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For Sale American Pinball new UK Distributor

And this sheds light on my doubts regarding the Deluxe model.
Please see the UKPinfest FAQ about the different Phils. I'm not Phil Palmer.
Phil , I think he meant Palmer, just prob caught up in writing - can loose track of your thread unless you script then view over 24hrs before posting
 
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I've not particularly wanted to get involved here, but considering I was in constant contact with David Fix and Pinball Heaven from GTF to BBQ Challenge coming over I'd just like to put a few things straight in defence of Phil.

Galactic Tank Force (good game btw) did really badly sales wise and Phil was not keen to stock any more American Pinballs because they didn't sell. However, he purchased and shipped Barries BBQ Challenge for videos and because he knew David Fix was coming to Pinfest. Ironically, I told Phil not to buy the BBQ Challenge but he was adamant that it should be shipped over, filmed and sent to my house for people to play before sending it off to various venues in the hope that it would generate some excitement and sales.

Basically, Phil would never have forked out thousands to buy and ship the game if he knew that he would no longer be exclusive.

Was what happened illegal? No. Did Pinball Heaven have an exclusivity agreement? Possibly not. . . . But it wasn't really the decent thing to do.

Fix basically got a game sale and marketing because Phil was under the impression that he was the sole UK distributor. There is no way that he would have purchased BBQ Challenge and put it at Pinfest if he'd have known what someone else would benefit from his test machines (Phil also supplied Legends of Valhalla and Galatic Tank Force).

Basically, Pinball Heaven paid for some promotion and marketing of AP in the UK only to be diluted without notice.

Barrells of Fun was different because there was no existing relationship and no money had been exchanged. @dave Retro brought the first Labyrinth to the UK so the situation is quite different.

I don't blame Dave btw, he was offered the chance to supply another line of pinball machines and would have been silly to say no.

I hope this isn't repackaged as just 'sticking up for my mate', I've merely stated facts and tried to be a reasonable as possible. I can totally understand how Phil is pi$$£d off having run at a loss on AP's over the years.

The very least Phil deserved to be kept informed. Imagine spending all of that money then finding out on social media . . . not great.
Correct

Barrels of fun is slightly off but we won’t talk about that here!

Phil
 
Phil Murphy should not have to ask Distro's for machines at his show there should be a long line out the door with them hoping he takes their machines.

To me Pinball heaven's old business model is gone. you have to please you're customer base or retire
This is spot on.

Supplying machines to shows, paying employees for their work, and other things mentioned earlier, are being framed as if they are some form of charity and deserving religious-style praise. These things are being done because it was PH's business interest to do, and are simply a cost of doing business.
 
There has been ap games out on site tilt and retroids both have had them but the fact is they just don’t take money and are unreliable how many ap games has anyone else in the Uk and Ireland got out on site
Turning up to a show with a pin thinking you are going to sell loads is a myth I wonder how many orders Dave has taken even with David fix 2 hour chat I suspect none
Even when you do the big London show sales generated from that are minimal you could have every ap machine at the eag in London you wouldn’t sell one as operators will buy a stern pro at considerably less
And as we speak about distributors then there is no real distributors other than electrocoin and ph no other person actually stocks game they just take orders or sell electrocoins stock
From the shipment that arrived on Wednesday I would think 80% of that was actually pinball heavens so the old business model is not doing two badly
 
Even when you do the big London show sales generated from that are minimal you could have every ap machine at the eag in London you wouldn’t sell one as operators will buy a stern pro at considerably less
To be fair, @CHRIS B PINBALLS, I bought a pin I didn't expect to purchase as a direct consequence of going to the London EAG in January.

However, critically, to pull that off, you need a spectacular pin that has otherwise slipped under the radar. If your product isn't up to snuff with the majority of buyers, putting it on location and at shows is probably going to lose sales, not gain them, because people who might have bought it based on theme/appearance have the opportunity to discover they don't actually like it!
 
I wonder how many orders Dave has taken even with David fix 2 hour chat I suspect none
Even when you do the big London show sales generated from that are minimal you could have every ap machine at the eag in London you wouldn’t sell one as operators will buy a stern pro at considerably less
And as we speak about distributors then there is no real distributors other than electrocoin and ph no other person actually stocks game they just take orders or sell electrocoins stock
From the shipment that arrived on Wednesday I would think 80% of that was actually pinball heavens so the old business model is not doing two badly

I wonder how many orders Dave has taken even with David fix 2 hour chat I suspect none

Bit hard to sell any considering he was not distro till after the show ended.

And as we speak about distributors then there is no real distributors other than electrocoin and ph no other person actually stocks game they just take orders or sell electrocoins stock
From the shipment that arrived on Wednesday I would think 80% of that was actually pinball heavens so the old business model is not doing two badly


PH is not a real Distro then they dont order anything till they been paid then order, as for PH stocking games thats a no. He does the same as I do with electrocoin but does not carry the full stock and why would he. electrocoin charges enough to cover storage till we get a sale.
But lately he has had to drop his prices to keep David out in the cold selling them at cost to make sure he dont get a sale. to keep competition away but that biz model wont last long.

Anyways I don't have a bone in this fight and I wish David and phil pinball heaven the best of luck with it we will see where things are in a year or so
 
PH is not a real Distro then they dont order anything till they been paid then order, as for PH stocking games thats a no. He does the same as I do with electrocoin but does not carry the full stock and why would he. electrocoin charges enough to cover storage till we get a sale.
But lately he has had to drop his prices to keep David out in the cold selling them at cost to make sure he dont get a sale. to keep competition away but that biz model wont last long.

@Atlantis I'm a bit amazed that you think you have an in depth understanding of how PH operates and certainly amazed you think you know better than @CHRIS B PINBALLS whom has been my right hand man for about 10 years now.

I am the ONLY one with enough balls (or cash) to stock games, typically sitting on anything from 250k to 500k of games at any one time.

The price drop has been me fighting EC to drop prices not push them up.

Phil
 
A prime example of the above is spinal tap been out on location all its life been to several shows totall sales zero
That's because it's being shown to pinball people, it's not aimed at us, retro should take it to farmers markets, the ideal home show stick it in the show house, the rum show, the gin show, it will then fly out because what non pinball people want it a giant man toy that costs as much as a new kitchen 🤣🤭 they just haven't seen it yet.
 
A prime example of the above is spinal tap been out on location all its life been to several shows totall sales zero
Got to disagree here. I didn't want to buy Labyrinth until I played it at the show. I purchased the game specifically after playing it at the show. I doubt I would have otherwise.
The show also had incentive offers to buy on the weekend. This was fundamentally missing on any other game being advertised on the day. Its fairly common at shows in the US to provide event pricing/offers. Something I think we fundamentally lack here in the UK.

If anything can be learnt from any of this is that games should be promoted where possible, no one wants to buy a game blind anymore, FOMO is dead.
 
Got to disagree here. I didn't want to buy Labyrinth until I played it at the show. I purchased the game specifically after playing it at the show. I doubt I would have otherwise.
The show also had incentive offers to buy on the weekend. This was fundamentally missing on any other game being advertised on the day. Its fairly common at shows in the US to provide event pricing/offers. Something I think we fundamentally lack here in the UK.

If anything can be learnt from any of this is that games should be promoted where possible, no one wants to buy a game blind anymore, FOMO is dead.
Yeh, because there just took expensive to buy blind.
 
The product has to be good now to get sales, there just too expensive.
Adventure in Val by American pinball interested me, after borrowing houndi for a bit, but there absolutely no way I would buy blind, friends who played it at the show didn't like it, I reserve judgement.
 
The product has to be good now to get sales, there just too expensive.
Adventure in Val by American pinball interested me, after borrowing houndi for a bit, but there absolutely no way I would buy blind, friends who played it at the show didn't like it, I reserve judgement.
That’s good seems most people have the same view
Didn’t the Irish ap distributor have a val for you to try
 
Perfect example of why @Atlantis is talking rubbish!

I think my £3M turnover this year shows “the old model” isn’t dying.

Phil
3 mill Turnover and you had Phil Murphy pay for the transport of machines your selling at his show and never even coped up a free sponsor prize and likely sold machines on the bases they were there and you use free selling tools on this site.

I will have to start that model myself considering I sent 6 machines to UK for the same show and only asked for 2 entry tickets and paid for them back costing just under 1500 to help Main show organiser out with games.

As for Balls or cash I had alot stored of NIB machines in UK that I bought when JB was launched and most if not all canceled so was left with just under 200k in storage but free hadfields one like yourself lmao
 
Got to disagree here. I didn't want to buy Labyrinth until I played it at the show. I purchased the game specifically after playing it at the show. I doubt I would have otherwise.
The show also had incentive offers to buy on the weekend. This was fundamentally missing on any other game being advertised on the day. Its fairly common at shows in the US to provide event pricing/offers. Something I think we fundamentally lack here in the UK.

If anything can be learnt from any of this is that games should be promoted where possible, no one wants to buy a game blind anymore, FOMO is dead.
A valid reply Scott I believe you weren’t the only one who ordered one either maybe other suppliers don’t feel the need to discount things for the show or if you contact them with an enquiry they would but in ap case there has been monumental discounts on show machines but nothing has sold
I just post on my experiences over the years and yes some pins have sold at shows or orders have been taken but not on Hugh amount the only big seller at a show I can remember is tron other than that drips and drabs bear in mind pinfest is free to exhibitors on min payment and the amount of people that come through over the 3 days it’s not a great selling place
If you look at the commercial side of things I have done the eag in London with Phil several times at Hugh cost the stand alone would be well over 3k and that’s probably for the smallest option you have to sell a lot of pins over the days you are there just to recover costs
As for fomo let’s see when Harry Potter bttf and matrix drop
 
Dont you think its better they did view it and said im glad i got to play that turd before i lost my azz buying FOMO
It is but being a distributor isn’t just about picking and choosing its about buying the games from the manufacturer and stocking them weather good or bad it’s great when a game is a smash but not so good when you are stuck with lemons you can’t sell
 
I've not particularly wanted to get involved here, but considering I was in constant contact with David Fix and Pinball Heaven from GTF to BBQ Challenge coming over I'd just like to put a few things straight in defence of Phil.

Galactic Tank Force (good game btw) did really badly sales wise and Phil was not keen to stock any more American Pinballs because they didn't sell. However, he purchased and shipped Barries BBQ Challenge for videos and because he knew David Fix was coming to Pinfest. Ironically, I told Phil not to buy the BBQ Challenge but he was adamant that it should be shipped over, filmed and sent to my house for people to play before sending it off to various venues in the hope that it would generate some excitement and sales.

Basically, Phil would never have forked out thousands to buy and ship the game if he knew that he would no longer be exclusive.

Was what happened illegal? No. Did Pinball Heaven have an exclusivity agreement? Possibly not. . . . But it wasn't really the decent thing to do.

Fix basically got a game sale and marketing because Phil was under the impression that he was the sole UK distributor. There is no way that he would have purchased BBQ Challenge and put it at Pinfest if he'd have known what someone else would benefit from his test machines (Phil also supplied Legends of Valhalla and Galatic Tank Force).

Basically, Pinball Heaven paid for some promotion and marketing of AP in the UK only to be diluted without notice.

Barrells of Fun was different because there was no existing relationship and no money had been exchanged. @dave Retro brought the first Labyrinth to the UK so the situation is quite different.

I don't blame Dave btw, he was offered the chance to supply another line of pinball machines and would have been silly to say no.

I hope this isn't repackaged as just 'sticking up for my mate', I've merely stated facts and tried to be a reasonable as possible. I can totally understand how Phil is pi$$£d off having run at a loss on AP's over the years.

The very least Phil deserved to be kept informed. Imagine spending all of that money then finding out on social media . . . not great.
Thank you for that explanation.
 
I’m blown away at the 3mil turn over, imagine what stern bring in a year!!!
 
I’m blown away at the 3mil turn over, imagine what stern bring in a year!!!
Turnover, not profit. If an average NIB machine is around £10k with a few accessories etc. added to the order then just over 300 machines would get you there. Bit more if you sell more Pro than Prem.

I would estimate Stern turn over in the region of $25-35m if we can loosely estimate that they sell 5k machines a year to distros at $5-7k a machine. Obviously I’m not a distro and don’t know the pricing they offer to Electrocoin and other first level distros but I reckon it has to be in that region for anybody to make money. And the sales figures are a total guess as Stern don’t publish them!
 
Turnover, not profit. If an average NIB machine is around £10k with a few accessories etc. added to the order then just over 300 machines would get you there. Bit more if you sell more Pro than Prem.

I would estimate Stern turn over in the region of $25-35m if we can loosely estimate that they sell 5k machines a year to distros at $5-7k a machine. Obviously I’m not a distro and don’t know the pricing they offer to Electrocoin and other first level distros but I reckon it has to be in that region for anybody to make money. And the sales figures are a total guess as Stern don’t publish them!
Id say 20% Gross profit and about 8% net still a nice wage. If his company ever did 3m turnover

Stern Make an average of 500 machines a week more since they moved if they have to and your 35m is way low.

How do stern pay for there IP they sell Le machines with 2k on top x 800 to 1000 builds gets them 1.6m to 2 mill

Stern USA vrs UK pricing

Pro 5500USD plus state tax 5 to 8% rough 5940 usd or 4504stg tax included
Pro 7500STG plus 20% vat 9000 stg rough $11870 tax included

Even a pro is treble x and gets worse the higher the tiers you go

Easy have 20 pro's in a barcade in USA not so easy for UK/Ireland

Just so you know I'm not digging anyone here I'm just firing out figures I know

How it goes from 4.5k to 12k no one knows cough cough but if you priced same machine made by same people sold in France or Germany or anywhere in Europe it wont take rocket science to figure it
 
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