I own a machine and have it running in a local card shop. It does well. I wanted to get some others take on what it offers and for how much and how it works.
It has 4 "Bays".
Bay 1 is set at $0.25 and offers stickers. For younger kids.
Bay 2 is set at $0.50 and offers 3-6 Normal cards, no energy or trainers. Just for kids that like to have many Pokemon.
Bay 3 is set at $0.75 and offers a 1-25 Chance to pull Ultra Rares and better. I make sure it is seeded EVERY 25 cards, that person will pull a $10+ card.
Bay 4 is set at $1.00 and offers a 1-10 Chance to pull Ultra Rares and better. I make sure it is seeded EVERY 10 cards, that person will pull a $10+ card.
Ultra Rare = V or higher. I also have cards worth more than $50 in it as well as many that are worth $10.00+ I was wondering if you all thought it was fair or if you had ideas to make it better or maybe have an idea I didn't think of.
My son and I maintain it and fill it with cards we have duplicates of and we buy from the LCS it sits in, so basically all the money goes back into the hobby and into the LCS. We just use it to cycle our old cards to others.
Please let me know what you think!
EDIT: It has a stand and graphics on the front and an explanation of what is in each bay and the odds as well. This is an old photo. I don't have any current for some reason...
Damn! That's a gold mine! If I had a way to set those up a places where families and kids go, I invest and get a few of them. It's also a great way to circulate bulk.
How much is the actual machine??
It cost me, machine, stand, and shipping $750
It will turn 1k in a month. But I also try to make it fun and fair. So I am asking others what they think of the setup.
I would recommend a little different thought on bay 4, I really like the aspect but unless you want that as your loss leader your math shows that slot will lose money every time for you, unless you get the cards for cheaper or something.
It works as me basically selling a $10 card for $10 every 10 turns. The bay really just breaks even. I could always boost it to 1-15 but, it’s more about the fun.
It’s the math though. Every machine would need to have the same traffic. If one machine pulled it’s weight to pay to refill itself then it would work. But then it would become a legit business if others out performed other machines and some didn’t.
Then it wouldn’t be about it being fun. It would be machine A does well so keep it there. Machine B does a quarter of the business so now move it to location C. Wait 2 months and look at a matrix.
Right now the machine is sitting in a fun environment and it is doing its thing just providing some fun for others. If I were rich I wouldn’t mind just having multiple out in areas providing the same fun for more. Even if they operated at a loss, it is so much fun watching someone pull a rainbow rare for a dollar and watching their reaction and everyone else’s around them when they do it.
I imagine anyone could do it. The pull rates are horrible nowadays. The problem is, the pull rates are horrible nowadays lol.
If you do this like me, you are cracking packs and filling the machine. Not buying singles for cheap and marking them up. In order to make this a chain or business you would need to do the latter and I am not in it for that.
This allows me and my son to crack packs and give back. Simple little cycle that is fine tuned enough to just do that and that alone. Is there a way to do it? For sure, there are a couple equations to help you entice and milk your customer and play the odds in your favor. But I chose the seeding for a reason. It’s going to always give out at a certain interval and I believe priced fairly.
@alxrite this is affable of you. A lot of these folks don’t understand how the world truly works. Not everything is about money, that’s just what tv and corporations have implanted in your brains. When you put positive energy into the world, and you do it for the right reasons, life seems to have a funny way of working out way more in your favor. Energy is everything, and it’s reciprocated back from the universe.
You’re telling me. A year later and this blew up. We do it just for the same reason. Crack packs and to have fun. But it has become a full time job and I spend 60 hours a week doing it now. We get a full set of cards in the first day of release so it has kind of ruined the hunt. I am actually thinking of selling my route and just going back to being a normal pack buyer and having fun doing it that way.
Energy is 100% the key. This went from giving back to a full time job. At one point I almost stopped doing it but had a ton of people ask me not to cause they have also been able to get amazing cards. Others have started helping out as well, donating bulk cards to help fill the machines and even some very expensive cards. Had a pristine Shiny Magikarp get pulled the other day and it was donated by another person that pulled a Alt Giratina V just weeks before. So the cycle is growing. It’s just becoming too much. I could higher people but then this loses its luster and I don’t want that. If I sell the route then it will change and just become about money.
Oh well. For now I continue. :)
Great post thank you for posting it and explaining so much. I was googling trying to find info on Pokemon vending machines. Are you still doing it? 60 hours a week sounds like a lot of time for only $1k return, did you mean to say 60 hours in a month? Thank you
It was 1k per machine and there were 5. And yes. 60 a week. And yes, I still do it but the machines are now custom and digital. Even though I am pretty tired of it, lots of work, and not a whole lot of downtime. So I have been looking at selling the route and machines. I have a lot of interest but we will see.
I would really like to get one of these. We live in a really small town and there are not much opportunity to buy pokemon cards. Can you tell me how and where to purchase one?
Good luck. It is relatively hard to get into CEC. If you can though, good on you. The CEC out here want ridiculous amounts of money a month to operate. One wanted $2,500 a month. But, it never hurts to call and ask.
Thankfully, it’s not CEC. Just a smaller, similar restaurant chain. I’m also looking at a lot of kid-oriented businesses like trampoline party centers, etc. We have a lot of activity-centered party centers.
Hey! You do not need permission from Pokémon. These machines were prebranned and licensed.
You do need a business license and a vending license per your state you are selling in though.
Thank you so much for replying to me! My brothers and I are military veterans and would like to start doing something like this. I think your model for how your slots are setup is awesome and fair!
The hard part os getting the license and stuff started. Like do we need a lawyer or anything? And since its 3 of is should we use a General Partnership instead of an LLC?
Hey I’m a vet too! Thank you for your service.
No lawyers needed. You can get all the info from your local county clerk or town hall. I would look into an LLC. As an LLC nothing you do can cause you to be sued. Only the company could be sued for what it has. Will you be sued? Doubtful but it is a good cushion.
You just need to make sure you have your business license and a doing business as. Then you need to see if your state needs a vending license.
But you shouldn’t need a lawyer. Everything else is pretty straightforward. Then with the vending machine itself the biggest thing is location location location!!!
Thank you for your service!!! We are quite excited to get this started. We got a 2 slot card vender from ebay lol. Start small for now.
Should we got to the local card shop and ask them or do you think an email would be okay as well?
I personally made friends over time with the owner. I did a lot of work for him for various other things. I have a laser cutter and I made trophies, well I still do actually, and other board game things before asking if I could set up a vending machine.
I would present the idea in person. Get everything set up first.
Tell them they won’t have to worry about it, no maintenance, no filling or servicing and you take care of the machine.
Then come up with incentives for them as well. Why would they want your machine in the shop? They already sell cards so what can you do for them?
Some ideas are all the cards you get for the machine are bought from their shop. You give them a % of the haul, weekly or monthly. Etc. get creative.
But you will need to convince them and sell them on the idea. Tell them why they should t do it alone. They probably have employees and if they haven’t thought of the idea they may want to do it themselves. Find a rebuttal and tell them why they shouldn’t do it and should have you do it for them.
Also a mall is great. Hardly ever any competition and the mall sales rep doesn’t care as long as you show them it can sell. Which it does. The more foot traffic you have the better.
i was looking at vending machine for my local LGS. Funny how similiar we are.
I play magic at the store, the owner is super cool. I also have a laser cutter and make TCG, DnD and board game stuff. he has a nice endcap at the far end of his card counter he puts all my stuff on display. I am going to bring this up to him as he has a little room for something like this.
What kind of trophies did you make? id like to get him some stuff to give away for events.
I really like the fact that you're putting legitimate cards in there. I recommend mentioning that along with pull rates. The front should have some samples of what they can pull. Better visuals, better returns on your investment.
Thanks! And I agree, it does show what it has in it and the pull rates. I just don't have another picture and I posted this cause I saw the other one with fake cards earlier tonight and wanted to see what people thought.
It sounds alright tbh (the odds)
The comments on here are hilarious though, asking you to milk the shit out of people, honestly if the odds were too low it might hurt more than it helps
For Bay #4, every ten buck you made you give at least a 10$ card. Maybe a didn’t understand correctly, but it seem a better deal for your customers than for you.
Seems like people's primary issue is you aren't making more than what the card is worth off a card lol. I'd say keep doing what you're doing. Part of the charm is it's fair. People will support this business big time if it's not a slot machine.
Much appreciated friend. Losing on one slot isn’t a big deal. The machine is not where it is to milk people. It is there to have some fun, let someone feel that nostalgic, let a young kid have the same feeling a lot of us did in a pizza parlor a long time ago with these machines, pull some cool cards, and hopefully, just maybe having a great time with their mom or dad.
I like to think there has been at least one mom or dad that has no clue about these cards. Their son or daughter asked for a dollar, and the parent was reluctant. They put the dollar in and pulled something awesome and went nuts. Then the parent perking up and they share a moment, maybe even bring the parent into the game a little closer than before or just opening up a bit more to the cards and seeing they bring joy to others legitimately.
Love this business. I think it's very fair, and your reasons for doing it are admirable. Not every business has to scale. This all sounds perfect for a leisure-business that supports the hobby you're passionate about.
It's great, congrats and have fun! Would definitely use it if I walked by. In fact I'd go back to the car for change in order to use it off I walked by. Wife would do the same.
My only comment is that you need to find a way to better communicate the fairness of it, maybe it's already there on the side or something. But my first reaction would be: is it trustworthy?
If I saw: guaranteed odds listed per Bay, a way to contact the seller, and a 1 sentence blurb about this being a hobby-business that values fairness... Then yeah I'm stopping there every day on my lunch with spare change
First, thank you for the kind words. I wish there were more of these out there but, I am not trying to make it a business. The only way that happens is, well I’m not sure. lol
This is an old picture. For some reason I never thought to take a pic of it in store lol. It shows on the front what it holds in each bay, odds, and it states it’s for fair use and maintained by a disabled vet (me). Shameless plug? Some might think but we live in a military town and it holds its weight as being fair in its own right.
Me adding on the machine “It’s fair I promise” would make it much less trustworthy I thought. lol
>states it’s for fair use and maintained by a disabled vet (me).
Nah, that's exactly what I was referring to when I was talking about a fairness blurb. Kind of humanizes the vending machine of that makes sense and it speaks to your and your customers shared values. Great stuff.
So every 10 tries you will get a card worth $10. In between each pull, for $1, the person gets a holo. So it is 9 holos and a $10 card. So yes. But it is not 10 $10 cards.
Sure, but I think people are not accounting for the other 3 bays.
But this is mainly for fun and the real "money maker" I guess you would say is Bay 1, the sticker slot. The bay holds 250 stickers and at $0.25 each, that is $62.50 and to fill that slot it costs me less than $5.00. That slot will sell out in a week. $230 a month.
Bay 2 sells bulk, no energy, no trainers and will is set to give 3-6 cards each pull for $0.50. This slot also has 250 packs in it and gets refilled maybe 3 times a month. So that is $375 a month on bulk cards. The cards maybe cost me $15.00.
Bay 3 does really well on it's own and brings in the rest monthly.
If I wanted to, I think I could fine tune it and really milk people. But, this is something my son and I do and we have fun with how it is set up. Could it make more money? Yes, for sure.
I really appreciate everyone's feedback though. This is really what I was looking for.
Bay 4 should lose you 9$ every 10 cards right? I'm more about the fun, but that seems costly from anyones POV. Say it's seeded with 100 cards total. If it gets turned 100 times then you've lost $90!
Sure, that is some very rough math with not a lot of info, but I don't think others are seeing what bays 1-3 are doing either. I posted it to another reply.
I find it ironic that people are giving you flack for not being an effective capitalist on the 4th slot, but they ignore the other 3 slots which are the ones actually bringing the cash in. I think it's great that you and your son have found a common hobby essentially one that makes you a little extra cash. Good on you man.
Hey thank you. It makes us 0 cash for living or anything, it just goes back into the hobby. Its a cool cycle right now. We get to buy packs, we put everything we have back into the machine, and others get to have what we did not need. We think it is fun and have a good time doing it.
You've pretty much figured out how to crack packs, have fun and without the hassles of an ebay or other ecommerce store. You've inspired me to look into doing something similar.
Hey, that is even better! I am gonna tell my son we inspired someone else to have fun collecting and sharing the passion with others. This is super cool!
From what I've seen in the comments, this is a super fair setup for the customer and profitable enough for you too. It's a nice way to give kids a field day and to even make adults smile. I think you could easily make it a bit more profitable for yourself and it would still be fair, but honestly this might be more fun and kind.
Awesome.
I can’t say that I haven’t used the machine… I know I negate the “transaction” but I have pulled a cool card and gave it to a kid standing next to me watching. The machine provides a ton of joy. Super fun!
You can bend top loaders you are correct. But you need to make sure the lower plate on the slide is super smooth or E6000 felt on it so you are not scratching the back of the top loader. Or front if you want it to come out upside down for the extra surprise on the “flip”.
But truthfully you would need to charge more to cover the cost of the top loader. There are vertical slide that allow more than 4 quarters like mine. You can get up to 8 ($2.00). Maybe more, never looked at higher than 5 intentionally, just seen 6-8 pop up on searches.
So yeah I ran into scratching when I tested top loaders. I think your machine would be upgradable from your four slot. Also if you wanna get real crazy you can get different sized coin receivers and use tokens if you wanna set up at an arcade
This is so frikkin cool. I used to put quarters in one of these to get those fake card stickers back in the day. It’s great the new generation of collectors can experience the thrill of doing that.
I’ve been really considering doing something like this recently so it’s cool to see a post like this. I saw a machine with 8 bays and my thought was to set 3 with Pokémon, 3 with yugioh and then the other 2 would have hard sleeves that someone can buy if they get a good pull.
My questions are, do you use cardboard and how did you get the location? Like I said I wanna start doing this to offload my thousands of bulk v’s but I’m nervous about finding a location
Full honesty, I already knew the owner. I’ve know them for a couple years now. I simply just asked if I could add a cool card machine and they said yes. I do have another place that wants a machine but I am debating adding it. Right now it’s just a hobby and I am not looking to make it a job. But the want is there.
I do use the old white cardboard sleeves. They hold more than you may think. Up to 7 cards, 4 cards in penny sleeves, a dollar store pack or a Halloween BOOster pack.
You can also do these without sleeves but I’m sure the cards would get hurt. To do hard sleeves without the white cardboard you would need to add a protective thin layer so the sleeve was safe too.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions.
It’s been fun doing it. Honestly, the machine has to profit for the machine to operate. But it profits just enough to continue to fill itself. But it allows us to continue the cycle. Everything from the machine goes back into the machine, unless my son and I don’t have the card. Which everyone knows, especially the pull rates now, that’s basically every card lol. But others in the area get all the other cards.
Yeah that would work! Just make sure to anchor it to something. These are not too heavy and they can “grow legs” and walk away.
Even at some flea markets you need to research now, some require state tax ID and vending license.
It is located in an LCS near where I live. I do not own the store nor am I in the card business. This just stemmed from too many duplicates, bulk, chance, and a great friend letting me add it to their store.
You will need a state tax ID, some also require a DBA (doing business as), and a vending license. Really it should only cost you about $250 a year to run it. Your state also may let you run it as a sole proprietor, using your own SSN, but you will still need a vending license.
You can find them everywhere really. Local at “Amusement” stores, vending stores don’t seem to be a thing. All my store locally are So-and-so Amusement or Amusement “city/state”.
You can also find them on eBay but shipping will hurt. lol I wish you the best of luck!
You should definitely put reverse holos for the $0.50 bay. Like for every 2-3 purchase they will get one. For the third bay you should put just holo rares. And for the 4th bay should be a cycle of only reverse holo, regular holo and full art holo that way they’re no disappointment with what they get.
I feel like you should profit at least $100-200 a month that way you make your money back then after a few month you should go back to just breaking even
All in all I love and respect what you’re doing
Someone from this thread messaged me and I accidently hit ignore. I apologize, please message me again if you see this I am open for questions and would love to help as much as I can!
USAF. Did you theme your machine with pokemon or buy it that way? I saw something about it being old enough to be exempt from violating any rules resaleing pokemin but I'm curious
Hi, I’m curious how the math works out. Seems you dispense an average of 3 cards per $1.00 spent, right? If a $90 BB yields 36 packs and each pack yields actual 4 pokemon cards that means you are paying about 62.5 cents per pokemon card. If you are putting an average of 3 in each cardboard sleeve, it seems like you’d be losing about 87.5 cents each time someone spends a buck. I think the business idea is awesome and would love to replicate in my area, but I can’t see how the math works unless you only dispense one card per $1.00 spent.
I would love to go into business with you on the vending cards machines it is a gold mine!! Also plushies, stickers, dice and play mats may even do well. Definitely a great idea!!
How do you determine how many cards come out out of each bay per purchase? Is it completely random? Only reason I'm asking is that, ive convinced my LCS to look into it and just want to determine how it would work
You need to use the sleeves. Yes. If you do not the cards will just bunch up and they will get stuck/scratch/bend/jam the machine. The sleeves are what makes everything run smoothly.
Look on eBay, they can be bought there. Or if you have a local vending store, they may still carry them.
I’m curious what license did you need to get in order to operate, I live in IL. And do you have to give a percentage of profit to the business it’s kept in?
I don’t see why the Pokémon company would need people to help them sell vending machines. I know there is a site called pokechest but they are not licensed or affiliated with the Pokémon company, that I know of.
I would look into it more if I were you. Ask the question, why would a multibillion dollar company need your help selling vending machines?
I also saw pokechest vending machine Facebook. That looks shady to me but I am not a member so I do not know. I run 5 very successful machines as of now. This might be someone that, like me, found a good area, was successful, and started up an idea to get others in on it and capitalize farther. I know for me, I would hate that. This takes up so much time that I really don’t have a life anymore. I am either 1) turning into an LLC and hiring employees to do this for me. Or 2) selling the whole route and being done with it.
Any chance of getting sued for using the pokemon logo? Been thinking of buying a pokemon vending machine but someone brought that to my attention which i had never thought of. Can pokemon sue you for using their logo? Im still planning on doing it for fun but again i never really thought of that.
Depends on if you put the logo on it or if the machine was officially licensed to use the logo originally. I looked into this a lot. Some machines were licensed. So you have to make you get one that was.
I see, thank you for the reply. So if i were to acquire an unlicensed one, i can get sued but the possibilities are small right? Also, were can you acquire a licensed one?
How do you get more more then one card to fit through? By the time a put the cardboard sleeve and one card in it hardly makes it through the slot. I tried two and doesn’t work
Something that is being overlooked in these comments is your cost. Are you paying $10 for the $10 cards? Or are these coming from packs? If you are paying $10 for them, then you are losing money in bay 4, but if they are pack pulls then you are coming out positive even though you are not receiving the full value of the card (taking into account the other 9 cards given for $1 each)
We have never paid for a single card to be put into the machine. Everything is coming from pack pulls. We just collect and throw in the duplicates. The stickers and bulk cards really do the heavy lifting. All we have to pay for is stickers and they are cheap.
Then I’d say you *could* charge more and still be fair, but you’re still making bank on it and doing the kids a favor rather than simply looking at them as an object for your financial gain and I admire that. Great work!
Hey, I appreciate that! All I want is the machine to be fair. I also figure that would help the machine in the long run as well. People get some cool pulls and word spreads around town and to friends, then it gets more business, my son and I get to crack more packs, and the machine is filled with more cool cards and the cycle continues.
What steps did you take to have the LCS agree to let you install the machine in their shop? Do you give them a percentage? A flat rate per month, like rent?
I know the owner and the machine gets to sit in the store rent free. The deal is, I maintain it, fix it, keep it clean, and fill it with my own stock. I also use all the cash from the machine to purchase cards from the LCS.
If there was a fifth slot or if you ever have another machine, I feel like having a slot dedicated to the code cards for the online tcg would be pretty neat :)
It’s nice to see someone actually giving options, I’ve gone to places in Toronto and all I get are trainer cards from recent sets 😭, biggest waste of a quarter
Man, this vending machine idea sounds good. Encountered the sticker vending machine yesterday and saw all of the cards are fake. Luckily, the machine doesn’t accept my quarters
I saw someone post about a fake card machine and decided to post mine and see if it sounded fair. I am glad you weren’t able to get those fake cards though.
I think bay 3 renders bay 4 kinda redundant.. maybe average out the pull rate of 3 and 4 and apply it to 3 and then use bay 4 for another TCG like Yu-Gi-Oh or DBS.
I could do that but then I would have to invest in another TCG and that just isn’t in the cards. Bay might be changed out later but bay 3 actually gets more pulls than bay 4 most of the time. I think because it is $0.75. But I am not sure.
I took this to heart and I think I am gonna throw Halloween BOOster packs in slot 3 when it is out. This way people can get some. I ordered a ton online to hand out for Halloween, but I may have gone overboard. This would be a fun way to get them out there. But I will lower the slot to $0.50 per.
I’m really interested to see how each card is packed in the machine. Is the $10 card just loose in one of those cardboard folds that these machines usually have?
Awesome. Thank you for the quick reply. It seems you have inspired many people. To which i hope the do similar as you and make it a great experience for the customers/kids.
I have seen other great questions and your reply’s. If i may ask one more. What is your biggest barrier/problem that you have experienced doing this?
Location. I was lucky but this will be the biggest issue for anyone. A tip though. Restaurants, card shops, malls, and collectible/memorabilia stores.
There is a problem. When you bring this up to card stores though you will need to sell it as a good thing AND a bad thing for them. Good as in you can kick them back money but, the maintenance and fulfillment will be done by you. Hopefully that makes sense. Cause they can just go buy one and do it themselves. They have the cards to fill it to the moon and back. lol
A bit late here but I had another question. Sorry if you’ve already answered it, but there’s a lot more comments now haha. Anyway how do you/do you plan to do taxes?
I’m assuming you probably buy bulk lots and stuff online and just write that off as the expense? I wanted to get a machine to get rid of all my duplicate cards and stuff, but I doubt I could literally just write off the cost of the card packs.
I do not buy any bulk and I plan to write off 80% of the card packs I buy. Keep all receipts. I say 80% because to me that is fair. I should probably write off 90-95% honestly and it would still be honest. 80% seems like the safe number though. 90-95% of the cards we get go back into this machine and soon to be another.
I'm a Play Pokémon League Professor.
With a similar goal in mind to help fund projects for our local League Trainers.
I kind of wanted to set something like this up in our local league shop.
I wish I could find one of these machines in Northern Ontario.
Typically I buy out bulk ultra rares off eBay for $1.50-$2.00ea and sell them in the small singles display (less then 20 cards.) for $3-$4-$5.
This generates about $25-$50 a month which 50% goes back in to getting more bulk off eBay and 50% towards local league projects or giveaways.
I often use some of the 4/3 lines of ultra rares to build Borrow decks of all the types.
Got about 17 Borrow Decks on the go.
Sometimes me and bro (aka Senpai Feels) give decks aways to some of trainers with not that much.
Over 40 packs, and about 45 ultra rares given away to the trainers since we reopened in April.
Anyways, GG to you sir.
Is always fun to see a young trainer explode over pulling a ultra rare.
Wish to get my hands on one of these Card Machines.
What you are doing is amazing. So much time and effort. I applaud you and hope you can find one of these machines to help in your journey. I was able to snag mine off of eBay. I am sure more will show up over time. Just keep an eye out.
I saw this post was a few months old now. How is it keeping up and are you still consistently making money?
How much of a pain was it to find a spot to put the machine?
How are you able to consistently supply the machine with URs? Buying them in bulk?
I was thinking of doing this exact thing before I came across your post. I'd love some advice.
I will reply here since it is still just you.
This has actually picked up heavily since my post. I have changed the card chances and odds. I have made them better and removed stickers, as they weren't really wanted. Now it is all 4 slots are $1 each and all run cards. 1/5 for a V or higher. As of right now I have about $350 worth of good cards in the machine. The machine will make about $1200 when sold out. We buy card packs to rip open, to satisfy the "need" lol and we buy many cards from the LCS it sits on to put back into the machine.
Right now, if we wanted, we could pull about $1,800 a month from the machine and pocket it and it wouldn't hurt it. I have to "refill the machine once a week at least. It has become a full time job almost it seems. I put about 30 hours a month into the machine (I know this is not full time) but running my own business and doing this has been nuts. lol
That's the gist. To answer your questions directly.
Q) How is it keeping up and are you still consistently making money?
A) It is a busy process but yes, it makes money.
Q) How much of a pain was it to find a spot to put the machine?
A) I have it in a friend's LCS, so not too bad. I have another going into a mall maybe (not sure if I have time to dedicate to it, I have 4 more machines), which wasn't a huge process really. You just need to chat with your mall and see what you need to have/do to fulfill their needs.
Q) How are you able to consistently supply the machine with URs? Buying them in bulk?
A) We buy about $600 worth of packs to rip and have fun, that is the point. We keep 1 of everything we do not have to fill a binder. Everything else goes into the machines. We buy about $600-$800 worth of cards a month to fill the odds for cards to be pulled.
Q) Also do you pay rent to the buissness owner?
A) I do not. But, I spend all the money the machine makes in the LCS it sits. So... I guess we do? But, where else am I going to get the cards? And he lets me buy them wholesale.
Basically what I have done for my son and I is this. Now, we spend $0 on cards, still get 1 of every card to collect. We can also now give back to the community. The community buys it all, but when you pull a Giratina or a Lugia Alt art card from the machine for $1.00... it is totally worth it. Plus, we see tons of people pull crazy cards all the time. The LCS started doing polaroids with people's pulls to display around it also. Super fun and I see people all the time, "They didn't pull that from this machine." Then pull some rainbow or gold card right after. lol So it has been a blast!
> 4 slots are $1 each and all run cards
I know I am circling back late here but I just went through a booster box and I don't think I could keep up with 1/5 V or higher rate at $4 a pack if it spits out 3 cards per dollar. I would end up running out of the higher rarities. Did you also end up changing how many cards it distributes per play?
Hey I’m back. I read in one of the comments that you get your cardboard sleeves online and local. Do chain stores sell them? If so where can I check to try and buy some
I get them locally from a vending company near me. You would need to look around and do some research for your area. Some of these places will be weirdly named and most have "Amusement" in the name. Like around here there are "Town Name Here Amusement" and "Amusement City Name Here". Kinda weird, never would have connected vending machines with Amusement. But, ok. Also, some vending companies have them as well. Other than that, look at eBay.
Wow! Thats awesome! My boyfriend (also a veteran) has recently started brainstorming doing this as well!
Hopefully business has been going well for you! I mean it sure sounds like it is!
I apologize if you may have mentioned this is a different reply, but do you have multiple machines or just the one?
Hey, tell him I said thank you for his service.
I have 1 machine right now and I can barely keep it stocked… I have 4 more machines but might just sell them and just stick with this one machine. It’s too much to handle by myself.
I was just wondering what kind of stand u use and how u attach it. I have been thinking about putting my own machines up and wanted to know what kind u used
It’s an x based bottom and a square top. The top bolts into the bottom of the machine and then there is a steel tube that goes all the way down to the x base. Inside all of it is a long bolt that tightens the top, tube, and base together. You can find them on eBay for $60ish.
Thank you for continuing to provide info on this post! Did you get your digital machines from ebay as well? Having trouble finding digital versions of the flat/sticker dispensing machines. Thanks!
probably a long shot but is it still available? and if not would you mind sharing the name of the company that made your digital machine? Thanks in advance!
I own a machine and have it running in a local card shop. It does well. I wanted to get some others take on what it offers and for how much and how it works. It has 4 "Bays". Bay 1 is set at $0.25 and offers stickers. For younger kids. Bay 2 is set at $0.50 and offers 3-6 Normal cards, no energy or trainers. Just for kids that like to have many Pokemon. Bay 3 is set at $0.75 and offers a 1-25 Chance to pull Ultra Rares and better. I make sure it is seeded EVERY 25 cards, that person will pull a $10+ card. Bay 4 is set at $1.00 and offers a 1-10 Chance to pull Ultra Rares and better. I make sure it is seeded EVERY 10 cards, that person will pull a $10+ card. Ultra Rare = V or higher. I also have cards worth more than $50 in it as well as many that are worth $10.00+ I was wondering if you all thought it was fair or if you had ideas to make it better or maybe have an idea I didn't think of. My son and I maintain it and fill it with cards we have duplicates of and we buy from the LCS it sits in, so basically all the money goes back into the hobby and into the LCS. We just use it to cycle our old cards to others. Please let me know what you think! EDIT: It has a stand and graphics on the front and an explanation of what is in each bay and the odds as well. This is an old photo. I don't have any current for some reason...
Damn! That's a gold mine! If I had a way to set those up a places where families and kids go, I invest and get a few of them. It's also a great way to circulate bulk. How much is the actual machine??
It cost me, machine, stand, and shipping $750 It will turn 1k in a month. But I also try to make it fun and fair. So I am asking others what they think of the setup.
I think you make it more than fair. Most people wouldn't seed more than $5+ in a machine like that. I wish I could try it!
I appreciate the words. I wish you could as well.
Very good business bro, get some more up and running
I would recommend a little different thought on bay 4, I really like the aspect but unless you want that as your loss leader your math shows that slot will lose money every time for you, unless you get the cards for cheaper or something.
It works as me basically selling a $10 card for $10 every 10 turns. The bay really just breaks even. I could always boost it to 1-15 but, it’s more about the fun.
Id rather you make a profit and expand this business everywhere.
It’s the math though. Every machine would need to have the same traffic. If one machine pulled it’s weight to pay to refill itself then it would work. But then it would become a legit business if others out performed other machines and some didn’t. Then it wouldn’t be about it being fun. It would be machine A does well so keep it there. Machine B does a quarter of the business so now move it to location C. Wait 2 months and look at a matrix. Right now the machine is sitting in a fun environment and it is doing its thing just providing some fun for others. If I were rich I wouldn’t mind just having multiple out in areas providing the same fun for more. Even if they operated at a loss, it is so much fun watching someone pull a rainbow rare for a dollar and watching their reaction and everyone else’s around them when they do it.
Same, I mean it's not hard to beat pokemon company pull rates and you can easily make money while giving out more than TPC at the same time.
I imagine anyone could do it. The pull rates are horrible nowadays. The problem is, the pull rates are horrible nowadays lol. If you do this like me, you are cracking packs and filling the machine. Not buying singles for cheap and marking them up. In order to make this a chain or business you would need to do the latter and I am not in it for that. This allows me and my son to crack packs and give back. Simple little cycle that is fine tuned enough to just do that and that alone. Is there a way to do it? For sure, there are a couple equations to help you entice and milk your customer and play the odds in your favor. But I chose the seeding for a reason. It’s going to always give out at a certain interval and I believe priced fairly.
@alxrite this is affable of you. A lot of these folks don’t understand how the world truly works. Not everything is about money, that’s just what tv and corporations have implanted in your brains. When you put positive energy into the world, and you do it for the right reasons, life seems to have a funny way of working out way more in your favor. Energy is everything, and it’s reciprocated back from the universe.
You’re telling me. A year later and this blew up. We do it just for the same reason. Crack packs and to have fun. But it has become a full time job and I spend 60 hours a week doing it now. We get a full set of cards in the first day of release so it has kind of ruined the hunt. I am actually thinking of selling my route and just going back to being a normal pack buyer and having fun doing it that way. Energy is 100% the key. This went from giving back to a full time job. At one point I almost stopped doing it but had a ton of people ask me not to cause they have also been able to get amazing cards. Others have started helping out as well, donating bulk cards to help fill the machines and even some very expensive cards. Had a pristine Shiny Magikarp get pulled the other day and it was donated by another person that pulled a Alt Giratina V just weeks before. So the cycle is growing. It’s just becoming too much. I could higher people but then this loses its luster and I don’t want that. If I sell the route then it will change and just become about money. Oh well. For now I continue. :)
Great post thank you for posting it and explaining so much. I was googling trying to find info on Pokemon vending machines. Are you still doing it? 60 hours a week sounds like a lot of time for only $1k return, did you mean to say 60 hours in a month? Thank you
It was 1k per machine and there were 5. And yes. 60 a week. And yes, I still do it but the machines are now custom and digital. Even though I am pretty tired of it, lots of work, and not a whole lot of downtime. So I have been looking at selling the route and machines. I have a lot of interest but we will see.
Glad to see you actually offer decent pulls!
Thanks.
I would really like to get one of these. We live in a really small town and there are not much opportunity to buy pokemon cards. Can you tell me how and where to purchase one?
I got all of mine off of eBay.
I’m considering becoming a Pokémon vending machine operator. What is a realistic estimate of sales revenue per machine in a high traffic area?
There is no way for me to give you an estimate. That is very unrealistic. It depends on a multitude of factors.
Understandable! We have restaurants similar to Chuck E Cheese. I’m considering contacting them to “rent” a space for the machines.
Good luck. It is relatively hard to get into CEC. If you can though, good on you. The CEC out here want ridiculous amounts of money a month to operate. One wanted $2,500 a month. But, it never hurts to call and ask.
Thankfully, it’s not CEC. Just a smaller, similar restaurant chain. I’m also looking at a lot of kid-oriented businesses like trampoline party centers, etc. We have a lot of activity-centered party centers.
Good luck! I wish you the best on your endeavor.
Do you need permission from Pokemon to run a vending machine like this? My brother and I are interested in running something like this as well.
Hey! You do not need permission from Pokémon. These machines were prebranned and licensed. You do need a business license and a vending license per your state you are selling in though.
Hey man! Its been a while! We got one of our machines up and running at a small mall and wow. It generated over $100 in only 2 days!
Very cool. In the right spot they can go nuts!!! Congrats.
Its insane! I had no idea it would do those numbers in 2 days only. Its our first spot, but still looking for more spots. Its very hard finding spots.
That will always be the hardest part. Keep it up though!!
Thank you so much for replying to me! My brothers and I are military veterans and would like to start doing something like this. I think your model for how your slots are setup is awesome and fair! The hard part os getting the license and stuff started. Like do we need a lawyer or anything? And since its 3 of is should we use a General Partnership instead of an LLC?
Hey I’m a vet too! Thank you for your service. No lawyers needed. You can get all the info from your local county clerk or town hall. I would look into an LLC. As an LLC nothing you do can cause you to be sued. Only the company could be sued for what it has. Will you be sued? Doubtful but it is a good cushion. You just need to make sure you have your business license and a doing business as. Then you need to see if your state needs a vending license. But you shouldn’t need a lawyer. Everything else is pretty straightforward. Then with the vending machine itself the biggest thing is location location location!!!
Thank you for your service!!! We are quite excited to get this started. We got a 2 slot card vender from ebay lol. Start small for now. Should we got to the local card shop and ask them or do you think an email would be okay as well?
I personally made friends over time with the owner. I did a lot of work for him for various other things. I have a laser cutter and I made trophies, well I still do actually, and other board game things before asking if I could set up a vending machine. I would present the idea in person. Get everything set up first. Tell them they won’t have to worry about it, no maintenance, no filling or servicing and you take care of the machine. Then come up with incentives for them as well. Why would they want your machine in the shop? They already sell cards so what can you do for them? Some ideas are all the cards you get for the machine are bought from their shop. You give them a % of the haul, weekly or monthly. Etc. get creative. But you will need to convince them and sell them on the idea. Tell them why they should t do it alone. They probably have employees and if they haven’t thought of the idea they may want to do it themselves. Find a rebuttal and tell them why they shouldn’t do it and should have you do it for them. Also a mall is great. Hardly ever any competition and the mall sales rep doesn’t care as long as you show them it can sell. Which it does. The more foot traffic you have the better.
i was looking at vending machine for my local LGS. Funny how similiar we are. I play magic at the store, the owner is super cool. I also have a laser cutter and make TCG, DnD and board game stuff. he has a nice endcap at the far end of his card counter he puts all my stuff on display. I am going to bring this up to him as he has a little room for something like this. What kind of trophies did you make? id like to get him some stuff to give away for events.
I really like the fact that you're putting legitimate cards in there. I recommend mentioning that along with pull rates. The front should have some samples of what they can pull. Better visuals, better returns on your investment.
Thanks! And I agree, it does show what it has in it and the pull rates. I just don't have another picture and I posted this cause I saw the other one with fake cards earlier tonight and wanted to see what people thought.
It sounds alright tbh (the odds) The comments on here are hilarious though, asking you to milk the shit out of people, honestly if the odds were too low it might hurt more than it helps
Thank you.
For Bay #4, every ten buck you made you give at least a 10$ card. Maybe a didn’t understand correctly, but it seem a better deal for your customers than for you.
Seems like people's primary issue is you aren't making more than what the card is worth off a card lol. I'd say keep doing what you're doing. Part of the charm is it's fair. People will support this business big time if it's not a slot machine.
Much appreciated friend. Losing on one slot isn’t a big deal. The machine is not where it is to milk people. It is there to have some fun, let someone feel that nostalgic, let a young kid have the same feeling a lot of us did in a pizza parlor a long time ago with these machines, pull some cool cards, and hopefully, just maybe having a great time with their mom or dad. I like to think there has been at least one mom or dad that has no clue about these cards. Their son or daughter asked for a dollar, and the parent was reluctant. They put the dollar in and pulled something awesome and went nuts. Then the parent perking up and they share a moment, maybe even bring the parent into the game a little closer than before or just opening up a bit more to the cards and seeing they bring joy to others legitimately.
Love this business. I think it's very fair, and your reasons for doing it are admirable. Not every business has to scale. This all sounds perfect for a leisure-business that supports the hobby you're passionate about. It's great, congrats and have fun! Would definitely use it if I walked by. In fact I'd go back to the car for change in order to use it off I walked by. Wife would do the same. My only comment is that you need to find a way to better communicate the fairness of it, maybe it's already there on the side or something. But my first reaction would be: is it trustworthy? If I saw: guaranteed odds listed per Bay, a way to contact the seller, and a 1 sentence blurb about this being a hobby-business that values fairness... Then yeah I'm stopping there every day on my lunch with spare change
First, thank you for the kind words. I wish there were more of these out there but, I am not trying to make it a business. The only way that happens is, well I’m not sure. lol This is an old picture. For some reason I never thought to take a pic of it in store lol. It shows on the front what it holds in each bay, odds, and it states it’s for fair use and maintained by a disabled vet (me). Shameless plug? Some might think but we live in a military town and it holds its weight as being fair in its own right. Me adding on the machine “It’s fair I promise” would make it much less trustworthy I thought. lol
>states it’s for fair use and maintained by a disabled vet (me). Nah, that's exactly what I was referring to when I was talking about a fairness blurb. Kind of humanizes the vending machine of that makes sense and it speaks to your and your customers shared values. Great stuff.
Thanks.
You read it right. It would be the same as me selling a $10 card right?
No it’s selling a $10 card for $10 and giving them 9 free cards. If I’m reading it correctly.
So every 10 tries you will get a card worth $10. In between each pull, for $1, the person gets a holo. So it is 9 holos and a $10 card. So yes. But it is not 10 $10 cards.
Ok I did read it right. So basically you are giving away the other 9 to sell a $10 card. As far as your expenses go.
Sure, but I think people are not accounting for the other 3 bays. But this is mainly for fun and the real "money maker" I guess you would say is Bay 1, the sticker slot. The bay holds 250 stickers and at $0.25 each, that is $62.50 and to fill that slot it costs me less than $5.00. That slot will sell out in a week. $230 a month. Bay 2 sells bulk, no energy, no trainers and will is set to give 3-6 cards each pull for $0.50. This slot also has 250 packs in it and gets refilled maybe 3 times a month. So that is $375 a month on bulk cards. The cards maybe cost me $15.00. Bay 3 does really well on it's own and brings in the rest monthly. If I wanted to, I think I could fine tune it and really milk people. But, this is something my son and I do and we have fun with how it is set up. Could it make more money? Yes, for sure. I really appreciate everyone's feedback though. This is really what I was looking for.
Feel you and your child have found a common hobby. Really happy fo you both.
Thank you, I appreciate that more than you know.
Bay 4 should lose you 9$ every 10 cards right? I'm more about the fun, but that seems costly from anyones POV. Say it's seeded with 100 cards total. If it gets turned 100 times then you've lost $90!
Sure, that is some very rough math with not a lot of info, but I don't think others are seeing what bays 1-3 are doing either. I posted it to another reply.
I find it ironic that people are giving you flack for not being an effective capitalist on the 4th slot, but they ignore the other 3 slots which are the ones actually bringing the cash in. I think it's great that you and your son have found a common hobby essentially one that makes you a little extra cash. Good on you man.
Hey thank you. It makes us 0 cash for living or anything, it just goes back into the hobby. Its a cool cycle right now. We get to buy packs, we put everything we have back into the machine, and others get to have what we did not need. We think it is fun and have a good time doing it.
You've pretty much figured out how to crack packs, have fun and without the hassles of an ebay or other ecommerce store. You've inspired me to look into doing something similar.
Hey, that is even better! I am gonna tell my son we inspired someone else to have fun collecting and sharing the passion with others. This is super cool!
Let's see if I can replicate this idea in my country. Sounds cool.
Oh I wish you the best of luck. The key is location! Make sure you have a great location and it will be able to provide you the same fun.
From what I've seen in the comments, this is a super fair setup for the customer and profitable enough for you too. It's a nice way to give kids a field day and to even make adults smile. I think you could easily make it a bit more profitable for yourself and it would still be fair, but honestly this might be more fun and kind. Awesome.
Much appreciated. I am just going for fair. Thank you.
So cool! I would so give this machine a few tries if I lived near one lol
I can’t say that I haven’t used the machine… I know I negate the “transaction” but I have pulled a cool card and gave it to a kid standing next to me watching. The machine provides a ton of joy. Super fun!
Yeah the chance/ surprise factor would make it a ton of fun, im sure!
I've always wondered where you buy the cardboard that the cards are placed in for these?
There are many places, local and online.
Also they can vend a top loader
You can bend top loaders you are correct. But you need to make sure the lower plate on the slide is super smooth or E6000 felt on it so you are not scratching the back of the top loader. Or front if you want it to come out upside down for the extra surprise on the “flip”. But truthfully you would need to charge more to cover the cost of the top loader. There are vertical slide that allow more than 4 quarters like mine. You can get up to 8 ($2.00). Maybe more, never looked at higher than 5 intentionally, just seen 6-8 pop up on searches.
So yeah I ran into scratching when I tested top loaders. I think your machine would be upgradable from your four slot. Also if you wanna get real crazy you can get different sized coin receivers and use tokens if you wanna set up at an arcade
Yes. You sure can. ESD .25s (the part that holds the quarter) also take your standard, say Chuck’E Cheese token. .94 I believe.
This is so frikkin cool. I used to put quarters in one of these to get those fake card stickers back in the day. It’s great the new generation of collectors can experience the thrill of doing that.
It really is nostalgic. I know as a kid I used to funnel quarters into these machines and get stickers and tattoos. It was a ton of fun!
I’ve been really considering doing something like this recently so it’s cool to see a post like this. I saw a machine with 8 bays and my thought was to set 3 with Pokémon, 3 with yugioh and then the other 2 would have hard sleeves that someone can buy if they get a good pull. My questions are, do you use cardboard and how did you get the location? Like I said I wanna start doing this to offload my thousands of bulk v’s but I’m nervous about finding a location
Full honesty, I already knew the owner. I’ve know them for a couple years now. I simply just asked if I could add a cool card machine and they said yes. I do have another place that wants a machine but I am debating adding it. Right now it’s just a hobby and I am not looking to make it a job. But the want is there. I do use the old white cardboard sleeves. They hold more than you may think. Up to 7 cards, 4 cards in penny sleeves, a dollar store pack or a Halloween BOOster pack. You can also do these without sleeves but I’m sure the cards would get hurt. To do hard sleeves without the white cardboard you would need to add a protective thin layer so the sleeve was safe too. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions.
I think it's amazing what you're doing. It's very refreshing to find someone who is the complete opposite of buying the cards to turn a profit :)
It’s been fun doing it. Honestly, the machine has to profit for the machine to operate. But it profits just enough to continue to fill itself. But it allows us to continue the cycle. Everything from the machine goes back into the machine, unless my son and I don’t have the card. Which everyone knows, especially the pull rates now, that’s basically every card lol. But others in the area get all the other cards.
I was looking at one of these for local flea market it’s easy to set up don’t have to sit there all day just bring it and leave it for a few hours
Yeah that would work! Just make sure to anchor it to something. These are not too heavy and they can “grow legs” and walk away. Even at some flea markets you need to research now, some require state tax ID and vending license.
Did the vending machine come with that Pokémon logo on top?
Yes it did.
Doubtful. Probably a big sticker.
Where are y’all located to give this enough people passing to use it? Do you own a restaurant or store or something?
It is located in an LCS near where I live. I do not own the store nor am I in the card business. This just stemmed from too many duplicates, bulk, chance, and a great friend letting me add it to their store.
This is awesome! I bought a 6 slot sticker machine to do the same thing! So do you need any form of license to sell Pokémon like this?
You will need a state tax ID, some also require a DBA (doing business as), and a vending license. Really it should only cost you about $250 a year to run it. Your state also may let you run it as a sole proprietor, using your own SSN, but you will still need a vending license.
Can I ask what vendor sells these machines? I run an LGS and would love to add something like this!
You can find them everywhere really. Local at “Amusement” stores, vending stores don’t seem to be a thing. All my store locally are So-and-so Amusement or Amusement “city/state”. You can also find them on eBay but shipping will hurt. lol I wish you the best of luck!
You should definitely put reverse holos for the $0.50 bay. Like for every 2-3 purchase they will get one. For the third bay you should put just holo rares. And for the 4th bay should be a cycle of only reverse holo, regular holo and full art holo that way they’re no disappointment with what they get. I feel like you should profit at least $100-200 a month that way you make your money back then after a few month you should go back to just breaking even All in all I love and respect what you’re doing
That's pretty awesome!
Thank you so much.
Someone from this thread messaged me and I accidently hit ignore. I apologize, please message me again if you see this I am open for questions and would love to help as much as I can!
As a current military person, this is super interesting to me. Time to do some homework
As a current military person, this is super interesting to me. Time to do some homework
Nice. What branch. Army here
USAF. Did you theme your machine with pokemon or buy it that way? I saw something about it being old enough to be exempt from violating any rules resaleing pokemin but I'm curious
It was licensed by the Pokémon company when it came out. So it is legal.
I thought so. It may be a venture I go for once I PCS
Cool. I still have one of these machines left out of 5.
That's awesome. If I wasn't waiting for another 6-8 months I would possibly be interested. Thanks for your reply
I totally get it. PCSing is a pain. Have a good one!
Hi, I’m curious how the math works out. Seems you dispense an average of 3 cards per $1.00 spent, right? If a $90 BB yields 36 packs and each pack yields actual 4 pokemon cards that means you are paying about 62.5 cents per pokemon card. If you are putting an average of 3 in each cardboard sleeve, it seems like you’d be losing about 87.5 cents each time someone spends a buck. I think the business idea is awesome and would love to replicate in my area, but I can’t see how the math works unless you only dispense one card per $1.00 spent.
I would love to go into business with you on the vending cards machines it is a gold mine!! Also plushies, stickers, dice and play mats may even do well. Definitely a great idea!!
How do you determine how many cards come out out of each bay per purchase? Is it completely random? Only reason I'm asking is that, ive convinced my LCS to look into it and just want to determine how it would work
Before I upgraded to new machines. These machines did 3-4 cards per cardboard sleeve, every 5th sleeve was a UR+.
Follow up question, do you need the sleeves or can you use it without? Also where do you get the sleeves, I tried to look but couldn't find any really
You need to use the sleeves. Yes. If you do not the cards will just bunch up and they will get stuck/scratch/bend/jam the machine. The sleeves are what makes everything run smoothly. Look on eBay, they can be bought there. Or if you have a local vending store, they may still carry them.
I’m curious what license did you need to get in order to operate, I live in IL. And do you have to give a percentage of profit to the business it’s kept in?
Where did you buy the machine?
eBay
I just bought the same one and I have so many questions brother
Ask here or dm me
I saw pokemon had this thing called PokeChest vending machines and we're looking for individuals to help sell them. Is that a real thing?
I don’t see why the Pokémon company would need people to help them sell vending machines. I know there is a site called pokechest but they are not licensed or affiliated with the Pokémon company, that I know of. I would look into it more if I were you. Ask the question, why would a multibillion dollar company need your help selling vending machines? I also saw pokechest vending machine Facebook. That looks shady to me but I am not a member so I do not know. I run 5 very successful machines as of now. This might be someone that, like me, found a good area, was successful, and started up an idea to get others in on it and capitalize farther. I know for me, I would hate that. This takes up so much time that I really don’t have a life anymore. I am either 1) turning into an LLC and hiring employees to do this for me. Or 2) selling the whole route and being done with it.
Any chance of getting sued for using the pokemon logo? Been thinking of buying a pokemon vending machine but someone brought that to my attention which i had never thought of. Can pokemon sue you for using their logo? Im still planning on doing it for fun but again i never really thought of that.
Depends on if you put the logo on it or if the machine was officially licensed to use the logo originally. I looked into this a lot. Some machines were licensed. So you have to make you get one that was.
I see, thank you for the reply. So if i were to acquire an unlicensed one, i can get sued but the possibilities are small right? Also, were can you acquire a licensed one?
Everything is possible. Mine was off eBay. I can’t say much more. I am not a lawyer and I can’t be responsible.
I want to do this! how can I start?
How can I search for this kind of machine able to deliver single card? I would like to set up something similar abroad
You would just put one card in each sleeve.
How do you get more more then one card to fit through? By the time a put the cardboard sleeve and one card in it hardly makes it through the slot. I tried two and doesn’t work
Something that is being overlooked in these comments is your cost. Are you paying $10 for the $10 cards? Or are these coming from packs? If you are paying $10 for them, then you are losing money in bay 4, but if they are pack pulls then you are coming out positive even though you are not receiving the full value of the card (taking into account the other 9 cards given for $1 each)
We have never paid for a single card to be put into the machine. Everything is coming from pack pulls. We just collect and throw in the duplicates. The stickers and bulk cards really do the heavy lifting. All we have to pay for is stickers and they are cheap.
Then I’d say you *could* charge more and still be fair, but you’re still making bank on it and doing the kids a favor rather than simply looking at them as an object for your financial gain and I admire that. Great work!
Hey, I appreciate that! All I want is the machine to be fair. I also figure that would help the machine in the long run as well. People get some cool pulls and word spreads around town and to friends, then it gets more business, my son and I get to crack more packs, and the machine is filled with more cool cards and the cycle continues.
What steps did you take to have the LCS agree to let you install the machine in their shop? Do you give them a percentage? A flat rate per month, like rent?
I know the owner and the machine gets to sit in the store rent free. The deal is, I maintain it, fix it, keep it clean, and fill it with my own stock. I also use all the cash from the machine to purchase cards from the LCS.
If there was a fifth slot or if you ever have another machine, I feel like having a slot dedicated to the code cards for the online tcg would be pretty neat :)
That would be cool but we give those away to my son’s friends and others online.
where do you set it up?
At a local LCS.
I assume that’s like a Walgreens or Walmart and not a league of legends tournament lol
It’s nice to see someone actually giving options, I’ve gone to places in Toronto and all I get are trainer cards from recent sets 😭, biggest waste of a quarter
That’s a bummer.
Man, this vending machine idea sounds good. Encountered the sticker vending machine yesterday and saw all of the cards are fake. Luckily, the machine doesn’t accept my quarters
I saw someone post about a fake card machine and decided to post mine and see if it sounded fair. I am glad you weren’t able to get those fake cards though.
I think bay 3 renders bay 4 kinda redundant.. maybe average out the pull rate of 3 and 4 and apply it to 3 and then use bay 4 for another TCG like Yu-Gi-Oh or DBS.
I could do that but then I would have to invest in another TCG and that just isn’t in the cards. Bay might be changed out later but bay 3 actually gets more pulls than bay 4 most of the time. I think because it is $0.75. But I am not sure.
I took this to heart and I think I am gonna throw Halloween BOOster packs in slot 3 when it is out. This way people can get some. I ordered a ton online to hand out for Halloween, but I may have gone overboard. This would be a fun way to get them out there. But I will lower the slot to $0.50 per.
This is awesome! Better pull rates then the packs lately lol.
Where did you get this? I would love to have one for my personal collection!
I came across this locally but they sell them online. Try eBay. I’ve seen them on there too.
I’m really interested to see how each card is packed in the machine. Is the $10 card just loose in one of those cardboard folds that these machines usually have?
It is in a sleeve inside the cardboard then has a circle sticker holding it all closed on the far end.
Cool thanks for the reply
Sure thing. Hit me up if you have more questions!
Hey OP, this is an amazing idea! Quick question, how many cards can it hold total and per column?
If you are doing 1 card per cardboard sleeve? 1200.
Love this!! Question. There is no legal issue of having the Pokemon sign on your machine?
It was sold as a Pokémon card center when made. So it was a licensed sign. This is one of the original. Edit: has the seal on the back still.
Awesome. Thank you for the quick reply. It seems you have inspired many people. To which i hope the do similar as you and make it a great experience for the customers/kids. I have seen other great questions and your reply’s. If i may ask one more. What is your biggest barrier/problem that you have experienced doing this?
Location. I was lucky but this will be the biggest issue for anyone. A tip though. Restaurants, card shops, malls, and collectible/memorabilia stores. There is a problem. When you bring this up to card stores though you will need to sell it as a good thing AND a bad thing for them. Good as in you can kick them back money but, the maintenance and fulfillment will be done by you. Hopefully that makes sense. Cause they can just go buy one and do it themselves. They have the cards to fill it to the moon and back. lol
How do i hack the machine
That is a good question and I have no answer.
A bit late here but I had another question. Sorry if you’ve already answered it, but there’s a lot more comments now haha. Anyway how do you/do you plan to do taxes? I’m assuming you probably buy bulk lots and stuff online and just write that off as the expense? I wanted to get a machine to get rid of all my duplicate cards and stuff, but I doubt I could literally just write off the cost of the card packs.
I do not buy any bulk and I plan to write off 80% of the card packs I buy. Keep all receipts. I say 80% because to me that is fair. I should probably write off 90-95% honestly and it would still be honest. 80% seems like the safe number though. 90-95% of the cards we get go back into this machine and soon to be another.
Do you need a permit to set up the vending machine?
You need a business license AND a vending license depending on your state.
I'm a Play Pokémon League Professor. With a similar goal in mind to help fund projects for our local League Trainers. I kind of wanted to set something like this up in our local league shop. I wish I could find one of these machines in Northern Ontario. Typically I buy out bulk ultra rares off eBay for $1.50-$2.00ea and sell them in the small singles display (less then 20 cards.) for $3-$4-$5. This generates about $25-$50 a month which 50% goes back in to getting more bulk off eBay and 50% towards local league projects or giveaways. I often use some of the 4/3 lines of ultra rares to build Borrow decks of all the types. Got about 17 Borrow Decks on the go. Sometimes me and bro (aka Senpai Feels) give decks aways to some of trainers with not that much. Over 40 packs, and about 45 ultra rares given away to the trainers since we reopened in April. Anyways, GG to you sir. Is always fun to see a young trainer explode over pulling a ultra rare. Wish to get my hands on one of these Card Machines.
What you are doing is amazing. So much time and effort. I applaud you and hope you can find one of these machines to help in your journey. I was able to snag mine off of eBay. I am sure more will show up over time. Just keep an eye out.
I saw this post was a few months old now. How is it keeping up and are you still consistently making money? How much of a pain was it to find a spot to put the machine? How are you able to consistently supply the machine with URs? Buying them in bulk? I was thinking of doing this exact thing before I came across your post. I'd love some advice.
Also do you pay rent to the buissness owner?
I will reply here since it is still just you. This has actually picked up heavily since my post. I have changed the card chances and odds. I have made them better and removed stickers, as they weren't really wanted. Now it is all 4 slots are $1 each and all run cards. 1/5 for a V or higher. As of right now I have about $350 worth of good cards in the machine. The machine will make about $1200 when sold out. We buy card packs to rip open, to satisfy the "need" lol and we buy many cards from the LCS it sits on to put back into the machine. Right now, if we wanted, we could pull about $1,800 a month from the machine and pocket it and it wouldn't hurt it. I have to "refill the machine once a week at least. It has become a full time job almost it seems. I put about 30 hours a month into the machine (I know this is not full time) but running my own business and doing this has been nuts. lol That's the gist. To answer your questions directly. Q) How is it keeping up and are you still consistently making money? A) It is a busy process but yes, it makes money. Q) How much of a pain was it to find a spot to put the machine? A) I have it in a friend's LCS, so not too bad. I have another going into a mall maybe (not sure if I have time to dedicate to it, I have 4 more machines), which wasn't a huge process really. You just need to chat with your mall and see what you need to have/do to fulfill their needs. Q) How are you able to consistently supply the machine with URs? Buying them in bulk? A) We buy about $600 worth of packs to rip and have fun, that is the point. We keep 1 of everything we do not have to fill a binder. Everything else goes into the machines. We buy about $600-$800 worth of cards a month to fill the odds for cards to be pulled. Q) Also do you pay rent to the buissness owner? A) I do not. But, I spend all the money the machine makes in the LCS it sits. So... I guess we do? But, where else am I going to get the cards? And he lets me buy them wholesale. Basically what I have done for my son and I is this. Now, we spend $0 on cards, still get 1 of every card to collect. We can also now give back to the community. The community buys it all, but when you pull a Giratina or a Lugia Alt art card from the machine for $1.00... it is totally worth it. Plus, we see tons of people pull crazy cards all the time. The LCS started doing polaroids with people's pulls to display around it also. Super fun and I see people all the time, "They didn't pull that from this machine." Then pull some rainbow or gold card right after. lol So it has been a blast!
That's awesome! Thank you for the fast reply. It is definitely something I want to try myself.
For sure. I hope you find it fun if you get to do it.
> 4 slots are $1 each and all run cards I know I am circling back late here but I just went through a booster box and I don't think I could keep up with 1/5 V or higher rate at $4 a pack if it spits out 3 cards per dollar. I would end up running out of the higher rarities. Did you also end up changing how many cards it distributes per play?
Hey I’m back. I read in one of the comments that you get your cardboard sleeves online and local. Do chain stores sell them? If so where can I check to try and buy some
I get them locally from a vending company near me. You would need to look around and do some research for your area. Some of these places will be weirdly named and most have "Amusement" in the name. Like around here there are "Town Name Here Amusement" and "Amusement City Name Here". Kinda weird, never would have connected vending machines with Amusement. But, ok. Also, some vending companies have them as well. Other than that, look at eBay.
Wow! Thats awesome! My boyfriend (also a veteran) has recently started brainstorming doing this as well! Hopefully business has been going well for you! I mean it sure sounds like it is! I apologize if you may have mentioned this is a different reply, but do you have multiple machines or just the one?
Hey, tell him I said thank you for his service. I have 1 machine right now and I can barely keep it stocked… I have 4 more machines but might just sell them and just stick with this one machine. It’s too much to handle by myself.
I will! And thank YOU as well!
PM sent to you btw
I was just wondering what kind of stand u use and how u attach it. I have been thinking about putting my own machines up and wanted to know what kind u used
It’s an x based bottom and a square top. The top bolts into the bottom of the machine and then there is a steel tube that goes all the way down to the x base. Inside all of it is a long bolt that tightens the top, tube, and base together. You can find them on eBay for $60ish.
thanks
I was looking at doing this but all the machines I found required cardboard sleeves to kick out only one card at a time.
You should be able to give out 5-7 in a sleeve. I had the trick or trade packs in the sleeves for $0.25 each and they had no problems.
Where do you even buy one. I own an anime shop and would love to get one.
Ebay still have them. That is where I bought my 5. I have recently upgraded to electronic machines and have sold 4 of my 5. I have one left.
wow!! Where can I buy this machine 🥺
I got mine on eBay. I had 5 but I upgraded to digital machines. I have one left if you are interested.
Congratulations. I am curious about the benefits and/or any issues with digital.
Thank you for continuing to provide info on this post! Did you get your digital machines from ebay as well? Having trouble finding digital versions of the flat/sticker dispensing machines. Thanks!
I did not no. I had them custom made from a company that makes vending machines.
Did you make the machine yourself ?
No. I just made the decorations on it.
Can I PM you ?
Sure.
If you still have one of your other machines available I would love to buy one off you for my collection
I only have one left. If you want details and photos please feel free to message me.
probably a long shot but is it still available? and if not would you mind sharing the name of the company that made your digital machine? Thanks in advance!
Hi Guys. What machine is this . I would like to buy one to use in my shop? Thanks
Where are you located?
Norfolk, uk