Automatic Age

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!
▼
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