Cool. I might just do that! That might be the perfect compliment to my Expresso Go bike

And you can find these on Craigslist often for half the price with little to no use. Mostly due to the failed new years resolution to lose weight and exercise more...

Don’t want to go to far off track here but the “water rower” looks like a great all around workout?

I have been there. I only made it up to 16 machines, then suddenly felt very burned out. I have sold down to 7 currently. Kept a few modern, low-maintenance machines. Much happier with my current lineup. I figure I'll stick with 7-8 for a while.

Pinned out?? How about worn out with all the pins you have and the ones had in the past it must have been a lot of work just moving them around. I guess the bike is the way to go to keep the body healthy. Awesome collection and its nice they are all still being played. Would love to see your pin room if you feel like posting a pic.

I think anything over 10-15 and it becomes quite troublesome to keep them all working correctly. feels like you can never get caught up, so you tend to get aggravated having to work on something all the time.

LOL I've noticed this around here too. Every game for sale 'has less than 100 plays!'. Either it's bunk, or these people have too much money. I've had my AC/DC for a week and I've already put more than 100 games on it (because I suck).

Go ahead and restore yours.

I have had SM for about a year and a half.
If you have looked at my collection, you know what I have.

Space Mission is the first game I go to. It is simple but always a fun play.
Right now it is a keeper.

I also have other arcade games besides pinball, mostly EM.( no video games except a Megatouch 2009).

Cue is South Park, High Speed, Twin Rifle by CC and Williams Music Mite. Probably not in that order.

How many modes on that Bike ? Is the code good ? Do you keep high scores ?

Exercise Bike has to be a single player. Probably pretty boring if you have friends over.

Honestly I think once you pass 6 that's true. 6 is imo the magic number between "a lot of pins" and "too many pins" where too many isn't a bad thing or a judgement, but just in the realm of becoming a thing unto itself.

I think the true issue is selling a pin and then getting it again. I have done this too many times it's embarrassing.

42 pins is too much. I went from 15 down to 7. I enjoy having less machines and I could not imagine having 42 at once, no wonder your pinned out.

Found myself feeling similar to you. Munsters LE, ordered, little interest other than that. Used to want every NIB.
Still fun hobby.

I love my water rower. Good workout and love the sound.

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Did you build that??? If so, well done!

To me the anxiety of having machines that are down or not working right and having too many to find time to fix would be the moment I am taking a breather. Right now at six sometimes I feel that, but it’s mostly budget that holds me back. If I can get one new game a year I think I would be happy. Prices are still very high and IMHO it’s easier to just wait and get one of the 3-4 sterns a year and not have to fix much vs getting an older game and be under the hood more.

im not pined out, but i now know what i like, and that is the direction im going
i cannot see me ever buying an LCD game, that and color chanfing LEDs i dont like

mid 70s to mid 90s are the games i like

Pretty much this is me every year. And every year it seems I buy something else in the winter. I wish I would do something when there isn't snow to have to truck through to my walk out... My friends are probably done with my shit after this year lol

It comes and goes. I've been collecting since 1996 and there were several times I did nothing pinball related for a couple years in a row. I've recently started operating games and it adds a new facet to the hobby where money is coming in instead of out. But sometimes stepping away from pinball is a good thing.

Have pinball parties or tournaments at your place. I find that is very satisfying having others over to enjoy playing and talking pinball.

your only one sweet deal away from relapse.dont fool yourself

I'm just getting started! Bought my first machine (BK2K) a few years ago and just got my second (AFM remake). I'm already thinking about the possibility of picking up a cheap EM to round out my collection, and later on maybe an early-2000 Stern or something with really deep gameplay. Although, there is the problem of not having space for a third, but there are ways around that...

Hey! I recognize that story! Snoopy?

There's always more room. Knock out a wall, get rid of unecessary things such as couches and refrigerators, build a 4000 sq ft building...etc.

Sadly, no. I am not that talented.

I have found my interest has steadily declined over the last couple years. This hobby is kind of tough because I've discovered almost any game gets boring after awhile. Some way sooner than expected. So for awhile you remedy that by selling a couple and buying something different. Eventually the thrill of getting something new diminishes as you realize you'll be repeating the process again in a couple months. The allure is lost when it dawns on you that no game is a real long term keeper. The itch still comes back for me but with longer intervals in between. I'm not sure if you can ever completely leave pinball but I feel like I get closer every year.

Impulse? No way!

Yeah, why does my living room need a couch AND a loveseat?

This is EXACTLY how I feel. I have considered getting out of the hobby recently. Wife loves MET though so we're keeping that as our only one. There is a very precise way every new pin goes... First week we play the crap out of it, second week we play a little less, by the third week the kids completely lose interest. Over the next 4 to 6 months my wife and I play the pin less, and less and less until it just sits. It doesn't matter the pin, or age of the pin, it can be 80s, 90s, 2000s or a new Stern or JJP. I figure since they all get boring eventually I have to buy based off of theme first, If I love the theme then maybe I can keep it long term even if I get tired of playing it.

I think my attention span for new acquisitions is growing shorter.
I too play the crap out of them when they first come in but the trailing off time is much shorter.

People say they're pickier but I see no evidence that buying has slowed at all. I've been waiting for 7 years for people to stop buying before they actually play new games and it hasn't happened yet, so I don't expect it to now. Pickier just seems to mean that they're only buying 50% of the games that come out now, but since there are twice as many games they're still buying the same amount overall, lol.

Some of us like myself have given up because of the NIB prices. We do exist, but seem to be in the minority.

luckily you have about 100 different games you can play on route in town

I've been pinned out for a while. Got rid of a bunch.

The more of them I owned, the more it seemed I would drink and smoke. That can't be an overall healthy lifestyle for someone in his mid 20s.

I think you have to take into account the influx of new people to the hobby every year.
I think at 10 or 12 years ( 11 for me) the interest begins to fade.
But for every guy like me who is no longer looking under every rock for any and all games, a new guy comes into the hobby with all the drive I once had.

I am thinning and will land up with 4 machines. That will be the combined total of pins and EM type arcades.
I peaked at 28 combined total.
My tastes have changed. I am now looking for titles I want and i willing to pay for them. So I am buying a lot less. I only search when I feel like it and I play them less. I would like to buy older restored games because it costs so much to restore them myself.
I would rather buy the other guys loss.

In the early days of collecting I'd leave work early, or drive 4 hours in a snowstorm to get a game that had just posted. It was so satisfying and fun it was about all I would think or talk about. It seemed so important for quite a number of years. You're bound to get burnt out on something that can be so obsessive for so long. Now 14 years later I find myself making excuses not to buy a game that has been on my want list forever. It's somewhat liberating not caring as much, but also makes you envious of those just discovering the hobby.

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I have games that I bought two years ago and have yet to shop. I seem to only care that they play correctly... I buy rubbers thinking I will do a full job, and then they sit in the coin box for years. I try to sell games occasionally to free up space and money, but even that is more effort than it is worth. I love the games I have, but a smaller collection would be easier to manage.

donjagra you need to list your games so we can all droll a bit!

I have a weird taste in games. This has been getting the most play for a while.

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Well spoken...er...rather...
well written.

Wow, you couldn't state this any better. Once I went on a very snowy day towing a U-Haul to do a 2 for 1 trade. Now it's hard to get me out of the house to even go look at one. There are still pins I want, but the list is very short, now my quest is to only buy keepers.

List those suckers!

Fyi: the fact that you say you have a "strange" taste in pins makes me all the more curious

I restore games for myself and not to seek a profit later BUT the restorations always put me upside down.
Many times I am hoping to break even on a game that I restored. If I lose money on a restoration I don't go nuts. I really enjoy making them like new again.
I usually will keep a completed restoration for several years so I enjoy playing it and restoring it.
I would by games restored by others but rarely find the titles I want restored the way I would do it. Games like those just stay in peoples collections.

This is exactly my problem I think. I am covered up in tv repairs at work and the last thing I want to do right now is work on the pins. It upsets me to see so many down though.

RFM and SWE1 have monitor issues and a couple hours of minor things. Need to resolve them.
JP needs new motors and they need to be hooked up turned by the game a bit then installed. Then gone through, I know a slingshot didn’t work.
Sky divers has no gi. Haven’t looked at it.
Simpsons needs to be put back together (did not have a drop target that was broken on the night I was actually working on it)
Sky kings in my garage that is missing 2 inserts (how do you deal with that?????) and I think some ball return hardware.

I don’t want to give any up. But I am way out of space in a sub 1.1k sq ft home.

I am thinking I may try reducing by 1-3 this year. I am also passing on anything that doesn’t work. Only skydivers and swe1 actually came without these problems. So if the seller doesn’t fix it, I plan to just wait for better. I am in about 10 years at this point.