I'm just glad we had a fair share of operators who couldn't bear the thought of trashing their old pins, and continued to hold onto their games in warehouses/sheds/storage bins/barns, you name it; if it was always about the money, we'd have very few EMs left (a fellow hobbyist whose father was a major operator outside Pittsburgh was thrilled to take all those old games (including jukes, bowlers, gun, p&b) straight to the dump without a thought, occurring many times until the business closed.

Good point, yep for sure.

Got a call from a guy in Chicago who was looking to sell a bunch of pins from his father's estate in VA... made an offer based on some pix and after some negotiations bought them. There were seven total games: four woodrails, one 60s EM, and two early SS games. Those games hadn't been played in 20 years +, just sitting in a climate controlled family room collecting dust. I'm sure that scenario will be played out hundreds if not thousands of times over the next several decades; some amazing gems yet to be uncovered.