Pittsburgh, PA
Collecting pinball machines at this point seems so obvious for me and yet I fell into the hobby completely by accident. All of the ingredients were already there for me to love the games. My first job when I was 16 was at the local mall working at the arcade. I was the kid who was more interested in watching people play the games than getting any actual work done. I may have given away a few free games just to see what would happen next. I always gravitated to the pinball machines myself when I had free time and wasn't on the clock. South Park was my favorite pin and I thought to myself how great it would be to own one. My hobby in my teens was actually collecting comic books, and I had quite the collection by the time I cashed out. Ironically, I got out of the hobby because I couldn't afford the several thousands of dollars the comic books that I wanted cost.
My passion for pinball was dormant for about 18 years when my boss at my job asked me if I wanted to go to an estate sale with him. I agreed out of sheer boredom, but I was shocked when I got there that there was a pinball machine available for sale. I couldn't even comprehend how cool it was that someone had a pinball machine in their house. I asked the woman running the sale how much it was and she said that she, "wasn't sure," but that she knew that it was really rare and would go for a pretty penny. The game was Gemini by Gottlieb and one of only 300 made. They had a tag on it that said one had recently sold online for $7,200. I asked her if she could turn it on, which she obliged, but that game wouldn't start up and wasn't working. I had no idea what to think and went back to work with nothing to show for my first estate sale. When I got home that night I started to do research online and was amazed at how much I didn't know. What was an EM? If I bought it who would work on it for me? I didn't end up buying the machine but it got my mind racing.
After a few weeks worth of looking I bought my first Solid State game off of Craigslist, a really nice Solar Ride. I really enjoyed it, but as with a lot of things in life, I wanted bigger and better. South Park was my holy grail, and my wife was kind enough to let me buy one when she was pregnant with our first child. Her argument was that I wouldn't be able to splurge for awhile so I should just get what I really wanted. After awhile I found a Data East Simpsons on EBay and convinced her that the Simpsons side by side with South Park was too good to pass up. She agreed. Did I mention that I love my wife yet? When she got pregnant with our second daughter I got yet another pin. We agreed at that point that we couldn't have more kids just to get more pins so she let me off the hook. The rest as they say is history. I've had a NIB stern, a SS Solar ride, and everything in between. All over the course of less then five years. I sort of stumbled into the hobby by accident but I couldn't be happier.
