"the wonderful cheesy gaudiness of pachinko is passe these days"

[dishpan]

Apparently I'm getting into this hobby too late according to this link.

http://www.hlj.com/product/TOM04038

But there is hope ... I too, can own my own Pachinko Parlor. It even comes "pre-assembled and with extra parts for a parking lot".

Unfortunately they are so popular that they are back-ordered.

However, when I get my own parlor to hold my new machines, I'll leave the light on for you, but BYOB! (Bring your own batteries!)

[arbycoffee]

They pop up on ebay every so offen.

[ocpachinko]

Well, if a particular gaudiness isn't cheesy it certainly can't be too wonderful.

[rupan777]

I guess a billion dollar industry is considered cheesy nowadays

If anything, pachinko and pachislo are getting more and more popular in Japan so I'm not sure where that writer is coming from.

[pachinkojohn]

It does seem as though that this Christmas, pachinko selling, at least on eBay, isn't even close to the frenzied chaos that surrounded pachinko/pachislo sales last year. Last holiday season it was rare to find any decent machine for under $200.00 and always three pages or more of listings. I was in the middle of it and bought a Black Hawk Down retail after watching machine after machine go for a high auction price. Right now there are two pages and very few machines, most of which are selling very low compared to average retail.

Possibly it's only the eBay market which is saturated, everyone who wanted a machine got one last year?

John

[cwstnsko]

I think that Pachislos in particular are more widely available than they used to be. In our area, you'll find them at Sam's Club, Toys-R-Us and sometimes Costco. Combine that with the escalation of shipping prices and the general weakness of big-ticket items this holiday season, and it's easy to see why it's not a booming e-bay market.

I'm selling about 3 machines a day out of my garage right now, with NO advertising. My 1st sales were friends and neighbors, but now I'm getting a fair bit of traffic from word-of-mouth follow-ons. My pricing doesn't hurt either.

I've got about 6 models of 30mm machines that I'm selling for $75 including 500 tokens. I'll also go 2 for $140, or 3 for $200 if people want more than one. 25mm machines start at $70 with tokens at 5 cents each. I don't have a huge assortment, and most of the machines are not the most sought after models, but they're selling fairly well this holiday season.

[ocpachinko]

The pachis are as strong as ever in Japan, as rupan reminds us.

Here in the states, a Pachinko search on eBay reveals 90 items-the lowest I remember seeing.

Of course, that's because the Christmas buying season is over (considering shipping).

What the pachinko4less auctions (and slotUSA when they had more machines) showed was that there is certainly an untapped market for pachinkos that corresponds to the pachislo market: $100-$150 for Japanese themes and older licensed Western themes, $150-$200 for newer licensed Western themes or more exotic machines, $350-$400 for Star Wars--at those prices, new customers are readily available. And Arby has shown that having the newest machines available can attract more than that; sometimes much more.

When I picked up my machines from Scott he was down to several dozen, so there's certainly some viability to selling a container of Pachinkos. Of course, the exporter has to do a good deal on better machines for these sale prices to be worthwhile to an importer.

A telling thing was that, at the moment anyway, Scott had no plans for another container. Perhaps one of our other friends can pick up the slack...I know that many folks find an attachment to the idea of Pachinko that you just can't get from the Pachislo side, and the thirst for novelty would certainly find some add-on sales if Pachinkos were available from the Pachislo vendors.

When you factor in the storage costs here in southern California, it's clear that a vendor here would have to move them faster than a vendor in the real world.

Sadly, some of the traditional vendors have had the same stock (at higher prices) for a long time...it doesn't seem like new pachinkos are the priority. Of course, you have to move what you have this year to get ready...

...for what I hope is the best pachinko year ever, in 2006! Let the cheese begin!

[jwegger]

When I picked my machines up from Scott he was telling me he is not used to holding inventory. Bring them in and sell the container to a warehouse store and let them take care of the inventory and warehousing.

Retailing (even at wholesale prices) is a lot more demanding than a strictly wholesale business. When I was in the toy business I would much rather wholesale items than retail, it was a lot less work. Selling a case of action figures takes the same amount of effort as selling one figure, and that was something simple that was alrasy packaged and didn't need to have a transformer installed, packed in an oversized box and shipped. Also for the most part retailer businesses are slightly more tollerant of short delays in delivery than the end customer.

I'll second ocpachinko's statement about stoarge costs in southern california. If you can get a big enough space the rent is going to put a seriious dent in your profit margin unless you can move the machines quickly, and getting a space you can use for retail and storage will run you even more.

Finally you need to factor in the familiarity factor. Almost anyone on the street can tell you what a slot machine is, but probably less than 20% will be able to tell you what a pachinko machine is. So the importers are simply looking to market to a larger audience with Pachislo machines.

[d mowery]

ya all fergit the bigger profit margin on retail , Wholsale 10 to 20 percent retail 35 t0 60 percent most toys are around 40 percent and nobody said anything bout grocery as they to low to work for the avg store