OK - I was reading the thread on the new Stern investor and I was going to post this there but I thought I would share this as my own "mind blowing" idea.    So here it is...

Here is my pinball marketing idea.  I know I have spoken before about trying to make money off of pinball on location and there were mixed reviews.  The majority of people said that it would be very difficult and location, location, location.

So how about this...

Walking down a busy mall and there in the middle of the mall is a pedestal with 4 or 5 stairs leading up to a gleaming, fully restored Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure machine.  Around the pedestal are 3 or 4 LCD's broadcasting promos for the game as well as other advertising (to help bring income).  The pedestal also contains a display of Indiana Jones movie memorbilia, posters, hats, whips, photos, wax Harrison Ford  .  As you walk up the stairs to the machine the surround sound system grabs you with the theme song of IJ.  A curtain goes around your area making it very dark and just the glowing "start" button beckoning you to begin.  

The game is amazing, LED's, sound blasting, bass shaking.  The LCD's around the pedestal broadcast live action from the playfield as the person plays so others can take in the excitement.  The playfiled on the screen and in the corner shots of the person playing.  5 balls - then it is over.  "See ya tomorrow Indiana Jones", the curtain opens, you step down and think to yourself - "That was the best 5 bucks I ever spent!"

Which is all great until the ball gets stuck or a key switch stops working and the op takes two weeks to make it out to fix it.

Quoted from sinpin

you step down and think to yourself - "That was the best 5 bucks I ever spent!"

Like Rudy says  .... " It's only Pinball ! "

...I'm not sure how many people would pay $5 for a game of pinball...

The idea is cool, but the price point might need some tweaking...

I think it would be the only way an operator could spike any type of revenues out of a pinball period. Oh ya and keep the price at $1 a play. Putting out beautiful expensive pins just to have some loser carve his name into the side of it with his buck knife is not very cost effective as opposed to a redemption type game.

I think that is a great idea if you need to lose money for tax reasons. Good malls probably don't want that. Maybe a good place to do drug deals in a scummy mall.

Oh and I really want everyone to see me
lose $5 with the ball SDTM on a big video screen because as an average mall shopper I have little or no pinball skill.

Did I mention the idea sounds like one man's fantasy.

Stern's can't earn at 75 cents a game.  $5 isn't gonna do it either.  How do you feel about lawn bowling?  That's how the public feels about pinball.

I guess my point is that pinball in location is never going to be what is was so why not try to turn it into something different?  More of a restored, special, retro, feature item rather than a dusty, broken down carved up machine that sits in a dusty corner and doesn't work.

Perhaps need to keep at $1 / play but I would more lean toward $5/2 plays or something like that.  And no one gets near the machine until they pay their money!  You are paying to not only play the machine but also to see and feel it up close.  And no buck knives allowed!!  Perhaps a metal detector at the entrance  

The idea is to make the pinball like a classic car.  People want to see it and remember what it was like in its glory days.  Except in this case you can take it for a spin for only a few dollars.  How many people would pay $50 to take a mint condition classic for one rip around the track?  Perhaps even $100 for the right rare car in mint condition?

And what parent would not give their kid $5 to have a few plays on a classic machine in mint condition that the ol' man use to play?  

Quoted from wbradley

Did I mention the idea sounds like one man's fantasy.

Hahaha!  Yeah I guess.  Anyone got $50 and want to take my car for a spin then?  

Quoted from pinsRfun

Stern's can't earn at 75 cents a game.  $5 isn't gonna do it either.  How do you feel about lawn bowling?  That's how the public feels about pinball.

Ouch that one hurt! Probably about right though  

I'm curious to know what you guys/gals think a good location should earn on 1 pinball,   Whats too little, and whats too high?

I like your idea Sinpin. You are right in that it may take someone thinking outside the box, taking a leap of faith, taking a chance to see if it works. What is going on now works for home users but not for the general public so why not try. Now if I had that kind of coin available, I would give it a try.

Hell this week I heard on the news about a Canadian who went to china to sell Canadian food - poutine! Now there is someone thinking outside the box but can you imagine how many people scoffed at his idea?

It is good to dream...

You know what's really wierd, I hesitate to spend $2-5 to play a machine on location.  And yet I'll spend $400-800 just to acquire something I've never played before.  

Quoted from ancientgames

I'm curious to know what you guys/gals think a good location should earn on 1 pinball,   Whats too little, and whats too high?

These days you are lucky if a pinball makes $100 a month and then you split that with the location. Ten years ago you would take the pinball out if it didn't make $100 a week for the operator. In the 80's you would pull the game if it had less than $300 a week.  

Quoted from workingpins

These days you are lucky if a pinball makes $100 a month and then you split that with the location.  

Thererfore with a 50% split a $5000 machine would take eight and half years on location just to recoup your costs (not factoring maintenance, delivery and time collecting money from the machine). Sterns business model would only work if collectors are willing to buy the machine for decent money at the end of it's routed period.

Yes now I can fully appreciate why Gary doesn't build machines for collectors.