Am I the first person with a fruit machine?

[popp665]

Lol bet you that looked funny

[Mark@YorVend]

I looked like a right wally, but to hire a tail lift van for half an hour was nearly £50!!!

Don't mind looking stupid for £50

[popp665]

Lol u sound as tight as me! I walked through a park to a cafe tower in hand to avoid parking charge

[Snackmore]

At £1200 for a license I hope you need the sack barrow to collect your takings!

[Mark@YorVend]

One of the reasons I do my round with a bike and trailer is i'm just too tight to pay for petrol!
If I bought a van to do my round it would cost a couple of grand a year for insurance, tax and basic expenses; and that's before filling it with £20-£30 worth of diesel every time I do my round. I prefer to use a bit of leg power and save the money for reinvesting, guess i'm just lucky my city is small but very dense with pubs/hotels/clubs, and quite touristy.

As for the license, i'm told a good machine should take between £300 and £600 a month, even at the lower estimate, and after splitting it with the landlord it should make at least £600 profit a year but possibly double ... for a £325 piece of machinery!

[popp665]

You will make it back no problem I used to fix em and ive seen 500 quid in 1 after a week. But be careful the pubs are not tied into a supplier

[Mark@YorVend]

There are still one or two independent pubs in the area, so i'm hoping to get them to take one, or swith to one of my machines by offering a better cut. There are also loads of small independent hotels in the area with bars that are just crying out for a nice fruit machine!
Hopefully I can work it into my tower round and get towers into sites where I have gaming machines, and vice versa.

[Mark@YorVend]

Just been asked to check the fruit machine, as the landlord needed some pound coins.

Only took it round on Friday afternoon and its made over £100 already!!!

[Big Chris]

Mark,

Something i have been looking into for a while, but my question is if it breaks down or requires repairing, what is the costs involved?

[Mark@YorVend]

The machine is a re-furb machine and only cost me £325, from a supplier in lancashire. I had a slight problem when I fitted it as I had forgotten to put a nut back on a guard plate, and couldn't work out why the top reel wouldn't spin properly. The guy seemed quite helpful and talked me through all the things to check, and said if it didn't work he would send me out a replacement reel free of charge. I would imagine he does replacement parts quite cheap, and seems fine to talk you through fault finding on the phone.
If I had to change the machine every couple of years I really wouldn't mind at £325!