I spotted some machines at a good location that looked like they hadn't been serviced in a while and hadn't been taken care of very well. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to see if I can find out who owns the machines and contact them to see if they would want to sell the machines on location to me. Have any of you done anything like this before? The machines don't look like they are beyond cleaning up and repairing, they are kind of dirty and one of them has a cracked candy hopper. I didn't happend to see what brand the machine is, but I figure if I can find one used machine on ebay I could either replace the damaged one or repair it. Cleaning the machines shouldn't be a huge problem, just a little elbow grease and a Saturday afternoon should get the job done.

Do you think contacting the owner is a good idea?

I was looking around on the internet to see who offers all-metal machines, and I found two brands that sell for a reasonable price: SuperPro and Tri-Star. Does anybody have any experience with these machines? How is their quality and reputation in the bulk vending community? Do they support their products well with service and replacement parts?

I have never owned a soda machine, but today at work people in the break room were saying they wish we had energy drinks in the soda vending machine. The vending company that has their soda machine in our factory don't stock energy drinks and aren't interested in doing it. I was wondering, excluding the (very high) likelihood that the company I work for has signed a contract prohibiting the installation of machines from competitors, how successful could a soda machine stocked with energy drinks be? I don't want to get a Red Bull machine or any other machine dedicated strictly to one brand of drink, I'd rather find a regular soda machine and stock it with energy drinks. However, many energy drinks come in odd sizes that may not be compatible with a normal soda can or bottle machine. Any advice?

I want to start out with two or three machines, and the quote I got for business liability insurance was $300 per year! That's probably more than three machines would make in a year! How may of you have insurance, and is this a normal amount to pay?

Somebody locally has a couple of Vendstar 3000 machines for sale really cheap. I was considering making the drive to go look at these things until I looked around on the Vendstar website and couldn't find any mention of how you can get repair and service parts. I called Vendstar and found out that you have to be the original purchaser of the machine to get parts! If you buy the machine from somebody else, and it breaks, you pretty much just have to throw it away and your investment is lost. If you happen to know who the original purchaser is, they can somehow transfer the machine into your name, and then you are eligible for replacement parts, but in this case the person who has these machines is not the original purchaser and isn't sure who the original purchaser was.

Are there any other shady companies like this that don't support their product once it leaves the original purchaser's hands? I can't afford brand new machines, and I want to make sure that if I buy a used machine that it will have parts available in case something breaks.