Hypnotherapist and Landlord looking at Vending

[Lucero]

Hello all!

While this is my first post, I am already very grateful to have found you all.  I have spent some time reading the forums, and I am so glad I did.

I am a hypnotherapist and landlord (as the you may have guessed from the title!) and am looking at vending as a supplemental income.  I have had an ongoing dialog with 800-vending, discussing their machines and plans.  I am a bit turned off by the idea of having to buy many machines at once, and at what appears to be 2 to 3 times the price of other brands of machine.

They do have a good rap though, and the warranty seems phenomenal.   However, I think first I will be purchasing 2 or 3 Segea machines (2 or 3 heads, undecided right now), locating them myself, and seeing how it goes.  The biggest benefit 800-vending seems to offer (aside from the warranty) is the service time on their machines.  Since I don't have tons of machines and a huge booming business, I'm not sure what I would be paying the premium for.

Right now I have -no- idea what kind of ROI to expect from the machines, so while I do have the capital to jump in with a few dozen machines, I want to play around a bit before making a more serious financial commitment.  Can anyone give me an idea of what an average 2-headed machine should be netting per day/month/ or year?  I realize that this probably varies wildly, but when a machine is performing well enough that you are happy to keep it at a location, what kind of perormance are you getting?

I'm off to dig through the wealth of posts here.  Thanks for your time,

-Lucero

[caserri]

Greetings Lucero!

It is a pleasure to have you aboard. I will not get into everything that is wrong with 1800 in my first post to you. I will let you research the site as much as you can and you will hopefully come to the same conclusion that most of us have.

You are right on track in your thinking about purchasing a small quantity of machines and "test" the industry. This is the only way to get started in my opinion.

To answer your revenue questions a bit, let me say that we have a section here at VENDiscuss called member PLUS. In it you can post and view other operators actual machine revenue. Its a great informational tool. To gain access to member PLUS simply make 10 posts and you will become eligible.

Here is a link to The National Bulk Vendors Association's website. They list national revenue averages for all types of bulk venders. Once again, welcome and enjoy the site!

http://www.nbva.org

Steve

[Lucero]

Greetings Lucero!

It is a pleasure to have you aboard. I will not get into everything that is wrong with 1800 in my first post to you. I will let you research the site as much as you can and you will hopefully come to the same conclusion that most of us have.

You are right on track in your thinking about purchasing a small quantity of machines and "test" the industry. This is the only way to get started in my opinion.

Thanks for the warm welcome, Steve.    I went ahead and ordered 2 double headed (red/green) Seaga machines, and a single head machine.  I ordered from Sam's, and it said a 3-4 week wait (yikes.).  So I guess I have plenty of time to check out the forums and get my post count up   I'm glad my instinct about the 800-vending people is shared here.  I just felt like the entire site was geared torward people without vending experience, that alone made me a bit nervous.  I have to say they have a sexy looking product, but ultimately all the machines dispense some product for a quarter, and my ROI is going to be much better with a less expensive machine.

Thank you for the link.  The averages helped give me an idea of what I might be able to expect.

-Lucero

[caserri]

ordered from Sam's, and it said a 3-4 week wait (yikes.). 

 

I don't know why they put that, every time I have ordered I have received my machines in less than 7 days. This also goes for each machine that I had drop shipped to other customers when I sold them on eBay. I think they put that to cover themselves in case there is a low quantity in the warehouse.

You will receive tracking info from them in a couple days with the estimated delivery time.

Steve

[Lucero]

ordered from Sam's, and it said a 3-4 week wait (yikes.). 

 

I don't know why they put that, every time I have ordered I have received my machines in less than 7 days. This also goes for each machine that I had drop shipped to other customers when I sold them on eBay. I think they put that to cover themselves in case there is a low quantity in the warehouse.

You will receive tracking info from them in a couple days with the estimated delivery time.

Steve

Everyone will, I'm sure, be in a tizzy to learn that Seaga just shipped them out via DHL, and they are due here 10/8/07.   Expect a flurry of newbie questions in the meantime!

-Lucero

[davidsurvz]

Welcome Lucero,

Glad you are getting some good info. I have to say that the 1800 machines are excellent machines but in my opinion stay away from biz-ops and don't pay full price for them. If you decide to try out any 1800 machines in the future you can get them brand new from $100.00 to $175.00. (You might have to dig a little to find the deals but they are out there.) There are a few places you can find them besides ebay. I have 4 of them and I Like them more all the time!!

Anyway, Welcome!

This is a very good forum for ideas and info.

David