was at the Pinball Hall of Fame a couple of days ago. It was business as usual with just a big bottle of hand sanitizer taped to a pole at front door and a vending machine selling PPE. Every other machine was turned off-it made the place feel even more dead than the usual number of machines in disrepair. Walking the isles only to see half the machines off(you can request to turn on and play) and a lot of machines(especially arcades) were down for repairs,etc.
I did enjoy playing Circus and Going Nuts I guess but the place is getting run down. Also seeing people out front protesting over labor disputes was interesting.

I did have a laugh as I saw one of their techs walking around cleaning the machines with plain Windex. Windex instead of an approved virus killing cleaner seemed weird to me-scratching head. I am thankful for having the PHOF but was surprised at the vast amount of machines turned off and in disrepair.

Also for any OP's there is a Windex product that does kill viruses, but it is not the regular blue Windex(does nothing) it is the yellow Windex-FYI.
Windex Antibacterial.png

Getting a vaccine that works will be the only thing that will begin to get us back..

Also, 1up LoDo was very proactive in it's sanitizing routine.

Just wish I could say the same thing about the bathroom..... Haha

No. You can’t force people to leave their home. Since March I’ve been at a restaurant 4 times and that was on a patio. Even if most locations are open I don’t think people will be out and about in full force any time soon. This summer I had tickets to see GnR and Rage, both were delayed by a year, but we are betting it will be for two or three. Almost everyone I know has reduced their entertainment spending, my only friend that isn’t affected by lockdown lives in China.

History shows that pandemics usually run their course in about 18 months. Having an effective vaccine will help but natural herd immunity will be mostly in place by then.

I love the photo is of you touching your face while playing pinball. Maybe this is why the OP can't get anyone to play.LOL

I keep thinking the same thing, though I'll admit I've never researched it thoroughly I know that we didn't develop an effective vaccine to end the Spanish Flu of 1918 and that killed an enormous amount of people back then (including my paternal Grandfather). We have better ways to treat secondary infections and better therapeutics but no real virus-killers. This promise of a vaccine seems like a pipe-dream to me and that is NOT a political statement in any way!!!!

No. Its still a pandemic. No vaccine's will make it magically vanish, sadly because its a big planet and getting a vaccine out to 50% population will take up to 5 years.
I would try and rent the games out for private home use. Month to month is best and second a third month can be slightly cheaper. This keeps a game safe in someone's house for awhile, and not in your possession.
Winter is coming....we need to get to the other side of spring, vaccines, and people wearing facemasks for another year.

Disney World is open, Disney Land is closed. Go figure.

Playing pinball at a public location with covid-19.

I wouldn't recommend it at all. If you have covid-19 you should be at home, not playing pinball in a public location.

Oh perfect way to play on location. Take off your mask and pick up your nose while hitting the buttons !

Masks help you not to spray your water droplets into the air for others to breath in.

Touching virus covered surfaces and then your mouth, nose or eye is something else.

Can't force them to stay home either. I been to over 4 restaurants this week alone and the casino probably 3-4 times a week since June. I refuse to live my life as a hermit, especially when I have been going into work this entire time as well.

Digging for Covid boogers? Super sanitary dude.

I'm surprised they haven't locked your thread yet. All mask defiance must be directed to the containment thread so the chin diaper gods must shame you properly.

Nothing against you my man. We all have to feed our family. It's more of a comment about what you have to do based on where you live and how funny it looks from the outside. Those extreme measures are not needed here.

I also love the Yo momma joke, made me laugh.