New to Cranes and Have a couple of Questions

[rogersmith]

Hello, Iv'e done a lot of bulk vending and am just considering getting into cranes. I have two questions though:

1. Can anyone recommend a good, cheap, steady supplier of refurbished/used cranes in California?

2. I would be placing cranes in lower income neighborhoods (On my racks, I generally charge $.25 for candy and $0.50 for 1" toys in them). According to my calculations based on an assumed average monthly gross of $250 per crane (is this assumed average gross realistic for laundromats and restaurants???), for a crane to pencil out with my expenses (including overhead, licensing, taxes, insurance, storage, repairs, time, cogs, commission etc.), I would, more or less, have to adhere to one of the following set-ups:

Set-Up 1: 75 cent play, 1 in 5 win ratio, toys averaging overall 82 cents or less in cost to me per toy

Set-Up 2: 75 cent play, 1 in 4 win ratio, toys averaging overall 65 cents or less in cost to me per toy

Set-Up 3: 75 cent play, 1 in 6 win ratio, toys averaging overall 95 cents or less in cost to me per toy

Set-Up 4: 50 cent play, 1 in 6 win ratio, toys averaging overall 65 cents or less in cost to me per toy

Set-Up 5: 50 cent Play, 1 in 9 win ratio, toys averaging overall 98 cents or less in cost to me per toy

Any recommendations as to which set-up would be best? I don't want to price the kids out at 75 cents, but on the other hand, I sell 1" capsules at 50 cents... I also don't want to make the win ratio too low. I sure would appreciate some input from the experienced crane operators on here... Thanks in advance!

[dogcow]

Hello, Iv'e done a lot of bulk vending and am just considering getting into cranes. I have two questions though:

1. Can anyone recommend a good, cheap, steady supplier of refurbished/used cranes in California?

betson, expect to pay about $1,100 for a 31" import plus shipping unless u can go pick it up from them

i always use betson for quality equipment because they are local but most of my cranes i got off craigslist

arcade techs run about 75/hr you need to learn the ins and outs of basic repair pretty quick or you will

be throwing away all your profit,not to mention locations have VERY little patience for equipment

being down.

2. I would be placing cranes in lower income neighborhoods (On my racks, I generally charge $.25 for candy and $0.50 for 1" toys in them). According to my calculations based on an assumed average monthly gross of $250 per crane (is this assumed average gross realistic for laundromats and restaurants???),

250/mo is very high for a laundromat. i have a few laundries that produce that kind of revenue but they are

big 2400 sq. ft place. your typical laundromat will do around 100/mo. also laundries seem to rely on repeat customers more than say a buffet type of place. its the same folks every week, so the money goes down real fast. the 4200sq ft places i have

they started doing 350-400 a month and then quickly dropped off to the $200 range. so i change the prizes every few months

to get a small bump.but again i pay $500 or less for most of my cranes so i can afford to earn

on the lower end of what cranes can do.

for a crane to pencil out with my expenses (including overhead, licensing, taxes, insurance, storage, repairs, time, cogs, commission etc.), I would, more or less, have to adhere to one of the following set-ups:

Set-Up 1: 75 cent play, 1 in 5 win ratio, toys averaging overall 82 cents or less in cost to me per toy

Set-Up 2: 75 cent play, 1 in 4 win ratio, toys averaging overall 65 cents or less in cost to me per toy

Set-Up 3: 75 cent play, 1 in 6 win ratio, toys averaging overall 95 cents or less in cost to me per toy

Set-Up 4: 50 cent play, 1 in 6 win ratio, toys averaging overall 65 cents or less in cost to me per toy

Set-Up 5: 50 cent Play, 1 in 9 win ratio, toys averaging overall 98 cents or less in cost to me per toy

IMO you want to do 50c a play to encourage people to use the dollar validator. the machines dont

return change so i dont think 75 is a good number unless u have it in a bonus credit mode for

$5 or something to that effect. All my cranes are $0.50 but i'd be interested to see what other people say

those are unrealistic prices for prizes, you pretty much stuck to 1 of 2 categories unless ur using a candy crane

type of machine. either rubber balls which range from 0.20-0.45/per ea or plush which is $1-2 per ea.

the win % is gonna depend on what you have in there and what type of location it is. a shopping mall i had no

problem with a 1/12 win ratio because u dont have to rely on repeat customers in a laundry you need it to be much lower

1/4 or 1/5 worked good for me, i do plus around 1/9 and try to keep it very low cost i m,ake my own mixes to control costs

but its still around 1.25 per ea. average cost.

[rogersmith]

Dogcow, thanks so much for taking the time to write such a thorough answer.

Wow! Only $100/month at laundromats? Is that really gross or is it your net? I thought that Cranes did better than that because my racks do close to that at most laundromats. There's no way I could get a crane to pencil out at 1 in 5 at an average of $1.25 cost per toy with a $100/month gross average. Maybe cranes aren't the way to go...

[dogcow]

It depends on the mat, if ur bulk is doing good could be more. I go based on the size of the mat and also if they have a coin pusher

Like I said if I get crane for 400 and put out vending knobby balls, I make 100 gross with a product cost under 10 dollars, so in a few months I'm in the black

[ronsidney]

I do my math a bit different..

if the bulk(at least a 5 way rack) does 100 a month, then the crane will do 100 a week

of course i dont have many 100 a month bulk routes anymore,especially not in any mats

ron

[dogcow]

I do my math a bit different..

if the bulk(at least a 5 way rack) does 100 a month, then the crane will do 100 a week

of course i dont have many 100 a month bulk routes anymore,especially not in any mats

ron

here in florida theres a laundry equipment dealer that does buildouts on spec, they are very well researched and they only build BIG mats (4k-5k sq ft). those places make $100 a week if theres no pusher , about 50% less if they have a pusher I have 3 of those. the rest are neighborhood type mats the problem with the neighborhood mats is if one of them is making money some idiot will open up a mat across the street, then nobody makes any money. so the way i work is i cover every mat in a particular area and buy real cheap equipment since laundries are easy to get, i have most of the laundries in this county if i dont have its probably cause its too small or they own their own equipment