Don't know if you've found anything or not, but 2 places I highly recommend are Craigslist and ebay.

Just be sure to get a key for whatever you buy as that's a problem especially on ebay.  Beaver, Northwestern, Oak are my top three suggestions.  Just be sure to get the correct toy capsule wheels if you're going to do that.  You can convert these pretty easy.  My Northwesterns I use 2 gumball heads on a double and put bouncy balls in one side for some of my restaurants like youre wanting to do.  I would definitely do gumballs and toys in a restaurant to start off with.  I've had super results even in small diners with gum/toys on a double headed machine.

Hello,

This is a big question to answer, but I think you're looking in the right direction by looking at a pre-existing route.  I've bought out 4 competitors, 3 of which had machines already placed making money from day one.  Profit margins are going to be best on gumball machines, and as far as what kind of machines to buy, really do your homework on the crane machines as the margins are not all that high.  You can have some great locations that makes it worth the while, but I passed on picking up 20 cranes when I ran the numbers and found I would make as much with toy racks which I already had in operation and was expanding.

A lot of it depends on the individual route you find available and what you can buy it at coupled with the kind and condition of the machines.  Look for something with verifiable numbers you can use to see how long it will take you to pay back your investment.  A good starting place may be buying a route at about 1x the gross income for the year, but you really have to look at each deal individually.  I cover a lot of this stuff in my vending coaching CD I just produced.  You can visit my blog if you want more info.

Regardless, it's nice buying a route making money from day one and not having to worry about placing 20-30 machines and all the time it takes.  I Hope some of this helps you.

Best of success to you.

Mark

Michale,

That post from Dunn vending's old blog was a good one to fix this issue.  The Blog is no longer active, but I remember the post said to cut a small piece of rubber hose that would be glued to the top of the chute throat.  That way the coins bounce off the rubber hose down to the collection tray.

I never tried it but think it is a great idea that would work.  I've had too many other irons in the fire.  I hope this helps.

Mark

Yes those averages are pretty right on.  You can massage those averages if you'll do what was mentioned-pull after 2 months and find a new place.  You can do really well if you're patient and maximize your resources.

I checked out your site a few months ago and really like it.  Will you carry Beaver stuff in the foreseeable future?