(Topic ID: 216916)

How many pinball machines have you owned?

By rai

5 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 78 posts
  • 72 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 4 years ago by Dayhuff
  • Topic is favorited by 2 Pinsiders

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    Topic poll

    “How many pins have you owed current and past?”

    • 0-10 83 votes
      25%
    • 11-20 69 votes
      21%
    • 21-30 36 votes
      11%
    • 31-40 22 votes
      7%
    • 41-50 21 votes
      6%
    • 51-60 12 votes
      4%
    • 61-70 12 votes
      4%
    • 71-89 8 votes
      2%
    • 81+ 66 votes
      20%

    (329 votes)

    There are 78 posts in this topic. You are on page 2 of 2.
    #51 5 years ago

    At least 70 since 2003.

    #52 5 years ago

    Can you ever really own a pinball machine? It owns you, man.

    #53 5 years ago

    Over 500. Pretty much all the regular production solid state titles since the mid 80s. On my current computer I have picture folders for the last 300 or so since 2013. But then some have come and gone so quick that I never even took pics of them.

    Games like Addams Family and Twilight Zone I have owned at least 15 times. Working on those really starts to go like clockwork. Pun intended

    Most are bought and hauled in bulk/shipped, shopped, fixed, played until I'm ready to sell then frequently shipped back out. Some I've made thousands on (usually with a lot of work) and others I've lost hundreds on. It's been a hobby, part of a business, and now a hobby again.

    I still enjoy playing a working $1000 game as much as a $10000 one. My pet peave is seeing so many new pinball hobbyists only interested in playing/owning the latter.

    #54 5 years ago

    Several hundred. I’ve been in the hobby since the early 1980’s. I miss the days of the phone ringing offering bulk buys. 15-20 game buys were the norm.

    Anyone else remember turning down deals because a seller demanded you take the GTL System 80 games to get the rest? Because reliability was an issue, they were tough to give away.

    Frank

    #55 5 years ago

    Owned 7 total/currently have 5/goal is 8-9 (and all I have room for using 3 rooms). Few years back I had 2 and thought that was awesome. Then I got on this site and found out how many others had and thought chit - I am "normal" in this community at least (but probably not to my family and friends) to want more! So I bought 2 others quickly just to get some more games but didn't love the pins. Learned quality/likability > quantity is key.

    #56 5 years ago

    Well over 1000! I've been collecting-flipping since '88. I lived in Southern New Jersey just outside of Philadelphia so there were a lot of machines laying around to go grab. I remember placing an ad in the local, "Penny-Savor" mag periodically and receiving 40+ calls in the first 2 days. There weren't many guys into pins yet either so I was able to pick and chose what I wanted to grab.

    I knew this hobby would go on forever after noticing in the late '80's, always had a bunch of machines laying around, some of them shopped out and displayed, but, nobody to sell them to. Then, by the early 2000's, I was receiving probably 1/2 dozen calls per week from people wanting to buy a game, but, had nothing in stock or otherwise to sell them.

    Sales were abundant and fun back in the day. There were none of the museum piece, cabinet repaints, new ramps, new rebuild kits, new this, new that going on. There were too many people simply wanting to re-live memories of games they played in the past and didn't mind buying something with a little patina, as long as it looked and played good. It was rather easy competing with the Clemons, Bordens and Tuckeys back then. In fact, they actually boosted my sales.

    The hobby is a lot different now, with state-of-the-art electronics, reproduction parts, and shows popping up all over, but none the less, thriving strong!

    #57 5 years ago

    Glad to see I am not alone in the 500+ club. Being very honest I don't have a clue of the actual number because I stopped counting after about 4 years in the hobby (and 300+ machines) but at best guess my number is likely 600+ in a little less than 10 years. Nothing super high dollar - mostly System 11 and older. I just can't justify paying over about $3000 for "a toy" and prefer owning more different machines than having a few newer titles.

    Last year was likely the year I bought the most (just over 100 machines) - thankfully over 1/2 of those were sold at Allentown last year and never really made it anywhere near the collection. Two warehouse type deals were 78 of the 100+ and the rest were the typical 1 or 2 here & there. I am still trying to figure out if the "warehouse deals" made any sense - we only added about 6 new machines to the collection with all of that work so I doubt I would do it again.

    The most expensive machine we have owned was a Ghostbusters and that never even made it out of my garage and into the collection. I took it on trade for 4 cheaper machines and I couldn't wait to get it sold. It wasn't we didn't like playing it we just decided we didn't need a $5000+ pinball machine sitting collecting dust.

    #58 5 years ago

    Probably 100-200
    Over the years flipped around plenty but always hold 35 machines
    Most obscure ones I had were
    Vernes world -3 x
    Jolly park - 7 x
    Bushido -2 x
    Uboat 65 - 3 x
    Metal man - 3 x
    F1 Grand Prix -2 x
    Farfalla - 5 x
    Hot wheels - 4 x
    Pool champion -2 x
    Robot -2 x
    Locomotion - 3 x
    Clown -2 x
    Time machine -3 x
    And more I don’t remember

    Only regret ever selling was my Mephisto

    #59 5 years ago

    42 in 4 years

    #60 5 years ago

    11 current, 20 historical total, 25 including repeats

    #61 5 years ago

    I've owned a total of 21 and usually keep 16 to 17 up and playing at all times in the last 3 to 4 years. I want to get to 29 and stop. Or at least try to stop I would have thought 17 was good when I first started. I'm starting to think I have a problem.

    #62 5 years ago

    Over 90 but most of my flipping were like 15 years ago when games were affordable.

    #63 5 years ago

    9 total, currently have 7

    #64 5 years ago

    Started collecting in 1976. First one was Fireball. Since then, probably had 3-400 machines, only 35-40 at a time. Currently have 15.

    #65 5 years ago

    97 total in 4 years. That's about 2 per month.

    #66 5 years ago

    I have owned 2 games twice so I am 49

    #67 5 years ago

    Currently own 20
    Sold 322
    Total - 342
    Most at one time - 41
    Started December 2000

    Wish space wasn’t such an enemy!

    #68 5 years ago

    I'm somewhere between too many and not enough.

    LTG : )

    #69 5 years ago

    Owned somewhere around 65, currently have 15. Max I’ve had is 20, and it got a little unwieldy - hard to keep all running 100%. Owned some titles 2-3 times, that’s messed up! (Prob my ADD kicking in...).

    #70 5 years ago

    I’ve had 7 pins. Currently down to 2 EMs, sold off the 5 SS games over the years. Looking for a select “few” “new” EMs.

    #71 5 years ago

    Owned 24 total over 17 years. Keep them from 1-5 years. Usually I have 2 or 3 at a time. Down to just 1 currently - it's lonely and needs a friend.

    #72 5 years ago

    At the end of 2017 I had 17 Pins, what’s kind of wild is that also ending 2017 and realized that since I started in the hobby (in 2009) I have also sold 17 Pins. I currently have 18 pins and since getting in the hobby have sold 18 so my total is 36. So if I’m going for the 18 and 18 thing for 2018 I better not buy or sell anymore, 6 more months to go in the year I doubt that will happen.

    #73 5 years ago

    59 working setup machines in onsite main residence as per the listing under my profile.

    To keep my partner happy by not having a bunch of surplus clunker machines/parts laying around the house or strangers coming into the residence to conduct a sale I also have:

    37 currently stored offsite which is split between roughly -
    one third in the restoration/repair queue,
    one third plug and play but earmarked for resale and
    one third as long term projects (missing parts, non starters et al).

    I've publicly listed 17 sold machines over the years as part of my collector interest, however there is a substantially higher number I have sold as part of the commercial import aspect which I try to keep separate and confidential wherever possible.

    The offsite storage number is fluid and subject to change possibly in the second half this year when I will look to add to it with another container load. Just depends on local market demand, how our dollar is faring and time/finances.

    #74 5 years ago

    150 over almost 6 yrs in this hobby. 16 at one time. Almost overbearing. Most happy with 6-10 tops. Insanity.

    #75 5 years ago

    I'm in the tier 2, (11-20) range.

    If I had had more space and money over the past 7 yrs, or had found out about buying pinball machines yrs earlier, I'm sure my collection numbers would be WAY higher.

    1 year later
    #76 4 years ago

    I wish this poll had 0 as a separate option from 1-10. I would have loved to see how many Pinsiders haven’t owned a machine vs how many fall into 1-10 range.

    #77 4 years ago

    Hard to say but certainly well over 100. Some duplicates
    of game I really liked (Sinbad, Genie, Black Hole come to mind).
    Steve

    #78 4 years ago
    Quoted from Dayhuff:

    Bought my first game on August 10th, 1996. Since then I've owned 627 games and kept what you see listed on my profile page, actually there are a few that need to be added to the keeper list but I need to get the info to IPDB first. You wont see all of previously owned ones on the profile page either, just never kept up with that part of it.
    John

    Thought I would update since I seen this post has been bumped up. Total count is now up to 652 with the last one being Freddy's Nightmare on Elm Street.

    John

    There are 78 posts in this topic. You are on page 2 of 2.

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