Hi Josiah and welcome,

I am afraid it doesn't get any better, or not with me at least. Even though I know I don't need any more pins right now or even have room for them, I keep looking. Checking craigslist, Pinside, and taking trailers to shows in case I need to bring one or more back. I have a lot of fun doing it though. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Yup, your screwed just like the rest of us lol

The simple answers are....yes your screwed.

You will calm down a bit after you have filled your home with the maximum amount of machines you can fit in it. But them the real hard part starts, what do you sell to buy the next one?? It will continue over and over again. You will slow down, curb the insanity, but never will it stop unless you quit.

Good Luck

Welcome Pinhead...it's a great hobby, only advise I can give you is to play before you buy.

30 years here. Still hooked.

you haven't even began fooling around with LEDs, sound, leg protectors, etc..

It only gets better once you have filled up ALL available space AND you are out of cash.

Then you slow down IME, YMMV

Welcome to the asylum. Straight jackets with the pinside logo are on order.

Took me about 5 years to chill out and slow down. Probably will never leave the hobby though, pinball addict for life..

While that is awesome advice,
I currently own 3 working machines all purchased within the last year or so and I played none of them beforehand. 2 were working that I bought from a "guy" with a good rep and the other was non-working that I "rescued" from a divorce.

So you can get lucky if you take a chance, but be sure to try and do as much due diligence beforehand that you can.

Luck & enjoy!

So very true. I am thinking about that a lot lately. I like everything I have, but I am out of room and another pin will be on the way in a few weeks.

First step...ditch the pool table...

Prediction: In a few years the pool table will be gone and you'll have seating for 2.

i was gonna say it but i'm too late, ok then, sofa's gotta go!

enjoy this new sickness, congrats on the pin.

Congrats on your first pin and welcome to the addiction. It's like eating potato chips you can't just have one.

Even when your out of space it doesn't stop. Especially if you love unique and rare games like I do, because then you have to buy them when they show up.

Take two Pinside posts and call me in the morning

I had my limit at 1 machine, because I had "no room". The one machine - High Speed - had to sit tucked away in the corner of my dining room, and it did for awhile.

Fast forward to today, look at me go! Metallica Tron AND High Speed all in the dining room, with Meteor, Firepower, and two Viza War project machines in the garage! Simply removing unnecessary furniture from the dining room (ie - all of it) and parking outside in the snow and rain has allowed for a 600% increase in the number of pins I should own!

here we go...

It's like watching puppy love all over again!

"And they call it 'Pinball Love..."

Yes.

IMHO, it's about a $1500 to $1800 game.

Only two weeks with your first one and you are looking at another one.

I find it comes in waves. I'll go on a binge for a few weeks and look for machines and then I sit back and other priorities come into focus. I play what I have and sometimes I even go a month without playing. Then all of a sudden the bug comes back and I get back into it.

Usually its a wave of
1. Get the idea for a machine
2. Research the crap out of the machine
3. Try to play the machine
4. Search for the machine and buy it
5. Play the machine
6. Mod the machine
7. Back to step 1

Rinse and repeat. I've only been in the hobby since May of last year and I have six machines and counting...

I forgot.... between 5-7 is

Break the machine and Fix the machine

Surfs up!

Welcome to the insanity. Not sure you're aware but there's a pretty prolific collectors group in the Seattle area. They have a forum, Washington Pinball Crazies, that you can join (if you're not a member already). You might be able to find your dream machines through them.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WPC_2006

Welcome to the addiction. I'm less than a year in and have 8 games now. My advice if you want to slow down is to figure out your wishlist, keep it small, and only go for the games on it. Don't give in and buy every cheap game that pops up on craigslist, or do and have fun!

What about fix things that aren't broken? I'm pretty good at that...

It only gets worse from here. Welcome to "the sickness."

Hope ya got LOTS!!! of money and empty space...your gonna need both of them for all the new games you gonna buy. Welcome to the Pinsanity...I mean forum.

For sure. I'm more of the "It wasn't broke til I tried to fix it" type

What? There's a hard-to-reach #45 bulb that works perfectly well? I better get in there and swap it out for a #47 and break stuff along the way! Otherwise how would I spend my free time?

Hello fellow Northwesterner! My wife grew up in Ferndale and her parents still live there so we are up there often. The good thing about networking with people that live close is that trades are a very viable option. Even if the trade isn't permanent. Swap a machine of equal value for a few months just to try it out. So if you do pick up the T2 at some point, you may want to try out my T3 for a while.

Yeah, it is a pretty hard habit to kick. For me, it is about the cash. Otherwise, I would have many more machines than the 2 I have.I have started to get the itch again(sorta like Acampero says, it comes in waves). Currently in the market for a BSD, FT , Indy 500 or on the higher end, a Family Guy.

The sickness never abates. Your only hope is to turn to other expensive hobbies like I accidentally did with saltwater aquariums. I never had much money (or much time) for pinball after I got into that hobby. After 12 years I sold my 125g reef aquarium this summer and my pinball fever is back in full force. My wife WAS happy when the tank left but now remembers what I was like before I started it lol.

Hercules is a huge mistake. this was just a normal sized mistake

Yup your screwed man.As one who has gone through 10 pins in one year its the worst/best addiction.Hope your area is a little more forgiving than ours.

Started a little over a year ago, own nine, have sold three others, it truly is a disease, bought most of mine without having played them previously, and has worked well for me. I look for deals and not specific titles and if I like them they stay. Enjoy the addiction.

Your only limits will be money and maybe space. Best way to not get addicted to something is not to start at all, LOL.

Repeat after me. I've never broken anything...it was always 'the idiot that had it before me'.

Your only limits will be money and maybe space. Best way to not get addicted to something is not to start at all, LOL.

wargames-quote-not-to-play.jpg

Welcome to the addiction. Great first machine!

I went from "Eh...I suppose I could spend $400 on a Cragslist machine--I used to play them a lot growing up" to having 6 (creatively-financed) machines over the course of one year. And I hope you follow a similar path!

Get yourself to one of the big pinball festivals ASAP. That'll permanently lock in your sickness.

Ain't that the truth!