25. 1999. Bally Strikes & Spares, Bally Harlem Globetrotters, Stern Galaxy. $100 CDN all in. Got Strikes and Spares and Galaxy playing on my own. Sent Globetrotters MPU away for repair and it came back worse, so that machine was scuttled for parts.

17
Bally Sky Kings

Came out of the womb with one...

Old man had them before I was born and passed on the disease...

22. Whirlwind

41 when I bought a heavily routed TAF.

23 in 1988. Bally Flip Flop from a Trading Post ad for 200. Brother in law still has it.

62! Got it for my retirement in 2012!!

25 (T2)

39 - a nice playing RBION. Best mid life crisis ever!

27
Twilight Zone

I was 44 a few years ago when I bought royal guard from a guy that was moving outta town..I got her for 450..i remember the feeling of bringing her home, I was pretty happy/excited. She's still in my lil collection, and she remains to be a fave of friends when they stop by and have a few beers..

I was 8 years old when I starting playing pinball and loving the machines. I also loved the late 70s early 80s video machines and dreamed of owning them. That dream came true as I now own 7 pinball machines and one MAME machine but sadly I had to wait until I was 36 years old before I started buying them including NIB Sterns

I'm now 49 years old and still get the same enjoyment playing pinball and video as I was at 8 years old.

My fiancée got me a Space Invaders backbox with perfect backglasses at a garage sale in 2013 for my 47th birthday, and although I had been into Visual and Future Pinball for years, that started the bug for the real deal. Picked up Firepower the next year and Sorcerer, Earthshaker, DE Simpsons and Pinbot soon after.

Only problem was, we lived in an apartment so all but two games were always stored upended. Finally bought a house this June and have room for a real gameroom and more pins.

I was 38 back in 2008 when I purchased my first game, TZ.

I remember getting defense command(bootleg defender),Asteroids and kangaroo at a garage sale for around 50 or 75 bucks apiece when I was around 10 years old.Thats what started it for our family.I still remember my toddler brothers standing on chairs going crazy on them!

37, strikes and spares for $100 on a garage sale about 10 years ago.

I've always liked pinball, but never thought of owning one. One day I'm on a bike ride with my wife when suddenly she's suggesting we should stop by at a near by garage sale. I'm not big on those but thought why not, happy wife happy life. As soon as we get off our bikes I see the pin, and it was in great condition. She's like no way, but I said this was your idea. The guy is moving so the price was cheap, I make a deal and she sighed deeply. She doesn't like the pins in our house, and rarely plays but she knows they make me happy and so tolerates it. Don't think I'd own any machines if she had not suggested stopping at that garage sale

38. Tron Pro nib. Considered something cheaper as my first game but my wife told me to go for it... so, you don't hesitate on that.

33, High Speed. Definitely more to come. But there are lots to play on the meantime.

35. X-Men was my first purchase and it absolutely sparked my passion for a hobby that I had nearly forgotten about despite loving it as a kid.

Marc

30... it was 2006 and the game was Judge Dredd, cost me $900, shopped but the Deadworld was... well dead.

I've been playing pinball since I was a kid but didn't buy a pin until I was 37 years of age. My first pin was a Bally Kiss and then followed EBD. This hobby has been good to me.

Beater TAF at 45, 5 years later and ive gone mad. Had 70 pins and counting. Down to 20, trying to move 5 more by xmas and get a HOBBIT.

Love hearing these stories.

Mine was a few years ago in 2014. I was 26. Bought a Demolition Man for 1250 from a young guy who was moving house. He had two other machines that he was selling at the same time for similar prices - Flinstones and GNR. He recommended that DM was best for a new machine owner so I bought it. I love my DM to death, but if I could go back in time... I'd have to admit I would take the GNR

All the games in my collection my parents have bought me but I bought my first game with my own money that I earned from Pinball tournaments a few months ago and it was a terminator 2.

I was about 15, my Dad bought me a Melody for 10 pounds in about 1980. Then second pin, Bly Supersonic in about 2005. 6 months later Surf Champ and then 3 storage locations became available to me at the same time as I became single followed by a big upswing in my business. You can guess the rest...

15,FIRE!

For the longest time, I shared this hobby with my dad. He would find the good deals, buy the games, then he and I would spend the time together fixing them up and playing them.

Then around the time I was a senior in high school, 17 or so, I started making my own money in a significant way (relatively speaking), and purchased my first game: Firepower for $300. In hindsight, I definitely overpaid for that nonworking basketcase, but I was so excited to have a game with multiball, since all my games before it were EMs.

When I look at my collection now, versus then, and how excited I was to have a single game with little features like multiball and an attract mode (I used to think that was so cool), it's humbling how far I've come.

19 in 1981 it was a Target Alpha at an auction. I paid $125.00 for it.
I still have the game and the receipt is in a frame on the wall next to her.

Brian

I was 18 and got my first one for 20 bucks. Sold it for 76 on eBay. It was a grand slam. That was 6 years ago and since then I've had 350 or so.

Age 50. Looks like I'm a late bloomer compared to the others here.