takeabreak Posted March 25, 2010 Share Posted March 25, 2010 I was thinking of getting into it. Any pro's, cons, advice? I saw an add that stated the National average income per week is $450. Could that be right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deee_z Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Hell no, might get that at a high traffic mexican restaurant but not your average location, 450 a week is a joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 A little over 20 years ago I manged a bowling center that had a game room in it with a crane. We had a 50/50 split with the game company after they took out license fees and more plush toys. Our cut from the crane was 300-400 a week avg. We also had around 2000 league bowlers that brought kids and gave them $$ to occupy themselves while mom and dad got drunk and bowled. So I would think that number would be good in a prime location, but those are likely under contract with larger operators and pay high % commissions. Unless you are very lucky, very good or both a startup company is not going to get the best pieces of the pie. my .02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takeabreak Posted April 1, 2010 Author Share Posted April 1, 2010 Thanks. So would you think $250 per week could be feasible in say a community theater? Do you have a particular brand of machine you would recommend? How about a good place to buy plush stuffed animals? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 I was thinking of getting into it. Any pro's, cons, advice? I saw an add that stated the National average income per week is $450. Could that be right? I too am considering cranes. Anyone else have words of advice for takeabreak and I? I'm sure more of you have cranes on your route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Coast Vend LLC Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Cranes as well as other prize machines are good to have in your portfolio. You should buy them as needed. What I mean by that is, add them to a location that you have other forms of vending equipment in already. Example, if you have a pizza place and you have a 5 way bulk vending setup and a spiral gum ball machine, you would do well by adding a crane machine or gravity hill or stacker to your mix. I have found that the more the better with vending machines. Customers will spend more money when there are all sorts of machines and games to play. They become obsessed from the sounds and flashing lights from the games. They will go to every machine, just to win a prize. The best place I have found to buy plush is Coast to Coast in NJ. Their product is really good quality, always different and best of all, always free shipping. Finally, even the good locations will do $250 to $400 on a good month. They start to decrease as the months go on if you don't keep changing the products inside. Try adding Trac-phones or other big prizes to add excitement to your cranes every couple of months. Try 5" knobby balls at $1 per play till you win. The product cost 16c so you make a good profit and the customers love winning every time they play your machines. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 How would you set the machine to play until you win? Does it have some sort of sensor in the vending door, something like the ivend technology in the snack machines? What brand of crane has this type of capability? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Coast Vend LLC Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Most every crane machine has a switch on the motherboard that allows you to make the game "win every time". Ask the manufacture about it before you buy their equipment. It's simple to switch so just ask. I use Toy Taxi from Coast to Coast Entertainment but I have seen many crane machines used as win-every-time. There is a censor at the top of the prize opening and tells the machine that a prize has past. Until that happens, the game will continue to play. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Most every crane machine has a switch on the motherboard that allows you to make the game "win every time". Ask the manufacture about it before you buy their equipment. It's simple to switch so just ask. I use Toy Taxi from Coast to Coast Entertainment but I have seen many crane machines used as win-every-time. There is a censor at the top of the prize opening and tells the machine that a prize has past. Until that happens, the game will continue to play. Gary Great info. Thanks Gary. What is your experience with the Toy Taxi from Coast-to-Coast? Does Coast-to-Coast mfr that crane or are they just the distributors? Are you happy with it? Would you buy it again? What are some of the pros/cons about that crane? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takeabreak Posted April 7, 2010 Author Share Posted April 7, 2010 Gary, So to confirm, you are saying a good location will do between $250 and $400 per month or was that per week? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Coast Vend LLC Posted April 7, 2010 Share Posted April 7, 2010 T-A-B, It's all about location, but I have moved my cranes to different locations, with that average results. They diffidently slow down as the months go by so don't forget to be creative every couple of months. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Coast Vend LLC Posted April 7, 2010 Share Posted April 7, 2010 Sherlock, I started off not being overly happy with them. I bought 6 cranes from them to start. They all seemed to have issues of some sort. It turned out that China was putting a defective part in them that they had to make good on. Once it was fixed they have worked without a problem. They were small issues but just enough to drive me crazy. When I buy something new I expect it to work perfectly and they didn't. One thing that I like about C2C is that the cranes are covered against defects as long as you buy plush from them. They will send you replacement parts for free. They also have a LIVE help desk to call if you have problems. They have worked with me on the phone many times to fix those problems I first had. Check with them, on want they cover, before you buy anything. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Coast Vend LLC Posted April 7, 2010 Share Posted April 7, 2010 If you are putting a crane in an account like Mission Vending has, maybe you could do $400 per week. If your not, than be very happy with $400 per month. Garu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takeabreak Posted April 7, 2010 Author Share Posted April 7, 2010 OK. Will do. Thanks Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 Generally speaking.... How do you place a value on a used crane on location or a crane/claw route? There are several formulas on this forum regarding route valuation, but I don't know that they apply to crane/claw machines. Can anyone help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEREMYTINA Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 Just jumping in here...I have a guy right up the road from me getting out of vending, and he has and I quote: "I have assorted plush cranes from 24 inch to 42 inch most of the cranes work I have some united some smart some Rainbow and Pinnacle most of them work, very few do not. starting price is 0 to $100.00 also some of them have bill validators still in them They all take quarters." Do these sound like a few could be a decent deal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s.weir Posted April 24, 2010 Share Posted April 24, 2010 I just figured it out. Lets assume you own a candy crane and you have it set to play until you win and that on average 2 pieces of candy get picked up and you have it so that it is a quarter per game (but its more like a quarter per win). If you buy something like for example the basic economy candy mix http://coastentertainment.stores.yahoo.net/bas.html for $268.00 which is 13 860 pieces. 13 860/2=6930 sales (the dividing by 2 is the two pieces per sale) 6 930x0.25=$1732.5 revenue $1732.5-(inventory)$268.00=$1464.50 profit! That is a 546% gain! Assuming you had an even okay location and your machine didn't break down this seems pretty great. Alot of this candy takes a very long time to get old too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takeabreak Posted April 29, 2010 Author Share Posted April 29, 2010 If any one has some extensive experience with "claw" machines, could they provide me with the top 5 profitable type locotions? I want to get into this business but want to make sure my ROI is inside a couple years. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
procreditcenter Posted May 8, 2010 Share Posted May 8, 2010 I think it does vary depending on how good of a location it is, but the general rule of thumb centers around what you make in a year. If the vending machine revenue is $5000 per year, it would sell between $4000-5000 as a general estimate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiatsuvend Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 I have been doing massage chairs for a couple of months. Put one in last week and the owner of the location showed me a machine he says grossed $10 K last year. Well I went to my most affluent locale and of course they said yes. Talk to me in about 2 weeks. If I do a quarter of that L'll go bonkets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I have been doing massage chairs for a couple of months. Put one in last week and the owner of the location showed me a machine he says grossed $10 K last year. Well I went to my most affluent locale and of course they said yes. Talk to me in about 2 weeks. If I do a quarter of that L'll go bonkets. what kind of machine and what kind of location? I have been doing massage chairs for a couple of months. Put one in last week and the owner of the location showed me a machine he says grossed $10 K last year. Well I went to my most affluent locale and of course they said yes. Talk to me in about 2 weeks. If I do a quarter of that L'll go bonkets. what kind of machine and what kind of location? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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