It is good to be patient in finding one

I don't have a machine. I've always liked pinball but playing The Pinball Arcade revived my interest in the hobby. I don't have a machine yet mostly because of finances and space. I bought a house last year with my wife but there isn't a great spot to put a machine (she said no to putting one in the dining room). I'm still relatively youngish (25), so once I save up enough cash and figure out the space issue I hope to get a machine of my own.

My first pin will probably be in the sub $3k space. I'm not particularly picky, but I like WCS 94, F14 Tomcat, BSD, and T2.
My biggest fear about buying a pin is that I won't be able to stop at 1

Legitimate fear

Yup, they certainly give you "pinball fever" and symptoms include running out of space and money.

I just started collecting about 2 years ago when we moved and got our bigger house, and we made space for 2 machines max. We now have 7, and 3 at my parents' house. Sigh.

Ditto,
Got my first in summer of 2012. Although I have space I also have a tendancy to "Share the love" with 3 at my house, 1 at my Father in laws, and 1 that I just gave my folks. Agreement for the gifts is that I get option to take back if they no longer want them. Might also rotate them...

Amazingly enough, there are a few of us who are not owners. I'm one of them. With one kid in college, another going in a year and debts up the wazoo I don't have the free cash to buy, nor the skills to fix, although everytime I see a TSPP, LOTR or Dr. Who for sale somewhere closeby I get the urge to rack up even more mileage on the ol' home equity line.

Fortunately, in my area (Boston) there are plenty of kind souls who allow this Pinball Beggar (NOT WHORE!!!) to visit their home arcades in exchange for beer, pin-moving work and even unpaid brokerage (I've hooked up several buyers with people selling the machines they wanted).

They do take a bit of real estate which is why they end up appearing in all kinds of places around the house. If you look hard you might be able to find a spot that you didn't know was there. I have seen games set up in dining rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, enclosed garages, detatched sheds, covered porches etc.

If you decide to buy your first one, the biggest advice for picking a spot is to make sure it has conditioned air. This usually means inside an enclosed living area which has running ac and heat or at least a dehumidifier. This is important for preventing corrosion on metal components. All locations mentioned above would be ok except for the porch, which is constantly subject to the umidity outside.

Lots of Pinsiders don't yet own a pin and others have just one. Fortunately you don't need to own one to enjoy them.

I have NO pinball machines..... in one of my bedrooms. Please send me one.

I was a pinball player for two decades before I became a pinball machine owner. I didn't consider myself a lesser fan of pinball then, nor do I now. Pinball machines were all over, though, and I could get my fill as a player dropping quarters in other people's machines.

In some places it's getting very hard to play if you don't have one of your own. I can't recall the last time I saw a location game anywhere near me. It's been ages. If I didn't have mine, I wouldn't have a place to play. That would be sad!

I don't currently own any pins, but I did own 5 back in 1991. I really miss them and Pinball has always been at the back of my mind. I moved from Australia to the states 5 years ago, and I recently got very interested in pins again after discovering that Denver Craigslist has a surprising amount of pins for sale regularly. But most pins were manufactured in the US so it stands to reason that there should be plenty here. I keep thinking to myself that I'd love to buy 1 or more again. We have plenty of room for about 20 pins in our basement which we never use, so if anybody has too many pins in their house and wants me to babysit some for a while, bring em over! I'll treat em real nice.

I don't own any machines. Here in Seattle we are lucky to have dozens of well maintained machines on location. I just don't have the money as a college student to buy any games. If I could, I would buy a couple of the really fun early Bally SS games like Flash Gordon, Skateball, and Frontier. Otherwise, I can pretty much play any WPC or Stern I want somewhere in town. As a tournament player, I more or less have played every good game out there to death so my desire to own a modern game is fairly limited. There is something special about the feeling of making a trip to a location and running into some of your pinball friends there, too. What money I do have usually goes towards traveling to pinball shows and tournaments, anyway. Those are more valuable to me than owning a single game or two. With the games that we have on location in town, I probably manage to play more pinball than most of the people on this site, even the ones who have awesome collections.

I have thought about buying one DMD game and trading it for a new game every two months or so, just to fill in the cracks in my game knowledge. However, I've never actually gone through with that plan as I am not really sure that I want the distraction of having a game at home.

I just bought my first one this weekend - an EM for 600 bucks. I already am looking forward to my first early solid state. God help me.

Make it a poll.

Start making space NOW.( & Excuses). They breed fast.

Once you start collecting pins, which do you run out of first - space or funds? (Or is it a tie?)

space... money replenishes itself...

Nope. Fresh out of college.

at this time I have no machines

I'd imagine anyone living in or around Chicago right now doesn't need to own their own machines unless they're a collector or competitor.

I have none. I Just repair and restore Williams 90 machines. I use to have MM ($6200), 3 AFM ($1600, $2600, $3500), STTNG ($2500), IJ ($3500), TZ huo ($2600) And T2 ($900). That's what I paid for them. Sold them all in 2012. Never really liked playing them. Love working on them though.
Edit: forgot TAF (Don't remember what I paid) and MB ($2800)

You need to drive two hours to Lyons, CO. Plenty of games at Lyons Pinball and they supply many of the local bars with pins too. It would make a good roadtrip one weekend

Not yet. Just finished major reno at home and funds are going to furniture etc. However i know what my first pin will be, a stern nugent that my brother in law is giving me. Been in storage for at least 20 years.

I bet there will be few on here that have zero pins. Before I got my first, I'd occasionally lurk but not having a pin at home, I'd have other things to do. Now that I have 2 plus one I'm storing for my brother, I just can't get enough and it's now really a hobby vs something I just like. Plus, this site is my main way to learn. So Raisindot, don't be afraid of not having the skill to repair one. I bought a JD that has been a PITA since the day I bought it and back then I didn't know how to even open it up. Thanks to this site and somebody I met after I got jD, I've been able to troubleshoot and fix all three machines I have now multiple times. I'll never have more than 3 machines because I simply don't have enough money but I sure would like too

Me. I kicked LOTR to the curb last Saturday. Now I am single and ready to mingle.

None. I put in an order for a WoZ last year and anxiously awaiting its delivery! I realized pretty quickly that getting into this hobby is going to be a lot easier with my fiance on board, and WoZ is an amazing game that she loves playing. Win-win!

Don't worry, having one is totally easy. First, you go out and buy one, totally excited beyond belief that you are about to be an ACTUAL pinball machine OWNER! For me, it was an Indiana Jones. I kept this one for several months (I had room for one in my arcade area which also housed 3 arcade games)

At some point, I found an AMAZING deal on a Space Shuttle pin. Only having room for ONE pin, I did what EVERY pinball machine owner eventually does, I bought it anyway. Somehow, space MAGICALLY appeared. Now I could fit 3 arcades and 2 pins in my home.

2 became 3 and then 4, which is my absolute LIMIT, I sold my arcade machines. So we're fine. But there is a little nook by the stairs, that can fit ONE pin right? CORRECT. 5 pins now.

Then, a deal I couldn't pass up came my way. That nook then fit 2 pins, bringing me up to 6. I decided to restore space Shuttle, so I moved it into the garage and BAM, room for another. So 7.

Ok ok ok, that's too much. But, I got a chance to get a great deal on a 2 for 1 trade, so 7 because 8.

And now, starting on thursday, contractors show up at my house to build a dedicated pinball room capable of housing UP TO 12 pins. So...

Morale of the story is, you can TOTALLY have 0 pins. You can NEVER have only 1.

-Wes

My sentiments go out to all the Pinside non-pin owners. You are all in need of a pintervention.

Plenty of people who have games in their "collection" do not actually own a single game. What ever helps them sleep at night...

I don't understand this. (But then I'm not that smart.) Can you explain why?

What? There's no lying on the interweb. If you read it here it must be true!

The Scores board on this website is full of scores people get on TPA, too. It is what it is.

I don't have a machine. But I'm looking to rectify that soon. Some of my earliest memories as a kid are playing vids and pinballs. I'm just finishing up a Mario Bros arcade and am looking for my first pin project. I was looking for a dot matrix display machine for sure. Maybe a Jurassic park, anything fun! Really. I'm looking for a project, a machine that needs some tlc. Anything floating around these parts?

Exactly the same for me

Don't focus on what games you like.

Make your first game one your wife likes.

That should earn you a couple of mulligans on future games. <--notice the plural form.

I highly suggest filling in your location. If people are local to you and see you're looking you never know who might privately message you to set up a deal. Nice and quiet and easy compared to putting up a public sale, I've done several deals that way.

I have 2 pins. I stalked this and Klov for years before I got my first one. Wanted to make sure I could handle the tech side of pins before I purchased. I think I posted about 2 months before buying to get advice.

I only own a machine because I got a fixerupper cheap. I sold a couple of my video arcade machines to pay for the restore, plus I want the experience.

I had no machine for the first year and a half that I was on here, but I was (and still am) very involved in the emulation scene - Future Pinball, Visual Pinball, MAME, 3dArcade. Got my first machine 51 weeks ago today, and am up to three now. It's true, you can't stop at one.

Thanks for the info. I only recently heard about Lyons Pinball while at the Denver Pinball show last weekend. Hadn't heard of it before. I'm surprised you know that Lyons is 2 hours from my joint. I definitely need to go up there and check it out and have a go in their tournaments, plus meet some Pinsiders. Cheers, Mal

You should totally get an Evel Knievel if you can find one, and remind her of the story behind it! Even if she never plays it, she'll always love that machine (and will be much happier with your hobby to boot!)

Have mercy on your soul

He said at this time... so in another time he had/will.

I must be rarer than the 0 game owner, as I bought my first pin last year and have held tight at 1. OK, it's possible I have been looking for machine 2 recently, though.

No idea. The best is when they give technical advice.
See post about ramp flap. Not saying this user has no machines but they clearly should not be posting technical advice. I am referring to the third post.
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ramp-flap-not-flush-with-playfield-sttng

Yeah, we really need a way to denote that. I cant play TPA at all. I get horrible scores on it most of the time. Sometimes I blow it up though.