What the frig is a toy room FOR?

Sheesh.

She is imagining things, surely.

2 days

My mom doesn't even notice when my dad brings a new game home. Well that's not entirely true. She'll notice it, and say "what is this?" and we'll say "oh that? We've had that for a while now" and she'll just shrug her shoulders and carry on.

Now, if she catches us unloading it from the car, we're in trouble. But if we sneak it into the house unnoticed, she doesn't even know.

My girlfriend doesn't even live with me and complains sometimes since it can be such a money pit, or because I spend too much time down there. We're long distance so the money "theoretically" should be going towards plane tickets and time towards Skype, which is true, but it's easy enough to just set that money aside and go from there. Otherwise, she's pretty cool about it.

I think if it ever came down to "it's me or the games", like many others here, I would probably go with the games especially since they came first. It's not that I don't love her or that she is worth less (entirely untrue), but if you want to remove such a devout passion from my life that brings me lots of happiness, then do you really love me? Lots of collectors say the same thing, and I've ever heard of people doing just that, they were forced to choose, and they took off with the games. So it's not really her that would cause the split, it's the question specifically itself. And hopefully the question never comes!

Now if it were like "give us all your pinball machines so we can blow them to smithereens or your girlfriend is gonna die", obviously then it is a different story.

My girlfriend is into pinball as well, so I usually tell her whenever I'm going to pick something up/what it is, but one time I had scheduled a pinball pickup, and it was right after an argument so I never got to tell her without making it weird.

Like 4 weeks later...

"Where did this one come from?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, you know, that one time..."

If I had more space and more money, I'm confident that I would have a larger collection of pinball machines, from the 1950's to 2016.

One time my girlfriend (now fiancé) tried to have the "Honey, you already have enough pinball machines" conversation with me, after I had purchased a game at the York Show last year. So I slapped her in the face, like any good 1950s man would do, and made her help me unload the game from my van into the house,** and that was the last time we had "the conversation."***

**I didn't slap her in the face.

***We still have "the conversation."

Tell her you'll gladly take it out and install a stripper Pole

THEN you can keep your games

Do I hear a whip ??????

My wife and i got married not too long ago. After our wedding i took 1100 dollars of our gift money and bought a high speed. Then i told her about it on my way home with it.

Word of advice boys.....its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

"You're going out to buy another game?"
"But I've only bought three this month!"
"what about these two?"
"I bought those the month before, but didn't mention them before" *whistles unsuspiciously*

Good advise!

.

I don't find that amusing at all..

*Yes I do.

Telling my wife I need a helper to get a machine out of the back of my SUV and into the garage and while we're at it, it's only another 10 additional feet farther and up two steps to get to to the foyer where we can set it up and play immediately.
So Man Up!
And help me !!!

I tell my wife that these are investments - collectible pins that either hold their value or appreciate. End of discussion. I've pretty much broken even on the games I've sold.

I wish that is the sort of text I got. Some of the shit is unreal.

Which will mean about JACK F'ING SH... when you have a real argument about money.

*Edit* Not that I expect that you have ANY clue what that's actually like if you really own 47 pins... -_-

wait wait wait.....you didn't just call your girlfriend worthless, did you?
(I'm absolutely just giving you a bad time)

How about coming back with, "Honey, how many pairs of shoes do you have? Don't you have enough?"

Sorry if my jokes were in bad taste. I'm a fan of dark humor.

If only it were that simple... She's a pretty basic person. Very outdoorsy. She has a couple of hiking boots, a pair of sneakers, and some flip flops. Hell, I'm probably higher maintenance than she is.

Also, gentlemen, I'd like to add, that my fiancé is a pole vaulter, and does UFC fight training. If I even thought about a slap, she'd kick my ass into the next decade without breaking a sweat...

Her strength does come in handy: I always give her the heavier end of the pinball machine!

That was my way of saying LOL in your format!

I am sorry gentleman, my wife is like, " If you are going to the Pinabll Convention, be sure to hook onto the trailer!"

My wife helps me move them in. She loves them as much As I do.

Word to the pole vaulting wife.

Confession - I read that as 'previous wife' the first time I read it.

I punch and kick my wife every weekend. She does the same to me. When I do bring another game home, I have noticed she kicks harder.

No lie. We love it as it's part of our martial arts training.

I don't own any yet, but whenever I mention it my husband seems tentative, I may have to beat some sense into him.

Any significant other that has ever privately, publicly, or to her friends crtiticized my hobby is out the door.
Usually immediately after "the talk".

This has been the case over 25 years, and finding good relationships is still easier than finding specfic collector quality titles of machines.

No one has the right to subject others to criticism especially when many women have more than 100 pairs of shoes, and cost as much as a pinball collection.

What more could she want, there is nothing else to do in Midland!

Lake McQueeney. Nice

X1000

Anyone who criticizes my "unusual" hobby/spending doesn't want to know what I think about their "normal" hobbies/spending.
A go f-urself is a good response in this situation.

Wow... different strokes for different folks, I guess, but if this hobby ever came between me and my wife, the hobby would be kicked to the curb immediately.

There's my confession.

My wife figures I work to earn money to pay for 'em - - so she's supportive of me buying them. She also likes to play casually too - so it's doubtful it would ever become an issue. If money were an issue - I'd sell them myself to fund other needs if required for my family. (Also doubtful since it has not been an issue for half a century.)

I've found there are two sides to this and yours is definitely one of them. Different reasonings, I suppose.

Surely if you think of the other way on a basic level without thinking about it, the layman would say "Wow, that's selfish! You weirdo! Don't you care about your wife?", but as in my post, if they want to take away something that means a lot to you, do you want to stay with that? It is not the pinball causing the break up, it's usually the lack of consideration for the hobby coming from her, rather.

i.e. You did not dump her for the machines, you dumped her because she's uncaring.

At the same time, of course, you need to be considerate to them as well - I am not saying that, nor that we get some kind of free pass. Unfortunately apparently considerate to some partners means ridding your life of pinball machines, and I guess what's after that it up to that person. It's truly a balance type of thing and sometimes somebody in the relationship needs a little more pull than push but I don't think that should ever go past a certain point for no good reason. (If there's a good reason, then possibly)

Also, I'm sure there's specific/unique situations that would warrant your side of things as well regardless. Just totally up to the couple.

In addition to the JD topper, the cool VW Bus would look sweet on a Junkyard.

I must say, we all have pretty understanding wives....most of the time. Just wait you younger guys for your wives to enter Menopause....hah...watch out!! Get ready to spend more time with your pins in a very cold room.

Oh, its Brutal !!!

Words of wisdom from Benetboy.

What is the age that it happens? Need to start preparing.

Mine would say "you need to move the games over so I have plenty of room for the pole". (No she has never been a stripper).

LOL! That's a good one. I have a non pinball playing wife, but fully supports this hobby and my others even if she's not into them herself. She never questions anything I buy as she knows I don't buy what I can't afford. But she also has a hobby involving owning two horses. Now that is a hobby that isn't cheap and bleeds money. We both agree not to talk about the money we spend as long as we can afford it. I can put whatever I want in the basement or my small detached garage. But the rest of the house is off limits.

Ahh, those dumb broads! Just give 'em a good faceful o' knuckles and they'll get back to dusting. That'll teach em to enter the man cave.