Toolguy - not picking on you, but are you a mechanic per chance?
Willing to work on my car for $10/hour? Or basically come to my house and provide any type of "skilled" service for $10/hour?
Heck, I'd pay $10/hr to anybody who is willing to do all of my life chores - laundry, cleaning, shopping, errand running, etc. Problem is, nobody is willing to do even unskilled things for $10/hr.
I've never fixed a machine for $, so makes no difference to me. I just don't think that is realistic.
I realize you are not picking on me, and I'm not here either, but we need to be realistic here. I did not want to go into this much details as I thought others would also quote what's asked and not what local people quote, but here goes. You are comparing real world jobs to a side job, that's not the members only source of income, such as your examples. The labor rate you are listing and yes I understand larbor rates, and pay rates now a days, are for people that support families and pay insurance from their one job and $10 an hour will not do that for someone. We agree there. I also quoted an hourly rate, that does not mean I do all jobs hourly, there is a job price too when needed.
This member does not have a store front to support, no employees, pays no benefits to employees, is not bonded, insured to this kind of work if needed, no credit card line to pay for, no advertising to pay for and this is not his full time job. This clean/shop job is fun money and an extension of the/his hobby.
There is practically no certification, schooling, or degree needed for shopping pinball machines. So any "professional" out there charging $300 to clean a machine, is doing this from what quailifications??? There are none really, so you can't say I'm a professionally trained cleaner/shopper of pinballs thus I charge more. Sure if you worked at Bally, or Stern, or in a repair shop for 30 years, that gives you more qualification over me, but I can do that same and do the same as a self proclaimed "profesional" or a self proclaimed pinball shops "technician".
The question from Raiden_2112 and service was basic clean up and from a person I take it the member knows, or somewhat knows. People want to charge $300-$350 plus parts for that? Really? Charge that and see how many people you get. You would charge a friend $300 to clean their machine?
So yes, $100 maybe $150 PLUS PARTS as I've said before and parts are shopped at the cheapest supplier, not Happ, but somewhere like PBL, is plenty. And cash too!
(Ring kits $20 or under, box of bulbs $2.00 replacing only the ones needed burned or burnt out, flipper rebuild $20-$25 a flipper, $4 leg levers, $1 each pinballs, prices quoted from PBL).
BTW, I've restored 12 machines so far, some mine some not and I always make money when I do one that's not mine.
If no one here can clean, rerubber, relamp, rebuild 2-3 flippers, install new pinballs, and new leg levelers in 8-10 hours, then there's something wrong and they should not be working on machines for others. If the customer wants more done like polishing, touch ups, repairs, soldering, coin door refinishing and so on, then of course more will be charged, I'm not saying that. I answered the members original posted question.
And lets face it, some of work in shopping a pin, is done to get to a light bulb or remove a plastic or rubber ring to clean, you are already there working in the area of the machine.
Raiden_2112 is proving my points too. The game was brought to him, he did not go and get it so no charge there. The game is/was HUO, not routed. If routed it probably would be dirtier, thus more money there. The game does not work, so if he can fix it, more money there.
Both parties will have to agree on what the game will have done to it, obviously Raiden_2112 did not know the game did not work in his first post, now he does, thus more charges and so on.
I paid my way through college by starting my own car detailing business. I did this for five years and I also worked at a Country Club. I charged less then the competition becuase I knew if I charged that much, I would not get that many customers. I charged a comfortable rate cash or check, for me and my customers and it worked. I got customers that normally would not go to "professional" detailers because of price, but they would go to me because I was affordable. This was not my livelihood, I had no store rent, no employees, no insurnace to pay and so on. I could do two cars a day, if in the same area, and charged $100 a car. You don't think $200 a day cash, just for me was enough??? This post is the same example...
And yes I also fix cars, not by trade but by hobby. At least in that work, people can get ASE or state certified which can make them qualified to fix vehciles and you can state that. You can also by special tools to do jobs, unlike shopping pinballs, thus you can also state that. The proper auto tools to do the job correctly and in the most efficient time, and prevent come backs. And service information to research and possibly diagnostics research that must be done first, all that's factored into a job. But really, fixing cars is not the same as this, so it's not a apples to apples comparison.
So in the end, bring me your cars to be detailed and pinball machines, I will charge you a cash rate I can live with and so can you, unlike self proclaimed professionals or places that have stores and employees to support, and we will all be happy and I will make loads of money!
Lastly, Raiden_2112 please post what was done and charged. I'm curious to see what you and the person agreed on and what was comfortable for all.