Best way to get started in amusement vending

[7055]

Hello all. I am a 31 year old robotics engineer looking for a side gig and amusement vending caught my eye because I feel like it's something I could do while working full time and would be a good fit for my mechanical and electrical background. The issue is, I have little idea where to get started. Specifically in where I should look to get good deals on arcade games as well as the best locations to look for.

 

This pretty fancy pong game caught my eye looking around at options online however I have no idea if it's worth it to buy new or how long it would take to get a return on investment. Would anyone be able to offer me some advice?

 

https://www.bhmvending.com/amusements/unis/pong_arcade_table.html

[RoadDogAmusements]

I wouldn't buy any equipment new unless you have the high traffic location for it already. Earning $5k in amusement vending is quite difficult. essentially that's 5-20k games played, depending on your cost to play.

[gravygrabber]

I'm just getting back into vending after a 10 year hiatus. Back then I lived in CA and amusement games were cheaper to buy and easier to find. I'm now in a state that's more rural and they are hard to find second hand and more expensive when you do find them. I was collecting machines since moving out here so I had a good stock of mostly broken machines because I'm thrifty and like to fix them. I'm talking under $300 bucks usually. Recently I decided maybe it was time to sell off what I could live without since prices are high and I need the space. Another collector friend told me to fix them up and put them in locations around town and make some money. I decided to give it a go. Since the end of Dec. I've successfully located 4 machines. I bought a new pinball machine and added a ms pacman I had. That location is a high traffic brewery that's doing pretty good (not as good as I'd like but better than anywhere else) and I put two arcade games in a laundromat. Last two in the laundromat have been there a couple weeks. It's slow going. We placed a bulk tri head candy/gumball combo in a local auto parts store and that made a quarter in like a week and a half. I'm going to regroup after the next location is filled (a bar that wants a pinball/arcade combo) and probably reassess my business plan and look at cranes and something else. We just aren't raking in any money for the amount of money invested. I don't want to wait 3 years to get my money back on my pinball machines. 

 

My advice is to buy machines broken, network and try to get into some places and see how it goes. I think in my area at least, bars/breweries and laundromats are good.   That's where I'm focusing currently. 

 

 

 

[AZVendor]

That's what you get for buying new.