Saint Paul, MN
I didn't see the previous entries until just now. Get better and I await your healthy return!
(Topic ID: 122726)
1 week later
Tony,
I hope you are recovering well and I wish you a quick recovery. I enjoy the podcast and look forward to more episodes when you are feeling better.
Quoted from ita47:Tony,
I hope you are recovering well and I wish you a quick recovery. I enjoy the podcast and look forward to more episodes when you are feeling better.
100% agree, I really enjoy the episodes, I usually laugh out loud a few times in each episode, so I don't listen at work anymore 
Quoted from policano:We are actually recording this Friday! Chris and I have been planning our episode all week! Between the hospital and moving, we got the office/studio setup at the new house.
Great to hear, I will be looking forward to some more episodes. I'm glad your feeling better Tony. Nice place, I love the stalker cam tv too 
That looks like a model home, not a place where a single dude lives. Aside of the proof that a dog does in fact live there, it's very tidy, even down to the cable management of the computers. You are so much better than I am in that respect.
I need a stalker cam for my location. There is a security cam, but I've not yet asked to get some sort of access, but it covers my 8 pins perfectly.
Looking forward to the new episode.
Well I just got off work so I could listen but I've been up for 22 hours now so I think I'll save it for work drive on Monday Tony!
Episode 23 is now available. An evening with Robbie Lawrence- General Manager of Sun Ray Lanes where East Side Pinball resides. Happy Listening!
Next Episode- 3/19/2016- Tony, Corndog, and League director Dan Dolney. We discuss a slew of all things leagues, and Corndog and I talk whats in my toolbox!
Quoted from policano:We discuss a slew of all things leagues, and Corndog and I talk whats in my toolbox!
Spoiler alert: several different sizes of vice grips!
Thanks for all the great podcasts. Loving them!
By the way, there are a few things I want to do with PayRange, notably:
1) Do flat rate pricing for an entire night. Is this possible?
2) Give $X free to new players (who join a league or tournament). This seems more straightforward. I feel like we should get a few posts going (or a separate thread) that detail how to do different things in PayRange. It's not entirely straightforward how to set up rewards/offers.
1 month later
2 weeks later
Quoted from desertT1:What web site was it that you mentioned you would get updates for when people made comments? Will have to see if I can get the same thing going for my location.
http://pinballmap.com/twincities
It sends an e-mail notification to the operator when someone comments on condition, so they know to fix something if it is broken. Cool feature.
Quoted from LesManley:http://pinballmap.com/twincities
It sends an e-mail notification to the operator when someone comments on condition, so they know to fix something if it is broken. Cool feature.
Cool, thanks. I was just informed that Tucson is on the map now and wanted to have my location set up for those notices. Not sure how big of a user base the site has, but it wouldn't hurt.
1 week later
Hey Tony, I just got my Ghostbusters and see there is a 2-pin connector on the door and another 2-pin wire labeled coin door power or something like that. My next newest machines are early 90's, and the connectors are different. Does the Payrange adaptor kit for pins work for all of these types, or are there more parts I have to ask for when I order Payrange units?
Quoted from desertT1:Hey Tony, I just got my Ghostbusters and see there is a 2-pin connector on the door and another 2-pin wire labeled coin door power or something like that. My next newest machines are early 90's, and the connectors are different. Does the Payrange adaptor kit for pins work for all of these types, or are there more parts I have to ask for when I order Payrange units?
Hi! The 2-pin on the coin door is not the bill acceptor connector. Thats the slam tilt that is now optional. You should have received a cable that you need to run from the power supply in the head.
Episode 27 now available!
Episode 27- Security, Ghostbusters, and Corn Dogs!
Welcome back to episode 27! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH FOR LISTENING TO US RAMBLE ON!
Whats new?
Tony- Got myself a lawnmower! all grown up now! Electric! Pinball on a stick meeting underway!
Corn Dog- Has a bad back!
Lineup Changes-
Kiss and Elvis have left the building! Ghostbusters and Metallica LED are in the house!
Ghostbusters Launch Party Success! D&G was amazing! My friend John put on a top notch show! I also spent the weekend with Jared from Stern Pinball!
Super League Games
•Ghostbusters Pro
•Star Trek Pro
•South Park
•Eight Ball Deluxe
•Hook
Ghostbusters $100!
April 30th-May 10th, 2016
East Side Pinball
1. GHOSTBUSTERS 35%
2. STAR TREK PRO 10%
3. GAME OF THRONES PRO 9%
4. Medieval Madness 8%
5. SOUTH PARK 8%
6. METALLICA 7%
7. WIZARD OF OZ 6%
8. FAMILY GUY 5%
9. WALKING DEAD PRO 4%
10. HOOK 4%
11. Eight Ball Deluxe 4%
West Side Pinball
1. WALKING DEAD PRO 67%
2. PIRATES 33%
NEW OPERATORS CHECKLIST! This is for you Tommy!
CoinMechs- These are your friends but a nightmare because of the jams and such.
We use The IMONEX® V9 Series on our games and this has practically eliminated jams. Well worth the extra money!
Bill Acceptors- A must have for every game that can accommodate! Look on eBay for these and check Pinside as well. We get all of ours from our friends at the Pinball Warehouse. MARS are the best but others are fine as well. Some of the stackers you may have to shave the corners on older 90s games but you can make it work without having to purchase a different stacker.
PayRange- You all know how we feel about it! It wont happen overnight but by running specials and advertising on the machines and through your social media network will greatly increase revenue! Price your PayRange pricing 10% less than cash. It sounds crazy right? WRONG! Customers will spend more money using PayRange because its too easy! They have to have a balance and a minimum funded account of $5 that defaults to $10. You will make more money even with fees! If it isn’t work for you or your not seeing higher numbers its because you’re not utilizing it correctly!
Pricing- Pricing is difficult! You will never get a group of Pinheads to agree! I fought with myself for years on pricing but I will say its easier to lower the pricing than to raise it! Many will argue that your not in it for the money but at the end of the day, it has to be a factor! You can’t spend money on insurance, licensing fees, splits, and parts just to have a location! Make sure you are covering yourself!
Coinbox- Seems like a no-brainer but it gets old really quick having to fetch quarters from the bottom of the cabinet!
Locks- Get quality locks from 7/8 CAM LOCKS from COBRA or where we are buying locks from Baton Lock Company in CA. They are solid!
Lockdown Bars- You may think you’ll never need them and so did we and a few weeks ago we got broken into! We are using no drill bars with Baton Locks all keyed to one lock making life much easier!
DON’T USE LOCKS FROM A PINBALL SUPPLIER! They are all keyed alike and easily picked or for $4 you could easily just order one and have a key!
We spent $900 for 12 padlocks and 15 CAMs. from Baton and you may think this is a large amount to spend but we lost more than that to s group of scumbags that stole from us!
Log- Keep a log of game repairs big or small. This will help you a ton when you are trying to figure out why you are spending so much time at location! 
Cleaning- Create a cleaning schedule and stick to it! Pinball has a bad reputation for not working and dirty. If you’re a hobby operator, take care of them like you do at home and spend the time to do it right!
We clean games every other day MON-WED-FRI and often more as needed. We use NOVUS 2 on the PlayFields and or CP100. Get some non streaking glass cleaner and don’t forget to clean both sides! We use ZEP 40 Cold Weather Formula and we use microfiber rags. Green for Novus, Blue for Glass Cleaner, and Yellow for CP-100.
Tournaments- Don’t be afraid to run a tournament!. Partner with a passionate local who will help you! There are wonderful people that will help you! We have some of the greatest people that are willing to help run tournaments! They are great to generate additional income but most importantly, It helps bring new players to your location! You could run a half off special for the tournament, free pizza, or even put into the prize fund!
Leagues- This was one of the biggest things we did! Our leagues have grown and grown and its not only excellent for your CoinBox, its awesome for the location! Start a league and run it fair for all players, not just the top players or the casual players. Find out who the players are and make sure its working for them! We have made a lot of changes because we have a lot of casual players that are more interested in just having a beer and playing some pinball!
Games- choosing games is never easy! We personally obviously lean heavily on the newest titles and themes. Our customers that walk in the arcade are mostly casual players not pinball players. We also have learned the newer the game the less trouble you will have! One other thing we have learned is when buying a new game, get it ready before you drop it off! Take the time to go through the boards, connectors, replace rubber, balls, clean it really well and of course play test it! Leave it on for a few days straight and make sure it doesn’t develop problems. Nothing is worse than bringing a new game up, telling everyone, and having your phone ring nonstop from trouble!
HOW IT WORKS- This is what we do! Its not how everyone does it!
Building up a location from the hobby side means more time to do things right! don’t put a game on location if your intention is to immediately make money by sitting at home and not doing anything! Be active with your customers, listen to them, and most importantly understand and fix things quickly!
How do we do it? Not alone! East Side Pinball started very small and we grew! To this day I have not taken a single penny out of the business, We do expense our trip to Chicago EXPO and the rest in reinvested. Create a Facebook page, website, and advertise! We use Facebook and Google ADs to generate interest! We have Angry Andy now on payroll cleaning games, Corn Dog does our technical service, and parts! Rubbers, balls, broken plastics, LEDs, motors and whatever else decides to break! The rest funds new games, advertising, promotions, and tournament prizes, pizza, league banquets and whatever else comes up!
Are we successful? Depends on who you ask! We grew our collection level and number of games! I still haven’t paid myself back entirely because we are constantly investing our earnings to improve our business! Our latest expansion efforts to the West Side are being funded by East Side Pinball. We plan to continue growing locations at the rate we can without putting more of my personal finances into it. We spend hundreds of dollars monthly for parts, hundreds on labor, more on Software management.
Would we do it again? I can’t honestly think of something I love more! Its a ton of work, long hours, and stress but I love it! I have met some of the greatest people! Pinball is a passion! Maybe its the lights, maybe its the history, the artwork, or maybe we are crazy! At the end of the day, its who I am! My passion is pinball, and I hope it shows in my machines!
thanks for listening! Tune in next week for an interview with CEO of PayRange!
1 week later
Always happy to talk pinball! Thanks for having me and letting me ramble about Main Street Mayhem tournament!
1 week later
2 months later
Quoted from policano:Hey Guys! Episode 31 is now available for download!
http://www.coinboxpodcast.com/podcast.html
LTG : )
1 week later
1 month later
Tony and Chris, I pray all is well with you guys. I've really missed your podcasts they are always one of my favorites. Give us an update or something if you can. Waiting two months between episodes is hard but I understand this is a hobby and life gets in the way.
Quoted from policano:We hope to record this Friday.
Looking forward to it. Thanks for the update!
We recorded during the fair but had major audio issues and I have not wanted to post it, then it was just burnout time ha. The fair is a lot of work and the week the fair ends we rush to get the games back to location for Leagues and tournaments. We will have an episode out this weekend. We did totals from the entire summer, the fair percentages, and we will had this weeks totals.
Love your show guys! Looking forward to the new one. We know the fair takes a ton of work from you. Hope you have all recovered from it!
Episode 32 has finally been posted guys. Thanks for all the kind words, Chris and I really appreciate it!
http://coinbox.libsyn.com/ep32-the-summer-the-minnesota-state-fair-expo
3 months later
Episode 33 is now available! Thank you for your patience! Corndog and I are back for another episode.
Show Feed:
http://coinbox.libsyn.com
RSS Feed:
http://coinbox.libsyn.com/rss
iTunes Feed:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-coinbox-pinball-podcast/id980818336
Sticher Radio:
http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=63660&refid=stpr
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
