Opinions on hiring movers for your games?

SuperGunGuru

in Memoriam

Donor 2014
Joined
Aug 20, 2005
Messages
5,102
Reaction score
311
Location
Bath, Michigan
Well I've been moving games to my new home over the past few weekends thanks to help from JoshBrown80. So far I've moved a total of 11 and they are all 19" cabs. Almost all of what's left outside of a few cocktail cabs are large 25" cabs and I'm getting quotes from local moving companies on them. The first one quoted a little over $1300 for an estimated 8 hrs and the next quote will be tomorrow. I guess the first question is does that seem reasonable? It 's about 16 cabs all tolled they would move including 4 cockpit/sitdown cabs and probably the 6 player X-Men (broken down into 3 parts of course). My only other option of course is to continue to try and do it myself and maybe get more family and friends to help. Anyone got some experience to share or just general advice? I know being insured that makes me feel safer and the first company talked about wrapping them before they move them. I'd be removing the control panels and making sre the cabs are good to go for the move but beyond that it'd be up to them. Even after just the last few weekends my left shoulder is giving me some fits so I feel like I want to have them do the rest, but that could be a nice chunk of change depending on how long it takes. This is my first experience with movers to be honest so idk if this would be considered a reasonable price or not. If it is, can't imagine having to pay movers for hours and hours of time. If nothing I know I can watch the clock and at least have them get the worst of the stuff.
 
Last year I moved 51 vids and 1 pin 40 miles to a new house. I rented a Penske 26' box truck with a lift gate. I have a "Dutro" dolly with the large kick back wheels which has a 1600 lb capacity and 2 straps. Did it all myself in 3 truck loads in 1 day. The dolly makes it easy because you can lean the game back and it will stand on the 2 back wheels and the 2 small front wheels all day long all by it's self. The truck lift gate did all the heavy lifting including a huge Savage Quest" cockpit. I used tie straps in the truck to tie them in. The "E" track type. I'm no spring chicken either at 45. It cost me $1200 but I had the truck for a week too.
 
Every year we move a few hundred games to and from the June pinball and arcade show. We rent a few 26' Penski trucks with lift gates and move the games.

So far nothing has been very difficult to move. Some odd sized machines need to be on furniture moving dollies but most larger games are actually on wheels. I, too, have a 6 player X-Men and it is not difficult to move at all once broken down.

Here is my suggestion for safely moving machines: 2 people at all times per game. A dolly with the back legs is a huge help. Watch for low slung power lines when moving your truck around, snapping a power line would suck and we have been close a time or two.
 
A year ago, we bought a house and I moved everything myself. The wife helped get the games into the basement. We only moved 4 blocks and I took most of the games seperately. I didn't have a problem with others helping move the appliances but I had to make sure my babies were ok Poor things spent more than a week in the cold garage jammed in so tight they couldn't be played.
 
I bought a new house and moved 20 games to the house my self. I got about half up to the second floor and wife and friend hurt his arm. Called a friends moving co and the took 9 games up 17 steps for $250 in 35 minutes. With 2 small scrapes in walls. 2 games had 1/2 clearance on both sides. These we big and heavy drivers, golden tee and Atari games. Completely happy and injury free in the end.
 
Thanks everyone for all the input. I didn't get a chance to move any more stuff myself this weekend, but the second moving company quoted me $700 which is almost half of what the first company quoted. The differences are they were thinking they would only need 3 guys, they wouldn't shrinkwrap all the games (except for the guns on Lethal Enforcers and Point Blank), and they estimated it would take 4 to 5 hours total. The only thing I wonder about is if it's at all necessary to shrinkwrap the games. My thought is that stuff doesn't protect the cabinet from much but water/moisture so it seems overkill given they will be in their enclosed truck. I could always wrap them myself if nothing because I want to tuck in any power cords and make sure all the internals are secured.

Edit: Looks like I totally forgot to mention in my initial post these games are being moved from one basement to another and it's been a pain getting them out of the first basement. The stairs are really steep (JoshBrown80 says damn near vertical haha) and there's not much room in the landing, but luckily the new house has a wider staircase and more room in the landing. Getting the cockpit cabs and other 25" cabs up the stairs is the problem.
 
$1300 may seem ridiculous however, i called two different companies to move my 28 games and got a much higher quote than that. To wrap each game, haul them up from the basement, store them for two months and then deliver them to a walkout basement would have set me back $3000

The solution: Have my son and two of his buddies haul them to the garage, pay them $200 cash (plus dinner) and proceed to sell em all off so i never had to worry about paying someone to touch em again. This worked out well.
 
Here is what I would ask:

Have they moved arcade games in the past?

Do they have a good moving truck? Something with a rail lift is best, a regular liftgate is good. No lift and I would say pass.

Do they plan to ratchet strap the games individually in the truck? A good truck will have side rails with securing points. Ideally, they would have a supply of moving blankets. it would take only a few minutes extra to cover them. I would not shrink wrap them as it will limit the handholds for the movers.

It all comes down to how nice your games are. If they are 100% restored, I would want to max the protection. If they are average shape/nothing super rare, then not a big deal.

You probably know more about moving the games and balance than they do. I would be there before they start and offer up as much info to help them/keep them from messing up.
 
Back
Top Bottom