Would a arcade cab pay for it's self?

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Thanks to the info Videogamerdaryll posted i have gotten an offer to buy a strikers 1945 game for 800 dollers (shipping is an extra 100 from pittsburgh PA to norwood MA to my house). I was sort of trying to find something cheaper but i was wonder if i rented/vendor it out to a local store for awhile do you think i could pay off the cost? If so how long would it take and would i have to pay the store ect.

(you can move this to the arcade forum if you want).

[sisko]

I honestly can't answer that for you, but don't forget that if the cab is in a public place, it will be inevitably be beat to hell. There would be minor maintanance costs too. Replacing joysticks and buttons, etc etc.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I honestly can't answer that for you, but don't forget that if the cab is in a public place, it will be inevitably be beat to hell. There would be minor maintanance costs too. Replacing joysticks and buttons, etc etc.

I know thats why i was thinking of waiting on it. I want the game just not at that price point. I know i may be able to make it all back if i rented it out but like you said some dipshit kid would most likely put out a cigarette on it or something. :roll: So very sad. :(

[AlanD]

If it is anything like I dealt with in South Carolina you need a permit for the machine from the city or state and must pay an 'amusement tax' on it. Ran about $100 per machine per year in SC. Plus you have to split the take with the establishment not counting the hell they go through. My bet would be to find a cheaper JAMMA machine and swap in a Strikers boardset down the road.
Alan

[tholly]

whatever you do, do not rent it out......it will get destroyed.....its better to wait until you have the $$$ and get a nice cab and keep it at your house than to get a nice cab and have it be beat to shit and then have a piece of junk to take home after you are done making money off it

[Lemmy Kilmister]

whatever you do, do not rent it out......it will get destroyed.....its better to wait until you have the $$$ and get a nice cab and keep it at your house than to get a nice cab and have it be beat to shit and then have a piece of junk to take home after you are done making money off it

Yeah i guess your all right. Money not the issue i could afforded it With the money i have in savings and with working a full time job. though do you think i sould just wait out on it? Whats the going rate on a snk mvs cabinet (slots)?

[tholly]

whatever you do, do not rent it out......it will get destroyed.....its better to wait until you have the $$$ and get a nice cab and keep it at your house than to get a nice cab and have it be beat to shit and then have a piece of junk to take home after you are done making money off it

Yeah i guess your all right. Money not the issue i could afforded it With the money i have in savings and with working a full time job. though do you think i sould just wait out on it? Whats the going rate on a snk mvs cabinet (slots)?


i got my big red 4-Slot SNK Neo Geo MVS for $350. it is in near mint condition, has external headphone jacks and memory card reader, and it came with 4 games + the instruction manual. do not spend too much more than that.....

[Lemmy Kilmister]

whatever you do, do not rent it out......it will get destroyed.....its better to wait until you have the $$$ and get a nice cab and keep it at your house than to get a nice cab and have it be beat to shit and then have a piece of junk to take home after you are done making money off it

Yeah i guess your all right. Money not the issue i could afforded it With the money i have in savings and with working a full time job. though do you think i sould just wait out on it? Whats the going rate on a snk mvs cabinet (slots)?


i got my big red 4-Slot SNK Neo Geo MVS for $350. it is in near mint condition, has external headphone jacks and memory card reader, and it came with 4 games + the instruction manual. do not spend too much more than that.....

So around 350-500 dollers for one it seems. That sounds like a much better deal to me thanks alot for your replies. :) I think i'll just wait and see if i can pick up one of those.

[Flack]

Yeah I don't want to be a deal breaker or anything, but that's pretty high. I have 20 arcade cabinets and haven't paid over $200 for any of them.

I don't know anything about that particular game but I have Aerofighters in a 25" monitor cabinet that I paid like $100 for.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I know it is high and i'm not willing to pay that much for a single cabinet. I would however do it if i could atleast pay half of it back though.

[Flack]

In your original post, you never said where you were planning on putting the game. I know a guy in Hutchinson, KS who has several games in a bowling alley. He said that some of his good games bring in about $100/month. Remember, that's split 50/50 with the establishment, so he's making $50 off a good game. I'm sure there are places that make a lot more and I'm sure there are some that would make a lot less. I know of a local laundrymat that I've thought about putting some games in but based on the people I see hanging out there I'm afraid the cabinet would get broken in to or vandalized.

Even at $100/month ($50/month profit) that's 18 months (a year and a half) to pay off that cabinet before you ever made a profit.

Of course, remember that this entire conversation is hypothetical. Until you've done some market research in your area, you won't have any idea on how much money a game would bring in.

[MarioAllStar2600]

I don't know about that game but popular games I believe would. When I first got my Ms. Pac-man tons of parents and friends would drop quarters into it. I think it depends on how popular the game is. Also I gave them back there quarters, im not that cheap. ;)

[-hellvin-]

Personally, the idea of anyone I don't know playing on an arcade machine I paid a lot of money for scares me. I would wait it out, find a cheaper alternative and who knows, a few months and you may find a hell of a more kick ass deal at a better price.

[Captain Wrong]

Was there such a thing as a Strikers cab? The only time I've ever seen Strikers in a cab, it was converted from something else (and it went for about $150 at auction, if I'd only had a truck that day *grumble grumble*.) A Strikers board shouldn't set you back more than $200 on a bad day. An old JAMMA cab, cheaper than that.

As to the initial question...I really think unless you have a classic golden age game (Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, etc.) I don't think you'll be pulling in huge coin. If you ploped it in my apartement you would because the Strikers series in one of my all time faves. I don't think the rest of the world is quite up to it though.

[kevincure]

My bud bought a 2-pad DDR machine with the newest upgrade (8th mix? I'm not exactly sure which it is). It's modded with Stepmania as well. He has it in a local arcade at 50/50 and makes a decent bit per month (50-100 dollars). There's no way he'll get back the four grand he paid for it, but it makes the purchase much easier to rationalize :-).

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Was there such a thing as a Strikers cab? The only time I've ever seen Strikers in a cab, it was converted from something else

Now that you mention it i don't know really. Their are two of them in my area one like you said was just in an old tatio unit. I don't know about the other one really i should check that out.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

So if i bought just the board for say 150-250 dollers. What would i put it in? Would i just be able to use a cheap jamma board like most have said? What would be compatable with it?

Sorry bout the double post (even though it's my topic). :embarrassed:

[Flack]

I don't know about that game but popular games I believe would. When I first got my Ms. Pac-man tons of parents and friends would drop quarters into it. I think it depends on how popular the game is. Also I gave them back there quarters, im not that cheap. ;)

Actually Ms. Pac-Man is usually considered a pretty bad game to put on a route these days, as people can play long periods of time on one quarter.

[Captain Wrong]

So if i bought just the board for say 150-250 dollers. What would i put it in? Would i just be able to use a cheap jamma board like most have said? What would be compatable with it?

Sorry bout the double post (even though it's my topic). :embarrassed:

For Strikers, just get a JAMMA cab with a good verticle monitor and two fire buttons. That's really all you need . Buttons are easy to fix, the monitor is the key element here.

[Azazel]

I don't know about that game but popular games I believe would. When I first got my Ms. Pac-man tons of parents and friends would drop quarters into it. I think it depends on how popular the game is. Also I gave them back there quarters, im not that cheap. ;)

Actually Ms. Pac-Man is usually considered a pretty bad game to put on a route these days, as people can play long periods of time on one quarter.

If you actually want to make money off of it fighters are generally the best as if you have a bunch of people playing a game will only last a few minutes.

[SoulBlazer]

I know at my college three guys pciked up a old Star Wars stand up arcade cab, restored it, and then put it in their room. When ever someone was there (which was most of the day) you could come in and play. I think they spent about $100 each on buying and restoring it, and they said the machine brought in about $50 a week. Kept them in pizza and beer. :D

[goatdan]

Something that hasn't been mentioned yet is on top of that fact that you would have to split with the location and do repairs is the fact that...

In order to put a game out on route to make money, you have to also do the following steps:

1) "Become" a business -- You can't put anything out on route as just a normal person. You have to become a business -- whether that is self-employeed, partnership, LLC or whatever is up to you -- but that means filing taxes on the profits that you make. You sort of get a "bonus" then for owning and maintaining the game in taxes (long story) but you have to pay the government for any of your earnings.

2) Obtain a license -- Each game that you put on route needs it's own license. This point was mentioned before -- A license costs anywhere between $5.00 and $150.00 depending on the state. Each game needs to have an up-to-date license or you can get heavy fines.

3) Put the game on route -- This involves transporting the game to the location, setting it up and knowing any other laws. For every quarter that is put into the game, you have to pay sales tax on it. Some states have zoning regulations on which types of games may be plugged in where.

If you're thinking about doing this with hundreds of games, it's a hugely tough business to make money in. If you're doing it with one game, you're just asking for trouble.

[Flack]

I know at my college three guys pciked up a old Star Wars stand up arcade cab ... I think they spent about $100 each on buying and restoring it

If I could find a working Star Wars upright for $300 I would drill a hole in the back of it so I could hump it nightly.

[SoulBlazer]

LOL!

Actually, they got it from a auction.....Funspot had gotten a 'new' one and was selling the old one cause it get shutting off every few hours or so. Well, the college guys never fixed it, but as long as they shut it off every hour they got around it. :)

[The_EniGma]

whatever you do, do not rent it out......it will get destroyed.....its better to wait until you have the $$$ and get a nice cab and keep it at your house than to get a nice cab and have it be beat to shit and then have a piece of junk to take home after you are done making money off it

Yeah i guess your all right. Money not the issue i could afforded it With the money i have in savings and with working a full time job. though do you think i sould just wait out on it? Whats the going rate on a snk mvs cabinet (slots)?


i got my big red 4-Slot SNK Neo Geo MVS for $350. it is in near mint condition, has external headphone jacks and memory card reader, and it came with 4 games + the instruction manual. do not spend too much more than that.....


HOLY SHIT!!! WHEREE????

[orrimarrko]

My 6-slot Neo Geo cab (the really BIG one) cost me $700.

I picked it up from San Antonio myself, and bought the minty Metal Slug X complete kit for another $98.

Some may say it was too much, but if I paid $500 plus shipping, it would have been around the same.

So... :eek 2:

Anyway, I would have to agree with the cons about putting your game on route. What good is owning a cab that has been beat to crap. Certainly not what you would end up sinking into it. Just my opinion.

Steve

[tholly]

whatever you do, do not rent it out......it will get destroyed.....its better to wait until you have the $$$ and get a nice cab and keep it at your house than to get a nice cab and have it be beat to shit and then have a piece of junk to take home after you are done making money off it

Yeah i guess your all right. Money not the issue i could afforded it With the money i have in savings and with working a full time job. though do you think i sould just wait out on it? Whats the going rate on a snk mvs cabinet (slots)?


i got my big red 4-Slot SNK Neo Geo MVS for $350. it is in near mint condition, has external headphone jacks and memory card reader, and it came with 4 games + the instruction manual. do not spend too much more than that.....


HOLY SHIT!!! WHEREE????


i got it from my own secret source....same place i got my sitdown nintendo vs. game for $125

id tell ya, but then id have to kill ya :)

[Flack]

My source isn't secret at all. I bought my Neo Geo cabs from SuperAuctions arcade auctions. I paid under $200 for both my single slot and my dual slot.

[Slate]

I'm glad i went looking for 2 year old topics.

Once i bought 3 more cabs i was going to rent them out, And now when i think of it, I would get them back in terrifying condition if i did that. Not only that but if they came back in bad condition i would feel bad after working so hard on them.

I don't even own them yet.