Four or Five $1000 to $1500 games if you have the room.

don't buy the first thing you see would be my first tip... I would say a higher dollar machine would be good just for the fact it should be in better condition and less hassle... but that's not always true... I have a couple machines that I paid less than 1600 for and it's just been small fixes... but then I have some over 3k that I've had to do the same things too... it might be best to also budget some repair dollars in there... maybe not think of the whole 5-6k as machine money good luck with whatever you decide to do.

I would stick to no more than 2 machines in pretty good shape.
You can certainly stretch the budget and find 3-4 machines but you would likely be getting quantity vs quality and, in the end, not very happy.

If you were willing to go with an EM or maybe an early pre-DMD solid state (something not as expensive as FH) you could squeeze 3 games out of it.

My recommendation at your budget would be something like Fish Tales to start ($1500-$2000) and maybe one other sold B-list title like TS, JM, CONGO... maybe even a reasonably priced WH2O to go along side the FT
Most of the games you've listed would be well within the budget too.

Good luck!

My first thing would be condition of the game, with that said, buy the ones you really like playing...i have three pins behind me right now that i paid 17.5K for and yes i like them, but i was at a buddy's place and played Lethal Weapon 3 that he paid 1200K for and i loved it..i may get one when i finish my basement which i am currently working on...

What about decorating your new game room? Depending upon what kind of space you have, you might want to make it a man cave. If that's the case, you might want to save a little money for stuff besides pins.

Do you know much about maintenance and repair? If not I would say 2 maybe 3.

Interested in reading responses to this one myself. Having sold my may collection years ago, I am now ready to rebuild with a similar budget.

I'm sure I'm stating the obvious here but unless you don't mind shipping costs & buying on faith, you'll be limited by what comes up for sale within driving distance. Make a larger list of machines you might be interested in & keep your eyes peeled. Keep enough cash on hand & be the first to a potential deal. Don't be TOO picky about little things, but don't hesitate to walk away after a long drive either if the machine isn't worth the price.

#1.. Just as an example, I dig the solid state pins & system11's from the 70's & 80's. This makes it easy for me to ignore everything else & keeps me focused on more specific segments of the market. In a sense, my theme is a time period rather than an art/movie/sports/music theme. It just so happens these are pins I also love to play. Win-win for me.
#2.. I have 3 pins in good/great condition & one that's a little rough. I won't be buying anymore beaters & will hold out for good condition from now on. Even machines in good shape will require maintenance & little things will break. You'll gain experience/confidence as you go. Save yourself the frustration of owning a flogged game until you are advanced enough to tackle such things.

You can usually only buy one machine at a time so try to start with something in the 1k to 2k range and see where it goes. It can take months to land 4 or 5 good pins in that price range.

Someone mentioned Fish Tales. There are two of them around western PA on craigslist, one for $2000 and the other for $1900. Not in perfect shape but not bad or anything. I thought those were fair prices.

This title has potential!

2-3 90's DMD machines would be what I would do......for sure.

Look at - HSII, Congo, JD, JM, BSD, DM, WCS, JP, FT, DH, DW, W?D, T2.

Condition is everything IMO. Don't buy junk just because you can.
Themes are only good for those with large enough collections, space and money to worry about that. Besides, you would be missing out on a lot of good games because it is not a _______.
Buy what you think is fun or is a good enough deal you can sell it when you tire of it, which may be immediately.

Since you have the room, I would get at least one from each era. Get a 90's DMD pin (or two), a late 80's/sys11 SS pin, and an early 80's SS. Also if you can mix up styles, some stop and go and one with flow. This way you get some variety give you time to save up more money for more expensive pins if that is your interest.

No matter how great a pin is, if you only have one, you will eventually get tired of it.

For example:

Fish Tales
TFTC
Swords of Fury
Black Knight

For $6,000 you could get about 3 B or Cs, depending on deals. Don't bother with theme for machines, you will grow out of that quickly.

I go against the grain here, buy whatever. I have bought so many machines on never playing and not knowing anything about them, and half my collection is made up of machines in this category.

They all breakdown sooner or latter. Becoming a bit of a pinball tech is just part of the territory.

You can always send parts out to be fixed or even have someone come to your home for repairs but it's really not that bad (most of the time) to DIY.