Let them pick the next purchase.

Set aside your misogynistic impositions, and be surprised.

In doing this, they take ownership in choosing a bad pin/great pin. If you're asking here...this is the base issue of your problem, if I've ever seen one.

That violates my #1 rule, which is not base a relationship on dishonesty.

I can handle paying for my pins, it's not like I'm putting them on a credit card or something. No need to lie about their cost.

Get a new one that likes pins.....that's probably the easiest way (but not the cheapest)

Seriously though....my wife will NEVER like pinball. She really does not care about most of my hobbies. But I don't think that is all that uncommon. We travel, we play golf, go to dinner/movies.....it's all good.

My wife has only a slight idea of what i paid for my machine. She wasn't happy. If only she knew what i really paid for it..... But she's happy for me that i finally "got my pinball". If only she knew that1 machine is just the beginning. An earlier poster was right...easier to ask for forgiveness than permision.

Oh man, you bought a Dungeon & Dragons, presumably for under $2k, lied to her about the price, and you're still in trouble? She hasn't seen anything yet ...

Tell her it makes you horny when she plays and then back it up with action. She will either play a lot of pinball or divorce you for being weird.

This. If you can find a pin that has a theme your wife likes, buy it. My wife was only meh about pinball until I surprised her on her birthday two years ago with her dream theme - TAF. Took me a year to save up for it. I didn't really even want to buy it as I couldn't fathom spending that much money on a game but I knew that she has, since childhood, loved The Addams Family. She had no clue if it was a good game or not.
That was a year ago and TAF was pin #3.
We now have 7. Are shopping for #8.
And as I am typing this she is bugging me to go play pinball with her. Best decision I have made and totally worth the cost.
If you really want her to play you have to find something she relates to.

This too. Dishonesty no way to build a pinball collection .

My wife doesn't show any interest in it either. When I first got into the hobby I tried to force it on her and she didn't care for it. My advice: Don't force it on her.
There is no reason why you can't enjoy the hobby without your wife getting interested in it. My wife use to be into Stamping and Scrapbooks. If she tried to get me interested in it I would think she was nuts. If she doesn't enjoy it, don't try to make her like it or she may resent it more.
Just my 2 cents.

Well its more of a "don't ask don't tell" policy. I have my fun money and she has hers. I don't give a rip how many silly coach purses she buys with hers and she doesn't bother to ask what I spend on mine. It's worked for us for almost 20 years now so why mess with a good thing.

My wife and I bought our first machine with left over money from our house hunt. She wasn't interested in pinball at all but we had the money so she let me do it. She was involved with picking what machine we got. Eventually, I got her to join our local league, pitching it as a way to meet up with friends every week. Since then she's gotten more and more into it. She also has veto power and equal input into any game we buy, which she has used.

She's OK with it, when ever I sell a pin... I give my wife $100. It's $$$ well spent

Doctor Who is being purchased next week.... I don't like Doctor Who. It was worth it to see her get excited when I told her. Plus, I will give any pinball a chance.

My wife fell in love with woz. Bought it for her, she played it 10 times... She loves me dearly and saw how much I love pinball and arcade games. I have 16 arcades in the house and 8 pins. She never plays them, they have to "look" immaculate when they come home, or they go in the garage. She knows very well what each pin has cost, and has asked me to reciprocate by remodeling the kitchen. Great fully I am remodeling the kitchen. And also bought her a better ride. I don't really get in to her clothes and shoe fetish, but after the remodel, a game room will be built in the back so she can have her house back

I do have to say, she really dislikes the trips to pick up machines, so that's when I make it a point to take her to do something special she wants to do, and sometimes she'd rather forego the special trip and have me pay shipping to get the next game. I hate selling games, but when I sell a game, I too give her some cash from it... She really likes that part... I also get her opinion on all the mods I put in the pins, trying to keep her involved... Oh yeah , our 2nd game I let her pick out, tmnt. She never plays it, I hate that game, it took me a year and a half to finally convince her that it needs to go... Anyone want to buy a tmnt?

My Doctor Who purchase requires a 16 hour single day round trip.... I assumed I would have to make this shitty trip by myself, and was very surprised when she asked to come with. I think I have a winner boys.

Nice, but my wife likely won't get suckered into that again after the whole "dryer incident"...

My wife likes to play, but not as much as I do. She isn't interested in leagues, but will go to the bar sometimes and play a few games. She also couldn't care what I spend on the machines. I run a side business that takes care of my hobbies, so as long as I'm not spending the mortgage, she couldn't care less.

Every time I buy a pinball machine my wife gets a Coach bag So she is into pinball in a big way. Helps the addiction too, knowing this machine will cost me this much extra too.
She as I do loved the Avatar movie, so I bought the game and she plays it as I have it in our living room She also comes to all the shows with my son and me. So she can't help be exposed to it

I paid 3900. Was that too much?

^ kidding. I paid 1400. She thinks i paid 1000

Perfect poll, add a poll to see the percentages, I'll bet they are low.

You rebel!

My wife rarely plays pinball but supports me in the hobby. I really dont use "house" money to buy my games though, I always use side hustle money (flipping a pin or two, selling crap on craigslist etc) I think it is healthy to have a few separate hobbies.

I would say given her interest in buying stuff, involve her in the HUNT for a good game and at a good price. Many of us find the hunt to be part of the fun. Find a title you want for your nect pin and ask her for her help in finding the best quality one for the best price. Tell her how good she always is at finding the good deals and that you could really use here help.

That seems lieka natural win. Before you know it she will be buying pins just because they were a good deal

I will say I can not imagine anjoying this hobby even remotely as much if my wife was not really into it.

She was hooked as soon as I played with her and taught her the ruleset on TAF (our first game). She is competitive and we like playing board games (euro stuff mostly) so pinball was a natural extension. She has gotten pretty good and learned some skills so that helps. There are many times that she plays more than I do.

She was also a big proponent for having 2 rooms with pins. 1 with all the nicer stuff that she can go play anytime. The other room becomes a disaster zone when I am working on or restoring something so she avoids it in order to not mix up my chaos.

I think she is on board for a couple in the kitchen once the remodel is done. I mean when people come over they hang in the kitchen so why not have a few pins in there also

Getting your wife into pinball is not that hard if you are ready to get messy. Few saws should do the trick and the torso should fit inside nicely lol.

My mom and I are more into pinball than my husband and dad are, but they gladly play with us, help haul them, do the soldering that I can't do, help me fix issues, etc. My husband was never exposed to pinball growing up, and there's been no pins in town since my mom used to get me out of school early to hit up the local arcade in the early 90s, so it's been fun showing him the new pins over time. We've been at it about 3 years now and he likes the machines and will chat with me about pins almost daily, but he's mostly a console gamer. We both have our things we like and do on our own, but we at least show somewhat interest in each other's stuff. I watch him play some games (Destiny and Halo are boring as hell to watch, but I love watching GTA games) and he helps me with ideas for the jewelry that I just started working on as presents for family, or helps with ideas in my garden, or at least will pay attention to whatever thing I'm doing that he otherwise wouldn't care about.

The main thing I've noticed with women in general and new people who know nothing about pins is that they are intimidated by them. They don't know how to play or what to do, and don't want to look stupid in front of the "pin wizard" so they just don't even try to play. If you really want her to at least show a small interest in something you love, start by asking her opinion on things. If you LED them, ask her for her opinion on what color/bulb looks best. (I love playing with LEDs on pins, because it's basically adult Lite Brite.) If you are cleaning/shopping them, ask her for help reaching things or as a second pair of hands, just so she's there as company and you can tell her a little about the stuff as you go. Now if she's rolling her eyes and/or complaining the whole time then that's one thing, but being included and having your opinion wanted goes a long way. If you can get her to play at all, do a pin golf type of game where you give her one goal or objection to shoot for, instead of trying to explain the whole game to her. Non-pin people's eyes glaze over when I start trying to explain modes and goals, but they like it and actually play when I simply tell them to "feed the T Rex" or "defeat Sandman."

And if money is the big issue... explain that for the most part, pins hold their value. If you don't spend a fortune on one and/or put a ton of money into mods, you can usually get most/all of your money back if you were to sell it. This is my arguement for pins versus large TVs and theater equipment when my husband wants new stuff, as those things never hold their value over years. I'm not saying it's an investment of sorts, but if for some reason we had to some up with quick money the pins could be sold for basically what we have in them or more instead of losing value over time. At least that makes me feel better when I start counting up the thousands of dollars worth of pins sitting around my basement.

great advice as always from BT!

Nah its just called plaing the game. If you have a wife then you know what i mean. Sometimes what they dont know cant hurt you

My fiance was kind of indifferent aside from nostalgia from playing her Dad's William's Aztec as a kid. We recently hit two arcades that had 16+ high ranked pins a piece. She played pretty much everything in the lineup but loved LOTR, MM, and WOZ. She also really enjoyed TAF, and WH20 but she kept coming back to the LOTR. I think if you let her try some stuff and let her get a feel for a theme and gameplay that she personally enjoys--that'll help.

In my case, game number 1 was for her. . So I get to blame her.

We have found that pinball is something we both enjoy - it has been some time since I left other other mutual hobby that she is still into. Some of the machine are hers. Some are ours. Some are mine. The work is split up - I primarily do under playfield repairs and electronics; she does anything Ikea such as installing cliffies.

Mine too. She loves needlepoint. She doesn't do forums etc, but likes ebay. Her needlepoint Mecca is in San Francisco. We're going to visit the shop this summer while on vacation. She isn't interested in pinball but is supportive of my hobby and purchases.

what happens when you buy pin no.2 ? heh

In my marraige, I'm the one that worries about money. My wife is full throttle, but also has a good job and makes plenty of income. My pins have cost a lot of money and I have enjoyed the process. Now that I'm building a 30x25 brick building with central air etc, my pinball budget is officially way past any amount my wife will spend on her hobbies. She's very supportive so I'm pretty lucky.

Two things that worked for me:

1. Have another woman play pinball with her. This works with most women.
2. Have a dollar game where you bet she will win. This worked on Scoregasm Master. She eventually got good enough at it and beat me.

If your wife is into extreme couponing and getting the best deal possible...

task her with scanning Craigslist and finding the best machine she likes for a great deal compared to BostonPinball "book" value.

In addition to pinball, I also needlepoint. SF has some great shops but they're pricy- if you're in the Bay Area, drop her off at Needle in a Haystack in Alameda which has an outstanding selection of canvas and yarns, then you can head to the Pacific Pinball Museum. Win-win.

Good tip thanks. We are going to The PPM and she would much prefer to run by a local shop while I play.

i have not gotten my wife to ever voluntarily play a game of pinball, and although i'd love to be able to share my joy of the hobby with her (instead of just boring her to tears with it, and watching her roll her eyes whenever i bring it up) i know it'd be a terrible mistake to try to force her or guilt her into playing.

on a couple occasions, we have had friends over and she has been roped into an impromptu "couples tournament", though, and that's always been fun.

My wife was more interested after a trip to the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. We met up with some friends and played for 1-2 hours. After that she was okay with me buying a pinball machine ($1,000 budget).

I dragged my wife to Pinagogo with me last month (well, she came willingly), and suddenly last weekend she asked if I wanted to play pinball Sunday morning, where the local arcade has unlimited play for a couple hours for $16.

Whoo!

Lets see who has a sense of humor on Pinside. This is 100% a joke and shouldn't be taken seriously.

Put the pinball machine in the kitchen so she can play it.

I think it's hilarious that somehow National Sandwich Day and National Housewife Day are the same day. Coincidence? I think not.

I also think it's funny when men forget that there are sharp knives in the kitchen, and that women are indeed capable of going from normal to crazy in 3 seconds flat. You'd think they would want to keep us out of there.

http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/november.htm

There are a couple things that've made my wife want to play more pinball:

1) Not playing with me unless we're practicing something specific and she wants tips. She doesn't like competing against me that much and also doesn't like waiting between balls, this is a big thing on the one machine we own because my ball times are generally 3-5x hers. A lot of that is the play style. She tends to get a lot more points in a shorter time than I do and beats me regularly, it's the waiting that's frustrating.
2) Finding a game she likes. The first couple were Scared Stiff and Medieval Madness, she was really into those for a while.
3) Pinball shows/free play. There are a lot of people there and bailing out is a lot less frustrating when everything's on free play. The first time we went to a show was the first time she got really into it.
4) Women's pinball league. It's the first meetup-type thing in our area that she's been into. It's definitely a very different vibe from the more intense IFPA sanctioned leagues and such. The women's league in Austin is pretty competitive and has a number of really, really good players.
5) Encouragement. Lots of that.

Same thing happened when we went to PHOF for the first time. I already had a SMB, so it didn't really break the ice, but gave her the chance to She played a few games before heading for the Stern row. After a little while she found me and said "I like the Pirates one." OK. She asked if there were any close to us (there is, but in a theatre and in poor shape) and how much one would cost. She didn't like the cost. I'd like to get one though, since she did really like it. I just went from 3 to 6 pins with a nice inexpensive bulk buy. Once those are all ready to rock (lots of cleaning/rubbers/bulbs needed) I will start saving for a POTC and see if I can surprise her some day.

Instead of trying to get her to like pinball, why not focus your energy on supporting her in her own hobby?

Treat her hobby the way you want to be treated with regards to pinball. If she doesn't have a hobby, do something nice for her when you get a machine, like send her for a massage/spa day or something.

When I bring home a new pin, my wife always gets a "pinball mani".

Tell her that if she beats you in pinball, that you'll buy her a pair of Jimmy Choos.

No.

My gf at first was indifferent but 100% supported what I wanted.

After taking her to MGC, she got to try almost every machine there. She fell in love with the Jurassic park there. She is now much more interested. I got a JP for her and now we get to both enjoy it.

Win win for me

Remove the lockdown bar and the glass then raise the playfield. Lift your wife and place her in the bottom of the cabinet (better if she is not conscious during this) and then lower the playfield and replace the glass and lockdown bar.