Do it yourself printing of Marquees/Graphics

bteeter

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Aloha All,

I have quite a few cabinets on my route that need to be restored. The previous owner just didn't give a crap and never fixed control panel damage, has missing or damaged marquees, painted over side graphics, etc.

I'd like to fix all of this of course. I was thinking of getting a large format printer or plotter that I could use to recreate graphics for the machines. I think in the long run it would be more cost efficient than paying for individual pieces and paying to have them shipped over here.

Do any of you folks do that now and if so what printer do you use?

Also what kind of paper do you use for graphics and marquees? Or do you use some kind of plastic/vinyl product?

Thanks!
 
theres ALOT more too it then just buying a printer.
first youll need to decide if you want aquais or solvent printing
biggest difference there is with the waterbase youll have to laminated EVERYTHING.
so you need a laminator as well.
the printers themselves can range from 10k to 100K depending on how good they are
you might want to rethink this one.

theres plenty of "cheaper" inkjet sources out there so buying indivual pieces especially for route that dont nessaisaily have to be of "collector" standard is still your best option-IMO
 
"Over here" could be Lagos Nigera since you have failed to put a location in your profile. Since you say "Aloha" I will assume you are somewhere in Hawaii or American Samoa.

Printing yourself is VERY doable. Doing High Quality printing yourself is another story. Generally, paper is NEVER used on arcade machine artwork with the exception of SOME instruction cards. The art is typically on vinyl. Vinyl is usually sold in VERY large quantities so even though the printer and ink may be cost effective, the vinyl may not be. Of course if you need art for 50 games, that may tilt economics in your favor provided you can also find a source for the art files.

As for pre-printed art, you get what you pay for and sometimes less. Rather than spend a bunch of money on a printer then trying to learn to use it, I suggest you save your pennies and make a "bulk" art order from a trusted supplier. That way you may be able to negotiate a good price and save some on the shipping.
 
Ah, sorry, yes I am in Hawaii. I just updated my profile to include that info.

It sounds like this may not be something I can justify, even with 60 or so machines in the wild.

Do you guys have links to the printers that are actually used? I'm in this business for the long haul so I don't mind spending some money if I can use the printer for 10 years to make my machines look good. I might be able to farm out the use of the printer for others too, in order to offset costs.
 
Albeit optimistic, this is an extremely close minded and short sighted view of how to operate a business. I hope you do well and you're right.

What do you know about my ability to run a business? Let alone my ability to plan for the long haul? This is the 4th business I've started in my life. I've exited every business I have ever started profitably.

This time I picked arcades because I find them fun and because the return on investment is phenomenal. I paid cash for about 60 machines. I have paid cash for repairs. I have enough cash sitting around right now to cover the same purchase 3 more times.

I don't rely on the income from this business for anything. I make very good money at my day job, thankfully because I can't do much with 2K a month. But, considering I'm in for about 30K in total so far and that I'm on pace to make about a 15K profit this year after expenses I consider that a decent investment.

Certainly not bad for about a 5-15 hour a month time expenditure.

But please, do tell me how I am doing it wrong and by wanting to invest in my business going forward I am being short sighted.
 
What do you know about my ability to run a business? Let alone my ability to plan for the long haul? This is the 4th business I've started in my life. I've exited every business I have ever started profitably.

This time I picked arcades because I find them fun and because the return on investment is phenomenal. I paid cash for about 60 machines. I have paid cash for repairs. I have enough cash sitting around right now to cover the same purchase 3 more times.

I don't rely on the income from this business for anything. I make very good money at my day job, thankfully because I can't do much with 2K a month. But, considering I'm in for about 30K in total so far and that I'm on pace to make about a 15K profit this year after expenses I consider that a decent investment.

Certainly not bad for about a 5-15 hour a month time expenditure.

But please, do tell me how I am doing it wrong and by wanting to invest in my business going forward I am being short sighted.

Merely pointing out that it's never a good idea to become so rooted in a business that you end up making continuous capital infusions out of your own pocket and break yourself. You said for the long haul, I simply argue that whether you continue operating a business has to be made on a day by day basis. Maybe tomorrow someone comes in and offers you 4 times what you've invested in it all. That would be a good opportunity, but would result in a short term business development. I'm not actually saying you don't know how to run a business. I'm sure you're very successful. But most of my smaller corporate clients wind up screwing themselves and pass on good opportunities to divest and end up broke. Plan long term, but wake up every morning and make sure the long term forecast is still the same.
 
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My inkjet printer was 23,000. A decent laminator runs at least 7K. Cost me a total of about 45,000 to start my vinyl business and it has been really sucessfull so far. I am printing just about anything you can think of with it and also doing a lot of custom arcade work locally and over the internet. The hard part of the business is knowing how to use the software, photoshop, making vectors and cut lines in illustrator. Sizing things correctly for exact perfect fit, especially with the picky KLOVERs here.. :p
 
If you've got 60 machines to restore and the capital to get it started, I think it makes a lot of sense. One thing that a lot of people overlook is that once you're done with your printing, you always have the option of reselling your equipment to recoup your investment. Since these are going out on route (vs. trying to get it to collector status) I would recommend going with a 44" inkjet printer. You'll want to use vinyl adhesive for the printing and will definitely need a wide format laminator to go with it or else the ink will run. Not sure about Hawaii's costs, but you should be able to pick up a used printer and laminator off of CL for $500 - $1,500 each. Add on the cost of the printing material (about $300 - $500) for 60 machines and the lamination material (another $300 - $500) and the ink (another $600) and you're sitting at approximately $3,600 - 5,600 for the work. A plotter will set you back another $1,500 which would bring the total to about $5,600 - $7,100. Assuming you can resell the equipment for $2,000, then you'd be better off paying for printing at $50 - $85 per machine. If you're in this for the long haul though, it's nice to hang onto the equipment so that you can always hit ctrl-p and replace it when it gets graffiti'ed. Before buying the equipment, I'd double check to make sure that you can actually find the files you'll need. Would be kind of a pain to go through the trouble of setting up your own print shop only to discover you can't restore your games. I'd also look into buying your equipment at auctions. You can pretty much cut this total in half by doing it that way.
 
Merely pointing out that it's never a good idea to become so rooted in a business that you end up making continuous capital infusions out of your own pocket and break yourself. You said for the long haul, I simply argue that whether you continue operating a business has to be made on a day by day basis. Maybe tomorrow someone comes in and offers you 4 times what you've invested in it all. That would be a good opportunity, but would result in a short term business development. I'm not actually saying you don't know how to run a business. I'm sure you're very successful. But most of my smaller corporate clients wind up screwing themselves and pass on good opportunities to divest and end up broke. Plan long term, but wake up every morning and make sure the long term forecast is still the same.

Indeed. Sorry I kind of flipped last night, I was had just finished hour 15 at my day job and was wiped. I appreciate the insight and advice.

The arcade business is at this point a mildly profitably hobby. If someone came and offered me 120K right now to buy it I would be like "where do I sign??". Then at that point I'd buy a couple machines for my garage and call it a day.

The reason I asked what printers people were using was so I could do that cost analysis. At 23K+ that was quoted earlier, I'm not sure its worth it. I do travel to Las Vegas monthly for my day job so I can scour craigslist there and see what I can find. There are all sorts of odd bargains there as businesses go bust. I wish it was affordable to ship machines from there to Maui - I would do it in a second. I've seen so many cheap almost giveaway machines on craigslist there it is painful to pass on them.
 
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Indeed. Sorry I kind of flipped last night, I was had just finished hour 15 at my day job and was wiped. I appreciate the insight and advice.

The arcade business is at this point a mildly profitably hobby. If someone came and offered me 120K right now to buy it I would be like "where do I sign??". Then at that point I'd buy a couple machines for my garage and call it a day.

The reason I asked what printers people were using was so I could do that cost analysis. At 23K+ that was quoted earlier, I'm not sure its worth it. I do travel to Las Vegas monthly for my day job so I can scour craigslist there and see what I can find. There are all sorts of odd bargains there as businesses go bust. I wish it was affordable to ship machines from there to Maui - I would do it in a second. I've seen so many cheap almost giveaway machines on craigslist there it is painful to pass on them.

Last login 2015, guess the business didn't happen.
 
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