Three Quick Updates

Ah, spring is here, and it’s getting hard to resist the temptation to head outside and play in the sun. Despite the gorgeous temptation of procrastination, things are still chugging along.

First — as of today, Vintage Pin Works is actually a real business now! All of the licensing is dealt with and today is the effective start date. Yipee, we are now entitled to make transactions and pay our taxes.

Secondly — our business cards are printed and here. It turns out the first batch ordered had a real snafu with the shipping company. As in, it was quite literally run over by a truck. Tire print and all! But, thanks to the power of good customer service, a new expedited order made it our way. And now, we have some sweet cards to exchange with folks we meet. Alright!

Third — ah, who am I kidding, there is no number three. I’ve actually been doing quite a bit of research into a few more business administrivia tasks, but unfortunately there isn’t much progress to report there. It turns out there are a lot of online store fronts to pick between these days, and quite a few places that do prints-on-demand, but we haven’t managed to land on the right solution yet. We’re still exploring our options, and hope to have some more details once there’s a concrete plan of action.

So, that’s it for this week. Next week should be a lot more fun to share about as I dig back into the Bally Beach Club restoration.

Making progress

Just wanted to swing by and check in with some updates on what we’ve been up to. Things are still going to be a little quiet on the blog for the next while as we continue to setup shop. The good news, though, is that we’re not just sitting on our hands enjoying the sunny weather (although that does sound nice….).

First up, we’ve finally gotten around to shoring up the last bits of paper work. Somehow, these little things can be a real pain. There’s just something about actually holding down a day job that makes it awfully hard to finish up tasks that need to occur during business hours. Fortunately, we can finally check off a couple more items from our list: filing the city business license, and setting up a dedicated bank account. Small steps, sure, but every bit of progress counts.

And, now that we have all that squared away, we can finally do a very important thing: we can spend money! Well, at least we can spend it without having to worry about it getting mixed up with our personal accounts. So what was the honorary first purchase? Tickets to the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show in Tacoma. We don’t have anything exciting to share out right now, so we’ll just be attending as visitors, but it should be a fun chance to get out there and see some pinball tables. Drop us a line if you’ll be there on Friday, and we’ll try to say “hi”.

Also on the list of accomplishments, we’ve procured some essential parts for the old Bally Beach Club table. Nothing super fancy, but definitely some important essentials: rubber rings, fresh light bulbs, springs, and most importantly the actual pinballs. With these pieces in place, we should be able to get some action shots posted of the table up and (sort of) running. Stay tuned for the juicy details.

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.

Ramping Up

In the early days of a new business, a lot of time goes to tasks other than the core of the business. Right now, Vintage Pin Works is focused on general start up activities, so unfortunately there isn’t a lot of action happening with actual pinball.

But, Vintage Pin Works is about more than just making money — we’re about sharing the passion and art of pinball with the world — so we’ll be blogging about the whole process, end to end. In general, we’ll try to keep the blog posts focused on pinball, but every once in awhile things will veer off towards the small business and logistics side of things. Authenticity is important, and sharing the process is just part of keeping things transparent.

Here’s the general check list we’re running through before getting to work on actual pinball renovations:

• Come up with an idea, a mission, and a name for the business Done!
• Determine the quantity and source of initial investments Done!
• Establish online accounts with our name: domain, email, blog, Twitter, FaceBook, Flickr, etc. Done!
• File a business license with the state Done!
• File a business license with the city
• Open dedicated bank accounts
• Setup and configure financial software
• Refine and iterate over the business model
• Establish short term and long term timelines for core activities
• Create business cards and other core collateral

And the list goes on. And all of this fun gets to happen before we make a single business transaction. The good news, though, is that the gears are turning and things are moving along. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to work through the logistics and start shifting gears towards what really matters: Pinball!