There’s No Money In Pinball

I’ve heard it said a million times, by all sorts of smart people:

“There’s no money in pinball!”

And, it turns out, it’s kind of true. Back in the 1970’s, a person could make a lot of money manufacturing or operating pinball tables. These days, it’s a different story. Sure, there is definitely a revival in the bar-arcade market, but there still isn’t much demand for actual pinball tables. With only two active pinball manufacturers in the United States, it’s safe to say this industry isn’t a hotbed of economic activity. The computing revolution that took off through the 1980’s and 90’s put the old fashioned pinball manufacturers on the defensive and led to a lot of competitive pressure from the video game market.

Looking specifically at the vintage side of things — aka, the old school tables that don’t have a silicon chip in sight — there’s even less money to be made. Classic electro mechanical tables certainly aren’t being manufactured these days, and many establishments are unwilling to bear the high costs associated with the maintenance on a refurb. This has left these devices relegated primarily to the enthusiast community, which is also having a modern renaissance, but still isn’t a big enough market to hang your hat on. When you couple this with the dwindling supply of replacement parts, it’s safe to project that the costs are going to keep rising while revenues keep on declining.

So why the heck is Vintage Pin Works getting into this business, and how on earth are we going to stay afloat? Good questions, really.

For starters, this business is run primarily to fulfill the mission you see in our tagline: preserving the art of vintage pinball. That is both the main objective and the guiding principle that propels this business forward. Now, being a business, the IRS and the department of revenue say we’ll need to make some money, but that certainly doesn’t mean we’re grubbing for big profits. The goal here is simply to make enough money to keep the vision alive and keep on preserving pinball, but certainly with no illusions of making big money or retiring in the Bahamas.

So with that said, we’ll still need to pull in some revenue, and the math looks pretty dicey on the surface. Let’s say you find a roughed up old table, put in a lot of elbow grease, buy all sorts of replacement parts, and finally get it polished up into a real gem. That’s a great accomplishment, no doubt, but it just won’t bring home much bacon. Unfortunately, this’ll probably be several weeks worth of work, and after covering the raw costs you’d be lucky to earn a few hundred bucks. That’s certainly not enough to keep the lights on, and who wants to play a pinball table without lights?

And, to add insult to injury, we’ll have put a whole lot of time and love into that table, but all we would’ve done is brought one vintage table back to one private collection.

So how do we do better — how do we plan to keep the lights on and share that love of vintage pinball far and wide? By focusing on the process, not just the end result. Vintage Pin Works is primarily about sharing the journey and growing the community around pinball. We’ll be blogging through the ups and downs of restoration, sharing insights and wisdom, connecting with other enthusiasts in the field and (hopefully) sparking the interest of those who aren’t pinball enthusiasts yet. Along the way we’ll try to pull in a little ad revenue, and maybe toss in the occasional affiliate link, but it’s all in the service of keeping the dream alive.

Furthermore, we believe that a pinball table doesn’t just have to hide in one person’s basement or garage (or bar). Every table has a history and deserves the right to be appreciated by a wider audience. Through out this process, we’ll be taking a whole lot of pictures. Sure, there’ll be some functional ones for the blog. But, we also plan to make artistic prints available through an online storefront. This way, pin lovers across the world will be able to appreciate the art of pinball, even if they don’t have the space for a full table. Because that’s part of how we spread the love, and that’s how we’ll keep pinball alive. One table, many homes.

And yes, of course, when all is said and done, tables will go up for sale. Keeping all the tables to ourselves just wouldn’t match up with our spirit of growing the community.

So, maybe there is no money in pinball. Or, maybe, there’s just enough to get by on. Guess that’s the risk of doing business. But either way, we’re doing it for the love of the game. And, hopefully, we’ll make enough money along the way to keep that love growing.