Arepachi Shipping from Japan Experience

[emmadog]

What follows is the cost and time line breakdown of my YJA auction.
First, my apologies to Mudfud and anyone else who bid on this. If it's any consolation, there was one other bidder who bid just under me so it was a pricey auction before all the shipping and other fees. Number format:Yen/Dollar
Arepachi price 58,000/637 18JAN
Proxy Bidder Fee 5480/59
Delivery Charge from seller to shipper 2100/22 20JAN
Tax charged by seller 2925/31
Bank charge for auction 300/3
International delivery charge 38700/421 18FEB
Packing fee 1200/13
Fed Ex Fee 18,000/196
Scheduled arrival here: 22FEB
Ok, I used Japan Auction Center as my proxy bidder. Overall I was happy with their service and they responded to all my emails promptly considering the time difference which is 15 hours ahead of U.S. central time. There were a couple of hiccups however. The first was the weight of the machine. It was listed as 30 kg which is the EMS limit. However it ended up weighing more. I think this may be the result of the additional packing materials. J.A.C. offers additional packing to better protect the item and that's what I chose. This caused it to be too heavy for EMS thus Fed Ex which is where the xtra shipping cost came from. The other issue was that somehow FedEx thought this was a slot and in my state to own a slot it has to be 25 yrs. or older. This caused a delay of one day in shipping after I emailed J.A.C. and cleared it up. In the end, that was no big deal.
In the end this machine costs around $1400!!! Is it worth it? To me yes but probably to most others not so much. But I also didn't think the auction would go as high as it did and didn't plan on the machine being overweight and then the associated costs. So there were some good lessons learned here and maybe more to come since the machine won't be here for a few more days. When it arrives I'll take pics and post again. Also, I contacted Kiai about the possibility of having him ship it after the confusion concerning the slot issue and he agreed. But it never came to that as I received the FedEx tracking number b4 he got back to me. Also, though FedEx is crazy expensive, it takes just a few days to get an item here from Japan.

[emmadog]

Forgot to mention that this whole process could have been abbreviated somewhat. On J.A.C.'s website they post all financial transactions as well as the status of where your item is at any given time which is a very convenient feature. Anyway, my machine arrived there and finally after 10 or so days I inquired as to why it had not shipped yet. I was then told about the slot confusion and the item being overweight. My impression is that these issues were known for a period of time b4 I asked about the shipping delay. The representative apologized and said they were very busy. My point is that it's ok to inquire every few days if things seem to be taking longer than necessary.

[Moparformances]

Cant wait to see it

hope it is worth all the wait and expense

[Microbus99]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Thats certainly great insight for the rest of us that ever plan to go that route.

Enjoy your new machine!

[emmadog]

Thanks, can't wait to see it either. Supposed to be here Monday by 10:30 a.m.
For those who don't remember this is the auction where the machine was listed as "junk/not working". So yes it may be a very pricey paperweight. However, both of my arepachis arrived not working as well as did most of my pachinko machines. After a few minutes of patching up wires they were both up and running. And as far as pachinkos it was ball jams-stuff we have all had to deal with. So based on my successful experiences so far with "nonworking" machines and the hazards of shipping for that matter, I decided to take a calculated risk. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[Lt Teddy]

Besides which you only live once and it would make a very nice picture in your album even if it does not work. I would like to have it but after looking at the original picture and considering the cost and shipping I chickened out. Good Luck and all we are waiting on is Pictures Pictures Pictures.

[emmadog]

just an update-the machine was picked up in japan yesterday, landed in memphis and passed through customs there, and is now at my local fed ex facility. pretty impressive on fed ex's part so far. picked up, shipped out, passed through customs, and made it to my town in less than a day. also, i got a call yesterday while the machine was in transit from a fed ex rep wanting to know if it was for home use. she needed to find out to prevent any delays at customs. she said that since it could be used for gambling she had to verify it's intended purpose. interesting.

[emmadog]

Alright readers, the FedEx guy just left and the verdict is...expensive paperweight!!! Yes the money spent suxs but the real bummer is that this machine ranks up there with the coolest arepachis (in my limited experience) I've seen yet. My assessment on another thread about this machine was correct. Those were clipped wire bundles as I thought. So it looks to be missing two circuit boards from my initial inspection. I'm sure the only way to get it running is to find an identical machine for those parts. It is also more complex than my other two arepachis. Each tulip has two numbers with a small solenoid attached to the rear of the tulip. I'm thinking when the ball goes in one number lights up and then a subsequent ball lights the second number on that tulip. There's also two red lenses(prolly lights) on the lower part of the playfield. The number matrix in the playfield center is interesting in that it's recessed in it's own sort of shadow box. There's also 4 buttons on the left of the machine labeled a,b,c, and d. Maybe a bonus round or something. So anyway I'm still gonna fix it up and clean it as much as possible and continue the search for parts but I think this will very likely stay a display only piece. This evening I'll post pics for yall.

[Moparformances]

[emmadog]

Have a few pics coming.

[emmadog]

Here is a pic of the recessed number matrix and the tulips and a pic of the buttons on side of machine.

[emmadog]

Pic of the clipped wire harness as well as the 4 posts where the circuit board went. And a pic of the solenoid or whatever it is behind each tulip.

[emmadog]

Rear of tulip.

[Moparformances]

that really sux... i guess u win some and ya loose some... I really hope u can get that one working some day...

this reminds me of the "Sparkman" pachinko i bought... but yours will be way cooler

[mudfud]

that's a real bummer.

I will be trying to make an arepachi from scratch, so if I have any luck with wiring something up, I will send you plans (or you can watch my videos )

that really was a nice machine face, too. wonder if it malfunctioned and they took the boards off to fix?

any chance that one of the guys that has one can get it reverse engineered?

now that there are digital circuits and such, it seems like you should be able to find someone to make one. I have a retired electronics engineer that has a citicar that I know. I will ask him about this.

chewy

[Moparformances]

any chance that one of the guys that has one can get it reverse engineered?

now that there are digital circuits and such, it seems like you should be able to find someone to make one. I have a retired electronics engineer that has a citicar that I know. I will ask him about this.

chewy

hate to be a downer but as Emmadog said if ya had the right parts to reverse then it would be easy.. probably cost a few more bucks but possable... with out the parts or a machine that works so u know what this one is suposed to do i doubt it possable...

[emmadog]

thanks very much for the encouragement. i was thinking about the situation at work and was getting disappointed but also becoming resolved to get it up and running. it's just too interesting and different to not give it a fair shot. it's a long shot but i may be able to swing it.
I found plenty of firms online that can reverse engineer circuit boards from existing ones but my question is can one be engineered from just a description of gameplay and one that will also be compatible with the rest of those 70's components? in all likelihood i would have to send the entire machine off so that all components could be present to be able to get it working with whatever was fabricated. if anyone has any info on this it would be very much appreciated!!! thanks very much chewy for the help. please let me know if your friend has any info or sources as to how to go about this.

[emmadog]

as far as game play goes i think it's the same as other satomi miracles. on this one though the tulips have 2 numbers assigned to them and there are the lettered buttons on the left side as in the pic, that correspond to a tulip that has the same letter. i know some members on here have buttons similar to this machine on their arepachis so i was wondering what were their functions? thanks.

[mudfud]

thanks very much for the encouragement. i was thinking about the situation at work and was getting disappointed but also becoming resolved to get it up and running. it's just too interesting and different to not give it a fair shot. it's a long shot but i may be able to swing it.
I found plenty of firms online that can reverse engineer circuit boards from existing ones but my question is can one be engineered from just a description of gameplay and one that will also be compatible with the rest of those 70's components? in all likelihood i would have to send the entire machine off so that all components could be present to be able to get it working with whatever was fabricated. if anyone has any info on this it would be very much appreciated!!! thanks very much chewy for the help. please let me know if your friend has any info or sources as to how to go about this.

I did send an email to my electronics friend. will let you know if I have any luck.

[Moparformances]

my machines...

the buttons down the left side are used as a bonus... when a ball is placed in the top center pocket "marked Bonus" a light comes on in the upper left.. this indicates that the bonus is active... at any time after that u get the chanck to use one of the bonus button's.. u get to select any of the 4 buttons to light its corresponding light on the play field... the comon sence thing would be to wait till the end of the game before using it... but u dont ahve to it can be used any time...

not having a proper game room mine is in storage.. if i rember right my machine will not hold the bonus threw the next game... but if you watch Eddies super cool Arepachi Vid's u can shee how this works and his Machine will hold the bonus threw the next game...

hear is a link to the 2 vids

YouTube - The Taiyo Electron Arepachi Pt1

YouTube - finstersrc30's Channel