The unassuming address of 5290 Platt Springs Road in Lexington, South Carolina, belies its status as the epicenter of the modern pinball universe. Marco Specialties, the world’s largest distributor of pinball parts, is far more than a warehouse; it is a testament to passion, preservation, and the enduring appeal of a classic arcade game. A recent visit by Pinball News revealed a meticulously organized operation dedicated to keeping the flippers flipping and the pinball machines out of landfills.

A Legacy Forged in Parts and Passion

Founded in 1985 by Mark and Nancy Mandeltort, Marco Specialties began its journey with a diverse portfolio, dabbling in everything from luggage tags and mail-order advertisements to operating video games. However, it was a serendipitous pivot towards pinball that would define its future. The company’s deep dive into pinball parts began with a weekly ritual: salvaging discarded machines from local distributors every Friday, meticulously parting them out to preserve their components. This foundational ethos, "The only bad pinball machine is a broken pinball machine," continues to guide the company’s mission to keep games operational and out of landfills.

Following the unexpected passing of Mark Mandeltort in late 2021, his son, Paul Mandeltort, stepped into leadership, working in close partnership with Marco Ramirez, who has been instrumental in managing operations for nearly 14 years. This succession ensures the continuation of the company’s core values and its unwavering commitment to the pinball community.

A Deep Dive into the Pinball Mecca

Upon entering Marco Specialties, visitors are immediately struck by an atmosphere that transcends a typical industrial setting. The office area is thoughtfully curated, showcasing a selection of beautifully restored classic pinball machines, each awaiting a new home. These "staff favorites" offer a glimpse into the company’s appreciation for the history and artistry of pinball.

The true magic, however, unfolds within the expansive warehouse. Towering shelves, reaching an impressive 20 feet high, house an astounding inventory of over 30,000 unique pinball parts. From rare coil sleeves dating back to the 1970s Bally era to cutting-edge LED kits, custom ramps, and meticulously reproduced plastics, Marco Specialties possesses an almost uncanny ability to source virtually any component a pinball machine might require. The sheer depth of their stock ensures that even the most elusive part is likely to be found within their meticulously organized aisles.

Beyond the vast parts inventory, the facility also houses essential support infrastructure. A dedicated area for manuals and promotional materials underscores the company’s commitment to education and historical preservation. Furthermore, their capability to scan banners and produce reproductions on-demand demonstrates a proactive approach to supporting events and maintaining the visual legacy of pinball.

More Than Just Parts: A Community Hub

Marco Specialties distinguishes itself not only through its unparalleled inventory but also through its profound dedication to the pinball community. The company actively sponsors major pinball events, hosts educational seminars through its "Pinball University" initiative, and consistently champions the growth and preservation of the hobby. This commitment is palpable in the way the team discusses pinball machines, the meticulous care evident in their restorations, and their relentless pursuit of obscure parts that other suppliers have long abandoned.

The company’s mission extends beyond mere commerce; it is about fostering a culture where every pinball machine can be enjoyed for generations to come. This dedication is reflected in their diverse customer base, which ranges from seasoned professional technicians to hobbyists and newcomers eager to restore a cherished machine or acquire their first.

The Evolution of a Pinball Powerhouse: An Interview with Paul Mandeltort and Marco Ramirez

Pinball News had the distinct privilege of sitting down with Paul Mandeltort, CEO of Marco Specialties, and Marco Ramirez, COO, on May 16, 2026, to delve deeper into the company’s history, mission, and vision for the future.

Mick Brown (Pinball News): I’m Mick Brown, also known as MG Brown here at Pinball News. I serve as the North American Correspondent, where I contribute a column called PinSpotting. Terri and I travel across the USA, reviewing and sharing information about pinball and arcade destinations. This topic was even the subject of a presentation I gave at the 40th Pinball Expo in Chicago a couple of years ago.

Terri Brown (Pinball News): I’m Terri Brown. My role is essentially following Mick around to all these pinspotting locations. As they say, behind every great pin spotter…

Mick Brown: Terri is being modest. She has her own Superstars of Pinball trading card, created by Twin Galaxies, so she’s far from a novice player.

Marco Ramirez: I’m Marco Ramirez, the current COO of Marco Specialties. I’ve been with the company for nearly 14 years, starting in November. I had the privilege of working alongside Mark and Nancy Mandeltort initially. After Nancy retired and Mark sadly passed, Paul and I have taken the helm, steering the company forward. We work on this every day, supported by a fantastic team, with the ultimate goal of keeping pinball alive and preventing machines from ending up in landfills.

Paul Mandeltort: That truly is our mission. I’m Paul Mandeltort, and I’m now leading Marco Specialties, taking over after my father, Mark, passed unexpectedly. It’s been a significant transition. Marco is my right-hand man. I often tell him, "Your name is on the building, so let’s make this work." It’s been quite a journey. We’ve been absolutely thrilled with how far we’ve come as an organization, and, I believe, how far the pinball community has advanced since we first began investing in it. It has truly taken on a life of its own. I’m incredibly proud of everyone who has poured their hearts into this endeavor, as we genuinely had no idea where it would lead in the beginning. A fun little tidbit: my father, Mark, originally named the company Marco Specialties. 1985 was the year my sister was born and also the year they founded the company. Back then, Mark had no clear vision for what the company would ultimately do, hence the general name "Marco Specialties." We stumbled into pinball a few years later. Initially, we were involved in luggage tags, mail-order ads, laundromats, and operating video games, and we didn’t want to change the name, so it ended up fitting a variety of ventures. Eventually, we began rummaging through the local distributor’s dumpster every Friday, taking out old pinball machines, parting them out, and creating sets of parts. That’s what sparked the inspiration: "Oh, wait, these things aren’t being manufactured anymore, and they’re going to become collectible one day." That’s how Marco Specialties truly began. It’s been amazing to witness its evolution since those early days.

Mick Brown: We have an international audience, with my editor based in the UK and many listeners in Europe tuning into our PINcasts. For readers unfamiliar with your company, could you provide a brief summary of what Marco Specialties is?

Paul Mandeltort: Marco Specialties is dedicated to helping you keep your games operational. When you can’t find a single spring, screw, or nut, the game loses its fun. We always say, "The only bad pinball machine is a broken pinball machine." Our mission is to keep games running, educate people on how to repair and maintain them, and promote pinball for the long term.

Marco Ramirez: Marco began as an operation focused on preventing games from entering landfills. We’ve since expanded into broader assets, sharing how to introduce pinball to others. We’ve made significant investments in the pinball show community over the past 10 to 20 years. We’ve actually met Martin quite a few times over the years. We truly appreciate all the work Pinball News has been doing to support the community. You are one of the oldest and most trusted organizations in the pinball space. Thank you for all your efforts; we believe it’s integral to the current success of the industry you’re witnessing.

Paul Mandeltort: You guys are undoubtedly one of the key organizations driving that. We also support the international market, which is becoming increasingly challenging given the current global climate, but we are still committed to it. Shipping is very expensive; it can cost $50 to send an empty box across the border. Many people are unaware of this. So, considering everything, we can still manage it relatively cost-effectively. It’s a daily challenge, and we hope you understand that, given what you’ve seen of our operation. We are, at the end of the day, a small business servicing the entire world. We’re quite proud that we’re able to do it at all.

Mick Brown: Who do you consider your primary customer today? I realize that if I had asked this question back when I was working for Bally in the 70s, the answer would have been different.

Paul Mandeltort: We discuss this frequently internally, and it generally falls into three or four major categories. The primary and most crucial individuals to us are self-identified pinball technicians worldwide – those who specialize in repairing games. This category also includes those who are becoming technicians without yet identifying as such; they are the kind of people who can change their car’s oil. They are the ones who might see a game by the roadside and take it home, likely already owning a pickup truck. They form the core of the industry, the backbone. Then, there are numerous other sub-genres within the community, most notably collectors who acquire machines in any capacity. We support all of them, and they are a major driving force for us. We also serve what we call "community operators," a new breed of operator emerging. As you know from your history in the industry, traditional operators in the ’80s and ’90s grew into large organizations and companies, and they turned their backs on pinball, deeming it the lowest revenue-generating option per square foot among coin-op equipment. Therefore, it’s a segment we intentionally do not market to. We still support them when we can, but ultimately, they are served by the traditional, old-school parts distribution network. We focus on individuals who previously lacked access to pinball machine parts and who didn’t experience the market dynamics of the ’90s. If you were to call a distributor for parts back then, they might say, "No, you need to open an account with us, provide three trade references, and apply for a line of credit." This was one of the original reasons we entered the business; Mark was struggling to find parts for the old games we operated. Then we realized, "Wait, if anyone has an old game in their basement from a friend whose bar closed down, it’s virtually impossible to get parts." We support pinball through the community, whether it’s a friend or an arcade owner who wants to fix their games. We were the very first pinball e-commerce store; our domain dates back to 1999. We were the first to implement a shopping cart and a URP (User Request Program) system in this business. We’ve always done this out of a need to serve customers in the pinball retail parts market. Those are the areas we’ve focused on, and now it’s growing. The home user community has become very important to us.

Marco Ramirez: The challenging aspect now is staying focused because many new individuals are entering the industry. This necessitates making difficult decisions about where to prioritize our efforts, as you’ve observed. We have a lot going on, making it hard to maintain focus in this realm. I’m genuinely proud of how Marco and the team are performing, and we’ve built an incredible crew capable of handling this very demanding business.

Terri Brown: Your presence at pinball shows has shifted from representing Stern to collaborating with the homebrew community. What prompted that change in direction?

Paul Mandeltort: We perceive it as a natural growth segment. Our original objective when we first began attending pinball shows years ago was to remain independent of Stern, yet still collaborate with them regularly. We are still one of their largest parts distributors. Now, you have to look around… We’ve never intentionally been in the game sales business; that’s a different market for us. What we do is in service to the community. Back in the day, if you went to any show, it was essentially about getting new games to the shows. At that time, our store was the only company selling any games at all. So, it was a natural progression. We flew out to Chicago, met with Jody and John Buscaglia back then, and worked with their team to develop the demo game program, which was the first of its kind in pinball history. We’re incredibly proud of how it has grown and taken off, now supported by multiple dealers. Back then, there was no dealer network; none of these things existed. We helped establish all of that. Now, the show program has advanced to a point where everyone can enjoy the games. The mission has been accomplished: we get new games for the shows, which significantly supports the community. We are now focusing on bringing in the next cohort of people, which we are very excited about: the homebrew community. We are building on the success of encouraging Stern. We are truly thrilled that Stern is now supporting the community and continuing to foster those partnerships, more importantly, at a scalable level that we can sustain. The reality is, with our small team, there are at least 20 significant major shows across the country and dozens more smaller ones. It’s physically impossible for us to have a physical presence at all these events. We had to find a way to grow that. We worked with Stern to develop the partnership program, allowing Stern to work directly with local dealers. We also support the dealers, and we are still on-site, lending a hand when we can. But from the outset, it was a net-zero-revenue opportunity for everyone involved. Moving equipment between shows was expensive; it was purely to serve the community. Now, we are taking that and building the next level with the homebrew community as well. We love that Stern is now participating in TPF (Texas Pinball Festival), and we were just at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee. Typically, there are over 50 brand-new machines at the major shows. It’s absolutely incredible; it has never happened in the history of pinball. It’s truly remarkable to witness, and we are very proud of it.

Marco Ramirez: As part of this broader community initiative, we utilize the homebrew segment as a recruitment ground. We’ve recently hired individuals from the homebrew community over the past two years and have begun collaborating with many vendors and creators in that space, such as Aaron from Fast Pinball. We are engaged in extensive collaborative work with these individuals. In our opinion, this represents the future of our industry. From a design perspective, this is where talents like Scott Danesi, Keith Elwin, and Mark Seiden emerge: from the homebrew side. Ernie Silverberg, who is now our Product Director here at Marco Specialties, also hails from this background.

Paul Mandeltort: The homebrew scene is cultivating and ushering in the next era of pinball designers who get the opportunity to work with these OEMs. It’s very exciting, and we take pride in helping to move it forward, not just for them but for the pinball community as a whole.

Terri Brown: So, your goal is to have a distributed model of talent that can plug into larger companies, rather than being hired full-time staff?

Marco Ramirez: Ironically, it fosters an ecosystem of networking, creating communities within these other OEMs and manufacturing with toppers and various aspects of pinball in general. But absolutely, it’s a huge networking and opportunity-builder for the community. If you look at these homebrew games from five years ago compared to today, some of them are OEM-level machines. They are definitely pushing the envelope in their own way. One thing I particularly noticed last year at the Expo in Chicago is that you are also introducing many artists into pinball. Some of these homebrew creators are starting to commission artists for their machines, which is another way to bring more people into the pinball world.

Terri Brown: So, what are your top-selling items?

Marco Ramirez: Pinballs, the actual physical balls, and likely rubber kits and electronic displays for the games are our core essentials. We have our own brands for all three products: Silver Jets and PRW (Pinball Rubber Works). This is a formula developed by Mark, Nancy, and Paul. We also have the Pinscore brand for our own display line. So, we have several in-house brands that are staples. Another significant category is coils, with our PinCoil line. We analyze all the data. Historically, we consider ourselves industry experts. Paul, along with everyone else on the team, possesses over 100 years of combined pinball experience. We observe what customers want and what consumers need. We also explore how to modify or improve these products. That’s something we do, focusing on engineering to ensure customers receive not just a pinball part, but the best part they can acquire anywhere. Paul, do you have anything to add to that?

Paul Mandeltort: Yes, things that cause games to break are usually what prompt people to call us. Rubbers are the most common culprits. Our mission is to be the one-stop shop for all their small odds and ends, especially with a diverse collection of games. We have over 50,000 products and kits in total. We’ve spent years developing systems and techniques just to manage this extensive inventory.

Marco Ramirez: Rubbers break eventually, and of course, we’ve been investing engineering effort to achieve better durability and reliability, offering several other product lines in that area as well. Ultimately, the parts that are hit by the ball are what will break. That’s generally what people need to purchase regularly. We strive to make the ordering process as easy and seamless as possible while also enhancing part durability. If something breaks frequently, we’ll attempt to engineer a superior version, perhaps one that the OEM didn’t want to invest more heavily in. Now that games are more valuable, some individuals are willing to spend a bit more on replacement parts.

Paul Mandeltort: The economics have shifted; many people criticize OEMs for cost-cutting, but the reality is their margins are still very tight, and they must reduce costs wherever possible to remain in business. I’ve seen all sides of this process; I can empathize. While engineering and developing reliable systems is challenging, we dedicate significant time to engineering better parts. It’s incredibly difficult to perfect just one part, let alone all of them. So, it’s an ongoing project, and we have a list of literally thousands of things we want to accomplish. It’s a perpetual battle.

Terri Brown: I understand there are many standardized parts across the industry, but do you work on developing new parts, or is this reactive to game development that you are involved in?

Paul Mandeltort: We prioritize parts that keep games running across as many machines as possible. That’s our top priority. Whenever customers express difficulty finding financing, we do our best to connect them with someone who can provide a loan or line of credit. This was something we excelled at, especially early on, and we continue to do so. When a customer has a particularly unique request, we investigate it: "Oh, wait, this is actually a special item that you can’t get anywhere." We call these "unobtanium parts." We have many parts that cost us more to produce than we will ever recoup from sales. That’s one of the difficulties. I believe we are one of the few companies in the industry that makes this kind of investment. Any accountant would look at it and say, "What on earth are you doing? You’ll never make your money back on that." However, we know that if we don’t make this part, the game becomes useless, and eventually, thousands of those games will end up in landfills. That’s our motivation – a higher mission. That’s how we prioritize; otherwise, if you try to do absolutely everything, you’ll never accomplish anything. It’s one of those priorities I mentioned. For game-specific parts, it becomes a test: "Is this going to cause the game to break?" If so, it moves higher on the list. Then there’s the thorny area of licensed items. We have to be careful there. Certain items are licensed, and sometimes licensors… don’t see the broader mission of things. We leave that alone because, at the end of the day, we have to focus on the immediate problems. Every part of a project involves analysis. It’s quite fascinating. And Marco handles all of that in about five seconds in his head, but it typically takes a regular person a week to do.

Terri Brown: So, apart from regular stock items, what previously unobtainable item or items are you most proud of making available to the pinball community?

Marco Ramirez: I’m thinking more about Project Pinball. We worked hard to move into… what was the unit called? The unit where people in wheelchairs could play pinball. I’ve forgotten the name of that unit.

Paul Mandeltort: Yes, the broad category is accessibility pinball. So, for individuals with disabilities, they wouldn’t need to use their hands or limbs. I know Rusty was working on that, and Dan Spoler, and they had a few controllers.

Marco Ramirez: There’s just so much. I think one of the biggest categories is motors. Motors are very expensive. And, you know, like the Judge Dredd motor, I believe we are one of the only people in the world who have that motor. Mark was always adamant about keeping these parts that no one else had. He was willing to invest in it. The batch he had back in like 2012 or 2014, something like that. It’s a $300 motor; things like that, which no one else seems to invest in, we do. We try to help when we can. But as Paul says, our accountants think we’re a little insane when we hold onto too much inventory, but you never know. We stock a lot of parts, for sure.

Paul Mandeltort: Actually, Marco, one of the amusing ones is like those springs we were getting. I forget which one it was. It was like one of the coil springs or whatever. But we ended up having to buy like 10,000 of them, which was the minimum order, even though we were only going to sell a couple of hundred. It’s a silly little spring, you know. It was like, what is that, a three-cent part? Someone will ask, "Why are you charging three bucks for that?" I tell them, "Well, we had to buy 10,000 so you could buy this one."

Marco Ramirez: The other one was the switch adjuster tools.

Paul Mandeltort: Yes, that’s right. We spent years looking for that thing. We ended up engineering it ourselves.

Marco Ramirez: Pinball Skates is another one. We manufacture those now, and they make it much easier for customers to move their machines; that’s always an issue when you’re on your own.

Terri Brown: How have import tariffs impacted your business? I know it affects parts going out to customers, but what about you receiving parts?

Marco Ramirez: It has definitely impacted the timelines for getting parts delivered to us. And then, the other aspect is that we want to be competitive. We also want to ensure we adhere to quality standards. We have very high-quality standards on our end, typically because we sell many parts to commercial operators. And so those kinds of parts have a higher breakage rate. A lot of that product is above quality standards. We haven’t been significantly impacted by tariffs because we source a lot of our products domestically, especially steel. That’s been a consistent factor. Chicago, in the past, was the mecca of…

Mick Brown: Chicago had its own tightly-knit community of game creators. They called themselves the "Hairy Who Imagists." The Elmhurst Art Museum in the Chicago suburbs hosted an exhibition in early 2017 on the Chicago Imagists. I wrote an article for Pinball News about the exhibition.

Paul Mandeltort: Absolutely. Everything was made there; everything was designed in Chicago.

Marco Ramirez: Some items are worth sourcing overseas due to cost-effectiveness, but many component companies are still located in Illinois. We do a lot of business with these companies, and even during COVID, we didn’t experience too many supply issues because so many of our products are domestically sourced.

Paul Mandeltort: I believe the long-term effects will still be felt. Everything is becoming more expensive. We were fortunate with tariffs in the short term because many suppliers haven’t yet realized the full impact of U.S. sourcing. Chances are, there’s some imported component in there, especially in things like pinball machines. The actual carbon steel, the regular-grade pinballs that everyone buys and sells – we were the largest importer of those. You cannot get that grade of steel in the U.S.; no manufacturer makes it. So now, our high-end balls, the Silver Jets we make, are manufactured in the U.S., but it took us a while. We found the final supplier that will produce them. But for the regular pinballs, that low-carbon steel is a cheaper material. It’s used because it doesn’t magnetize at all. But nobody in the U.S. will make that. We’ve contacted about thirty ball suppliers. Nobody will do it. This example illustrates how many supply chains have simply evaporated from the U.S., and that’s just the new reality we live in. What we will likely see is that prices will continue to rise. These kinds of things, like tariffs, take years to fully manifest. Because many of our suppliers are smaller, they don’t have advanced forecasting systems; they might be sitting on a large inventory of steel that they purchased in bulk. So, until they buy the next batch, they don’t truly know the cost of the current batch. That’s an area where it’s a balancing act for us; across such a vast catalog, we try to raise prices only when absolutely necessary. But ultimately, the problem with tariffs, and the scary aspect of them, is that they are due upfront before you sell anything. That puts many people in a difficult position long-term. Fortunately, and ironically, for most pinball suppliers, pinball itself is usually not their primary business line. These kinds of issues tend to get overlooked. Prices will continue to increase, unfortunately. That’s simply the reality of the world we live in. The problem is that the cost of living is rising more. We were one of the first companies in our zip code to increase our minimum wage, and things like that. We’re trying to stay ahead of it while keeping the organization sustainable. Every once in a while, we receive feedback like, "Oh, you’re really expensive on this part." We try to maintain a balance; we need to be able to invest and purchase the next part. And we need to pay our team, who are all very talented, amazing people. It’s truly a delicate tightrope act to get that right. Many people who haven’t run a business before attempt to operate on a 10% markup over cost, which is simply not feasible. That’s one of the challenges post-COVID: some people start garage-based businesses. We now have many competitors in the pinball space. Why don’t you keep up with those guys? They’re not paying health insurance, rent, air conditioning, storage, warehousing, insurance, labor, or all those other associated costs. So, there’s a lot of overhead in running a business, making it difficult to balance. The tariff shock, as I said, is not over yet, and I wouldn’t be surprised if other disruptions like that occur, but it’s something we monitor daily. We try to have as many supply chains as reasonably possible without tying up too much capital in inventory. At the end of the day, it’s interesting.

Terri Brown: It’s a balance between acquiring them at the current price versus waiting and buying more later, and you never know what pricing changes are coming.

Paul Mandeltort: Many people panicked and bought when the tariffs happened, right? "Oh crap, it’s going to go up even more." And then you’re stuck with all this expensive inventory, and later it got cheaper. It’s tricky. Now, the new factor is oil prices, which means freight prices will rise significantly. That’s another element; it’s essentially a tariff. There are many externalities we’re dealing with.

Mick Brown: Friday, typically, at least in the industry I was in, people tend to wrap up early. But if I could just ask both of you one more question before we take up more of your valuable time: Could you share a brief, entertaining, or interesting story about an interaction with a customer? A story that might bring a smile to someone’s face.

Marco Ramirez: When I first joined, I actually volunteered to take calls from customers. What I immediately realized was that many customers are highly experienced. You can’t really talk your way out of not knowing the answer to their questions. At the same time, it was apparent that many new people were being introduced to pinball ownership. One particular customer called me up, quite annoyed, and even wanted me to drive to his location in the Delaware area. He said, "We’re going to throw it in the landfill, blah, blah, blah." I managed to calm him down and had a conversation. Finally, I asked, "What are you trying to do?" He was trying to find a short in a wire. He said, "I don’t understand how you guys can work on these machines? It’s very difficult to get to the bottom of this wire." I asked, "What are you doing?" He replied, "This area where I’m working through is so small. How can anyone fit through it?" It turned out he was trying to work on his game through the coin door! I immediately went online and found a YouTube video of Todd Tuckey demonstrating how to work on a game. I knew the essential basics of removing the lock bar, but I figured this guy would get a kick out of this video. So, I sent it to him, and about an hour later, he called back and said, "I am such an idiot!" We both just laughed about it. I told Mark the story, and he said, "Unfortunately, he’s not the first person to do this, just so you know." About a year later, the same customer emailed me because he had ordered some plastic sets from us. The customer said, "I don’t know what you guys did to these plastics. These things are so horrible. They’re so hazy. They even have burn marks on them." I said, "Send me a picture. Let me take a look." He sent me the picture. I said, "Well, you know, there’s a peel-off protective film on the front and the back of these things." But he had already installed them all in the game, thinking that once installed, they would look better. Unfortunately, they did not. I had the chance to meet this customer at the Allentown Pinball Festival, probably about six or seven years ago. He introduced himself to me. He said, "I’m the guy who tried to work on his game from his coin door." I immediately knew exactly who he was.

Paul Mandeltort: Yes, it’s funny; I just remembered. And actually, to answer one of your earlier questions, one of the very few non-pinball parts we produced in recent years is the belts for the "Ice Cold Beer" mechanism that moves the rail up and down. There are these belts that nobody had anywhere, and so we sold them. I can’t recall; I don’t think I was on the phone at the time, but I was in the office. I think Steve or someone handled it. But the customer calls, furious. "It’s a belt. It’s too small; I ordered two of them. It’s crap." The guy was quite annoyed. I guess he was under a lot of pressure or whatever. We went back and forth. How is this possible? What’s going on? Finally, I think Mark said, "Have him take it out of the bag." He pulls it out of the bag, and all of a sudden, the phone goes quiet. The belt was just folded over. It was probably a decade ago, and I don’t remember how it wrapped up. I think eventually, he was fine, but it’s just like, okay, guys.

Terri Brown: It’s good that you guys were there because you fixed the problem and prevented the game from ending up in the river.

Paul Mandeltort: Those interactions are what keep us going at the end of the day. Many companies are trying to eliminate their customer service teams. We’re doubling down on it because we know that every time we talk to someone, we help inspire them. We learn about new problems they’re encountering. And it also gives us a lot of energy to keep doing what we’re doing. It’s just the future.

Mick Brown: Yes. Any company like Marco needs best-in-class customer service. On the tour, Cheyenne mentioned that you guys have these tech talk videos where you help people. Could you elaborate on that a bit, how those came about?

Paul Mandeltort: We call it "PinTech Live," and Imoto is actually our host for that. She’s in charge of the content. Essentially, what we do today started with Kyle Spateri. We hired him specifically to produce that series for us, and then when he transitioned to Stern, we ended up focusing on community outreach. We have many technicians from all over the country who have been assisting us with this series to address problems that, like the funny stories we’ve shared, people just don’t really know how to begin with owning a new pinball machine. We’ve done videos on that; we create snippets, and we do live shows where people can attend, and we demonstrate how to solder on a game or how to replace electrical components like a transistor or a resistor on your machine’s board, covering all the basics. One of the first videos Imoto produced was on how to set up a pinball machine. At the time, several people in the office were like, "Well, I don’t know if this is really something people want a video of." And now it’s one of our highest-viewed videos! We send it out almost every week to a new customer who says, "Hey, I just bought my machine, and I don’t even know how to turn this thing on." So, we cater to all facets, especially new customers. I always tell someone when I sell them a machine or a part, "You know, pinball is DIY; you’re going to have to learn how to take the glass off and get a ball unstuck, right?" So, even the basic stuff, and it’s true, the more you delve into it, the more interesting it becomes, right? And then you want to learn how to fix them, and there are just so many really cool aspects of ownership.

Marco Ramirez: We were simply trying to cater to all the new customers entering the market. The series performed exceptionally well, particularly during COVID when a significant number of new individuals joined the industry. It has continued to do very well, and Imoto has done an outstanding job. We have also begun conducting tech schools at shows. We initiated our first one at the Texas Pinball Festival, arriving a day before the show started, and put attendees through a tech course on fixing their pinball machines.

Paul Mandeltort: Yes, and we had many excellent technicians from around the country who participated as instructors. Todd Tuckey was one of them. A wealth of history and knowledge is being transferred to everyone.

Marco Ramirez: It’s genuinely exciting to see 21-22-year-olds actively wanting to learn how to fix a game. Again, that’s all about investing in this pinball community, in this ecosystem.

Paul Mandeltort: Those individuals are the future. That’s the future of our industry. I always say pinball technicians are unicorns because they are. They’re hard to find. There aren’t that many of them, and you need more of them to keep pinball growing.

Mick Brown: Everyone’s time is valuable these days, and thank you again for accommodating us on short notice. We also appreciated the greeting out front. Hopefully, we can use it for the featured photo for my article.

Marco Ramirez: Thank you, guys, for coming in.

Paul Mandeltort: Anytime you’re in the area, you’re more than welcome to visit us. We have a whole studio area that Imoto and Kyle use for filming. It’s essentially our game room, with all our demo pinball machines set up. That’s in a different location, about two or three miles from here.

Marco Ramirez: Paul and I have this conversation every week: "We need another building. We need another building." You know, so we… just keep buying containers.

Paul Mandeltort: They’re really inexpensive these days. Stack them high, make them wide. Yeah, we’re thinking of putting a little swimming pool in one. LOL.