An arcade machine quotation can look identical to another and describe a different machine. Same model name, same photo, same dimensions, same wattage on the page. Then one price comes back far below the other and you have to decide what the gap means. This guide opens both documents and shows where the difference hides.
TL;DR
- A quotation describes a machine; it does not prove one. Line items do.
- The coin mech and the power supply give away the build standard fastest.
- Board thickness, glass grade and terminal width never appear on a cheap quote.
- Every line should state model, spec, quantity, packing and warranty.
- Ask for the exclusions in writing. What a quote leaves out is the real price.
1. Two Arcade Machine Quotation Documents, One Spec Sheet
You send the same enquiry to five suppliers. Four come back in a similar band. One comes back visibly lower, and one visibly higher.
The lower quote is not automatically a bargain, and the higher one is not automatically honest. Both may be describing the same cabinet outline built from different components. The job is to find out which components, because the cabinet you see on a trade show floor and the cabinet in the crate are separated by about twenty invisible decisions.
Read the two documents side by side and work through the line items below. The pattern usually becomes clear by the fourth one.
2. Where the Difference Sits in an Arcade Machine Quotation
Most of the gap lives in eight places. None of them are visible in a product photo.
| Line item | What a budget quote hides | What it costs you later |
|---|---|---|
| Coin mech | Generic comparator, no brand | Jams on worn coins, rejects valid ones |
| Bill acceptor | Basic unit, single currency | Rejects notes after a year of dust |
| Power supply | No-name unit at the load limit | Resets mid-game, kills the board |
| Cabinet board | Thin board, light bracing | Cabinet flexes, joints open in transit |
| Glass and acrylic | Thin sheet, no edge polish | Cracks in cold weather, scratches |
| Harness | Untinned wire, unlabeled | Every repair starts with a multimeter |
| Motor and gearbox | Brushed motor, plastic gears | Claw or gantry slows, then stops |
| Display | Panel with no grade stated | Dead pixels appear, no recourse |
Now take them one at a time. That is the whole method for reading any arcade machine quotation.
3. The Coin Mech Tells You Who Built the Rest
Start with the coin mech, because it is the cheapest component to upgrade and the easiest to hide.
A named acceptor with a published comparator list tells you the factory buys from a supplier who publishes specifications. A generic unit with no marking tells you the opposite: the component was chosen by price alone.
BLEE stocks ICT acceptors by model number, including the A6 and L77 series. That matters for one practical reason. When a mech starts rejecting coins in year two, a model number gives you a part to order. A blank housing gives you a photograph and a guess.
Ask for the model number in writing, printed on the arcade machine quotation itself. If the answer is “standard coin acceptor”, that is your answer.
4. Power Supply: The Cheapest Place to Hide a Saving
Power supplies fail in a way that looks like a software fault. The machine resets mid-game, the screen flickers, a board boots only sometimes. Technicians then spend hours on the game board before anyone tests the supply.
Two questions settle this line item on any arcade machine quotation. What is the rated output, and what is the brand?
A cabinet that draws 150 W and ships with a 200 W supply has headroom. The same cabinet with a supply rated at 150 W runs at its ceiling from day one, in a warm room, for ten hours a day. Heat is what kills capacitors, and a supply at its limit runs hot.
Then check the voltage version against the destination. A 110 V unit in a 220 V market fails on the first power-up, and the replacement ships by air at your cost.
5. Cabinet Board, Glass and T-Molding
Nobody photographs the inside of a cabinet, so no arcade machine quotation ever shows it. That is exactly why the saving lives there.
Three checks:
- Board thickness. Standard cabinet board comes in fixed thicknesses, and the difference between the thin and thick option is a few millimetres nobody measures. Thin board plus light bracing equals a cabinet that flexes when a player leans on it.
- Glass and acrylic. Thin sheet without edge polishing chips at the corners and scratches at the prize chute. In cold weather it cracks on the truck.
- Edge trim and fixings. T-molding that lifts, hinges that sag, a coin door that does not close flush. Small parts, high visibility, low cost to fix at the factory and annoying to fix on site.
Ask for the board thickness and the glass thickness in millimetres. A supplier who builds to a spec answers in numbers. One who builds to a price answers in adjectives.
6. Harness and Terminals: The Line Nobody Reads
The wiring harness is the least glamorous line on an arcade machine quotation and the one your technician meets most often.
Two details decide whether a repair takes ten minutes or an afternoon. Terminal width, because a 2.8 mm spade does not fit a 4.8 mm tab, and the wrong button will not mate with your existing loom. And labeling, because an unlabeled bundle on a four-cabinet row turns a swap into a tracing exercise.
Ask whether the harness is labelled at both ends and whether the terminals are tinned. Both answers cost the factory almost nothing and save you hours.
7. Motor, Gearbox and Display Grade
On a claw machine, the gantry motor and gearbox do the work. A brushed motor with plastic gears is quiet, cheap and short-lived under daily load. A better drive train costs more and lasts longer, and the quotation rarely says which one you are buying.
On any machine with a screen, ask what panel grade the supplier uses and what dead-pixel count they accept. Panels are graded, and a budget build absorbs the lower grades. Without a stated policy, a panel with three dead pixels arriving is a normal delivery, not a defect.
8. What Every Line of an Arcade Machine Quotation Must State
A quote you can compare has five fields on every line. If any are missing, the document is a price, not an offer.
- Model and version. Not “racing machine”, but the model code and the variant.
- Specification. Power, size, material, screen size, player count, voltage.
- Quantity and unit. Per unit, per set, per carton.
- Packing. Carton, wooden frame or wooden case, plus packed dimensions and gross weight.
- Warranty and exclusions. Duration, what is covered, who pays freight on a claim.
Add the Incoterm to the header: EXW, FOB, CIF or DDP. Two arcade machine quotations at the same number mean different things under different terms, and the difference is the freight and the risk.
9. What a Quotation Leaves Out on Purpose
The most expensive part of a cheap quote is the blank space.
Look for these four omissions, because each one becomes your cost later:
- Spare parts. A quote with no spare button, mech or supply assumes you will buy them separately, at air freight, in a hurry.
- Certification. CE, FCC or UL documentation is either included or it is a project. Ask which certificates come with the shipment and who holds the test reports.
- Installation and commissioning. Who levels the cabinet, connects the power and tests the coin path.
- Packing standard. Export carton and export wooden case are not the same protection on a forty-day sea voyage.
None of these are tricks. They are simply outside the line the buyer usually compares, which is the unit price.
10. Three Questions That Expose the Difference in a Call
You do not need a factory audit to separate two arcade machine quotations. Three questions do most of the work.
- Which components carry a model number? Coin mech, bill acceptor, power supply, display. Named parts mean a specification exists.
- What is excluded from this price? Freight, insurance, spare parts, certification, installation. The answer tells you the real total.
- What happens on a warranty claim? Who ships the part, who pays the freight, and how many days it takes. A vague answer here predicts a slow repair.
Record the answers. A supplier who answers all three in writing is a different counterparty from one who answers in chat.
11. Send Me the Arcade Machine Quotation
Send me the quotation you have and I will mark it up line by line: which items are named, which are blank, and where the packing and warranty terms leave you exposed.
Send the document, or just the line items and the total. I will return a comparison table you can put next to your other quotes and use in the decision.
12. Arcade Machine Quotation FAQ
Why is one quote half the price of another for the same model? Usually because the components differ: coin mech, power supply, board thickness, drive train and display grade. Ask for model numbers and millimetre figures before comparing totals.
Should I always take the lowest quote? No. Compare the specification first, then the total landed cost including freight, spare parts and certification. The lowest unit price often carries the highest total.
What Incoterm should an arcade machine quotation use? FOB is the most common for a first order, because it separates the factory price from the freight you control. DDP is simpler but hides the freight inside the price.
Do I need spare parts in the first order? Yes, at least the parts that stop a machine: power supply, coin mech and one display. They are cheap in the container and expensive by air.
How long should a warranty run on an arcade machine? Twelve months is the usual baseline. What matters more is what the warranty excludes and who pays freight on a claim.
Can I ask for the component brands before paying a deposit? Yes, and you should. A supplier who cannot name the coin mech and the power supply has not specified the machine.
Bottom Line
An arcade machine quotation is a specification with a price attached, or it is a number with a photo. Read it line by line and the difference between two quotes stops being a mystery.
Start with the coin mech and the power supply. If those two carry model numbers, the rest of the document usually does too.
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