(Topic ID: 264361)

Rental (of pinball machines)

By Greenandwhite

4 years ago


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  • 111 posts
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  • Latest reply 3 years ago by DocFinlay
  • Topic is favorited by 12 Pinsiders

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    Pinball Rental Contract 2.pdf (PDF preview)
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    #11 4 years ago

    I was thinking the same thing. $1K for 2 months feels pretty steep even with delivery (local) included. I'm guessing not many will participate in that. If they reduced to $250 a month and removed the 2 month requirement I'd assume there would be more interest. Our local arcade has been doing rentals for a long time (Pinballz). For some reason, I was thinking it was $300ish a month for a game but I could be wrong as it's been a while since I asked about it.

    #32 4 years ago
    Quoted from ryanwanger:

    I move them myself. Games are in my basement. Two doors get removed from their hinges. Stair climbing dolly to get out of the house. Transfer to another dolly with larger inflatable tires for the crushed stone driveway. Into a RAV4 one at a time (which is much easier to load than a pickup truck because of the low tailgate). Drive to locations, which are within a few miles of my house. Find loading/unloading parking if I’m lucky. My main location is below ground so that involves going a set of stairs (which sometimes I do with the stair climbing dolly and other times I use a normal appliance dolly). Deadlift machine onto my thigh so I can put the legs on while it is propped up.
    If I’m delivering a game somewhere, that means I would be taking a game out, so that whole process happens again with the machine at the location.
    It’s not even that practical to hire it out anyway because that person would need to have keys to the machines involved, access codes to any venues involved (sometimes that’s my house), deal with money in the coin box, know enough about pinball to set the games up properly, know how to identify and diagnose any issues when the game is set up at the new place.
    This is only a side gig for me and I probably average 3 moves per month these days...but it’s been 5+ years, so you can imagine that after 100 moves, it’s not that fun anymore. I do have a good routine, but there are a lot of steps.
    If I was more of a professional, some things might get easier: I’d have a building with a loading dock, a truck that can fit multiple games with a lift gate, employees, etc. But those are large costs that would need to ultimately be paid by the customer.
    Not trying to be a downer! I love operating games, but the rewarding part is watching people play and enjoy my games. Okay, collecting quarters is kinda fun too. Fixing games can be really rewarding also. But anytime I’m moving games, I’m mostly wondering if this is even worth it. And that’s a large part of the business.

    Dude, you need an escalate with the attachment that picks the game up, especially if you are doing this on the regular. Almost sounded like you had one though based off the stair climbing part. If so, maybe you can buy just that attachment. It literally slides under the game, wind the cable mech and it lifts the game. Easy to put the legs on and get in and out of a truck/SUV.

    Maybe this is why my mind is skewed with loading/unloading. No stairs, I use an appliance dolly. When I get to my SUV I prop the back onto a sawhorse (https://www.harborfreight.com/foldable-adjustable-sawhorse-69059.html), remove the back legs, slide game in, remove front legs and slide the rest of the way. It honestly takes me 15 mins to do by myself. But my games upstairs.... That's another story, I just assumed that anyone routing games or renting as a business wouldn't be having to move them up and down stairs all the time. That would surely suck.

    #51 4 years ago
    Quoted from ryanwanger:

    Maybe I could have a better process, when there aren't stairs involved. (Though truthfully, I have games in four spots and two have stairs, so it's extremely rare that at least one part of the move doesn't involve stairs).
    I need a more clear step by stop on what you're doing. You're getting it to the car on an appliance dolly with all four legs on? We must not be talking about the same kind of dolly.

    Holey crap, I completely combined two different ways I do it into one. I need (well I think we all) need a brain refresh....

    Way 1 - Smooth travels the whole way. I.E. no grass, gravel or dirt. I put the game on my pinball skates and wheel it to my car. Lift up the rear, put my saw horse under the back, take back legs off, then slide in the front (super easy as I leave the skates on the front). Then remove the front legs and slide it the rest of the way in. Take out in reverse. This is my preferred method.

    Way 2 - When I don't have a smooth path. The more traditional way with folding it up and and moving with the appliance dolly. If you have the escalara with the lift attachment you can keep the legs on for moving. Really, that attachment makes it easy to install and remove the legs as well as to get it into the back of a truck or SUV with minimal effort.

    Sorry for the confusion..

    2 weeks later
    #106 3 years ago
    Quoted from NY2Colorado:

    So the consesus is yes? No?

    Depends on your location. According to this thread it's not worth it but locally there are two operators that are renting games for $300 a month right now to keep some sort of cash flow moving. So it's obviously worth it for some but not others. The local operators are renting to pinheads and club members so I think it limits some of the concerns that others may be facing. I.E. - No service calls unless it's a board issue type of thing.

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