How to Sell Your Pachinko

How to sell your pachinko machine

So, now you have a pachinko machine. Maybe you found it cleaning out your parents basement, maybe you got it from a garage sale, an estate sale, or a flea market. It looks interesting enough, and might be worth something. But it is taking up space. You decide to sell it, but who the heck wants it? Lets take a look at several of the most popular options.

Where to sell your pachinko machine

eBay

Unarguably the most popular choice. Nationwide exposure. Relatively easy to use. Unfortunately, it is has a few drawbacks. It is expensive. eBay charges you for listing, and a percentage of the selling price. If you use PayPal, you get hammered with even more fees. You can generally expect to lose 10%-15% just on fees alone. And then there is the shipping. Packaging these things up for mailing that can be difficult at best, and then there is the shipping costs and the insurance. Sure, the buyer pays shipping, but that cost cuts into how much they are willing to pay. You might opt for local pickup only, but the number of bidders tends to drop dramatically when you do so. Another concern is that at any given time there are dozens of pachinkos for sale. Yours is just one more in the crowd. The good news is, if you set the initial bid at 99 cents, you will get it sold.

Craigslist

Many people use Craigslist to sell their pachinko machines, and it is a less expensive alternative to eBay. In fact, it costs you nothing but some time to create and submit the ad. Unfortunately, Craigslist breaks up their advertising into localized areas. If you are selling a pachinko machine in Cleveland Ohio, people in Cincinnati Ohio will not see your ad. On a basic level you are simply selling locally and will not need to deal with shipping issues. This is a very cheap way to go, however be aware that since the interest in your area for pachinko machines may be low, you may not be able to sell your pachinko machine at any price.

Consignment / antique shop / Pawnshop

Most consignment shops will not accept pachinko machines because they are plentiful and tend to just take up space for years. The will typically charge 20% - 30% of the sales price, making it the most expensive option we will cover. This option is the one least likely to result in a sale unless you price it so low that someone might buy it for decoration or pure curiosity. I have never found any pawnshop anywhere who would give you a single penny for one.

Other common options

You could try and sell your pachinko machine at a garage or yard sale, but remember, people go to these sales looking for items that are extremely under priced. The odds of encountering a pachinko collector at a garage sale are minuscule. I personally find and pass on a dozen pachinko machines at garage sales every month. I generally find one per month interesting enough, cheap enough, and in nice enough condition to make restoration worth while.

Collectors

Finding true collectors is extremely difficult. They are looking for rare and interesting machines in impeccable condition. They have little interest in buying a pachinko machine and then spending a large sum to have it restored. The chance of having a machine a collector would desire is probably greater than one in ten thousand. There are those who purchase more common pachinko machines for their personal game rooms, but once again they want them to be clean, shiny, and restored. Rare machines are usually purchased for display only and are rarely played.

Restorers

There are a few small businesses who purchase pachinkos to restore them, and this website is a perfect example. In order to sell restored machines, one needs machines to restore. Unfortunately, the number of machines needing restoration always tends to vastly exceed the available time to do restoration, leading to dozens and dozens of machines awaiting restoration. Some will travel to pick up pachinkos, others will not. Some will pay more than others for different machines. If your machine has sentimental value and you would like to see it restored, this would be your best option. Most do very nice restorations, but once again, they will not pay you a great deal for your machine. But it does not hurt to ask. If you are interested in selling your pachinko machine, please send us an email by clicking the "contact us" link in the upper right of this page.