Quoted from volcanolotus:I'm thinking about becoming a pinball owner, but looking for advice from some people with more experience.
I'm looking at solid state machines, mostly from last century, and debating whether it makes sense to pick a certain generation and focus on the games within it rather than just buying my absolute favorites regardless. I know that there ARE benefits to specializing - overlap in parts, similar schematics, etc. - but what I don't know is how big of a difference it makes in the real world.
I guess what I'm asking is, is Whitestar vs System 3 vs WPC more like, say, PC vs Mac in terms of hardware, or is it more like Ford vs Subaru vs Lotus? How often (and in what ways) are the board/part overlaps beneficial? And how close does it have to be for knowledge transfer/material overlap to benefit - are WPC-S pretty much the same as WPC-95? What about those two compared to System 11, or the later DE boards that borrowed a lot from System 11?
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
It is a benefit if you are going to have a large collection. At one time I had a complete "set" of early SS Williams pins. I had all the system 6 and all the system 7 games, as well as the system 9s (all 3). 
The ability to swap boards and parts between games is helpful in getting games running, or if you have multiple games at a show and something breaks down...you have spares to get them back up and running again. I didn't start out collecting just that system to begin with...it was more I wanted 1 Williams game from every year in the 80's (because that's what I grew up playing in the arcades)...but after the first couple I was hooked and couldn't stop! (You know what they say about can't have just 1!) Anyway I say that if you are going to have a large collection it is beneficial to have multiples of a specific system. On the other hand...as someone mentioned before variety is the spice of life! I have since traded a few games off to add some DMDs and even sold some to get first NIB for hubby for his birthday (2013 MET). but our collection is still early Williams SS heavy and that isn't going to change much except for I will get some that I have in storage awaiting restore finished and back in the lineup...They still hold the same appeal that they did originally. Still love them but also enjoy the variety that we currently have in our collection.
Phoebe
