8 head U-Turn good deal?

[BrandNewbie]

Hi everyone!

I’m new to the idea of vending, and new to this forum so I’m very excitied to be here. After lurking around for a few days I think I found a good buy so I’m itching to jump in and hoping somebody will be able to offer advice on a deal offered to me. 

Is $50 for an 8 head uturn a good deal if everything is in working order/no cracks, scratches, etc? With keys/lock included?

Also, if anybody knows about these machines, are they able to dispense gumballs?

I was going to purchase a few vendstars from eBay but that fell through so I’m thinking that maybe the uturn thing is what was meant to happen? Thoughts on either machine?

The area I live in is pretty eclectic and always being developed so the plan is to start out with a couple bulk candy machines then start a few honor boxes before going with atms and combo drink snack machines. I may be posting for advice here a LOT.

But you guys put out a lot of great information and I couldn’t have pieced together a vision together without content from this site so thanks!! 

[Mehehe]

I have not had any experience with a U-Turn but have seen many people on here talking about them. 

The biggest problems I have read about are:

-You need to completely disassemble a U-Turn to service the machine and finding a space to put 8 canisters without putting them on the floor is a challenge.

-plastic mechanisms

-too many selections for the majority of locations so product spoils (most locations need 2 or 3 selections)

VendStars are an all plastic machine so sun fading makes them yellow and look tacky and the plastic mechanisms are prone to breaking.  A number of people buy VendStars for next to nothing, put them in a location til they break and then throw them away.

My 2 cents... start with a quality machine that will last and give you less headaches along the way.  NorthWestern, Oak, Eagle, A&A and Beaver are all great machines.  Oaks are easy to find on the used market.  Oak, A&A and Northwestern no longer make new machines for sale (used are plentiful).  Eagle and Beaver are still making new machines.

Call 574-935-4800 or go to gumballstuff.com  you can get used machines at a reasonable cost.

[gumball guy]

On 2/27/2019 at 6:17 PM, BrandNewbie said:

Hi everyone!

I’m new to the idea of vending, and new to this forum so I’m very excitied to be here. After lurking around for a few days I think I found a good buy so I’m itching to jump in and hoping somebody will be able to offer advice on a deal offered to me. 

Is $50 for an 8 head uturn a good deal if everything is in working order/no cracks, scratches, etc? With keys/lock included?

Also, if anybody knows about these machines, are they able to dispense gumballs?

I was going to purchase a few vendstars from eBay but that fell through so I’m thinking that maybe the uturn thing is what was meant to happen? Thoughts on either machine?

The area I live in is pretty eclectic and always being developed so the plan is to start out with a couple bulk candy machines then start a few honor boxes before going with atms and combo drink snack machines. I may be posting for advice here a LOT.

But you guys put out a lot of great information and I couldn’t have pieced together a vision together without content from this site so thanks!! 

Listen to Mehehe and avoid Uturns and Venstars at all costs. If you want to get into vending I would encourage you to keep it simple and go with one form of vending to start out with. If you want to do bulk vending or honor boxes, a handful of locations will not give you a real understanding of a vending business. The most cost effective way to start would be honor boxes. Set a goal of 20 or 25 locations and run that for a while to see if vending is even a good fit for you. There is alot of locating and relocating with honor boxes so it will give you a real taste of what it is like to build and maintain a route. If you hate it then you have minimal skin in the game and if you like it you can move on to other vending or continue with honor boxes. Regardless of what direction you choose continue researching this site BEFORE you spend your money. Look at bhumphrey829's Snack Box Update in the Honor Snack Box section to gain great insight into that realm. Just my 2 cents....good luck!

[Vendin it]

Too many selections, coin box's are a joke always tip over & your picking up coin or tip it over to get coins, if it's cheap maybe try it.

[DirtyHank]

I am looking at a route that has (50) 4 head uturns placed. What do you value that at?

[gumball guy]

     Years ago I bought 3 different routes (total of about 80 locations) that were all Uturn Terminators (8 selection). I got all three routes for next to nothing from people who had never been in vending before and bought these boat anchors with big dreams of success. I despised the machines from the get go. As time went on I replaced them a few at a time with better equipment. I did experiment with cutting the center rod down and making several of them into 4 selection machines but as expected the coin mechs failed, the globes cracked and fogged up and I ditched them all. After those three I never bought another route with that had uturns again.

     8 selections is just too much for most bulk vending locations. Sure there are occasionally exceptions to that rule but generally you don't need more than two selections in most places. I have a good amount of triples on the street but probably 75% of the time only one or two of the selections really get hit hard. If you are buying machines that have 4 selections I would look to buy several types of pressed candies (like runts) that have long shelf lives or you will be throwing alot of candy away. 

     If I were to make an offer (and I wouldn't) it would be an insult to the seller because I wouldn't go above $30.00 for a placed Uturn 4 head machine because they are that bad.

    

[BrandNewbie]

Thanks for the informative responses! I ended up getting 8/30. Flipping whatever can’t be placed. Looking into boxes next.

[jerrybrooksvendall]

On 2/27/2019 at 6:17 PM, BrandNewbie said:

Hi everyone!

I’m new to the idea of vending, and new to this forum so I’m very excitied to be here. After lurking around for a few days I think I found a good buy so I’m itching to jump in and hoping somebody will be able to offer advice on a deal offered to me. 

Is $50 for an 8 head uturn a good deal if everything is in working order/no cracks, scratches, etc? With keys/lock included?

Also, if anybody knows about these machines, are they able to dispense gumballs?

I was going to purchase a few vendstars from eBay but that fell through so I’m thinking that maybe the uturn thing is what was meant to happen? Thoughts on either machine?

The area I live in is pretty eclectic and always being developed so the plan is to start out with a couple bulk candy machines then start a few honor boxes before going with atms and combo drink snack machines. I may be posting for advice here a LOT.

But you guys put out a lot of great information and I couldn’t have pieced together a vision together without content from this site so thanks!! 

U turns are work but profitable. Put canisters on a tote to disassemble them. Make sure you cover them up as you go so no bugs will get inside the canisters. When you put it back together, make sure you turn the handle to make sure the canisters are seated properly, or else you will not be Vending anything.

[PerformaVending]

The U-Turn series of machines are very difficult to fill, service, locate and care for. They share all the weaknesses of smaller multi-head machines with several more tacked on. A search of the forum here will pull up plenty of horror stories from plenty of operators burned by them.

Were I in your position, I wouldn't touch them. If you do go forward with them though, we'll help as we're able with any troubleshooting you might need. Whatever you choose to do, good luck!