$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Time...

No car payment, no credit card debt, and an understanding wife.

+ time

Amen to that! Rather, the wife gest so fed up with "pinball" this and "pinball" that...she finally lets you get that great game you've always wanted!

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Most have money to burn on whatever. Small reward for hardwork and good planning.

I'm guessing time, money and patience.

The bigger question is how do collector's with that many machines find time to keep them working 100% and actually have time left over to play them all. I have 10 machines, and I find it difficult at times to find time to keep them all operating perfectly and to have opportunities to play them all on a regular basis without neglecting certain titles. Sometimes I think it would be more enjoyable to have fewer games and just be able to play them a bunch!

I think a lot of folks have been collecting and buying for quite a while. They probably picked up Pins for much cheaper than they're going for now, many years ago. Prices have continued to climb in recent years.
Go back 10 to 15 years or so and what do you think prices were for MM,AFM,CV, etc?
Way lower than they are today and that's taking inflation into account.

No most don't have lots of $$$$$...Most just hunt and wait till the title that we are looking for comes up at a price we can afford usually a project for the most part, then we put the blood sweat and tears into them to make them look and play good...
There used to be several auction co. that did arcade pinball auctions in Columbus Oh. and Indy. I picked up many of mine at these in not so great shape, and then brought them back. I really miss the auctions!! not only could you get pins there, but it was a great time to connect with other pinheads...that you don't get to see often. Made many good friends at these auctions. Before they quit having them, I would actually go not necessarily to buy (depended on if there was anything I wanted, but I would usually come home with something I just had to have! ) but more to catch up and visit with friends.
Oh and I have an understanding husband!!!

Phoebe

Yep my current collection was built from a one time seed of $50.00

Find them cheap, fix them up and sell them until you have enough $ for what you want.

Buy,sell,trade. I started with a Laser War for $200 about 12 years ago & since have gone through about 50. Used to be you could get a nice pin for way cheap & sell it a while later for a big profit. Now it seams more people are jumping on board & screwing up my hobby!!

I can help with that.

What happened? People lost interest? Pins dried up? How did you enjoy PAPA? What was it like to compete?

Ha! I'm sure you could Dave. Well, we could always work out a 2 for 1 trade (with some cash thrown in too) which would help me alleviate the problem

nothing to do with money. It's patients and time. I used to make 9k a year and I have 22 machines. Many are high enders. People get a bug in their ass about wanting a machine, and spend stupid money because they want it now. Then your just pissing money away. You wait it out, search around, take your time. Don't wait around waiting for FS on here, go out and do the search, talk to people and put in the work. You have to be willing to drive far sometimes and leave on the spur of the moment. Took me 7 years to get the 22 games I wanted. But I have my collection exactly the way I want.

Some of these stories are great to hear, but let's not fool ourselves. In the majority of cases, at least for people that are buying at today prices, you need money. The days of finding A list titles for 2-4k are history, and as for the new sterns or jjp pins you already know the story. Most of the large collections today were probably built when prices were reasonable. Anyone starting from scratch and building those size collections from this point forward is going to have money.

The company that did the auctions quit doing them, not sure on the reasons...hard time finding pins, too much travel...don't know?

PAPA was cool! My second time being there. I tend to choke in competition...and the games were set up pretty evil, I can't for the life of me get why I couldn't play Sorcerer... so for me, it was pretty much the norm!!

Phoebe

Note sure about that.

There's was a $250 Funhouse and a $2500 Scared Stiff this weekend on my local CL.

They were both legit

I agree it can happen, which is why I said the majority of cases.

This is a wise observation and a reason I kinda don't really want more games and in fact, would like to whittle the collection down at some point.

I've been collecting heavily since '06/'07 and spent a lot of my freetime shopping out and restoring the games I picked up. Honestly I'm pretty sick of it, but all my games were clean & working 100% when they came into the house - so they've held up pretty well. Not too many technical problems after the initial shop-outs. You're absolutely right though - there are a handful of games I play a bunch but most get relatively neglected. When I had a few games I really played those games inside and out and really tried to master them...now those games get "casual fun" play occasionally.

The thrill of the hunt and finding great deals are what built my collection...and it's hard to sell them because they're all really fun and cool in their own way. I've justified sales in the past if a game's design is too similar to other games I have & like better....but even that's tough if you dig a game regardless. For instance, I have Tommy...which is similar in a lot of ways to Tron and Addams. I barely touch Tommy...I probably wouldn't lose too much sleep if I sold it....but then I turn it on and play it and I'm like "maaaan, this game rules" lol. Ahhhh...the "problems" we have in this hobby.

They used to have routes and had a bunch of machines sitting in their barn.

I don't have a ton of machines compared to a lot of other people, but what helped in my case was to stop spending the money on cars. I'm much happier tinkering with and collecting games than I ever was messing with my cars. No tags, property taxes, insurance, gas, and I'm not going to wreck it.

Or they could have The Holy Trinity: no wife, no car payment, no credit card debt.

I agree with you on two; but the wife is the reason why I have a pinball machine in the first place!

Here is a good list posted on another pinball forum I frequent:

...the traditional rites of passage of pinball ownership. To enlighten, or remind you, here are the steps :

1. Initial curiosity, followed eventually by trepidatious purchase of a single pin.

2. Promise to wife that 1 machine is all you are ever getting.

3. Realization that owning 1 pin is ridiculous. You either own many pins or none at all. You opt for the former.

4. Begin process of justifying to wife why having 1 pin is silly. She capitulates. You buy between 2 and 5 more pins.

5. An interim period lasting between 2 and 6 months where you are almost satisfied with owning half-dozen B or C-list titles.

6. Through visitation of the homes of other collectors, you realize you will never be happy with your stagnant and finite collection of tattered and boring pins.

7. The process of justifying the purchase of more pins by employing the "logic" that they are actually investments and you will be able to flip them eventually.

8. The search for areas of your basement that are being under-utilized. Statement such as "She can really do the laundry in the garage, right?" or "Do my kids
really need that much square footage in order to play happily?" are often posed during this phase.

9. The epiphany that no matter what you do, your wife will think you are an idiot. In fact she already does. Do you really think she will respect you more if you
have 5 machines in the basement as opposed to 10, 12 or 20 ? You become enlightened. You have nothing to lose.

10. Nirvana : You have been set free. Your mind and body are awash in the pure bliss of the knowledge that an infinite supply of pins await your purchase.
No longer shall you be afraid, oppressed or remorseful. You are a man. You are a hunter. A collector, and you answer to no one.

For me, it was simply the old Lays Potato chip thing. Couldn't buy just one...

depends, most recent collectors just seem to have a lot of cash

a lot of the people longer in the hobby gradually increased and traded up - finding 'deals' and getting to know operators, fixing pins, selling them for profit, using that money to buy more pins, and repeat this process until they could afford more expensive machines for themselves
and some people are dedicated to pinball and don't have other expensive hobbies and save their money to put it into pinball machines

'Time' (need time in order to save up money), 'space' (pretty much paramount to this hobby), and most importantly....'patience' (to get a machine...in nice shape...and at a good price...it takes patience to find a game your looking for).

I agree with what most Pinsiders have said, but don't forget putting a little bit of cash in for parts.

I've been collecting for about 12 years. At my height I had 20 machines although more than 50% were not fully working. I've since reduced it down to 6 pins but they are all fully working.

When I started it was Quantity over Quality, now I'm in Quality over Quantity mode.

I drive crappy cars...never spent more than 2000 on a vehicle...so I don't throw my money away on car payments.

My wife is awesome. I don't smoke, drink, or waste my money. I'm not rich, but smart with my money.

Also, people see a big collection and think: "holy smokes, you must be RICH." what they don't see are the years and years and years of hard work, scrimping, saving, and making smart decisions.

For me, it's not magic...just lots of work!

Pete

I think the first 1:20 mins of the pinball collector trailer sums it up for most collectors! It did for me, my wife said it was spot on.

I have been collecting for about 7 years and while there will always be deals out there, within the last year or two it does seem like it is getting harder and harder to find games resonably priced. It takes patience.

Lots of luck, hard work and awesome friends.

I lost count of the number of coin-op auctions I use to go too. Or how much time I've wasted parsing craigslist, auction houses and other avenues to get games "cheap".

Buying and selling are key factors. Some people frown on it but it seems most everyone does it these days. I've been in the hobby for 16 years and I've flipped a few games here and there to pay for my collection of pins, including all the vids, jukes, pop machine etc.....as of right now, I'm $365 away from having a "free" collection of all the games and it will have only cost my time which i cant put a price on of course. And yes, I keep track of the numbers on paper. Old Skool here.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, Mi.
269-979-3836

I started collecting 30 years ago
First game was $100, next couple were around $4-500

Been able to afford better pins as I got rid of various debts

Now I can buy what I want, but I would rather have a fun game than spend exta$$ on a HUO

Same here. All but got out of it altogether and was heavy into it. Plus it's legal to drink and flip.

Nobody's fooling anybody, yet there are some foolish people in the hobby. Sure, if all you want is "A-list" pins (based on others' opinions) then yeah, you will get reamed financially these days, and deservedly so. There are tons of fun, great pins out there for under $2k, or even under $1k. And if you're the "I gotta have my new favorite toy today" type then yeah, you're gonna overpay. Want to build a great pin collection on a reasonable budget? As others have mentioned, have patience and widen your horizons.

Started 24 years ago, bought a couple of pins for my video store, they made good money, so I bought another, and the cycle just started Back then, you could buy games for reasonable amounts, like a near mint Indy in 1995 for $1600, so building a collection wasn't as daunting financially as it is now, but the biggest problem with having a large collection is space, which I don't have. Luckily I have lots of friends who are happy to help me out and keep games for me, but still way more are in storage than I would like Only advantage of that is as I rotate them thru my small game room, the games stay fresh so getting bored is usually not a problem

If it wasn't for lack of space and to a lesser extent, lack of money; I would still have every pin that I have ever owned. I usually keep my collection to 5-10 games. Right now I own six pins. I haven't owned a single one of them for more than six months. I recently did give up my AFM that I owned for nine years in order to make room and money for an ACDC BiB.

John

Great thread, i think it gives hope to those who would like to see a nice personal collection, myself included. I'm starting with one pin, i rescued the pin i grew up with from moms basement which was neglected for a few years. I decided one day after months and months of thinking about pulling it from her basement and getting it working. Its a Sinbad, and i went into fixing cold not knowing really anything. I got pretty damn far on my own, got it working, cleaned it up and with the help of some other pin collectors, solved some issues i was stuck on. Only down side is that its not really mine and even though i cant sell it since it belongs to mom and she loves it, im not sure id sell it anyways since i grew up playing it and have tons of memories attatched to it.

Once i've cleared my financial obligations (needed house projects), im going to save for a decent priced pin and start from there. Once again great thread because i think its easy to get the impression that most collectors are loaded with cash and while some may be, i beleive most work hard and save to build a nice collection over time. I know my first impression when i joined Pinside was, "geez these guys must have a ton of cash to be able to afford all those pins." after some time i realized most guys have just worked up to the collections they have.

Lots of hard work, long hours and moonlighting car repairs started off my hobby. I used my talents to the positive. Buy/sell/fix myself. Find clunkers to fix up over the years and slowly built the collection. Glad I got in the late 90's when prices were still good. Moved to the country outgrew the house and built an outbuilding. All good now.

LOL!!! Wherever they will fit. I only have around 25-30 set up...but they are in the basement, dining room, living room, family room. Some are at a nieces house, and a friend has 1...the rest are in storage, some just need to be reassembled after their restores, others are in various stages of restore. Some I haven't gotten to just yet, but I will one day.

Phoebe

There is a fellow pinsider here in iowa that I know he is not rich and works very hard for a well-known company making probably an average salary. He got into pinball just off of curiousity and started working on pinballs in his spare time out of his garage late at night. Now he turns the pinballs around and flips them after he gets done working on them for a nice profit. He uses that money to buy other pins that he wants in his collection. So, it can be done. He has a family of 4 or 5 and is not wealthy. But, with hard work and understanding about pinball machine it can done. You can have a lineup of the top ten games. It just takes time and patience. You also need to know how to work on pinball machines. The most important part is knowing how to work on the pinball machines and not be afraid to learn how to work on them is by far the most important part. So, money has nothing to do with it really. It's true.