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Going to look at some U-turn machines.


Jimoutside

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Tomorrow I plan to meet with a man selling a small U-Turn route. He has ten U-turns placed, and five more that can be placed.

 

He says the ten machines do $700-800 per month, and he pays no commissions. He's just too busy with other things and needs to let it go.

 

He wants $4,000 for the whole shibang.

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WelI, I doubt very seriously that he's bringing in $800 a month off of 10 U-turns. You can find U-turns on the used market for $50, to me they're not even worth that much. I would look elsewhere for machines, do your homework and read up on them. Locations run about $50 from a locator...you do the math there. Not trying to bust your bubble or hurt your feelings. If you want it go for it. I wouldn't, but that's just me.

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It's all well and good to say so, but I prefer some reasons. Tell me what WOULD be a good deal.

Like I mentioned before, you might want to read more. look in the section for machine reviews. Heck, do a search for the equipment. I can almost guarantee those numbers are off. I've been using Uturns for 13 years. If you took my best 5 locations, it won't make that much. That's out of 70 uturn locations!

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Well, any deal I make for located machines will always involve that I go around collecting quarters and stocking machines with the person before I decide for sure if I want to do it.


And I wouldn't give him $4,000 anyway.


Like I mentioned before, you might want to read more. look in the section for machine reviews.

I have read it extensively. I have read the part about U-turns.

 

One thing I really want to see in the equipment reviews, is for forum people to continually update them. Something written four years ago is great, but in the four years since, it would be nice to know how the machines are holding up. Not a lot of activity on those old threads.

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I have oaks and northwesters I bought used 30 years ago that still make money today. So that means some are nearly 50 years old, yes they have been painted and maintained, but that's why I buy oak and northwestern

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I refuse to believe that this is a real question/post. Nobody can possibly be that naïve and hessitant to recieve advice after asking for it

1. I read the section on U-turns, and most of the people who have them said they like them.

 

2. Looking at, and buying, are two different things.

 

3. If everyone always followed all the advice they ever received, they would tear themselves in pieces going 17 ways at once.

 

4. Receiving advice and following it are two different things entirely.

 

5. Conflicting advice cannot be followed in conflicting directions.

 

6. You are free to insult people all day long. It says more about you than it says about me.

 

7. You are entitled to your opinion. My mileage may vary.

 

8. At least some people, like Musser, give positive advice instead of insults.

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Your right, im wrong, sorry. $800 a month/ $10,000 a year gross on 10 uturns sounds great and completely realistic. Too bad the seller is so busy that $800 a month for just a couple hours of servicing isn't worth his time (must be a Dr. Or something?? Usually people sell due to health reasons) $4,000 for that kind of return is a no brainer. This seller sounds like a straight shooter and i wouldnt be afraid to offer him $2500 cash ($250 per u turn) and see if he's dumb enough to take it. But if you have to pay $4,000, nit sure how you could go wrong!! Good luck!

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Yes, sir, that's pretty much my plan exactly. If he truly is making the money he says he is (probably isn't, but hey, it doesn't take much time to look into it) then I will probably offer him $2500. And I will drag my feet about it too. I'm sorry if I gave anybody the impression I would give him $4000 for it. Around here it's standard practice to offer a good bit less for something you're buying.

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I can't believe you thought I was serious in that last post. Jerimiah's advice of "RUN!!" Was your best advice. This seller is raising every red flag possible. Selling due to "lack if time" or "health issues" give me a break! Most experienced vendors on this site wouldnt even consider this uturn route for even $1,000, much less $2500. My bet is you dont have a clue and dont even own a single machine on location. I know you already know everything, but You cant take shortcuts to start, gotta learn to walk before you run. Gotta pay your dues.

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Yes, sir, that's pretty much my plan exactly. If he truly is making the money he says he is (probably isn't, but hey, it doesn't take much time to look into it) then I will probably offer him $2500. And I will drag my feet about it too. I'm sorry if I gave anybody the impression I would give him $4000 for it. Around here it's standard practice to offer a good bit less for something you're buying.

Just to give you an idea on that route, I purchased one with uturns a little over a year ago with 70 machines and 30 locations. I bought it because I knew I could sell the equipment for the cost of the route and keep the locations. Out of that, I have 1 location that made it worthwhile.

I encourage you to look at more than just the equipment reviews of owners. If you had, you would have seen my very candid replies to other people that were in the same spot you are.

If you buy them, the first thing that will happen is the reality that the money you saw in the machines was probably 3 months worth, not 1.

Next you will see that you have to carry about 12 products to cover an 8 selection well.

Then in about 6 months you will see how much your throwing away of bad product.

In the mean time you will have to replace 1-3 chute covers per machine on avg. every month on a restaurant and 1 every other month on offices, they are 6.00 ea plus shipping.

Then in any high volume location of 80+ a month you will go to service calls that are complaining the machine is not working because the coin mechanism is jammed, or the quarter is stuck. It's because the quarter pushes past the plastic and jams.

Then you'll figure out that in any tight spot it's hard to set 8 canisters anywhere!

When you knock one or 4 over sometime in the next 4 months you'll be very ticked and realization that everyone was right will push you over the edge.

over the next year you'll get burned out on it, how hard it is to maintain, keep clean, and by the time your done with gas you lost money, you won't be able to sell them for as much as you paid, even ebay they sell for about 100.

I assure you that buying uturn's is not the way to go. They sound great, but they are not made well and won't hold their value.

You said that most owners of uturns were satisfied.....

How many of them are current members on here now? How many of them are telling you to buy them?

You seem to have your mind made up, your excited at the sale of the business, I encourage you to do the math I've set forward for you and think about it.

By the time you were done, you could make more on a single head or double with a location for under 200.00 ea. The equipment would last longer than you.

I have yet to replace a mech on a oak or eagle. I replaced 1 at 10% of my locations in the last 2 months of service on Uturns.

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I can't believe you thought I was serious in that last post. Jerimiah's advice of "RUN!!" Was your best advice. This seller is raising every red flag possible. Selling due to "lack if time" or "health issues" give me a break! Most experienced vendors on this site wouldnt even consider this uturn route for even $1,000, much less $2500. My bet is you dont have a clue and dont even own a single machine on location. I know you already know everything, but You cant take shortcuts to start, gotta learn to walk before you run. Gotta pay your dues.

 

I knew you weren't serious, it was obvious from your tone.

 

You are right, I don't own a single machine on location. One quick look at my sidebar profile reveals that instantly.

 

Gotta pay my dues? Is there exactly one way, and only one, to do that? Seems like a large number of the people on this site (not all) paid their dues by starting out and making a lot of mistakes but keeping with it and making it work by learning and improving.

 

As I said before, if all the people with their U-turns would update how it worked out for them, instead of trailing off the pinned thread about them around 2012, maybe we would hear more.

 

Yes, there were a lot of red flags. Sometimes you seriously have to investigate something, to get to the bottom of it. I'm in the process of it. I know red flags when I see them (thanks to good advice here, and a life-time of observation in many other walks of life). For instance, after reading the reviews of Silent Sales Force machines on here today, there's no way I would buy one.

 

Thank you for your kind concern, it is well appreciated. :unsure:

I have oaks and northwesters I bought used 30 years ago that still make money today. So that means some are nearly 50 years old, yes they have been painted and maintained, but that's why I buy oak and northwestern

Do you know how I could get any for say, $100 apiece? They don't seem to come up for sale very often. If I could get some, I would love to.

RE: Mussers' solid advise, uturns suck,

I'm starting to think you could be right. . . .

Just to give you an idea on that route, I purchased one with uturns a little over a year ago with 70 machines and 30 locations. I bought it because I knew I could sell the equipment for the cost of the route and keep the locations. Out of that, I have 1 location that made it worthwhile.

I encourage you to look at more than just the equipment reviews of owners. If you had, you would have seen my very candid replies to other people that were in the same spot you are.

 

Thanks, Rodney, sounds like good advice.

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Not that it really matters now, but. . . .

I did meet with the man today.

He's, I'd say, in his 50's or early 60's.

He said his wife ran the route until she developed health problems and had to stop. He's been running it since then. . . .

They bought it, with the machines used, from someone else about 4 years ago. He says the income from it has been good, but he doesn't have time to put into it now, because. . .

He works full-time at a nearby factory I am familiar with (good-paying jobs there).

He also runs a paper route. (I saw the newspapers stacked in his van).

On the weekend he runs a stall in the flea market. (For those who don't know, flea markets are a very huge thing in South Carolina).

All those things he finds profitable, and had to get rid of something.

 

Well, good luck to him.

 

He said he has 11 machines out on 10 locations. The best location has two machines and brings in about half of the total revenue per month. He services that account every week. The rest perform much more averagely, $15-50 / month. He services them about every three weeks. No wonder he's wearing himself out.

 

Anyway, maybe somebody will buy the account from him. Or maybe they won't, and he'll keep dropping his price. Today, when I already explained I didn't have the money immediately to buy it, at the end of our conversation he voluntarily dropped his asking price to $3500. If he drops it enough, maybe I'll buy it and replace the machines with Vendstars or others as the U-turns break up. Meanwhile, I won't be saying anything to him for a week or two, and see if his ad is still up, and if I manage to scrape some money together. I'm looking at two or three other routes too.

 

I wouldn't consider buying it unless he agreed to let me go with him to collect his big account, twice in a row. (I wouldn't say twice in a row at first, I'd spring the twice in a row on him right before it was time to go the second time). It is true that anybody can lie about frequency, but it's really tedious to go back and stuff $100 of quarters, 50 in each of two machines, to make it look like that's what they earned in a week. I'd also talk to the business owner or others of the big account and ask for good references. Also, I know people who work at his full-time job, and I could backreference some info about him through there too.

 

But. . . . .. . . . I probably won't, because who wants a route of U-turns. . . .

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Not that it really matters now, but. . . .

I did meet with the man today.

He's, I'd say, in his 50's or early 60's.

He said his wife ran the route until she developed health problems and had to stop. He's been running it since then. . . .

They bought it, with the machines used, from someone else about 4 years ago. He says the income from it has been good, but he doesn't have time to put into it now, because. . .

He works full-time at a nearby factory I am familiar with (good-paying jobs there).

He also runs a paper route. (I saw the newspapers stacked in his van).

On the weekend he runs a stall in the flea market. (For those who don't know, flea markets are a very huge thing in South Carolina).

All those things he finds profitable, and had to get rid of something.

Well, good luck to him.

He said he has 11 machines out on 10 locations. The best location has two machines and brings in about half of the total revenue per month. He services that account every week. The rest perform much more averagely, $15-50 / month. He services them about every three weeks. No wonder he's wearing himself out.

Anyway, maybe somebody will buy the account from him. Or maybe they won't, and he'll keep dropping his price. Today, when I already explained I didn't have the money immediately to buy it, at the end of our conversation he voluntarily dropped his asking price to $3500. If he drops it enough, maybe I'll buy it and replace the machines with Vendstars or others as the U-turns break up. Meanwhile, I won't be saying anything to him for a week or two, and see if his ad is still up, and if I manage to scrape some money together. I'm looking at two or three other routes too.

I wouldn't consider buying it unless he agreed to let me go with him to collect his big account, twice in a row. (I wouldn't say twice in a row at first, I'd spring the twice in a row on him right before it was time to go the second time). It is true that anybody can lie about frequency, but it's really tedious to go back and stuff $100 of quarters, 50 in each of two machines, to make it look like that's what they earned in a week. I'd also talk to the business owner or others of the big account and ask for good references. Also, I know people who work at his full-time job, and I could backreference some info about him through there too.

But. . . . .. . . . I probably won't, because who wants a route of U-turns. . . .

Those numbers are possible, but he could have his settings way open to. Put a quarter in each Mech and se how many come out.

I still have 3-8 selects out. 2 in grocery stores and one in a sports place.

If it's set right, and empties in a week, 1t would be in the neighborhood of 190.00 and 240 depending on what's in it. Off it's emptying with less, the settings Are open to far.

If it's making 110-150 and close to empty, then it's set to the Uturn suggested settings from 8 years ago and would now be about 60% product cost.

And oaks are at oakmfg.com

Ok sale now!

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Well, he didn't say it emptied in a week, but that maybe one or two slots would empty within two weeks, out of 8 slots (in the two best machines). So he services those two machines every week to keep them from running out. He says the customer will call him in frustration if their favorite product runs out. Sorry if I said anything confusing there.

 

So how many pieces of various product do you suggest per vend? That is a helpful thing to know, too. And should apply to other machines besides U-turn.

 

And thanks for the helpful input, Rodney.

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That Uturn settings list has how many pieces and pieces per case can be found on aaglobal.com under candy. For candy you'll end up 20-35% product cost depending I. product. It's only that high because pmm, m&i, and ht can't go lower due to the machine. It jams or is to inconsistent. Oak our other quality machines don't have that issue.

If you use a double, you only carry 2-4 products, in and out quick!

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@ Rodney:

 

That's true. Or I could put four doubles and have eight products. As we know, accounts differ widely in the amount of business they can sustain. Those 8-head racks look attractive too. All those things I can do when I have enough money. . . .

 

The place I had my tires done this week had a nice waiting room with a soda and snack machine, but no candy machine. As soon as I get some, I'm going to try placing one with them. But it would not be a good location for an 8-way-- it would probably be a good place for a double or triple.


Get that good spot and put a rack in.

Yep, good idea. . . .

 

How much does a rack cost? I don't see any available for sale used nearby. . . .

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Jim you really gotta stop posting all this nonsense , just save your money and spend a week reading everything on this site before you spend any money. Learn from others successes and failures and educate yourself before you go any further.

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Jim you really gotta stop posting all this nonsense , just save your money and spend a week reading everything on this site before you spend any money. Learn from others successes and failures and educate yourself before you go any further.

 

You know, I had a big old reply ready to post, but it just isn't worth it. I feel sorry for you.

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