Rick Falcon Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Trying to get started in the crane business I'm trying to gather as much info. as I can so please share any info you have in regards to crane vending the good the bad and the ugly. Thanks guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerformaVending Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 PROS: Varied product selection, high price points, lots of options CONS: Space (larger vending units are harder to place), electrical considerations, servicing (more difficult than say a capsule machine) and moving considerations. Though I'm told a crane doesn't weigh as much as say, a soda machine, it's not something you throw in the back of your Ford Focus and drive off with. I don't operate cranes, partly by choice and partly because they're rather sparse around here. These are my opinions only, but I figured I'd chime in so you wouldn't be left hanging here without an answer of any sort. If you go into cranes, I think it would be more like a larger bulk machine, than say a full line machine just from a stocking standpoint, but again, that's only my opinion. Good luck Mr. Falcon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 cranes require a lot of service old cranes can be finicky and break down a lot, they are easy to locate and can make a lot of money in the right spots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billnuts Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Pro's 1 make money sometimes alot of money. 2 They are easy to clean and fill. 3 most cranes are made to last 20 years and still work today I have one crane with 1,900,000 on the counters... 4 win ratio is programmable 5 Need filled more often than bulk.. like every 2 weeks or every month. 6 the product you use reflects cash box... cheap plush will not make as much as 30% licenced Con's 1 customers are morons. 2 Dollar bill acceptor can be jammed with anything including change and redemption tickets same for quarter acceptors I try to use mars dba. 3 setting claw strength is a LEARNED TALENT.... some cranes are easy to set some you will lose money the first month. 4 win ratio has to be very fair for the customer 30% is average if your too cheap they wont play it. 5 Most cranes are hassle free, but some with have intermittent problems and intermittent problems are the worst. 6 more frequent fills every three months to fill is not going to happen in a busy spot. empty machines or cheep product will not make any money. 7 better get a crash course in how to fix simple electronics problems , switches, belts, how to clean a dollar bill acceptor... fix coin jams... etc.. 8 space and power... they do take power and make noise I offer digital timers to the stores hours to save the owner money. 9 moving them requires a truck or trailer make sure they get thru thier doors bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 4 win ratio is programmable i will disagree with that . i have 25 cranes only 3 of them auto percentage. this is because my business model is to buy cranes under $500.00 if possible. if you are buying used legacy equipment (20yr old cranes) most likely it wont auto percentage without a board replacement. i have seen some unviersal replacement boards but installing them is very time consuming because you have to disassemble and rewire all the harnesses. once you are dealing with a crane that does not auto percentage it becomes much more of an art to setting the claw strength properly and becomes harder to make money. it takes me about an hour to set up a crane for a new product line and get the claw strength right. once i have it set i dont want to change products because you have to start all over again. I've been in the exact scenario you described too, got a call the machine was empty in 2wks, got there and there was not NEARLY enough money in the cash box. location owner told me every other customer was winning a toy. turns out you should really test the claw with the crane full but also 1/2 or 1/3 empty because once a few prizes are won it gets much easier to win them. they cleaned out 24" of small plush and the gross was under $150..expensive lesson i think someone could make good money inventing a small universal circuit or daughter board to convert over old cranes to auto percentage. it would just have to have an input from the coin line , and sit in line with the claw power line and have a chip to control it. every X pulses on the coin line should max out the voltage then the next pulse reset it back to default strength just my 2 cents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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