18 Y.O. - 1998 - first ARCADE Crystal Castles. Yes, I still have it.
25 Y.O. - 2005 - First pin Jokerz! No, it's gone.

Bought my first game in 2006, I was 26, amazing how fast time flies by. Bought a WW for $1200.

I bought my first arcade game (Stargate ) when I was 12 from Aladdins castle in 163rd St mall in North Miami , FL. Six months later I purchased a Xevious arcade game next. A few years later I bought my first pin, Star Wars DE from a local arcade for 1250 dollars. When I bought the pin, I brought a tech to look at the game before I bought it. The arcade owner was so upset that I did, he almost denied me on the sale. Nevertheless it came home with me and stayed with me for 18 years , until I traded it for TFTC when I discovered craigslist.

January 2013 Transformers LE Combo #410

34 years old

Now I can't stop buying them.

I was 24. It was 1987 and I was driving delivery trucks at the time. Whilst dropping off a couple of boxes at the end of the day I noticed some old EMs out the back. Asked the guy what he was doing with them and he says funnily enough we have just decided to sell them all. 4 blokes and all train employees pinball nuts and had talked the railways here into selling them an old 13 ton locomotive. Pinball had to go to pay for a train.
Anyway how much i ask.
$100.
I'll take 4.....Now I'm only young and didn't think this through What the hell am I going to do with these I'm asking myself on the way back to the depot. Once I started unloading them guys running from everywhere. Pinball machines how cool.
What are you doing with them.
Selling I say.
How much.
$350 and I sell all on the spot. Made arrangements to go back the next day and bought another 5. Kept the best one, Jacks open for the next 25 years. I'm still stuck on pinball after all these years.

19.

Looks like Im leading the "baby pool", so my quick story, Ive likely shared.

I started delivering the NY Daily News on LI, at the age of 11.
This meant getting up at 5 AM, rubber banding and inserting pages, to deliver
40-50 papers in Baldwin, NY.
Now at 11, with all those commuters into NYC, and the crappy winter weather,
this was one quick lesson on business and money.
I saved for 8 months, and bought a trumpet, but had enough left to get a game!

I paid $50 for a Bally Safari, with no backglass.
Played a couple games and it died. Tried to paint my own backglass!
Its in an attic today, at my cousins in CT!

the second was a Sing A Long, from Charles Music in Orlando.
This lasted also----1 Day----.
My father was religious, and didnt want Christmas Carolers in my home, and made them take it back.
They said they had no others in my price, but I think they just didnt want to deal with my old man.

I went into Pachinko after, working for Pachinko house, and then got a Williams Jackpot, that I LED Modded,
in 1978.

I bought a fully working Super Mario Bros pin at auction only to test it on route for $625 after taxes in 2008. I was collecting arcades at the time and putting them on route. I purchased SMB only because of theme. I took it home, set it up, and 3 years later I went from owning 30 arcades and 1 pin to 3 arcades and 30 pins...

I was 22 when I picked up my first arcade game (Berzerk), and I picked up a Creature from the Black Lagoon a few months later. I was 23 at that point.

I bought my first game, a nice Williams IJ back in 1999 fro $1500, outside of Washington DC (at a Ford dealership). I was 25 and I wish I had more money back then to buy up more games at those prices

After playing pinball all my life,my wife bought me a"Galaxy" For my retirement !I was 61! Strange,I never thought of actually owning a pinball machine before I now own 7 pins,and counting!!

I bought a Gottlieb Spin Out for $250 when I was 14.

My parents bought me my first pin, a Bally Hi Deal, for $250 in 1979 when I was 13. Which I still own. I bought my first pin, Star Trek the Next Generation last March 2016 at 48. Added my 2nd pin purchase, a Gottlieb Tee'd Off a month ago. So 3 total....for now.

Added over 7 years ago: Added my 3rd purchase, Star Wars Episode 1 in July. That makes 4 and I think I might be building a collection

41, Firepower.

So now and then my wife's parents would get some bonus money or dividend and they'd break it up and give it to their daughters and spouses, but with rules attached. The rule this go around was it had to be used on something fun, here's $500. I'd taken a look on Craigslist in the past just to see how much machines were, and they were always out of my price range. Not having anything better in mind for the money, I go onto CL just to see. Lo and behold, a Firepower posted just that day, $500. I call the guy, says he's already had 13 inquiries and he has someone coming over to check it out in 2 hours. I get there in 1. I'm not even that much of a fan of the game, but it's got multiball and it's not an EM, so what the hell. Pay the guy, get it outside into the sunlight, and buyers remorse already starts setting in as now I see how rough the playfield is. Oh well, it was free money! Played it for a month before getting the bright idea I could do something about the playfield. Pinside made it look so easy! I abandoned the project for 3 1/2 years.

Just picked up my 2nd pin, Eight Ball Deluxe for $620. Another pin that was never on my radar as one I'd want, but damn if it hasn't been fun. Not only that, it inspired me to finally get back to dealing with Firepower. I can almost see the glimmer of light that shows I'm finally going the right direction. I had the playfield on some saw horses for all this time, and now that it's being worked on, my wife pointed out that if the saw horses were gone there'd be room for one more machine, that 2 just look odd and need a 3rd. That's practically permission, a mandate, right??

I was 24 when I got my first game. It was Pinbot. It now resides with my nephew as he got pinball bug a few years back and we did a bit of a rebuild on it. I Still really enjoy playing it when I'm over there.

34 -

Williams Little Chief in 2012

Growing up we had a Little Chief in our garage. My dad acquired it somehow and my brother and I played it all the time. Unfortunately the garage burned down when I was in college and I didn't think about owning a pinball machine for a long time. Until a few years ago, I was older and settled and wanted that same feeling of playing at home when I was a kid. So I jogged my memory, started looking for a Little Chief and found one. I'm so happy to have it still, and the others that decided to join it.

Got a Bally KISS machine in 1997 for $800 fully working. I was 31 at the time. Power Play followed the next year. Was great to get my 1st games. Faves from my younger days.........a trend for me.

32.

I was so young and dumb that I chose Hurricane over Whitewater. Oh well. I sold Hurricane and have owned 3 Wh20's since; so all is good.

40 ST25th

Let's see... I'm 41 now. I picked up my first, RBION, in the Summer of 2015. I turn 42 in November. November is Autumn.

Using the basic math and logic skills I retained from my fourth grade education:

I was 39 years old when I got my first one.

If I didn't spend the previous 20 years in apartment buildings I would have jumped in much sooner. It's cool though, I've definitely done my best to make up for lost time

I was 17 y/o back in 1983 when I purchased Gottlieb "Jack in the Box". It's funny to think the game was only 11 years old then .. practically NIB lol.

25 years.
a T2 for 540 euro's

44 - The Hobbit

I was 53.Earthshaker was my first.

Let's see... It was a year ago so add the remainder and subtract the variable and when I carry the nine I get...25!

I was 24 and got lucky on a cheap William Satin Doll. I had no idea what the hell I was doing.

I'm 26 now and have had 15 or so games in and out, always using the money I made to put back into acquiring my grails.

I was 26 in 2000 and bought Rollergames whilst I was living in Australia, I carried it (with help) up 3 flights of stairs to my rented studio flat. It was at that stage I realised if I was ever going to have another pinball machine I would look for a ground floor flat.

It was 10 years later when I was living here in the Uk when I bought the next one a BSD. At least this time there were no stairs involved.

57 when I bought SST. 63 now with 7 pins in my collection!!!!!!

I was 30 an first pin was a very busted up data east wwf royal rumble, learnt a lot fixing it up an bringing it back to its former beauty plays great now, still have it, its like my first born .

I was 29 years old when i got my first pin. It was an alright condition Hook.
Still have it at the moment and still love playing it as do many of my friends when they come over for some drinks.

I was 13 in 1969 and the game was a Gottlieb Sweet Hearts. Paid $125
Started collection in 1983 and had 160 machines pass through my collection since then.
Have a total of 41 machines at the present time.

25 when I bought FH (still have it)

But was 10 or so when I inherited the games in my grandma's basement

37 when I bought Judge Dredd, which ironically, I'm about about to let go.

45 years old in 2010 when I bought my first and only had intensions of buying one pin which was Harley Davidson 3rd Edition.
Now 7 years later at age 52 , I own 18 and complaining that I need more room for more.

I was 19 when I got my first vid, a SFII. Sold this to my buddy who has it on location.

28 for first pinball, Pin*Bot - still have it and don't plan on getting rid of it.

34 bought a Taxi from a guy that i met in December 2016 at the first pinball gathering that i went to. Bought a Gorgar a week later, then a ToM about a month after that. Ive also been shopping pins for another buddy of mine....i have the itch bad!

I was 14 or had just turned 15 when I got my first game in 1979. Four Million BC for $225 and it was flawless. In early 1980 my father was kinda jealous and bought a Fireball from the same retired route operator for $300.. Not flawless but reasonable shape...I still have the Fireball.

1 year ago I finally got my first pin. It was a TSSP and I was on the tailed end of 33. I picked up a Whirlwind since and I'm on the tail end of 34 and I'm waiting for my Dialed In!

It was only a few years ago. I always wanted to get an arcade game. Looked on ebay a few times but never got serious. I was getting into my 40's and wanted to find something new to get into. I played a little pinball back in the arcade days but just kind of forgot about pins. You just never saw them anywhere and thought they just went extinct. I never even thought about owning one but the bug hit as soon as I gave it a thought. Browsing the internet I found a local retailer with a large inventory. Paid too much for a Getaway but no regrets. It was so exciting getting that first pin. So cool having pins in the house. It never gets old seeing people's reaction seeing them.

Got my first real paycheque in the summer of 1995, at 15-years-old. Shortly thereafter, I owned my first game, a WMS Solar Fire.

48. Laser War $400
And I'm glad to see that there are a lot of collectors out there even older than me!

40 ish BOPP and AbraCaDabra in the same day!!!

Some of these stories reminded me of how I rediscovered pinball. I went to Louisville Arcade Expo and noticed they were having a competition. I also noticed how the pins were way more popular than the vids. When I got home I youtubed PAPA pinball because I didn't even know they had competitions.

This past weekend I went to Allentown and on the way back I stopped at Divine Swine BBQ in Manheim, PA. I was wearing my Main Street Mayhem pinball competition shirt when a girl that worked there asked me about it. She didn't know they had pinball competitions and liked to play a Hook in her laundromat. I showed a bunch of pics and hopefully got her started on something.

22- was playing TAF at a coin op laundry attending Univ of Okla. Was hooked. Purchased a HUO TAF from Pinball Heaven in 1997 for $2,000. Wish I would have kept it, but sometimes life sprinkles in a divorce

21. Bought Fireball, Aladdins Castle, Playboy, and a couple others I can't remember in a bulk deal of 40 vid arcade machines for $25 each. Clearing space for the operator... all I wanted was the vids so I passed those on quickly.

20 years later, I bought my first keeper, an IJ. I think I bought 8 others in the next year. Trying to be good until I buy an lotr next...

I was 38 back in 2008 when I bought my first pin, Twilight Zone, through eBay from Prestige Industries. Yep that is correct, I bought it sight unseen other than the detail pictures that they provided and even had it shipped across country. I think it was a good purchase then as I do now since I still have the game to this day.

I bought TZ after only ever played 5 games before deciding that was the title to buy.

30. Super Mario Bros from trufflepiggy

He was nice enough to deliver it and set it up for me, I wouldn't be in the hobby if not for that.

25 when I bought a pinball magic at auction. Kept her for 15 years before running out of room and finally letting her go.

repost. Still, it's a good thread and has some good stories in it.