#PINBALL MACHINE RENTAL HOW TO#

Almost sounded like you had one though based off the stair climbing part. And that’s a large part of the business.ĭude, you need an escalate with the attachment that picks the game up, especially if you are doing this on the regular. But anytime I’m moving games, I’m mostly wondering if this is even worth it. Fixing games can be really rewarding also. Okay, collecting quarters is kinda fun too. Not trying to be a downer! I love operating games, but the rewarding part is watching people play and enjoy my games. But those are large costs that would need to ultimately be paid by the customer. If I was more of a professional, some things might get easier: I’d have a building with a loading dock, a truck that can fit multiple games with a lift gate, employees, etc. I do have a good routine, but there are a lot of steps. This is only a side gig for me and I probably average 3 moves per month these days.but it’s been 5+ years, so you can imagine that after 100 moves, it’s not that fun anymore.

#PINBALL MACHINE RENTAL HOW TO#

It’s not even that practical to hire it out anyway because that person would need to have keys to the machines involved, access codes to any venues involved (sometimes that’s my house), deal with money in the coin box, know enough about pinball to set the games up properly, know how to identify and diagnose any issues when the game is set up at the new place. If I’m delivering a game somewhere, that means I would be taking a game out, so that whole process happens again with the machine at the location. Deadlift machine onto my thigh so I can put the legs on while it is propped up. My main location is below ground so that involves going a set of stairs (which sometimes I do with the stair climbing dolly and other times I use a normal appliance dolly). Find loading/unloading parking if I’m lucky. Drive to locations, which are within a few miles of my house. Into a RAV4 one at a time (which is much easier to load than a pickup truck because of the low tailgate). Transfer to another dolly with larger inflatable tires for the crushed stone driveway. Stair climbing dolly to get out of the house. How do you move machines to the locations that you vend in now? TL DR moving pinball machines sucks so bad that it changes the entire economics of this into something that almost isn't worth it for either side.

The amount you need to charge to barely make it worth your while is an amount that's viewed as unfairly high by your potential customers. It's too bad the economics don't really work out on this. You lose the first $300 in moving expenses, and if you have to do a single service call in those two months, you're down to making about $150 to have your $5000 machine in a strangers house for 60 days.Īnd even with something like a 3 month minimum, your customers are probably going to get bored of a single, unchanging game day after day after day. Imagine a two month rental for $300 a month. And it's stressful: one wrong move and you can damage the game, the building you're moving into or out of, and yourself (I mean, to be ath is possible if the mistake involves stairs and a person on the wrong side of the machine). It requires height & strength if you're moving solo. It requires specialized equipment: a truck or something that can load a pinball machine, multiple dollies, straps. Yes, I could do the move myself and make $50 an hour, but honestly, moving machines should probably be like a $75-$100 an hour job. If I had found someone, I'd be making nothing on a one month rental. I tried to find someone to move games for $50 an hour and had zero takers.

6 hours of moving, regardless of the length of the rental period. Then that needs to happen again when the rental is over. It's probably 3 hours of moving to: break down a game, load it, drive to you, unload, set up, and drive back home. I wish it could be cheaper, or have a shorter minimum, but it's just impossible for me. My quote is $250 a month, minimum of 3 months. I posted something similar on Reddit earlier today, as this subject came up there as well. I operate games and have been asked about this a lot.

Pinball machine rental