You've probably thought about starting your own business a couple of times. Unfortunately, most business ideas are too expensive to start and time intensive to run, so it's easy to feel stuck. Even traditional vending machines, a pretty intuitive business, are hard to start. All the good locations are already taken.

But what if there was a type of vending machine that used to be everywhere, but now is nowhere to be found?

Nearly 20 years ago when I was just 5 or 6, my parents took me to this pizza shop downtown that had a gumball pinball machine in the waiting area. I remember the first time playing being so excited when I won, for just a quarter, not 1 not 2 but 4 gumballs.  The experience was so memorable that years later, when I started looking into buying a traditional vending machine, I recalled that gumball pinball machine from all those years ago. That's when it clicked. This gumball pinball machine was a vending machine, and I hadn't seen one in years. I started looking online and found out they had disappeared when everyone moved away from coins to card or phone pay. No one was making them anymore.

So starting in January 2026 I decided to build one myself. I put together a working prototype with the electronics, payment system, and dispenser, and now I am building the first full machine in my garage with plans to place it in a local pizza shop. I'm documenting the process and if all goes well then I'll aim to start selling them September 2026 to other folks wanting to start their own gumball pinball businesses.

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