Rides that are more than 30 years old are hard to place on the used-ride market. What are the alternatives?
 
WHEN RIDES ARE MORE THAN 30 YEARS OLD
by Enrico Fabbri
 
As many of you know, for many months now I’ve been dealing on a full time basis with the sale of used rides, both in Europe and in the rest of the world.  Thanks to my contacts with many operators, I am now able to summarise the situation, and I would like to use this space to present some conclusions. It is well-known that a used ride’s market value depends on many factors, the most important of which are:
- the model of ride;
- how well-known the manufacturer is;
- the age of the ride.

The first point is the most important: there are models that have achieved great success and therefore are in demand, and this increases the value of the used ride too. The second point is also fundamental: operators know that the quality of design and construction changes from manufacturer to manufacturer. Very similar rides may be made by different manufacturers and have a different value.

We now come to the third point. So far, operators have been used to considering rides as having a market value that decreased progressively over time, down to zero only when the ride was no longer able to be used, due to its age. Over 25-years-old rides were still able to be sold in Arab-speaking countries, in Central and South America and in some Asia countries. Today things have changed: the majority of these countries now purchase many new children’s rides from China, and when choosing medium/large attractions, also prefer new ones (above all in Asia), or alternatively want used ones that are no more than 15 years old.

On the European market there are currently many rides operating that have been in use for more than 25/30 years, and these are progressively losing their value. They all have the right to be operated as long as appropriate maintenance and inspection are carried out. The problem is that these operations are sometimes very costly, and therefore it is worth carefully evaluating the cost-effectiveness of special maintenance operations, considering above all that these costs probably will not be recouped in selling the ride.  Special maintenance operations include all the reasonable upgrades recommended by the new standards, which represent the reference points for the inspectors who check the rides every year.  These aspects therefore lead me to believe that currently a ride that is over 30 years old can be considered to have a market value of zero, and should therefore be scrapped. This is not a pleasant thought, however it is a logical one, and is similar to what happens with many other ‘machines’ on the market, such as cranes. The more a ride undergoes dynamic stress (movement, and thus fatigue), the shorter its life will be.

Clearly, these conclusions may not apply to those who own an historical ride, such as a classic horse carousel kept in perfect working order. My considerations do however apply to the majority of rides such as dodgem cars, Hully Gully, Tagada, Airplane Ride, Soiuz, etc.…, in other words, the attractions that were in fashion until the early 1980s.
So what can be done? The work of operators is evolving in Italy too. Some are becoming more professional and replace attractions more regularly, thanks to government incentives, travelling abroad in search of funfairs and reselling their rides after a short time in order to purchase the latest model. My recommendation to operators is therefore to change their attractions in time, as once they exceed a certain age their international market value drops dramatically and it becomes harder to accept the considerable costs involved.

 

 

 

Written by Mr. Enrico Fabbri enrico@fabbrirides.com
Article originally published in Games Industry (Italy) magazine
Original date: June 2016

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