Classic Mode

Automatic Age

Issue: 1938 May

May, 1938
AUTOMATIC AGE
Dear Operators:
This month the “ Old Coinsorter” himself, (re­
member?) returns to take up the story where he
left off more than a year ago. In order to catch
up on correspondence at one stroke this blanket
letter to thousands of coin machine operators
ought to do the trick.
Does it sort of sweep you off your feet to hear
me say “ thousands of operators” ? You didn’t
know there were thousands of you fellows left?
Well, danged if I wasn’t kind of surprised myself.
Sometime back I looked through a copy of the
“ Bullboard” and almost got tears in my eyes to
read how it was sympathizin’ with the poor old
coin machine business, how it was pleading with
merchants and locations to please let the forlorn
and starving operator stay in business, (now can
you beat that?— after it has been the operator
who has made it possible for forlorn and starving
storekeepers to keep their doors open?). So then
I visited a few coin machine factories, and every­
thing was so quiet everywhere that I wondered
if the lunch hour had been changed to three
o’clock, but later learned that the workers had not
had a lunch hour for several weeks, which is bad
for the official gentlemen of the government who
try to keep employment figures from looking too
lousy, not to mention being bad for the great and
glorious coin machine business. And after that,
I looked into the legal ramifications of the coin
machine biz a bit and got some more sour notes.
Well, about that time I takes a quick guess and
figures that all the smart operators have probably
joined up with the W. P. A. Such operators being
smart for two reasons, one to be a jump ahead
of the fanatics and reformers who might declare
the peanut vender a gambling device because it
gives one feller 26 peanuts and the next customer
only 19, and the other reason being so they could
collect around $600 per year for the vote they
cast in the next election, that is, assuming that
nobody will think up a reason more important
than $600 for having them vote the other way.
Anyway, a smart operator is one who could still
© International Arcade Museum
13
take care of his route after leaning on a shovel
for a few hours each day.
Well, as I was going to say, before I got all
mixed up with how some folks keep government
jobs, I decided that the way to find out if there
were any coin machine operators left was to con­
sult the AUTOMATIC AGE subscription list.
Sympathizers and blues singers, not to mention
blue noses, notwithstanding, there are still SEV­
ERAL THOUSAND PROGRESSIVE COIN MA­
CHINE OPERATORS reading A. A., and only
a few hundred less than during the hey dey of
the $19 pin games, when every ice man, laundry
man, soap salesman, and meter reader was oper­
ating a few of the magic boxes. (We could never
get those “ smart” new bloods to pay a buck in
order to find out something about the business.
THEY KNEW ALL ABOUT IT!)
So, it looks from where I am like the operators
are holding their own pretty well, in numbers.
What they are holding in addition to holding
their own, is the bag. It’s the same bag they
have been holding for a long time, the only dif­
ference being that it gets bigger all the time— it
is still just as empty. So, it is a cinch bet that
none of you fellers who used to find money in
your boxes, and locations for your machines, have
been fooled quite as much as the said “ Bullboard”
and some of its chief supporters would like to
believe. Operators who have been “ sold down
the river” know pretty well what has been going
on. They know which of the remaining greats
and near greats of the manufacturing circles have
shown interest, (if any), in whether the oper­
ating fraternity thrives or “ dives.” Furthermore,
operators will be mighty quick to recognize AND
PATRONIZE any factory which comes forward
and demonstrates that maybe the coin machine
operator wasn’t such a bad feller after all.
Speakin’ about said subscription list, it was
most surprisin’ of all to find that more than 500
new members have joined the coin machine in­
dustry during the past few months. New blood
and new capital is supposed to be a rare article
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14
AUTOMATIC AGE
since the beginning of the latest “ oppression,”
but there you are, AUTOMATIC AGE pops up
with 500 new customers for somebody. Of course,
they might be just some of those cookie peddlers
and bell pushers who are lining up to wait until
some manufacturer comes along with another
idea as good as those $19 pin games back in 1932,
then they can set out some more magic boxes and
get rich in a hurry.
It seems that the said $19 pin game has now
become a $79 “ sensation” ; $4.50 extra for free
play; $6.50 extra for ticket printers; $7.80 extra
for sound effects; $10.00 extra for a license; $3.00
extra for lights, and $2.00 extra for balls to start
the game with. This indicates that the cost of
materials, labor and selling costs have jumped
around 300 per cent during the past six years.
But of course something had to be done. After
the factories got the price of those phenomenal
special, super de luxe games over the $250 mark
they found that nobody needed to buy more than
two or three of them in order to be financially
independent. A few months with those super
ultras and presto!— another customer had retired
from business.
But, according to the ads in “ Bullboard” you
can practically do the same thing with most any
machine you pick outside of peanut machines.
Wonder when the ad men will pep up the copy on
nut venders so that “ Bullboard” readers won’t
think they are in the wrong department, such
as reading about peanut profits when they are
really looking for current trends in confetti and
the newest wrinkles in false faces. Gosh! I wonder
if any of those “ get-rich-quick” promises got in
this issue of A. A. Wait till I look!
Yours,
Vetter ick
* * *
To those in the industry who might be looking
for a word of encouragement regarding the coin
machine business, and for further proof that the
coin machine business is a pretty fine business
even during the “squeeze” of recent months, I
offer myself as “ Exhibit A.” During fifteen
months spent contacting many other classes of
business I have not found any group of business
men who seemed any better off than the coin ma­
chine men, and found a hell of a lot of business
men who were doing far worse.
▼
May, 1938
Opportunities were never better in the coin
machine business than they are today. If I didn’t
think so, I would continue to give my full time
to other interests I have been pursuing. But the
opportunities require a lot more cooperation from
all the people in the business than they did in
days past. The individual operator cannot force
a path as easily as he could a few years ago—
it takes the other intelligent operators of his
community to help him achieve and maintain
better operating conditions. Neither can the
manufacturer nor the jobber force their markets
like they have in the past. Instead, they must
work with the other firms. A divided market is
much better than no market at all, and no manu­
facturer today is big enough to build all the ma­
chines this country will be demanding when the
mistakes which caused the “squeeze” have been
remedied.
* * *
“ What happened to you, Vetterick?” the in­
dustry asks me as I again meet my old friends
in the trade. I explain briefly and then in turn
I ask this question:
“ Industry, what happened to you?”
*
*
*
Most of the storm clouds which descended upon
the industry during recent months had been
gathering for a long time. We might say that
the coin machine business was getting itself “ out
on a limb” over a period of years. In my opinion,
the bulk of our present difficulties could have been
avoided if reward type machines and strictly
amusement type machines had remained clearly
distinguishable to players, to the public and to
enforcement officials, and, secondly, if factories
in their feverish rush to hang up new production
records, had not “ sold out” the only real cus­
tomer there is in this business— the only man
who understands and practices discreet and suc­
cessful operating principles— the only man who
can exercise proper control over locations— the
only man who can maintain operating territory,
in fact, THE ONLY MAN IN THE COIN MA­
CHINE INDUSTRY WHO CAN RESTORE
COIN MACHINES TO LEGAL, PARENTAL
AND PUBLIC FAVOR IN ANY TERRITORY
TODAY— THE INDEPENDENT OPERATOR.
OPERATORS!
▼
A u tom a tic A g e is The O p era to rs9 M a g a zin e— Y ou r M agazine
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