Quote Originally Posted by mark1120 View Post
I was always under the impression that Blue Hotaru, Slot-Pachinko, and other on-line vendors bought all their machines from Gaku. Maybe that was because the one machine I purchased from Slot-Pachinko last year had a similar manual…..or maybe it was how the key was attached to the black knob….can’t remember. Does Trademark Commerce still import machines? At one point, they seemed to have the drop-ship market concerned on custom machines.

I worry that pachislo is a dying hobby. So many vendors have quit selling machines in recent years and it seems the pachinko threads outnumber the pachislo threads by a significant multiple. The local Craigslist market seems saturated with older machines selling for $150 or less. A lot of people own a Spin Luck, Bingo, Neo Planet, and other machines from 5+ years ago, but how many people own a Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Rocky Balboa, or some of the other premium titles introduced in recent years? How come we never see any of these machines for sale? Are they all going to China?
I have actually heard this a few times about people thinking that we buy through Gaku, but that is definitely not the case. We get everything directly from Japan which is how we are able to get the newest machines available, sometimes only months after their release into parlors.

As for the Pachislos it has been difficult finding good titles as it seems like if it is something with a really high demand it isn't usually easily available. I know that a lot of pachinkos and pachislos do end up being scrapped and sent to China which is really a shame when there are customers in the US who want them.