Valuing a Vintage Pachinko Machine

[cardwwi]

I was updating my web site and would like some input on valuing a vintage pachinko machine.

http://www.pachinkorestorations.com/...is%20Worth.htm

Cheap is good but fair is right and I want to be as fair as possible when buying a machine, and get people away from "it's worth this" because they say so.

[Rival]

Good job William! Thanks for linking me as an additional resource. I will get you a link up on my "value" page as well shortly. You have really spent some time improving your site, I don't know how you find the time to do so much.

[knedvecki]

Have you looked at your web page with Google Chrome Win7? It kinda runs together. Looks good in IE 8!

[owennewton]

also not working right with firefox 5 on win 7

[cardwwi]

It's not about what it looks like with other web browsers, it's about what it says. I wrote the web page for Internet Explorer users.

[CarlW]

Not sure if it is a bad thing; but saw a few of my listings (high and low) on your eBay tally table at the bottom of your web page...

Showing customers the averages does help validate a fair offer. I am a big fan of your work and your site.

[mxfaiman]

looks great.

It seems to be fairly similar to the one that bill at vintage pachinko wrote. But otherwise it looks great I didn't spot any issues with it.

[emmadog]

Another very nice site and probably the most informative yet. You've got some typos and grammatical errors which you should fix to make it as professional as possible, but it's very well done. One thing strikes me as odd though: Since there are now 3 maybe 4 of you in the same business in a very small market in a bad economy, why provide links to your competition? By linking you are giving tacit affirmation of your competition's quality, skill, etc. Instead it would be better to say why your work is best out there if you're wanting to make some money.
Advertising is going to be something to seriously consider as well. There's not many people willing to drop the cash a fully restored machine costs, IMO. For those prices you can get a very nice, collectible, working EM pinball and some customers will look at it that way. If they are still willing to spend, they're going to do research first online and then they'll see this forum, eBay, and C-List and discover what people pay for decent, working machines and they may reconsider. So maybe do some local advertising or set up a few machines at fundraisers, gatherings, etc., with business cards and price lists. Hell, even give one a way. I gave away an arepachi and a Nishijin Power roulette on here and it generated tons of interest. The point is, is that you need to generate interest in people who have never heard of pachinkos which is the vast majority of Americans. Out of all the guys I work with, only one had ever heard of a pachinko but he was half Japanese. But, I did take a few arepachis with me on long training trips and they proved to be very popular. Half the proceeds went to military-related charities and the other half went to beer for the fellas. Big surprise.
I'd also offer cleaned up but not fully restored pachinkos-they'd probably outsell restored ones by a wide margin and would keep cash coming in with a fast turn around.
All of the above is of course just my thoughts and .02 if I were considering starting a business to sell these things. Not trying to rain on any parades here.

[cardwwi]

First of all, it's a work in progress and I have to do all this myself. I do have some family members helping me, but due to the size of the site it is a very slow and tedious process. Not to mention the fact that I had to rewrite the entire website to accomodate some off-brand browsers.

As far as providing links to my competition, it helps the customer. A happy customer is more likely to come back and spend money with you. Not all three of us offer the exact same services. Although they are similar, they are each unique to the individual. As far as starting in a bad economy, if you can suceed in a bad economy then you can prosper in a good economy.

Advertising: I do have advertising. I have business cards. I have donated machines to charity for fundraising. Unlike a pinball machine, a pachinko can be hung on a wall and not take up nearly as much space which works for those with small gamerooms. Also, a pinball and a pachinko are not the same thing, someone who collects one does not necessarily collect the other. You can also play a vintage pachinko with the power out, something that isn't possible with a pinball machine.

As far as pricing and people doing their own research, the majority of people I have encountered don't seem to want to do the amount of work required to fully restore a machine or even to simply clean it. By dealing with people who try to buy the machines, it's obvious that majority of them don't seem to do much research and are unrealistic when it comes to prices & value.

The majority of people I have worked with and met otherwise knew exactly what a pachinko machine is and often had fond memories of playing them as children. That includes my teenager and her friends, who are familiar with pachinko machines because they are into anime (Japanese cartoons) - she knew about them well before I started my business, in fact.

And I already do offer a simple cleaning service. But most of my customers seem to prefer a restoration service.

Another very nice site and probably the most informative yet. You've got some typos and grammatical errors which you should fix to make it as professional as possible, but it's very well done. One thing strikes me as odd though: Since there are now 3 maybe 4 of you in the same business in a very small market in a bad economy, why provide links to your competition? By linking you are giving tacit affirmation of your competition's quality, skill, etc. Instead it would be better to say why your work is best out there if you're wanting to make some money.
Advertising is going to be something to seriously consider as well. There's not many people willing to drop the cash a fully restored machine costs, IMO. For those prices you can get a very nice, collectible, working EM pinball and some customers will look at it that way. If they are still willing to spend, they're going to do research first online and then they'll see this forum, eBay, and C-List and discover what people pay for decent, working machines and they may reconsider. So maybe do some local advertising or set up a few machines at fundraisers, gatherings, etc., with business cards and price lists. Hell, even give one a way. I gave away an arepachi and a Nishijin Power roulette on here and it generated tons of interest. The point is, is that you need to generate interest in people who have never heard of pachinkos which is the vast majority of Americans. Out of all the guys I work with, only one had ever heard of a pachinko but he was half Japanese. But, I did take a few arepachis with me on long training trips and they proved to be very popular. Half the proceeds went to military-related charities and the other half went to beer for the fellas. Big surprise.
I'd also offer cleaned up but not fully restored pachinkos-they'd probably outsell restored ones by a wide margin and would keep cash coming in with a fast turn around.
All of the above is of course just my thoughts and .02 if I were considering starting a business to sell these things. Not trying to rain on any parades here.

[owennewton]

Just wanted to say that 90% of the site is working great with Firefox now (some formatting and overlap still but nothing that makes anything unreadable anymore) and it looks great