I sell my sperm.

I take a ridiculously priced machine on CL and tell my wife I'm thinking about buying it and then decide it's too expensive and let her know that I just saved money by passing up the purchase for a cheaper one.

Technically, it's not how I make the money, as I do that by the sweat of my brow.... but it is how I fund it.

I'm retired, so I have to sell a pin to buy a different one

Kept my pickup truck an extra 8 years after paying it off. Just bought a new one so my pinball funds are limited for about 5 years.

I rob banks.....

Who needs both kidneys anyway??

Good question! I don't even know the answer! It just happened! But my collection consists of a few project games. I traded stuff for most of my projects. I was just telling someone this in a pm.

I started out looking for a Turtles for sentimental reasons. My brother and I played it growing up at a local shop, He was also a collector of anything TMNT. He passed in 2003, at the age of 20. My wife and I decided to look for a game years ago to restore as a kind of fun memory type thing and to display the rest of his collection with. Time went on we never bought one for whatever reason. So.....Years later...I had a son 2 years ago. So we thought..We are getting the turtles for sure now! Start looking again. To shorten this all up. I have ended up with the projects I have. haha And now am becoming very interested in anything to do with a pinball machine. Eventually I'd like to do some restorations from start to finish the right way. But money is really tight right now, so I just make things work.

What I'm getting at? There was no funding! hahaha I've traded....A winchester gun safe, a model 12, a model 1200, a ring, Two truck loads of quad parts, and a truck load of Video game collection type stuff. I've only actually bought 3 games. Now? In most cases I lose on the trade but it was all stuff that I didn't need or lost interest in.

One day? I will have the cash to go find the Elusive to me TMNT!!!!!

And if your in the GA area and post projects on C List? Yep! I'm the guy trying to trade you my stuff to get your project game!

I work a lot of overtime.

I sold my youngest stepdaughter to science. Now I just steal from my wife.

I have a high-paying job.

At a certain age money is not an issue anymore . No Kids with their hand out , no more house payment, and I have always lived at or below my means . and I collect EM's so there is always a pile of hundreds somewhere so the next one or two can join the fold
Before when money was somewhat tight, I used to buy $50 EM's repair them and sell them to finance the next buy.

Want to adopt me?
I don't eat much and I'm housebroken.

I work my ass off, don't have any other expensive hobbies, and keep a respectable number in my savings account.

I operate them.

Work work and more work. Turned cash into rental units which helped buy a drive in movie theatre and opened a new 9 screen movie theatre in same community see Cinema City Norton and Central Drive In Theatre Norton Va on Facebook.
I worked many 16 hour days even during college and served in the Army National Guard with a honorable discharge. Purchased some pinballs placed on location and rolled that money over to purchase others machines like MK 2 and Daytona twin which made great money in the mid 1990s.
You can purchase equipment and use it for tax advantage to help offset income.
I still work alot, almost every weekend at the box office 2766793761 call me one night even 1am I will be there. It's how I meet Don. I also sell new and used machines thru out distribution company called Mountain Entertainment. Selling new pins and trade ins help fund new pins.

I'm getting out of one hobby (off road toys) and now diving it ankle deep head first into pins. Just sold a dirt bike last week so I have some funds for a new pin.

I rolled money from one hobby (my guitars) into another (pinball). Unfortunately, I'm down to two guitars.

While being married with a mortgage and raising 4 kids drains my funds significantly, the stability and responsibility I must endure included the need for me to give up regular use of hookers and blow. I ended up with a small pittance for games I patiently get one by one when a decent deal arises.

my job.

Stud fees...

Blood, sweat, and a small amount of teers from work. The teers are from watching the bank acount not grow.

I didn't take a vacation for the last two years. I took the money that I saved and reallocated it into the pinball collection.

dealer (resized).jpg

Is there any other way?

cob.jpg

work hard

If you never get married, and never knock any broads up - you will save, on average, $280,000 per child you don't have to support to the age of 18.

Then think of the additional savings when they don't move back into the basement, as 58% of them do, after college.....

Buy broken ones fix and sell them. Work alot of over time and I operate about 15 of them.

I work alot of hard sh*tty hours, no house payment anymore......no car payment either or credit card debt either. Even with all of that its still hard to afford these crazy things, but I love pinball so I work hard and save my ass off and treat myself to a new pin occasionally.

401k loan: it's like free money you didn't know you had.

Small sexual favors

I became a distributor, not just for that, but it justifies a lot... You'll find a lot of folks who do business stuff in the hobby use it as an excuse - mods, restoration guys, parts, etc... Gee, I made something doing this so time for another game !!! Addiction is a terrible thing.

Well, i do straight trades and its worked sofar, machine for machine.

Ok. But where did the first one come from!

I got my Grand Lizard pinball (which i still have) in straight trade for a Hang-On Deluxe arcade (the big red bike version) i bought like 5 years before from the local closed arcade, for around 50 USD.

After i got that oen working i bought a dead Dolly Parton for like 50 bucks (again lol), got that working, played it, traded it for a dead Volcano, got that working, played it, traded that for a half-working Cybernauts, got that to fully work, played it, traded it off for a dead Jungle Lord, then i sold my old Commodore collection and got cash to finally buy a high-end game, Swords of Fury. Then i got a dead Jubilee for free, got that working, played it, traded it away for a dead Gamatron, got a dead Dodge City as a bonus, which gets me my current set:

Dodge City, Swords of Fury, Jungle Lord, Gamatron and my Grand Lizard.

Now, Gamatron, Dodge City and Jungle Lord will prob be up for trade as soon as they are working properly.

Yep there sure is. If you blink your eyes you will drive right through it and miss it lol. Its just a small little town.....its actually considered a village. Theres not enough people for it to be a town.

So true! Some of my friends ask how I lead the lifestyle I do. I respond that I have:
No kids
No pets (only a 50 gallon fish tank)
And Drive a 1999 Toyota

my 'ol lady gives me a dollar for every smart ass comment i make on pinside.
i have a biiiiig collection

No wife. No kids. I buy what I want, when I want

Who makes up these numbers? I have 3 kids almost teenagers and they are not that expensive. If you buy them expensive things, cars, private school, and fancy college then yeah. I've spent way more on pinball than I have on them in the past few years that's for sure.

A combination of using extra money and then selling current collection to fund new games.

My family owns an air conditioning and heating business. I take all the units and parts we replace to the scrap yard and that becomes my "play" money to use on whatever I want. I previously purchased, repaired and sold vintage paintball stuff.

I've got a wife and 4 kids. All in private school by choice. No competition and no worries. I would sell it all in a heartbeat if I needed the money. So far so good!

Work hard. When starting out I had two jobs. Bought broken games, fixed them and routed them then sold them for a better broken game. One game turned to two turned to 20... then ex issues reversed that to 0.

Today I have scraped and clawed my way to a very comfortably paying job. We have a rental and our primary house that we are nearing pay off and stay well within our means. Currently back up to 4 (two playing two projects). Once the rental and our house is paid off... gonna likely go nuts.

That figure seems low to me. I just had to buy goalie equipment for my 9 yr old. $$$$

I have 13 kids. none of them mine and the government pays me to take care of them.

Really? Add it up....ALL the food, clothing, medical bills, trips, sports....etc.... Over 18 YEARS it adds up. I would bet $280,000 is a low average. No private schools or Porches either.

I'm going to feel so rich once the kids are out of college! Except for that damn retirement savings thing.........and taxes.......and medical coverage!