I mainly just began dumping any projects I have so I did mostly that, still have a couple. Try to do one in one out now. I am not that a great of a player but my 16 year old son is pretty good, even won our state championship this year so it is fun to go play tournaments with him instead of getting my tail whipped every day by him. Anyway, I am still selling a few and am real close to having only games that are "keepers". Now if I can just find the right WCS 98 to own that I have wanted since I started collecting!

My collection brings me a ton of happiness... when I go through periods of not playing, it waits. When I want to play, it's there. I enjoy banging out some games with people that like to play... totally understand when people could care less about pins.

Life's short: I like to focus on the happiness it brings.

I will say this: if Pinball ever brought me anxiety, uncontrolled impulses... or if it caused issues with family OR financial health. The collection would be gone at the drop of a hat.

I see a couple games I could use....

Never.

I always feel like selling some of them though.

Ha! I sent him a pm yesterday saying effectively the same thing...I'm sure he's received several similar messages after starting this thread. He's got three or four games I'd love to buy that he didn't list in his top five.

I've thought about selling them all, retiring and just living off the interest.

Yet...here I am...at work.

That’s reason enough to stay in! Cool to read that’s a driver for you.

Never had a serious thought of selling. In fact, from the moment I bought my first pin about 8 years ago (TOM), I was hooked. If anything, the speed at which I grew the collection accelerated geometrically as time passed. I too have had some other fun hobbies – competitive shooting (IPSC), cars, music collecting (had 4,000 lps at one time) and others BUT Pinball is leagues above the others for these reasons:
- I love to work on them, fix them, restore them, mod them and hunt those elusive parts
- I like to learn the history and minute details of the people and times in which they were created
- I love the “hunt” for that next title
- I enjoy playing and do so most nights for at least a game or 2
- My favorite part is sharing the collection with others and watching the smiles on their faces as they play
I will tell you that when stress and the tough parts of life hit (and they have), there have been segments of time where Pinball took a back seat – as it should. Nothing is more important than family, health, friends, etc. But when that intense period has passed, I look to pinball for distraction and comfort to help get me over those times

So where am I headed?
I’ve bought just under 50 titles in 8 years but only sold 3 (wish I had 2 of those back now)
Out of 43 games I own, 41 are in perfect working order (as close as any PB can be!). Of the other 2 one will be working very soon (gotta get moved in first – see below) and I have one “true project” that’s an EM.

I’m 110% committed to the hobby and am almost finished building my new home that was purposefully designed with Pinball in mind. It will hold up to 50 games. I am also completely comfortable with that fact no matter who might say it’s “crazy” – it does not feel crazy at all and if I’m nuts, at least I’m happy about it.
Gameroom “crazy” build thread here …

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gameroom-advice

Mitch i know how you feel. Just take a little break. I have been collecting 26 years and sometimes feel tired. In the end i am always glad i have the collection. Maybe take it easy on the projects. Get what you have set up immaculate. Then pick off one at a time.

Hi,

I can empathize. It can feel like a chore after awhile. Anything broken or unclean digs at my psyche.

I get "in your shoes" occasionally, then the next day lament I don't have enough space to keep buying more.

One thing that may be helpful, don't go down to the game room all the time.
When I do, I put on music I love, fire up some booze, and just get lost in it all. Make it more of an occasion than a daily objective

Any time I have company over they fall into two categories:

1) Why do you need so many pinball machines? Shouldn't you buy furniture? (traditional female response)

2) Holy shit dude, this is awesome!

I favor the latter....

Mitch, I met you about 8 months ago when you started your quest for classic Sterns and blew all of us away with what you assembled in the matter of a couple of months. I viewed your pics of when you were building your game room. You have done a fantastic job.

Now.....it is time to take a break. Go fishing for a few days. Or now that summer is near kick back by the swimming pool. Chill.

I have to ask: was your Fire! the one that survived??

Pinball can certainly get you down if you are constantly having to repair them. As mentioned above...it can feel like a chore. I know that some people enjoy the tinkering, but I just want to play...not fix/repair pins non-stop.

I also feel that a lot of us hobbyists/collectors get so caught up in it all, that we don't take enough time out for for other things. Spend some time going out with friends, visit some family, take a few days to relax, pop out of town for a bit, go to church.

My wife says i "collect collections." Unfortunately, I have seen this happen to many people in various hobbies. I feel that the ultimate answer is that some collectors get too caught up in a hobby that simply cannot provide emotional, spiritual, and familial support. Becoming consumed by something isn't healthy.

I can confirm this, seen it many times.

Last league night I hosted I was missing a couple small parts for an old em. One text to Mitch and he had the parts in hand when he showed up for league.

When a game breaks down on league night? Mitch is the first guy at the game, taking the glass off.

My only complaint about Mitch is, he used to live 5 minutes from me and he had the nerve to move further away!

I have been in the hobby for decades. Sometimes I take a little breather from it. But always find a good stress release when get a few beers and go into the basement with 20 plus machines set up. What I find is that you get on a roll. I will play one game a lot and leave the others idle for a while. Then next month play a different game.

What I like, when you have friends or family over they can hang out down there all afternoon. I know not all of them are working but that is why there are more than 20 machines to pick from. If you have 1 or 2 and they go down then you have stress. When one goes down today they can turn off and play a different game

Yes it was!, It was the last one I had bought, by the exit door and still folded up, still need to buy a system 11a lol

Only the Shadow knows... that you are in the wrong thread.

This is why pins are better then horses for a hobby. With pins, you can turn them off, walk away for awhile, and then come back. With horses, you still have to feed them-----everyday. Whether you go riding, or not.

Pins can be better than boats. No gas to buy. No licenses to buy. No insurance to buy. No property tax.

Pins can be better than owning a classic car. Reasons? See above.

curious, what all was lost in the fire?

Once I buy something, I'll likely never sell it.

I love fixing machines as much if not more than playing them. At times, I wish something would go wrong, so I'd have something to fix. That sounds kind of twisted.

Uhm I have like 20 that need fixed. You want to come on over?

So get your ass over there and buy it! You're closer than I!

I love to work on machines too, but not always. The worst is when you just want to get a game in and you notice something off or wrong while in the middle. Machine off, walk upstairs because Id smash the thing if I could....lol

Think i will never sell any of them (already told my son the today's value, so he has some pocket change when my time comes )

My first pin i got 35 years ago, bought my collection dirt cheap back in the day.
They are in my gameroom at my attic
Sometimes i play them daily, and sometimes i won't touch them for months. But they are always there, and i can pick up where i left.

Leave them alone for awhile, you will be drawn back, i am sure

Hay now!

Will never sell them. I think if I sold them all, my wife would grab the cash for something else (and her crap sucks).

You're a cool guy Mitch. We need people like you in this hobby. Stick around.

I've thought of it quite a few times for three main reasons:

1. Burnout. After tournaments, I sometimes don't play for a long time and wonder about just playing on location.

2. Space. Could use the space for a proper theatre room in the basement.

3. The market. I believe we are in a bubble. If I sold it all now and took a break, there's a good chance saturation would bring process down by quite a bit, making it easy to buy back in.

I usually come to the conclusion that I just need a Future Spa, even though I have no room for it. When I'm feeling anxious, I'll just go to the spa and relax...

No not really; Although I thought aboot selling some after driving a Tesla.

There's nothing else to use my basement for anyway...I'd rather just board it up and come back in a few years. Been playing pinball all my life...don't see it stopping now.

Just starting off collecting now (have a breeding pair), but i just think that i have money in the bank that i just see numbers when i do my banking every day.
I can invest some of that money in a whole bunch of pinballs that will probably always be worth about what i'm buying them for and maybe more on some of them that i and my friends can get amazing enjoyment out of.

That's just better sense to me at 55 years, i haven't got a lot of time left. So it's just a comparison of a bunch of numbers on a screen or a room full of functional art.
Easy choice.

Sounds like you have a lot of time invested in the hobby, maybe give it a rest for a bit and find another hobby or activity for the summer. I personally don't really touch my pins all summer as the wife and I are always camping, hiking, biking, paddle boarding etc. Maybe take a vacation?

what-about-bob (resized).jpg

I’ve been “in this” for over a decade, and the “magic” is definitely gone. I still like pinball, but I think I could sell off most of my games and not lose any sleep over it. As with any interest, the more you accumulate, the less you truly enjoy. No one really has time to play with all the things they collect. It basically becomes hoarding & just stuff taking up space. I recently sold 3 to make room for my soon-to-be-baby ...and if we need more space, I’ll gladly sell a few more. I barely play anymore anyway, definitely won’t with a baby! I think no matter what your personal situation, less is more in almost every aspect of life. I have 22 machines right now. I barely play them. If I had 5 or 10, how would things be different? I’d prob play them more, actually lol.

Are you going to sell your GBLE?

Fell off hard in 08, down to my last $60k, sold the pins & couple cars to scrounge up another 40, bought $10 worth of bitcoin for an $8 pizza and went white knuckle all in on the stock market with $99,990 and now I’m filthy rich....1 example was a mint huo lotr I sold for $4400 which was somewhat recently sold here on pinside by someone who claimed to be the second owner...funny because I was the second owner 12 years ago and how many times did it probably sell in that timeframe? That game has probably been sold by the “second owner” 3-4 times...I’m not sure what in the hell point I’m trying to make here other than I’m a douchebag...

I divorced in 2018 and lost the desire to do anything pinball related and sold all my games. I had some nice ones I miss (MMR, LOTR, BSD). I recently purchased a POTO I’m going to do a full restoration on. Will see how it goes..

This thread has inspired me to sell off all my project games that are just collecting dust in the garage. Time for a clean break.

I've been down to zero pins a couple times in the last few years. It's liberating for a short time then you start missing having a game to play. I don't need anything fancy but like to have something to bang around on once in awhile.

I've owned pins at home since 2003 and I've grown my collection pretty methodically over the years and have never burned out or gone crazy buying a bunch at once or anything.

My wife and I are thinking about buying a place in the Caribbean in a few years and that sorry of tempts me to sell them, but I know I would miss them.

I still have fun playing and typically play at least a couple of games 4-5 days a week.

That sucks, dude! But think of it this way--better to find out now than years down the road after wasting more of your life with someone who no longer appreciates you.

I just got a divorce (my choice) and increased my pinball collection from 2 to 9 (including, like you, a RF, AFM, and TS). And a 10th is coming soon (HGOT). My ex hated pinball, which isn't why I left her, but now I can buy whatever the fuck I want, and I have SO much more disposable income!

I truly hope you rediscover your passion for pinball. If you decide to sell the WH2O down the road, I'm looking for one.

For years I said I would never sell any of them. Then, I sold one and it was easy. What a relief. Sold or gave away more. Can't wait to downsize the home and fully retire. Will keep 1 or 2 pins and a few slots and Bally Wulff wall slots.

Funny. I just got done with some cleaning and repairs. Saw this thread again. And really have that feeling.

LTG : )

I like projects. Shipping any to AK? Just kidding

Buffalo is a short drive away. I bought my Whitewater in Toronto.

De sw, BOP, gameshow, lw3, Ft, pinbot

Thanks. I tell myself that every day. Honestly, things could be a lot worse. She's healthy, I'm healthy, we both have good careers, and while the separation was in no way mutual, we didn't spend a ton of money on a wedding, didn't buy a house yet, don't have kids to worry about, and our possessions were super easy to split. It's just a shitty emotional situation for me, and one I never thought in a million years I thought I'd have to deal with.

Still, I'm happy to see the games I've sold go to good homes so far. I'll keep a few, but this is good a time as any to take a small break from pinball and take care of myself for a while.

Bummer