u/Born-Credit-4398

Hey r/vending — I work for a sports card and collectibles shop and we're in the process of placing our first Sports Card vending machine at a high-traffic local youth sports venue. We are also considering a local Ballpark and want to scale beyond that to other high-traffic entertainment venues, and potentially malls. We've done our research but want to hear from people actually running these before we commit. A few specific questions; if you have any answers to one or two of these, they would be greatly appreciated!

Forecasting

• For those running a machine in a family entertainment or sports venue, what does your actual daily transaction count look like vs. what you projected? Where were you off?
• What percentage of foot traffic actually converts to a sale?
• How long did it realistically take to break even, and what was the biggest variable that affected that timeline?
• Which product category moves fastest? We're looking to sell sports cards, packs, and wax, but are open to selling some of our Pokémon and other TCG.
• What's your average transaction size and how has it shifted as you've adjusted your product mix?

Venue Negotiations

• When working with your venues, did you use a flat monthly fee or revenue share? What were the terms? And looking back, would you have done it differently?
• What's the lowest rev share % you've successfully negotiated and what was your pitch?
• What terms do you wish you'd locked in writing that you didn't (i.e. exclusivity, specific placement within the venue, right of first refusal on a second machine)?
• Has a venue ever tried to renegotiate once they saw the machine performing well? Did your contract protect you?
• Did any venue require proof of insurance or other requirements before signing?

Venue Negotiations

• For those running elevator-based machines specifically, how has reliability been in practice? What breaks most often and how painful is the downtime?
• How much does the coil vs. elevator debate actually matter in real operation? Is card damage a genuine issue you've experienced or more of a sales pitch concern?
• What does your restocking process actually look like in terms of time and frequency, and has inventory management been harder than expected?
• For anyone who went with a fully custom branded machine--was the branding investment worth it in terms of visibility and customer engagement, or does it not move the needle?

Again, any insight appreciated. Happy to share what we learn on our end as we get this off the ground!