Been thinking on ways to gain passive income on the side. So far vending machines seem to be the best bet. There are 3 types I can go with.

Drink and snack auto venders. Pros: every body wants food. Accepts cash coins and card. Cons: very heavy would require a uhaul to move. Requires electricity. Lots of moving parts and maintenance. EXPENCIVE. $5000 brand new.

Arcade games: something like a claw machine pros: it’s a money sink. Every failure means more money for you. With out the loss of product. Most accept cash. Cons: also very heavy. Requires electricity. A lot of moving parts but less maintenance.

Candy dispenser: like an old school gum ball machine. Pros: light. Easy to maintain. very little moving parts. Requires no electricity. Cons: only takes coins. Possible theft.

By far I think the easiest way to gain what truly feels like passive income would be the candy dispenser.

I won’t need to siphon electricity making it easier to get a yes from the holder. setting it up and removing it won’t be as much of a hassle. I could easily have like 50 of these things just lying about.

From what I’ve seen to fill it up it fully costs roughly $20-40 (with candy not gum balls) for a 3 tub machine. I think the single tub machines are the best bet. Less maintenance. And cheaper to obtain. The singles seem do be only $100 where as a brand new triple tub design is about $1000. Easier to fill. It’ll pay for itself in no time. I’m going to want to set up a ton of them. If I can get 10 for $1000 instead of 1. That’s much safer.

Any theft or breakage won’t be a major setback.

You can buy gum balls in bulk for 4 pennies a gum ball. 850 for about $30. Gum balls come out 1 at a time. So it’s 1-1 coin vs. gum ball. making it easier to track my finances. and not pay an accountant. They have a 2 year shelf life. thus I wont have to replace expired product. Flipping that 850 for 25 cents a gum ball is $212.50-30= $182.50 in profit. Gum balls aren’t food. Thus a restaurant wouldn’t mind them.

It doesn’t compete with, nor cost a damn thing for the owner of a store to hold on too.

All I have to do is check them, fill them, and clean them once a month.

most places would like a commission meaning a certain amount of sales goes to whatever store I leave them in. %10 seems typical.

TL;DR

once people start eating my balls. I'll never have to worry about money again.