Yes, pinballs wear out and get ruined. But quality replacements are only about $2 or less a pop. Leaving scratchy ones in too long can damage the playfield, ramps, and other features.

Don't sweat it, buy in bulk.

Now was there another question?

I never thought that owning a pinball machine would make me fall out of love with it and my wife.

Finally I thread everyone can agree on!

Pinball table owners, we are a fickle bunch…

Life is not static.

Ride the wave. Enjoy.

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Uggh. "Table".

Funny story:

I got a T2 because it was close and I had an open lineup spot. I FULLY expected to play it a bit and then flip it, but I loved the call outs...so I kept it awhile longer. I've thought about selling it a couple of times since...but it makes me smile every time I play it. I've now had it for
3 and a 1/2 YEARS

Snap! Stupid autocorrect..

I look at it this way. Owning a pin is like having a child.

After 1 pin or 1 child, you want another one.

Then you have your 2nd pin or 2nd child…..up to 3, then 4……..but no one has 20+ kids……

Trying to seriously answer your question . . . yes . . . you can grow tired of a pin you bring home even though at one time you said to yourself, "This is the best one I've ever played! I'll never get rid of it!!!"

I've owned over 50 pins and almost all were the top named ones on any must have list. I couldn't wait to get my "Medieval Madness Remake" and spent a pretty penny for it. After 3 months I became tired of it because I knew how to beat it.

To make this short, I would just park a pin for months and go to others and play them until I grew weary of them too. Each evening, I went into my pinball room and played a different pin, rotating through them all. By the time I got to the first one I played (weeks later), it seems sort of new to me and I rediscover some fascinating features about them.

I was obsessed with buying NIB pins! But after a heart procedure and now in my late 70's, I sold them all because I was afraid my wife would just give them away when I died, for she would have no idea of the value of any of them! I sure do miss them!!! Especially, Fish Tales, Avatar, Walking Dead, Junk Yard, Wizard of Oz, Dracula, Frankenstein, Goldeneye and hell, so many more!!!

Mike in Kentucky

No.

Next thread.

So, you're saying autocorrect changed "machine" to "table"?

I don't think of it as much about getting tired of a game, although that can happen, it's more like I try to play machines at arcades that I don't have and would not likely ever own. Sometimes, I even play machines at arcades I don't like because I'm trying to give them more of a chance to click with me. The more machines you enjoy playing, the more joy there is to harvest from this hobby.
We got a Zilla premium about a year ago. It really is the best overall game ever made, IMO, and I didn't want to tire of it quickly. So I played our other machines more (particularly JB007 - which is my fav). Recently, I've been playing the Zilla a lot more and it's been a cool experience to fall in love with it a 2nd time, in a manner of speaking. That happens, too: machines we played years ago can come back to us fresh and new, falling in love all over again. Sounds like the title of a 70s love song...

I disagree. Having no children has allowed me to afford almost 20 pins. I have been told by a pinhead who had 130 pins at his house that 130 is too many, mostly because he doesn't have enough time to play them all.

To answer OP's question, do what makes you happy. Don't overthink it. If you are bored with a pin trade or sell it, you can always buy it again if you miss it later on. If you want a new one, buy it if you can afford it.

Only risk I have experienced is it can become addictive buying, selling, fixing, playing, ect. I love it all and everytime I think about selling a pin I some how end up with 2 more instead. Eventually you will run out of space and/or $.

A pinball table is a table that has pinballs. Tables that have pinballs would not be pinball tables without pinballs in these tables. It is important to remember that these pinball tables need new pinballs in these tables now and then so be sure to often replace the pinballs in these pinball tables.

I rotate between my pinballs and really don’t get tiered of them. I tend to keep them for years.

Is was all I could come up with.
I guess table is an unknown curse word? I prefer machine, due to the vast and varied mechanics involved, but have read so many here refer to them as tables.
But I can admit that I don’t claim to know anything about the pin language although I have had a ‘working’ pinball machine inside my home for 32 years now. I will bow out.

Just ignore the table haters. It was called that long before most of them were into pinball or even around.

What's really annoying is calling them "pins". Yeah something you hit with a bowling ball and a feature most pinball machines or tables haven't used in decades.

I'm a completionist so owning a pin is the way I enjoy them. It took me 2 years to get every leaderboard entry in DP. I'm not sure JP will ever be ruined for me. I'm a year in and still haven't beat all the wizards and still haven't started trying to collect fossils.

FAttie threads:

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A table is flat.

A pinball machine isn't.

Therefore, not a table.

The only thing worse is calling a pizza a "pie."

Sure is a lot of bitching around here when one discovers their ‘pin’ isn’t flat

What a thread....

I'm almost 4 years on pinside, and I've created ZERO threads.
I should win a good neighbour Prize.
Your Welcome.

I guess neither is a drafting "table".

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It's just one of those things that is cringy to the overwhelming majority of collectors. Kind of like when someone finds out that you collect pinball machines, and then they lay the old "You must be a pinball wizard!" line on you.

Anyway, no worries. You do you. I'm just breaking down where the "uggh" from tomdrum comes from.

Tell you what. I'll stop calling them tables when everybody else stops calling them pins. How bout machines or pinball machines.

These are pins. Is that something we can all agree on?

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Personally I call them my precious investments

Now you are really going to irritate some of the people around here.

Nah, number of games played before too familiar roughly the same. You're just playing them in s shorter amount of time

What can I say, I love using those flappers to bat around the silver ball. Well the theory of it at least.

As long as you are getting a decent return on your table investments, I don't see a problem there.

No.

Nah. Owning it improves it. Location play kinda sucks and you don't experience the full pin until it's in your home. Then you can crank the sound, set it up correctly (or to your liking), and enjoy all of a single pin's wonders as an art form.

I like my tables like I like my investments: mildly raising up

Pinsiders haven't seem to tire of "the great Table debate;" and that's been an everyday event for years.

Short answer, no, but it depends on your collection.

Once I got to around 6 or 8 games, I could play a game, get tired of it, move on for months, and get addicted to it all over again later on.

As I play more, and get better, I'm actually finding that when I go back and replay old games that I was "tired" of, I see so much more of the game, and it's that much more rewarding.

Table is definitely cringe, not that I have to tell you, Matt, just adding to your excellent reply.

It harkens back to the pre-war era when they were flat all the way up till roughly, about the 50s, when they started to actually pitch the whole machine. Not sure on era, guessing from my prior knowledge. Could be the 40s, but my machines of that vintage are all flat.

“You must be a real… hyuck hyuck WIZARD!” is grating. I’m so tired of hearing that. People say it because it’s all the know to relate to pinball, but damn it’s annoying. The worst I get is “do you even know who sang that song? You’re a little young for that era!” THEY PLAY THAT SONG ALL THE TIME ON THE DAMN RADIO, OF COURSE I KNOW! Even a good bunch of Gen Z kids know that song, it’s played all the time!!

Clearly you haven’t spent enough time around the Amish.

Strange how it's evolved.

Back when, newbies thought table came from some kind of tablet or video pinball game which is how they were titled. Old timers would bring up the song to let them know they've been called that for decades.

Then Stern threw a real curveball and started calling them tables on their website.

And now, it is the song that gives it a bad rap.

Disclaimer- I have never had anybody ask me if I am a pinball wizard. But they are mostly playing crappy 80s music everywhere now.

Like when companies starting re-puking the whole "World under glass" that only dorks would say. Fucking cringe-squared.

I'd like my world under glass table to be a lifestyle brand, thank you very much. And all the pin podcasters went wild!

My best response is to wiggle my fingers and go "wizard? what is this, Harry Potter?" Usually makes them realize how dumb the question was.

Oh and calling them tables is perfectly fine. No idea why the hate for that term. Everybody knows what you mean and occasionally there is a context where it's usefully more specific than "machine".

Hey, at least Deadpool made a joke out of it.

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The new "world under glass" is "kinetic satisfaction".

-You want to experience and possibly own every pinball machine ever made
-Location vs a dialed in one in the home-no comparison
-Worried about a game getting stale? How do you know unless you give it a chance?
-Game loses it's luster-get rid of it and go buy another one-rinse and repeat
-Getting tired of pinball? May try just dipping the toes in the pool every so often instead of jumping in the pool head first everyday(talk less-play more)-take a break
-'Pinball machine' real pinball & 'Pinball table' referring to the digital version(virtual) or format

I’m right there with you. I don’t have any kids.

That’s what I use to explain to my friends with kids why I have 22 of them.

Their response is always “but I stopped at 2 or 3……”. Then I say “well I guess pinball machines are better than kids.”