pubjoe wrote:Thing is anything worth anything is worth four or five times more over here than it is there. Trouble is the shipping. As far as I understand, Importers here usually pay something like $100-$200 per old working cab to a Japanese supplier who has in turn cleared out an abandoned arcade like Grandma's for free. Cabs are either tested working or have been quickly fixed up where feasible with fuses or a quick wiring patch etc.
The importer's cost per cab is then tripled by the import costs. Factor in risk, and a small percent profit and that's how the cabs end up costing us £500-£700 here.
While I don't think you've won the lottery, I still think that you have enough value in the cabs to sell to an importer. You'd have to invest the time and work that the suppliers do, but as the cabs have landed in your lap for free, it seems to me to be a worthwhile job. But keep expectations realistic as you'll also have a load of scrap to waste your time with. Whether or not you want to go through with it or just make a clearance arrangement with the nearest specialist company depends on both your enjoyment of this and how much your day job pays.
The boards, untested are worth £0-£25 each here, next to nothing on Yahoo Auctions Japan. Tested working they're worth £40-£80 each here, £10-£30 on YAJ. The shipping eats into most benefit if selling abroad, but you'd probably be slightly better off.
Parts depend entirely on condition. No one really buys clapped out replacement bits (but might if it's rare enough). Anything dirty but otherwise in good condition is worth considering, take quick photos any little parts.
I may have sounded more positive in my last post, but I did, and still do think its worth the time to sort through instead of scrapping. Aiming to sell enough to pay for clearing the junk, and hopefully still leave you with some cash left over. ...Or a keepsy Aero City.
it could be interesting doing a group buy and import the aero city lot, here in europe, then, each member could take one, without spending the extra profit a normal cab dealer would take....
i know i'm the last person here that could help but.... if needed... i have 500square meters of deposit (it's mine so for free/month), maybe if we do a group buy, we can stock it here and the ship every cab to forum members...
the sad thing is that i live in italy... not so near to you guys...
Maybe?
