# The Pinball Show Episode 154 BONUS: This Week In Pinball Distribution (TWIPDY)

**Source:** Pinball Show Patreon Feed  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-06-06  
**Duration:** 23m 22s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/pinball-show-154-105657525

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## Analysis

Ryan C from Flip N Out Pinball discusses the operational complexities of running a major pinball distribution company, detailing daily responsibilities including customer communications (50-100 messages/day), trade-in management, shipping coordination, warranty support, and content creation. The episode reveals behind-the-scenes logistics such as direct truck rentals from manufacturers to avoid terminal transfers, inventory management practices, staff roles (Greg Bone for tech warranty, Nicole for billing/accessories, Tim for shop operations), and current incoming inventory including John Wick LEs, Pulp Fiction SEs, and various trade-ins like Stargate, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Elvira 40th, Turtles LE, and Queen LE.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Ryan C receives 50-100 customer messages per day across email, text, Facebook Messenger, Pinside, and phone — _Ryan C directly stated this figure when describing his communication workload as a distributor_
- [HIGH] Answering all phone calls in a day would reduce the company to one-fourth its current size due to time inefficiency — _Ryan C explained that phone calls average 30 minutes each, making text/email/messenger preferable for efficiency_
- [HIGH] Barrels of Fun Pinball is delivering Labyrinth games 2-3 weeks earlier than originally projected, despite being about one month behind overall — _Ryan C spoke with Barrels of Fun this week and reported accelerated delivery timeline_
- [MEDIUM] Some dealers use Chicago-based warehouse storage for inventory to reduce shipping costs rather than storing locally — _Ryan C described this practice but noted he does not use it due to preferring hands-on inventory control_
- [HIGH] Stern games with Limited Edition glass (Invisiglass/Voodoo Glass) worth approximately $300 frequently arrive in trade-ins without the special glass despite being advertised with it — _Ryan C reported recurring issues with trade-ins not including advertised glass components_
- [HIGH] Flip N Out Pinball received very large bills from Stern Pinball and Chicago Gaming Company due to John Wick LE and new Pulp Fiction SE arrivals — _Ryan C explicitly stated receiving large bills this week from both manufacturers_
- [HIGH] Ryan C also works as part of an emergency public health on-call rotation with 8 staff members, recently taking extra shifts — _Ryan C discussed receiving a 2:39 a.m. emergency call requiring 30 minutes of support, mentioned recently taking others' vacation shifts_
- [MEDIUM] Godzilla Premium is a popular first-time pinball purchase choice due to theme appeal — _Ryan C noted a first-time buyer chose Godzilla Premium after research and praised their selection_

### Notable Quotes

> "My responsibilities and the tasks that I complete each and every week are going to be different than other dealers as well."
> — **Ryan C**, early
> _Sets up the episode's focus on Ryan C's unique operational approach as a major distributor_

> "I get like 50 messages a day on 'How much is this game? What does this feature mean? What would a trade look like? How much is shipping here?' Like customer questions. I would say messages in total, 50 to 100 a day, easy."
> — **Ryan C**, middle
> _Quantifies the scale of customer communication burden for a major distributor_

> "If I answered all of my phone calls in a given day, my wife used to not believe this. Now she tells people this because she knows all too well. Our company would be a fourth of the size it is."
> — **Ryan C**, middle
> _Reveals how communication method choices directly impact business scalability_

> "I don't want hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inventory sitting off-site or I don't have access to. I want to put my hands on games. I want to see the box. I want to make sure they're fine."
> — **Ryan C**, middle
> _Explains Flip N Out Pinball's inventory management philosophy vs. competitors using remote warehousing_

> "I get so many trade-ins, not as advertised. I'll come in and I'll be like, 'Hey, where's the Invisiglass?' 'Oh, that's how I got it.' Well, yeah, but it's still not as described. That's a $300 loss for me."
> — **Ryan C**, late
> _Highlights a recurring operational problem affecting distributor margins and customer satisfaction_

> "This is bad business, man—I will trade in stuff that I want to play and give them a better trade offer than I'm supposed to. Just because I'm like, 'Man, I like that. I wouldn't mind shooting around at the shrunken head a little bit. That might be fun.'"
> — **Ryan C**, late
> _Reveals personal passion for pinball influencing business decisions, acknowledging it as suboptimal from profit perspective_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Flip N Out Pinball | company | Pinball distribution, retail, and content creation company operated by Ryan C and Nicole (wife); employs Greg Bone (tech warranty), Tim/Timbo (shop operations), and other staff |
| Ryan C | person | Owner/operator of Flip N Out Pinball, pinball distributor, content creator, also works on emergency public health on-call rotation |
| Greg Bone | person | Tech warranty department head at Flip N Out Pinball; handles customer support for broken/problematic machines and coordinates replacement parts |
| Nicole | person | Ryan C's wife; handles billing (QuickBooks, credit card, e-commerce), accessory shipping, and UPS/USPS logistics at Flip N Out Pinball |
| Tim | person | Ryan C's father (nickname Timbo); full-time shop operations manager at Flip N Out Pinball; handles game preparation, packing, pickup/delivery routes to Louisville, Indianapolis, Nashville, Chicago |
| Dennis | person | Co-host of Pinball Show podcast episode; interviews Ryan C about distribution operations |
| Barrels of Fun Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; producing Labyrinth; was about one month behind original projections but now delivering 2-3 weeks ahead of revised schedule |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; Flip N Out Pinball received large bills this week for John Wick LE and other inventory |
| Chicago Gaming Company | company | Pinball manufacturer; Flip N Out Pinball received large bills for Pulp Fiction SE new batch arrivals |
| John Wick (Stern) | game | Recent Stern release; Flip N Out Pinball received John Wick LE and John Wick Premium units this week; shipping out Monday |
| Pulp Fiction (Chicago Gaming Company) | game | Chicago Gaming Company title; new SE batch coming in, arriving by Tuesday, 3/4 to be shipped back out immediately |
| Godzilla Premium | game | Stern game; purchased by first-time pinball buyer through Flip N Out Pinball; theme appealed to new collector |
| Elton John CE | game | Stern limited edition; received via trade-in this week (customer traded Avengers Premium and Turtles Premium for it) |
| Avengers Premium | game | Stern game; traded in toward Elton John CE this week |
| Looney Tunes | game | Pinball game; Flip N Out Pinball created content/advertisement for it this week |
| Foo Fighters Topper | product | Accessory/topper; Flip N Out Pinball took Foo Fighters game on trade and created content exploring the topper |
| Stargate (Gottlieb) | game | Classic Gottlieb machine; incoming trade-in this week (customer trading Gottlieb + Stargate + money for John Wick Premium) |
| Ripley's Believe It or Not | game | Pinball machine (home use only version); incoming trade-in this week; Ryan C mentioned wanting to play it personally |
| Addams Family Pro | game | Pinball game being picked up/traded this week from collector selling off part of collection |
| Elvira 40th | game | Elvira 40th anniversary edition; incoming to Flip N Out Pinball this week from collection being sold off |
| Turtles LE | game | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Limited Edition; incoming to Flip N Out Pinball this week from collection being sold off |
| Queen LE | game | Queen-themed Limited Edition game; incoming to Flip N Out Pinball this week; Ryan C noted he has not previously owned a Queen game |
| Equinox | vehicle | Customer's vehicle; Godzilla Premium game did not fit inside due to height restrictions despite customer verifying length measurements |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Distribution operations and logistics, Customer communication and support, Trade-in management and valuation, Inventory management and warehouse strategy, Shipping coordination and freight logistics
- **Secondary:** Current incoming inventory and game pipeline, Staff roles and organizational structure, Content creation and marketing

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.72) — Ryan C expresses pride in his operational efficiency and team, appreciation for accelerated Barrels of Fun delivery, enthusiasm about acquired games (Queen, Ripley's), and satisfaction with business growth. However, there is underlying frustration with recurring issues (trade-in misrepresentation, shipping damage, customer measurement errors, billing pressure from large manufacturer orders). The tone is candid and self-aware about the demanding nature of the work.

### Signals

- **[operational_signal]** Flip N Out Pinball has developed sophisticated operational workflows including separate handling for game freight vs. accessory UPS/USPS shipping, direct truck rentals from manufacturers to avoid terminal transfers, morning tech warranty briefings, and specialized staff roles for billing/inventory/shop operations (confidence: high) — Ryan C detailed specific shipping methods: 'if you get enough games...you can rent out a driver in a truck to fill up half of a truck and they come direct to me.' Staff separation: Nicole handles accessories, Greg handles tech, Tim handles shop.
- **[market_signal]** Major influx of new inventory from Stern (John Wick LE/Premium) and Chicago Gaming Company (Pulp Fiction SE) requiring rapid fulfillment; Flip N Out Pinball carrying large financial liability until customer payments clear (confidence: high) — Ryan C: 'We received some very, very large bills this week—like, holy shit kind of bills—from Stern Pinball Chicago Gaming Company' and emphasized 'non-refundable deposits, because I'm ordering based on what I think I need.'
- **[supply_chain_signal]** Barrels of Fun Pinball accelerating Labyrinth deliveries 2-3 weeks ahead of revised schedule after being one month behind original projections (confidence: high) — Ryan C: 'They're giving me games two or three weeks before I thought I was going to get some. So that was pretty fantastic to hear.'
- **[product_concern]** Recurring problem of trade-in games arriving without advertised premium glass components (Invisiglass/Voodoo Glass worth ~$300) or with unreported damage, impacting dealer margins and customer trust (confidence: high) — Ryan C: 'I get so many trade-ins, not as advertised...That's a $300 loss for me' and cited instances of missing glass and cracked back glass on supposedly new condition games
- **[operational_signal]** Flip N Out Pinball maintains all inventory on-site rather than using off-site Chicago warehousing like some competitors, prioritizing hands-on quality control and visibility over cost savings (confidence: high) — Ryan C: 'I don't want hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inventory sitting off-site...I want to put my hands on games. I want to see the box. I want to make sure they're fine.'
- **[content_signal]** Flip N Out Pinball actively creates marketing content and advertisements for games (Foo Fighters topper, Looney Tunes, John Wick), filling gap left by manufacturers' limited promotional efforts (confidence: high) — Ryan C: 'I also think...you seem to do a lot of marketing, like a lot of ads and stuff for games. But I note it because it doesn't seem like the manufacturers spend that much time actually trying to promote their games, nor are they providing it to us.'
- **[operational_signal]** Distributor receives 50-100 messages daily across multiple platforms (email, text, Facebook Messenger, Pinside, phone); prioritizes asynchronous text/email over phone calls for efficiency; phone calls average 30 minutes and severely limit throughput (confidence: high) — Ryan C quantified volume and stated phone-only approach 'would reduce company to a fourth of the size' and explicitly stated answering all calls would make business non-viable
- **[business_signal]** Flip N Out Pinball operates with small but specialized team: Ryan C (owner/marketing/sales/shipping oversight), Nicole (billing/accessory fulfillment), Greg Bone (tech warranty), Tim/Timbo (shop/logistics/multi-city routes); owner working 6:30am-5pm daily with evening message responses (confidence: high) — Ryan C detailed each team member's responsibilities and noted: 'I usually start about 6, 6:30 in the morning, and I try to like chill out by five'
- **[product_concern]** First-time pinball buyers may inadequately measure space requirements, leading to installation failures; Godzilla Premium was too tall for customer's Equinox vehicle despite customer verifying length measurements (confidence: high) — Ryan C: customer 'asked the length of the machine...that fit...but they didn't ask about the height. Some of these newer vehicles—these games don't want to go into this. They're kind of shallow.'
- **[operational_signal]** Flip N Out Pinball conducts weekly pickup and delivery routes to multiple cities (Louisville regular weekly route, Indianapolis Monday, Nashville, Chicago); single staff member (Tim) traveling multiple states for game logistics (confidence: high) — Ryan C: 'Timbo—he runs our shop—he traveled to Louisville this week...he's going to Indianapolis Monday. And then the rest of the week, possibly Louisville, Nashville, and Chicago.'
- **[collector_signal]** Flip N Out Pinball taking in desirable machines this week including Queen LE (new to owner), Ripley's Believe It or Not (personal interest), Elvira 40th, Stargate, suggesting strong collector interest in classic and anniversary titles (confidence: medium) — Ryan C: 'Queen LE...I've not owned a Queen, so I'm kind of looking forward to that' and regarding Ripley's 'I selfishly...I will trade in stuff that I want to play and give them a better trade offer than I'm supposed to'

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## Transcript

 Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. The Pinball Network is online. Launching the Pinball Show. Thanks again for the ongoing support as a Pinball Show Club member. Enjoy this exclusive TPS content and make sure to visit the Pinball Show Club Discord to chat about the bonus material. Yeah, we are discussing in this exclusive content, Dennis, this week in pinball distribution. I think we might keep it as Twipty. You might as well, the Twipties. All right, so I try to stay busy as a pinball distributor. And a lot of people, maybe they know, maybe they don't know what goes into being a pinball dealer. essentially my responsibilities and the tasks that i complete each and every week are going to be different than other dealers as well i would guess so this is just a reflection upon myself as a pinball dealer and uh running day-to-day operations of my company this last week dennis is a it's i'm not just what what before we go into what what is your guess as to some of the things that a pinball dealer does each and every week? Probably has to maintain their 50 different wait lists that they decided to let everyone have with every made-up stupid theme. Man, that just wasn't a thing before me. I'm sorry to the industry for that. And so there's that. There's coordinating for replacement parts for people that are asking for things under warranty. Yes, yeah. That's a great job there, yeah. I imagine you spend a lot of time responding to people asking, do you know when I'm going to get X? that's a lot of customer questions that's a bulk of my my job yeah and then i also think and this one might be more unique to you than a lot of the other distributors but i i shouldn't you know speak too far out of turn you seem to do a lot of marketing like a lot of ads and stuff for games but i note it because it doesn't seem like the manufacturers spend that much time actually trying to promote their games nor are they providing it to us yes those are all those They're all created. So those are some main things that kind of stand out to me. And, of course, the standard, you know, coordinating the shipping of the products and all of that. You know, that is a lot of it. And I think the reason some of this came up as a topic of discussion is Greg always told me, now that he knows, Greg Bone, he runs our tech warranty department, if you want to call it that. He helps customers that have games that fuck up. But he was surprised by how much coordination of shipping goes into it. It's not just a drop shit. There's a lot to that. Even if right now we currently use a shipping broker that assists with, I submit to that shipping broker, hey, these games need to go out. Here's where they're going. they will then arrange for that shipping to be conducted and we'll get a bill of laden for that freight. They'll send it to me. I'll attach that to the game. Shipping company comes to our dock to pick up game. It's got to have it on there, sign off on it. It goes. But, yeah, there's a lot to that. Something gets messed up in shipping. But there are a lot of things we do. So I can't speak to our tech side as much because we do warranty. We do so well when it comes to backing up customers with if things are going wrong, whether it's walking them through tech problems, submitting warranties for issues, buying a part that a customer needs that's outside of warranty. A lot of it goes into ordering parts and making sure those come in and invoicing and stuff like that. so bird's eye view uh my buddy greg bone does a lot of the the tech warranty stuff but still we have usually a morning meeting where he tells me which uh customers are requesting what and gives me a rundown as to what is going wrong with that and we troubleshoot together sometimes if he hasn't seen a certain issue so we'll do that and then i work with nicole who does our billing my wife she does accessory shipping as well so if somebody orders something from our website it needs to be shipped out as an accessory, she will take care of that as well as billing. So QuickBooks billing or credit card or e-commerce, she'll do that billing. I knew she did a lot of your billing. I didn't realize you had started on a demarcation of labor on if it's an accessory versus a game. Yep, we have. And those ship different freight or games. And then we usually utilize UPS or USPS, but UPS mainly for shipping accessories or parts or whatever. So she deals with all of that. So I kind of oversee them and make sure that those departments are functioning as well. And then I take on marketing, sales, shipping. And then Tim, my father works full-time with us, nickname is Timbo, he runs our shop. So he is there at the shop waiting for shipping companies to drop off games, preparing games to be going back out. That's why John Youssi listener us flipping out pinball do much more in the pre-owned arena now is because I have somebody that is working at the shop that can properly pack and prepare those games pre-owned. Because he'll almost pack them kind of like they were as a Stern game. He keeps all the Stern stuff whenever we do a white glove delivery or something. He keep all of that stuff including the box and he try to pack it up in the same way We got a bander that then bands them to pallets and stuff So sometimes when you order a used game from us it kind of looks like a brand game So he does all of that. But I usually go out there once a day, once every other day, to either take pictures of new games that come in, work on new games that have come in, or meet customers out there if I need to, et cetera, or work with him on stuff. He also does traveling to different cities, picking up games, dropping off games, setting up games, whatever. So I'm kind of managing all of those inner workings. So some of the things I did this last week, Dennis, we took in a trade. An individual wanted an Elton John CE. So he drove in to us and traded in an Avengers premium, Stern premium, and Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premium towards an Elton John CE. So that was pretty cool. Would you have made that trade? Elton John's CE, bring it in the box for a used Avengers Premium and Turtles Premium. No. That'd be tough, wouldn't it? Yeah, well, the thing is, and I need more time on Elton John, but actually, I mean, unless I had – here's the thing. I'm already full up on room. And I like Elton John more than I like Avengers and way more than Turtles. So, no, I wouldn't have done the trade. A lot of my job is, and I don't know if other dealers are like this, is customer and client interactions and communication. I get, and I probably get more than most dealers, but anywhere from 50 to 100, probably about 50. I get like 50 messages a day on how much is this game? What does this feature mean? what would a trade look like how much is shipping here like customer questions i would say messages in total 50 to 100 a day easy but oh wow different yes it is and that's why a lot of people that see me working i'm working i usually start about 6 6 30 in the morning and i try to like chill out by five chilling out meaning not being in my office working but i'm still responding to messages I get messages at 2 in the morning, and it's via email, Facebook Messenger, Pennside, text. There's like five or six forms of. Now, you mute that, right? You're not actually going to answer that, too. I've never muted my phone. No. Oh, wow. Because if I don't respond. How do you live? As a quick aside, just so, because I didn't bring this up on the main episode. I didn't want to bore people, but I had a big presentation thing for our staff on Friday. And at 2.40 a.m., I received a call because we have an emergency, a 24-hour emergency public health line, and I take shifts on it. So I was on call. And so it's one of the few things I allow to punch through my Do Not Disturb. Wow, 2.30 in the morning. They called me at 2.39 a.m. I called the person back, and they had me on the phone for 30 minutes because they were pretty scared. So I was just walking through a lot of stuff. I didn't realize you were on call like that. It was something that wasn't the case when I was first hired. They were in discussions about it because we had an incident in the county involving a – and it was on the weekend. So there wasn't really a good way for them to tell us. Wow. So we spooled up, and we use an answering service. So they do a basic screening. But if it's anything that gets designated through the answering service as meeting our script conditions of an emergency, then they don't just email. Like I got an email today about something that got called in that was not an emergency but went through the emergency line. But if it is an emergency, whoever's on call gets the first phone call, and it actually goes down a phone tree and keeps calling people until it reaches. We got like eight of us who are on rotation. So I've been doing the last couple weeks because I took some other people's shifts because they were on vacation. But anyway, I couldn't give action. My day was ruined by doing that because I was a mess because I don't normally try and work. Yeah, that's more emergent on call. I don't have emergent. Because as a clinical psychologist, I used to take rotation on being on call where I would have to actually travel to local hospital ERs or state hospital, nursing home, whatever it may be, to basically doing an evaluation on a person's, not competency, but their ability to keep themselves safe. So if they were a danger to themselves or others, I'd have to further hospitalize them into a psychiatric facility. So I had to do that after hours, like 3 o'clock in the morning, wake up, get ready real quick, go down to the ER, and that was no fun. But that was a very tense kind of thing to have to do. Well, you may be more used to it then. Now it's like if I don't get to it within an hour, I don't get to it. But we do get a lot of messages. And customers being customers, that's what I would do as well. If I'm interested in something, I'm asking questions about it. Can I ask you another question? Yeah. What's your most common form of communication from customers and potential customers? Is it text, email, or phone? I can say with definition that it's not phone. I figured that would be the least. I get people angry. I mean, some of these listeners have been on the side of being upset with me because they would call me. And if you don't leave a voicemail, I can't. If I answered all of my phone calls in a given day my wife used to not believe this Now she tells people this because she knows all too well Our company would be a fourth of the size it is I cannot efficiently, I could not answer a phone call and talk to people because each phone call, in essence, is at least a half an hour just because that's just what it becomes. Whereas, yeah, email, text, and messenger are my primary. Those are Ed Boon, Ed Boon, Ed Boon. I mean, I can respond lickety-split with those things. But a lot of people, rightfully so, they want to discuss things. They want to talk about things. They want to get my take on things. So I have a cue for that, for calling people back. But, yeah, it's not as efficient of means. But I'm happy to talk on the phone. But it takes a little bit longer for me to do those. Or if it's something Nicole can handle or Greg can handle, they'll call them back. So, yeah, communication and answering messages is probably my number one thing as a dealer. So, yeah, we took a trade in this week. Other things we did, I had a first-time pinball buyer come in, and they purchased the pre-owned Godzilla Premium we had. So what a way to get your first pinball machine, a Godzilla Premium. So they did not mess that up. They did their research. But we have their Equinox, and we go put the game in, and it wouldn't fit, Dennis. The game didn't fit, and they drove five hours. Five hours. I mean, that's something that I could see a new person wouldn't think of, or maybe they had read the wrong measurement or something and thought something. Yeah, they asked the length of the machine, and I went out to the shop and even something like that. Like, shit, go all the way over to the shop, measure. Or actually, it was in my gamer. But still, go out there, measure it. It takes time. But I measured it. And length-wise, they asked about length and that fit, I guess, but they didn't ask about the height. Some of these newer vehicles, these games don't want to go into this. They're kind of shallow. So what do you do if they don't fit? Well, we tried taking off the little shroud that covers the power cord in the back of a stern, so it sticks up a little bit, took that off. Still wouldn't go without tearing up the liner of their Equinox. So needless to say, we pulled that son of a bitch back out, took the head off of it. It's about five plugs and two bolts and slid the head in, took pictures and said, you know what? You want to know what being a pinball hobbyist is? You're about to learn really quick when you go. Because I was like, how are you getting this out? Because I was walking him through how to set up properly a pinball machine and all that. And he didn't even have a dolly. And I was like, oh, shit. Okay, well, it's going to be a lot lighter now that you don't have the head attached to the body. So, yeah, did that. we received some very very large bills this week like holy shit kind of bills from Stern Pinball Chicago Gaming Company because we had our John Wick LEs come in and a new batch of Pulp Fiction SEs come in and some of those people if they haven't paid yet we're still paying the bill so that's why it's so important for us whenever somebody purchases a game from us or commits to buying a game that's why there's non-refundable deposits because I'm ordering based on what I think I need. And then push comes to shove, and they're like, well, I don't know if I want this game anymore. I'm like, shit, okay. So yeah, there's a lot of that. But two really big bills came in. I spoke with Barrels of Fun Pinball this week, talked about production schedule and our next batch of Labyrinths, which is coming sooner than I thought too. And it's not to say that they've caught up, because remember they were about a month behind from their original projections, But they're giving me games two or three weeks before I thought I was going to get some. So that was pretty fantastic to hear. Timbo, remember he runs our shop. He traveled to Louisville this week. This week was Louisville run. And this coming week, he's going to Indianapolis Monday. And then the rest of the week, possibly Louisville, Nashville, and Chicago. We've got a Chicago run to make. I like to go on those, but time is not going to allow it. We shipped off some John Wick premiums this week. We unloaded a bunch. I unloaded a bunch of John Wick LEs because the truck picked them up from Stern. This is kind of interesting to people. So there are some dealers that utilize a warehouse up in Chicago. They put their games, their inventory up there off-site, states away. They put their inventory up there, and that warehouse management will manage their inventory and ship games in and out through consultation with the company that's renting out their space. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think so. So they pay them probably a monthly fee to use storage space there. And the benefits would be that I believe it's much cheaper to ship from Chicago to a place, the warehouse in Chicago, than it is to ship all the way. Let's say you're in Connecticut. Let's say you're in California. is as a dealer, you ship them all the way to Connecticut, and then you store them, which takes time and money, and then you ship them all the way back out somewhere else. So they just kind of cut out that one shipment. They can't sit at Stearns. They've got to sit somewhere. So some dealers do that. I do not do that. I don't feel comfortable doing that. Why? It's just a comfort? I don't want hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inventory sitting off-site or I don't have access to. I want to put my hands on games. I want to see the box. I want to make sure they're fine. So we inventory all of our stuff. So any game that comes from Stern it coming to our place So typically it only takes a day or so to get picked up by FedEx from Stern sent to the nearest FedEx freight terminal transferred into a delivery truck FedEx and then they come to our dock and drop it off, vice versa, the other way around, if we need to ship out a game. But if you get enough games, which we did for John Wick LA, you get enough games, and you can rent out instead of having FedEx do it. I can actually rent a driver in a truck to fill up half of a truck and they come direct to me. They don't have to go to the terminal or anything. So that's what we did. We had some John Wick LA games as well as some other games. We didn't fill up that truck, Lord, no. But enough that financially it made more sense just to rent out the guy in the truck to go to CERN, pick up games, and bring them directly to me. And when they do that, it doesn't take a day or two. They're driving directly from there. They might eat a sandwich on the way, but they were going to arrive at 6 p.m. And Tim is off work at 4, so he wasn't going to be there. So I had to unload all of these John Wick LEs by myself, which would be fine, but it's just more work. but I had a pallet jack and it got jacked up and it got stuck, and then I had to use a dolly. So that was interesting. That was interesting. I had to unload all those damn John Wick LVs. But you did it. But they're shipping on Monday. So I have to coordinate shipping last week. I coordinated a lot of shipping, a lot of payments of Pulp Fiction SE after speaking with CGC and prepping for the John Wick LVs. They're going to be shipping out today, Monday. We have trade-in woes every single week. Games coming in not as described. this last week. What is it with people that if they're trading in an LE, LEs come with Invisiglass or Voodoo Glass, whatever the hell they're called. I get so many trade-ins, not as advertised. I'll come in and I'll be like, hey, where's the Invisiglass? Oh, that's how I got it. Well, yeah, but it's still not as described. That's a $300 loss for me. Or, hey, this mirrored back glass has a big chunk out of it. It's a brand new guy. How did that happen? oh that's how it came to me well damn it you have to disclose this kind of things so um you know there's always that shipping damage on games always worrying about that and then i'm also creating content this last week we did create content for foo fighters topper because i took an le on trade so i wanted to see what that topper is all about and some content and advertisement for looney tunes and john wick this last week so it's a lot there's other things as well but But, yeah, that's kind of what I do on a day-to-day basis. I start about 6, 630, and there's always issues. I'll have to bring up in subsequent little content sections, content episodes here, discussing individual issues that happen on maybe a customer's machine that Greg will see or a shipping problem that a game comes in and it's flipped over or things like that. I know that this next week, like I said, we've got John Wick Ellie's leaving, and I've got Chicago Gaming, Pulp Fiction's leaving their factory today, Monday, and they're shipping to me. I should get them by Tuesday, and then I'll have to turn around and ship three-fourths of them back out, and then I'll have to arrange delivery for Tim to deliver the other fourth of them to local metropolitan areas. And then he'll pick up games. We're picking up – this week we're picking up a Stargate, a Gottlieb Stargate on trade. Somebody's trading in a Gottlieb and a Stargate and some money for a John Wick premium. Shoot the pyramid. And then I'm also – oh, my God. This week I'm picking up on trade a home use only Ripley's Believe It or Not. Believe it or not. I haven't played that in years. You know, I haven't either. So I selfishly, this is bad business, man. I will trade in stuff that I want to play and give them a better trade offer than I'm supposed to. Just because I'm like, man, I like that. I wouldn't mind shooting around at the shrunken head a little bit. That might be fun. So we're taking in that. And what else am I bringing in? Ripley's and Amanda Pro. This is my selling off part of their collection. I got an Elvira 40th coming in, a Turtles Ellie. and a queen Ellie. Wait a minute. Already? A queen? So yeah, I've not owned a queen, so I'm kind of looking forward to that. So many things happening as a pinball dealer. Besides just drop shipping games. Yeah. All right, I guess people can give us some feedback at thepinballshowatgmail.com. Let us know if you have any interest in this type of content or more specifically, as Dennis had alluded to, what in particular into distribution you have interest in. And we'll try to discuss and answer any questions. I have a good one for the future, but I'm going to tell anyone until I see if they want to have this continue. Oh, very good. All right, I'll see you later, Dennis. All right. Y'all can turn off now. I'm going to go pay some big old stern bills. Oh. Yeah. Oh, no. I don't know if you need to do a bump of coke before going to the next part my allergies this is how business was done in the 80s that's right let me tell you Han, boobie I'm your white knight you

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: e6fbd65c-2aad-4f51-b911-55d3cdf8073b*