today's sponsor for the pinball studio podcast old town pinball in saint augustine florida if you're looking for a new or used pinball machine give will russell a call at 904-814-7305 old town pinball is an authorized dealer for stern pinball barrels of fun pinball spooky pinball and the pinball brothers and don't forget to check out his website where he keeps a detailed inventory list of all his new and used pinball machines and stock so just head over to oldtownpinball.com Hello and welcome to episode 8 of the Pinball Studio Podcast. Today I've got Andrew Lanners of Premier Pinball and Amusement, and we're going to hear his story today. Anyway, how's it going, Andrew? Hey, how we doing, Sterling? Thanks for coming on the show, man. Absolutely, it's a pleasure. Thanks for having me on and really excited to connect all the way down in Georgia with you. Yeah, man, I'm interested to hear your story and how you got into this whole crazy hobby of pinball. Absolutely. I mean, it's been a journey for me, just like most people, a little bit different of a journey. Whereas I got into the pinball world a little bit later than most people. and I also kind of got into it a little bit differently than most people. I didn't – oftentimes you hear people going down to the local bowling alley or the local bar or restaurant nearby or even their college pool hall. But for me, it was after all those and it was actually after I graduated college and I was living at my parents' house like most people do after college trying to save some money. and I coincidentally got into arcade games and pinball machines, which I can talk about kind of a little bit throughout the podcast and started kind of learning the whole industry and the margins and everything about pinball. So did you get a few in the house to tinker on or anything at first? No, it was more so I love buying stuff off Facebook Marketplace in Craigslist like a lot of other people. And my story kind of started by, again, arcade games. And then that kind of went into pinball machines a little bit later on. But I started by actually buying a big buck hunter, which you will see at a lot of your local bars or restaurants, at least up here in the Midwest. And I was bored living at home, bought that, got bored of it after a little while in my parents' garage and put that up for sale. Made a quick $200, $300. And at that point, when you're 21, 22, that's a lot of money that goes a long way. So kind of started learning a lot of people in the industry for a little bit. And finally got some good advice through that to kind of start checking out some pinball machines. And before you knew it, I had my first pinball machine. Had no idea what I had just bought, anything about the game, but I was super excited about it. So I'll never forget when I bought my first game. Okay. Yeah, my first game was Back to the Future. Okay. Super cool game. I've actually had a few of those as well. I remember my first game that I got was, I'm a big sports guy, big baseball guy, so the first game that I ever bought was the Matt Frank Thomas Big Hurt White Sox game made by Gottlieb. Pretty cool game. I haven't seen one since, but, yeah, it was the first game. I had it sold before you knew it. I had no idea what I had just bought and sold, and, yeah, kind of took off from there. So what was the next step you took with your business after that? Yeah, I mean, it's been a long journey of kind of evolving and developing still to this day. It's been a lot of learning, a lot of trying to grow my knowledge, as I didn't grow up really around pinball, but there's, as most of us know, there's a big community in the pinball and arcade game world throughout the United States and beyond. So I've been able to surround myself with a lot of great people here in the Midwest, and even just kind of throughout the United States, and we've grown it to where it is today. Mostly kind of working up here in Minnesota and surrounding states, but also do a little bit of work kind of right now throughout the United States. We have shipped some games across the country, coast to coast, and also up into Canada. But, you know, we do a lot of pinball machines. My bread and butter that I see a lot of and work a lot with is kind of those 1990s, maybe those early 2000s pinball machines, you know, kind of in that $2,000 to $35,000 to $4,000 range. So like your daddy's games. Friendly themes. You know, a lot of first-time pinball buyers. Sometimes even down to those $1,000 to $1,500 kind of EM, electrical and mechanical games that you'll see as early as the 60s all the way 70s as well. So it's always growing. I always see new games. And, yeah, excited to see kind of where the future of the business and also kind of the pinball world is going. So awesome. So you're doing deliveries, I'm guessing, coast to coast. And are you just trying to like fill up a whole trailer and go to one coast to the other coast and kind of. Yeah, that's a good question. So oftentimes when we do ship machines, the game has been sold, whether that's on through the website or through, you know, connections in the pinball world or oftentimes Facebook. And I'm a part, as I'm sure you and a lot of the other listeners are a part of a lot of these big Facebook pinball groups, which are awesome for the most part. You know, when we have shipped games out of Minnesota, you know, to Florida or up to New Jersey or wherever that may be, we've sent them down to Kansas City or wherever. You know, oftentimes they're sold. We put them on a pallet. We wrap them up and styrofoam them up and make sure that they're all packaged up safe. As we know we don want a two to pinball machine getting slammed around with no cushion on a truck or anything like that So yeah that kind of we not doing any cross trips often It oftentimes we put them on a pallet and we'll go off and right to someone else's door. Awesome. The next person's door. Have you ever looked into those crates that – I forget who made it. It's like a pinball crate for shipping games. They're using them for, like, trades and stuff. So you can put one game into it, and it's a nice crate, and then you ship it to them. they pull the game out of it and then you can put the game that they traded in that same box and ship it back i don't think i've seen any um special shipping crates would i be interested to learn more about that product yeah it was uh i forget who originally came up with it i think turner pinball now has those crates and uh i think zach at flipping out also acquired one of those crates to use for um um doing trade deals and stuff where you gotta send a game back but you could utilize that box multiple times yeah no i think that's a great idea i mean uh John Youssi so many people on pin side and all these facebook groups always trade and they're selling games and um you know that's the the fun and exciting thing about this pinball community and world that i think it's always evolving even though there's a lot of nostalgia in this um industry and market that you know we're kind of continuing to come up with inventions and things that are helping people to this day, which is super cool. Even a lot of these mods or toppers and homemade parts that I know even some of the local guys in here in Minnesota are kind of coming onto the scene with some of that homemade stuff as well. So it's fun to follow. Yeah, I've dabbled in a little bit of all of it myself. I've done mods and stuff. I did it really heavily for a while and went to the Texas Pinball Festival and had a booth and sold mods. Also did deliveries for a distro For probably about three years But got out of that Probably at the beginning of this year Okay What type of mods were you Kind of getting into? Mainly just like shooter rods That was the thing I went for Gotcha Yeah, I mean, it's fun to follow the industry Like I was kind of saying There's always people kind of innovating Some new products and things whether that's the old school. I've seen some really sweet inventions kind of on some of the EM games, all the way up to the brand new Dungeons & Dragons toppers and things that are being sold. So it's exciting to see kind of what's going to come about here in the future. And, yeah, it's fun to follow. Awesome. So have you ever looked into possibly becoming a distro, or is that possibly a goal you're trying to meet at one point? Yeah, that's kind of what we're working towards here, possibly as soon as 2026. Really excited to, you know, for me, I've been in the industry probably the last six to seven years, you know, as an LLC and have grown kind of throughout Minnesota and the Midwest a little bit. So really have grown my business and kind of my knowledge kind of opposite, I feel like, of how a lot of businesses across the country do it and, you know, start in the used market, which kind of comes with a lot of different challenges, as you probably know, transporting, repair. That's always the repairs, man. Yeah. So I have gotten into some newer stuff here in the last year or so, just kind of middlemanning some stuff, but really excited to try to work to become a distributor and offer new in-box stirrings here. My hope is here in 2026 and be able to provide another service for people, you know, whether that's here in Minnesota throughout the Midwest or even my goal would be nationwide as well. So that, that would be the hope here very, very soon. So awesome. No, that's a, that's a cool goal to move forward. I'm looking forward to that. Are you thinking about doing a dabbling in anything else within the industry besides doing distros and deliveries? yeah um besides you know obviously buying selling used pinball machines and doing shipping and local deliveries and things like that um we would like to start offering another goal kind of that we're kind of working on as we speak actually which i'm really excited about is kind of just repairs and restorations uh so that's kind of in the works here for 2026 and moving forward just to be offering kind of in-house. Again, whether that's a shop job or, you know, whatever that may be. I mean, obviously there's a million different things that can go wrong with a pinball machine, but as simple as burnt light bulbs or, you know, batteries all the way to a full restoration, we're hoping that we will be able to offer that, you know, as soon as 2026. So I think there's a lot of potential in that market and there's not enough people at least here you know in the Minneapolis area slash Midwest that hey you know these guys are a reputable business they'll show up when you want them to show up they're insured etc so we're excited to be able to be hopefully that leader in the near future in Minnesota in the Minneapolis area kind of moving forward so finding a good technician can always be hard um yeah i've done some restorations myself i've done a taxi that i totally put a new play field redid the whole cabinet rad cows all nine yards then i did a strikes and spares uh at the beginning of this year my next step is i really want to try to build a homebrew eventually okay i've had a few of those taxi machines and man those things fly out the doors uh that's a really popular game how did that restoration go for you oh it went great um i did the play field swap probably in about 24 hours time it was you know about two two solid days of work but uh probably about 24 hours for me to do the play field swap and then redoing the cabinet and the rad cows and all that was probably another three hours or so but uh doing rad cows is the way to do it because they're like hard plastic so your cabinet doesn't have to be a hundred percent where a decal show every little imperfection where the radcal being a hard plastic you can almost just slap them on and you got a perfect side yeah from my experience um just over the last you know six seven years is it there's there's a couple different people in this industry especially with used games obviously that's kind of where i've uh made made my business and my name for myself. You know, the first time pinball buyer is really not picky. They're gonna look for a game that's oftentimes a fun family theme a game that 100 working as it should be So they not gonna get into the the nitty of oftentimes again not everybody Everyone a little bit different but the condition they're not going to pick that apart or they're not going to notice the decals and things like that. Where I start kind of noticing people notice that stuff is people with multiple machines, not the first-time pinball buyer, high-end collectors and things like that. So did you end up getting rid of that game or did you end up keeping that one for yourself? oh yeah i've been through probably i don't know 60 games within four years okay yeah yep so i do a lot of buying and selling as hot as is up here in minnesota but uh yeah my first few games i didn't care even how they looked i just wanted them to work even though my first game did not work at all but i figured out how to uh how to get it going and found a good board guy and sent all my boards off and got it going again. But, yeah, it was probably – I probably bought 10 machines before I started buying, like, modern Stern games. Yeah, there's so many different options and games. Everyone's kind of looking for something different. But what I've kind of found is, you know, every pinball machine out there, whether it's a game from the 1960s, you know, that I've had, or a brand-new in box, or, you know, a game with a couple hundred plays, that there is a market out there. There's someone that's going to want that game. It just depends on who and at what price. So that's kind of the fun and exciting part about this industry. You know, it's always moving kind of just like any other market, like the stock market or anything like that. Like I love looking at pin-side prices and how those kind of fluctuate. But, yeah, there's a game for everybody out there. but yeah I've kind of noticed that those first time buyers don't kind of notice those things like decals and in condition as much as obviously a second time or or more pinball buyer so yeah I think most people are just excited to get their first machine in the house period absolutely yeah it's it's always fun and that's kind of I sell a lot to first time pinball buyers and it's so exciting to work with those people that, you know, they have no idea how the heck to load this up. They have no idea how to unload it. But, man, they got their first pinball machine and they're ready to go. Their kids know about it. They're excited. They've watched some of the YouTube videos about it, you know. Yeah, it's a lot of fun to watch those first-time pinball buyers. But you do obviously get some more questions from those people, but there's so much, obviously, information out there about each machine these days, and the internet obviously helps with that. So I always tell people, hey, you want to learn the strategy about this game. You want to learn some of the nitty-gritty details about this game. Some of these guys on YouTube break every single bit down of that game and probably more than you even ever want to know. Right. So how do you go about selling your games? Do you have a website or a showroom or what's your approach on selling games? evolved over the years when I first got into this it started with the old-school Craigslisting Which kind of is still obviously around is Craigslist Still around down there in Georgia. You guys use it a little bit. Just not as much. Um, yeah I probably haven't used it in like 10 years Inside all the way for me inside Facebook marketplace Exactly. So Craigslist is kind of how I got into it, you know, that's kind of phased out Some people still use that. I really don't use Craigslist much anymore. Like you stated, Facebook Marketplace is the absolute go-to. I mean, there's just nothing better out there. It's free. There's so many people connected in the pinball world on Facebook, whether that's locally or nationally. I'm in a lot of those Facebook pinball groups, which if any of those listeners out there are listening and you're not in those pinball groups, I would suggest you go start kind of researching some of those groups there. I mean, there's some with hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands, and they're just a great resource to either ask questions, sell games. I haven't. I know Pinside's massive in the pinball world. I really haven't dabbled much with selling on. Oh, man, I sell most of my games on there. What was that? I sell probably the majority of my games on Pinside. Yeah, and I know a lot of people. Or faster, I will say that. So, like, I posted a Pulp Fiction a day and a half ago, and it was probably 20 hours, and I got exactly what I wanted for it. There you go. Yeah. I know Pinside's a very reliable source. I just have never really needed to. I've kind of grown a little bit of a following on Marketplace. Oh, yeah, Marketplace is great, too. I've sold plenty of games on there. I think I guess the pinball community will see it faster on Pinside or at least in large masses where maybe not on Facebook as much because you got to like set like your range and all that on Facebook where like you may just see this on Pinside like on the main page like just listed. Yeah, exactly. So I know Pinside is a big one for a lot of people. My go to marketplace. marketplace and then my other big one that's also obviously evolved over the years is just my website and a lot of those people are those first-time pinball buyers that hey they find me on google you know they're kind of just starting to dabble and starting to research a little bit of like hey this guy you know this business sells pinball machines locally let me contact him and kind of see what his thoughts are you know what what should my family be spending on one what should we be looking for so instead of just going straight to marketplace or pin side or whatever you have no idea what you're looking for. A lot of those first time pinball buyers kind of come through the website. They like to kind of feel it out a little bit, like what are my options? What do you suggest? And working with those people, you know, hey, this is what I have in right now or this is kind of what I suggest. And when I get something in this price range and theme or whatever that may be, I shoot them those photos and prices over and a lot of my sales kind of come that way as well. Have you ever done rentals? I know some people will rent games monthly or quarterly or something along those lines. I have done that. I do get some inquiries. For me, I've found a lot more success in the buying, selling, kind of the repairs. I know there is a market for it, but that also involves having a bunch of games in stock, which kind of goes against what I've kind of ran this business off of, you know, keeping the inventory moving and not sitting on, you know, $20,000 to $30,000 a game, just to hopefully get an inquiry or two or whatever that may be a month to rent those out So I done a little bit of it But for me I more so interested in kind of just growing the buying selling and repair business side of things So I know there's definitely a market. I just got an inquiry a day or two ago about a wedding, but I know some other businesses focus only on rentals and not so much of the buying and selling. So it's hard to, in my opinion, from what I've experienced, kind of do both. so yeah i met uh one of my good friends through uh reynolds actually he he did it for a little while and it worked out good until uh someone disappeared with one of his games yeah you never know they moved away and there's something along those lines and like they don't live here and they rented a game and i'm pretty sure it was like a guardians of the galaxy or something you know it wasn't the cheapest game and that was a fairly new game uh back then when this did happen yeah you definitely hear some stories out there whether that's something i've never heard that that's that's wild uh that's like worst case scenario but you know people beating the heck out of a brand new game or people spilling stuff and then you know your repairs cost more than you rented it to them it's all a part of that rental game and i know the people heavy in the rental business kind of know that game but yeah there's always risk and reward with some of that rental stuff as well so what about an arcade has that ever crossed your mind or maybe eventually or yeah not a chance i would love that uh i've seen some models out there throughout the the midwest i'm not sure if there's anything like it down there in the south but um oh yeah we have one of the largest down here what was that yeah we got one of the largest uh pinball arcades down here the pinball palace um they got over 200 games palace one of the models that i've i've we obviously have a lot of arcades and pinball bars and barcades and things like that up here in minneapolis i mean when it's eight degrees out for about five months out of the year you got to have something to do inside but um one of the coolest models i've seen up here is kind of arcades that families and people can come to they have beverages parties and all that stuff but everything on the floor is for sale. So super cool model, definitely a little bit different than your local arcade where you just come, obviously play, you put a card in or you put coins in and you leave, but you can buy things off the floor. I've definitely considered that. I think that's how my buddy Don bought his first game. It was a place where he just went and played and everything was technically for sale. Yep. It's a great model because at this, you know you're buying you're selling but you're also making money on the games while they're on the floor so i love that i can see that maybe being becoming a thing someday but right now i'm just kind of taking step by step and trying to see what happens um in the near future but they're so damn expensive it's hard to make you know if you put two hundred thousand dollars worth of games in our arcade it takes a while to get two hundred thousand dollars back just to pay that off yeah i've seen people do it you've you've seen people do it down there but man yeah definitely not cheap to do and uh especially in this this industry and market right now i mean even even rent of places is just so crazy which you know is why John Youssi some of these old school arcades still going down they try to start up they go down or you know at least that's how it is around here but some places make it some places aren't making it so yeah it takes a lot of maintenance too and i don't think a lot of these places think about that when opening up we had another pinball arcade it was in pooler georgia it lasted maybe one year before it was gone so i mean you really gotta consider it's gonna take a lot of your time to run a place like this yeah from what i've seen you gotta have the right people you gotta have the right location is everything you gotta have people to be able to fix things quickly and uh and it really seems like most of the kids really if you want to make a ton of money in the arcade scene it seems like they really want to play like the raw thrill games and those are super expensive yeah yeah you think pinballs are expensive those are even more money so yeah it's it's not cheap to get into but yeah um we'll see what happens down the road um but yeah right now just kind of take it brick by brick and keep building. So. Awesome. Cool. Cool. Well, is there anything else you wanted to cover or? No, man. I mean, I just really appreciate you having me on. You know, it's always fun to connect. The pinball community is so big that it's always fun to connect. Absolutely. Outside of your states without outside of your, you know, kind of group of people that, you know, so I'm I'm just glad that we could connect, you know, for those people listening in, you know, whether that's up here in the Midwest or down South. Yeah, I really appreciate the opportunity and kind of excited to just see what the pinball world brings here in the next few years. Obviously there's some big, big name games kind of planning to come out here in the very near future. It looks like you're repping one of the ones tonight. Oh yeah. Beetlejuice. Yeah. I got down to got to go there and play it for the release night and it's, It's people are going to love that game. Hopefully you get to sell a couple here and there. Absolutely. Yeah. Do you, what is the exact release date projection on that? Do you know? Well, it's, it's technically already there. There's probably a few of them on the line. Now they'll ship when they ship. I mean, there'll be very select few that may get them before the end of the year, but for the most part, January on they'll start shipping. Yeah. I mean, a lot of happy Beetlejuice fans out there in the very near future. Are you, are you one of those or you're not going to partake? Yeah. I ordered a Beetlejuice. Very cool. Well, yeah, definitely excited to see what 2026 brings in the pinball world. And just appreciate you having me on here. Absolutely, man. I just see your, your podcast grow as well. So thank you for letting me be a part of that. No problem. And thanks for coming on. And how do they get in contact with you? Yeah. Take a look. Whether you're again, up here in Minnesota or the Midwest, Premier Pinball and Amusements on Google or ppamn.com. Feel free to also shoot me an email at andrew at ppamn.com or my cell phone numbers on our website as well. Feel free to shoot me a call or text on my cell phone as well. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on, Andrew, and we'll see you next time. absolutely thank you appreciate it all right