I am definitely an equal of both. I was probably more of a collector/fixer at one time (especially in the arcade scene as I played those less), but now with so many pinball machines it's nice when nothing is breaking and I definitely take advantage of that!

I actually had most of them taken apart in my garage gameroom, then when I got about the 6th pin or so I started to take advantage of my warm, heated basement and brought them all down in the same day one day. And that was amazing. Because all of these felt like brand new games again and some of them I hadn't even gotten the chance to set up and play yet! And putting them all in their rows together for the first time, etc., was a really great thing. I played them so much that day and that was probably the day my "player" amount went up.

Playing wise, I love the constant "battle" of keeping an EM in play which also really drew me to them after I entered the hobby looking to collect solid-state machines primarily. It took a little while but then I was hooked. I love the quick, fast games that usually don't last very long. You either kick its ass or it kicks yours - no waiting periods!

Not everybody who restores flips their games, a lot of them put TOO MUCH money into their restorations for their keeper machines... so yes, still a cash cow

Enjoying them forever vs. enjoying them forever

*cough* GRC *cough*

That was... odd. Not sure what else I would say.