Got hooked on pinball in 1989 well before this newfangled internet madness.
Machines were found via the classified in the local rag. Got a large part of my
collection that way. Back then there was almost no advice about how to fix them
and that resulted in two thing; you had to figure it out yourself and broken
machines were plentiful and cheap. Especially SS pin like series 1 and 80 Gottliebs
and early SS Williams. It was not unusual to get 2 or 3 'new' pins a week locally.
That was FUN!
Is it better now? In some ways. We get to share our experiences and help each other
out. But machines are MUCH harder to find and WAAAAAY more expensive.
Back in the early internet days there was a news group called 'rec.games.pinball'
and that was very active as early as the Darpa net.
Steve