Shoutout to the guy who fixes pinball machines for a living

Was at a random arcade bar in Portland last weekend and this old dude shows up with a tool belt. He opens up this busted pinball machine from the 80s and starts soldering stuff inside. I talked to him while he worked, turns out he only does pinball repair full time. Said there's like maybe 50 of them in the whole country. Pays decent too, $60 an hour cash. Made me wonder what other weird repair jobs are out there that most people don't even know exist. Anybody else run into someone with a super niche trade like that?

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jamie_webb672mo ago

Hang on, let's pump the brakes a little. $60 an hour cash sounds great and all, but is it really that steady of a gig? I've heard pinball machines break down constantly, sure, but how many people are actually paying to fix a 40 year old machine instead of just calling it quits and buying a new digital one? Plus, being one of only 50 guys in the country means you're probably driving hours to every job, and that's time you're not billing for. Take this with a grain of salt, but I'd want to see his actual average weekly take home before I got too excited about it. Could be he's just telling you the good days.

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umar492mo ago

Yeah @jamie_webb67 makes a solid point. The travel time is the killer nobody talks about. Hour drive each way means you're really only pocketing like $40 an hour once you factor in gas and wear on your car.

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sanchez.mary1mo ago

That drive time really eats into the hourly rate, no doubt about it.

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