Coin op Machines

[mdm]

We are looking into the idea of placing coin op copiers and printers and I need information on the entire operation of coin ops machines . Is coin op machines a profitable venture and what are the best locations?
All comments are welcomed.

Thanks

Regard
mdm

[Kopyrtek]

Cant tell you the RIGHT coin op but i can tell you that they are a pain in the a#$.More calls on the coin op than the copier.Use a card reader and lessen the call load on these copiers

[TheOwl]

Cant tell you the RIGHT coin op but i can tell you that they are a pain in the a#$.More calls on the coin op than the copier.Use a card reader and lessen the call load on these copiers

Agreed 100% Kopyrtek. The sad thing is that all these types of units usually get outdated pretty quick which means getting parts for your coin mech or card reader then becomes a pain the a#$ as well.

I can say that as I look after all the coin op and card readers for my company. As an example, we just had to spend $120 on a motor for a card dispenser and that was just that weeks problem. This motor doesn't look like $120 worth, nor the size of a main drive motor in a copier which costs about the same.

These third party companies have got us copier types stuffed as none of our manufacturers (that I know of) make these types of products. I would personally prefer if they did as getting parts and support would be a whole lot easier.

In hind sight, be very very careful of who you buy from, what sort of support they can offer and if they have had previous experience with their product on the devices that you want them installed on.

[schooltech]

I will also agree with the other two posts. The few coin op machines I had to deal with were nothing but trouble. This is probably just an isolated incident with us, but it just seemed as though sometimes people put money in and the machine did not go to ready, or the unit took money and did not give change, or the machine did something stupid and the user did not get their copy.

It just seemed like they just would not go for long periods of time without having some "issue".

As far as profitability, let's figure that you charge a dime per copy. Now, the cost to service the equipment is .0075, so 3/4 of a penny. Ok, there's some GP in the copy, but when someone has to go out there to 'tweak' something, and at a 65.00 avg burden rate, I just don't see it.

The few I dealt with were at a library, and at a junior college. We were collecting our monthly agreement, but I can guarantee you that the money inside of the coin op units did not even come close to offset the service agreement they had to pay for the equipment.

If we were to offer a machine somewhere, and the sole purpose was to generate foot traffic for the place it's sitting at, as a service company I just can't see making enough money to even make it worth collecting. I would look at them like a pain-in-the-ass gumball machine that constantly jammed the gumballs. This was my experience, and others may have more insight to the profitability of these placements, but I did not see it.

[mdm]

Thanks Guys for the info. I was hoping that some improvements were made to coin ops over the years.

Regards
mdm

[blackcat4866]

Dont do it.

I also agree with the previous posters. One subject that has not come up yet though is the beating that coinop setups take.

We had 25 or 30 units, 20 cpm Canons in a prominent local grocery chain. The jammed coins were usually not such a big deal, it was the pounding that the copier takes. There was at least one service call per month, per machine, requiring the replacement of the operation panel. Broken covers, broken cassettes, broken operation panels, coins stuffed into every conceivable seam in the covers (operation panels tend to short out with a dozen dimes laying across the components, and the $1.20 doesn't begin to cover the cost)...

Maybe our problem was that in such a public location, the users felt free to abuse the machine to their hearts delight. They had no responsibility or relationship with the grocery chain. Standard office copiers are just not well enough armored to withstand the onslaught. And the store employees made no attempt to stop the abuse, or even remove a jam.

My irritation reached it's peak when called out for the second consecutive day to remove a paper jam, and found my one day old operation panel perforated at every LED, at every button. Op panels were always billable from that day onward, and the customer would not fix them until they were completely inoperable. Our machine looked like junk.

And the environment issue: They did not want to waste valuable store space on a coinop copier, so the machine was relegated to the entryway with the automatic doors and the cart storage. When the machine was not being bashed with metal shopping carts, the temperature was varying between 25F to 95F. I can recall standing in a few inches of snow making repairs on an office copier.

My best advice is that this is a great way to gain headaches and lose money.

[schooltech]

You'd think that given all of the advancements made, there would be a better solution to the coin op situation. I'm glad to see that I was not the only one who would rather have never dealt with those little troublemakers.

I'd like to think that copiers in print shops get a lot of abuse, but that abuse is mainly from being used all the time. A coin op machine gets the crap beat out of it and it will have, maybe, 50-100 copies on it in one month.

They are the rental cars of a copier dealership.

[copymutt]

Late in responding here, but my 2 cents. In my 28 yrs. We've had coin ops and card readers. Vandals will mess w/ the coin boxes, and even drop super glue into the paper supply. Grocery store customers will slam carts into both your machine and the changer. Cant count the # of exit trays I've replaced. Users want reimbursement for bad copies or copies they made w/o knowing how to make what they need, then the owner wants you to reimburse him. Users of card reader devices will leave their cards on their dash and demand replacement even though they can not be read to determine value, they will also leave their card in the read slot and the next user will get his jammed because of this. Depending on where you live you may want a concealed carry permit to protect yourself when carrying bags of change.

Obviously we don't do these any more.