By Todd Russell
Recently have been watching the prices locally of used pinball machines on various services. One thing I’ve seen among the sales listing is monthly rentals being offered.
Renting a machine for a couple hundred bucks a month might sound like a lot, but if you can play it several hundred or more times that month, you’re probably coming out about even or maybe ahead versus playing it on location.
The average price of playing pinball on location around here is 75 cents a game. If you rent a machine for $300 for a month. The math on that works out to 400 plays or about 14 plays per day over 30 days. Playing any pinball game 14 times in a single day, depending on your skill level, doesn’t take too long.
Let’s look at the details on the circled at the top of this post.
Let’s review the terms:
2 month rental commitment is required, prices vary by title (see below). Delivery and set up is included, as long as significant stairs are not involved (within 30 miles of Renton)
So, they rent them montly, but require two months minimum, you must reside within 30 miles of their location (Renton, WA) and not have significant stairs for them to navigate for the pinball delivery and setup. No extra charge for setup, delivery or takeaway.
Take Godzilla Premium, which NIB is going to cost around $9,000 and you can play it as much as you want, when you want, with no rental fees. Again, playing on location we’re looking at roughly 75 cents per game. This rental business wants two months minimum at $330/month, for a total cost of $660 for two months. How many plays at 75 cents to even out the cost? 880 plays or, again, around 14-15 plays per day, every day.
So, is this what the machines make on location? Depends on a lot of factors, especially how busy the location is, but my guess is these machines generate a little more than this number of plays every day, on average.
The biggest value of renting vs. buying is being able to see how much you’d enjoy playing a particular game and/or if it’s worth buying and owning. If you only want to play it a bunch of times over a short period, and want the convenience of having it home versus paying to play it at a business, rental might make sense.
At least with Stern Pinball, you won’t earn on location credit for maximum achievements, most likely, on rentals, it will be treated more like a home owned machine. This is likely a minor concern to most players. You also won’t be supporting a local business owner/arcade/barcade/etc. This is a bigger economic concern, because if the business doesn’t make enough money, they will go away, so there’s that consideration.
Then again, a local route owner might consider a home rental advantageous to a business. Less wear and tear on their machine and, probably, less maintenance and upkeep.
Would you consider renting a pinball machine?