China has no reason to do that, and we don't talk politics around here.

Downsized once, never started over, many years ago.

If I kept every game I have owned I would have needed a four story warehouse with 25k SF, freight elevator, and a 30 ft moving truck.
A nearly impossible task without overtaking a person's life as a collector not dealer or broker.

This situation does happen, life gets in the way of hobbies, and their are more responsibilities and priorities than pinball.

Normal and objective reason than a person clawing at games to the grave and sacrificing their family.

If you do restart you are more "fine tuned" what you will buy, and take the knowledge with you.
It also provide better understanding of what you want from the hobby in the long term.

I feel the same way. You'll know what I'm talking about being as though you are in the StL Metro area. I bought my first house in Kirkwood in 2005 for $242,000 (1,300 sq ft) and had to pay over asking to ensure I could get it after seeing first day on market. I had been looking for a while. The previous owner bought three years earlier and, as far as I can tell, didn't put any extra money in. They made $100K; talking about good timing. Due to divorce sold 1.5 yrs later for only a few grand more than purchased. I was already pushing the limit on pricing.

For the past couple years I keep hearing about friends and family having to practically bid for houses after the first day on marker. Houses in my current Kirkwood neighborhood are selling without even a for sale sign as the older people die or go to retirement homes. Maybe it is bubble, or market catching back up. Don't know.

I feel the OP's situation. I sold my one pin along with other stuff to buy a daily driver free and clear.

2009 kicked me in the nuts too. Had to liquidate my collection and retirement accounts to live. I bought my house in the South Bay a couple years ago, and it is nice to see the value go up a bit since then. Of course, most my extra money has gone into improvements, which leaves little for pinball acquisitions. But I'm happy with just two pins, an arcade game, and a mame setup for now. Good luck, it's a sellers market in socal right now.

Understood. Glad you mentioned Banning. Pins come and go brother.

I had to start my collection over due to a financial situation. I got my first pin in 6th grade (back in the early '70's). It was a wood rail Dancing Dolls (if you have ever seen the movie Biloxi Blues the pinball machine in it was mine, on loan to the production company). I kept that machine through college and after marriage. I started a computer systems integration business after college and often traded services for old EM machines. I ended up with a nice collection of Gottlieb machines, a shuffle bowler, and an EM shooter. The computer business became very difficult in the early '90's so I stored my collection in my father's basement, uprooted the family (wife and 2 young children), and went back to school. After school I landed a nice job, but with the kids in school and starting a completely new career in a new state I did not have the money and space for the collection. My father got tired of storing the machines so I had to sell the collection, including my Dancing Dolls that I had owned at that point for over 25 years. It was sad to see them go, particularly since I had not been without a pinball machine since the age of 11.

Fast forward a few years and I was able to build a house with enough room for quite a few pins and vids. I started my collection over with my first DMD machine, Jurassic Park (that I have now had for 13 years). Going from EMs to DMDs was a learning curve, but I have enjoyed the new machines and have had a lot of fun building a new collection. It sucks to have to start over, but it does present opportunities to go in a different direction with the collection. I still miss my Dancing Dolls, but I will get another one some day and I found I like playing the DMDs better anyway.

There is one in WOZ you know.

The other thing I wanted to say cosmocramer is good luck. The joy of the hunt!

I've had to sell it all off once and downsize another time, both during moves. You're doing the right thing and you'll be fine! If it's important enough you'll find a way to rebuild or maybe you'll move on to something else. I sold my whole collection about 6 years ago to buy a house and thought I'd NEVER be able to rebuild. I started with a broken High Speed about 6 months later and slowly but surely I was able to build my dream collection.

Good luck, and good job keeping your priorities straight.

Can't you just sell this painting to recoup...

71t-TERdruL._AC_UL320_SR212,320_ (resized).jpg

I had 12 pins. Sold off 10. Only 2 left. Kids are expensive.

Hey, even one pin is infinitely more pins than the average person has.

Best of luck!

Back in 2013 I had to sell off my entire collection except for my Goldeneye "project" to keep a roof above my kids heads, after their mum decided not only to steal all the money out my business account, but also run up a monumental amount of debt and to put the icing on the cake, decided to up and leave me and the kids in the sh*t.

3 years later, I was finally in a position where I had recovered and was able to start buying back games I had to sell, celebrated getting back on track and getting pins back in the house with my BM66LE as a xmas present to myself last year

Great Christmas gift. Congrats!

$100k in 2009 to a million $ today? How did you do that? Even if you put 100k in Apple you would only have $650k today? Curious.

Buy a $200 EM project. That won't really impact your bottom line, and you still keep your hands in the game.

Robbed a few banks!?

ebay, use the word RARE a lot.

A wise man once told me you make money when you buy, not when you sell!

Also "L@@k"

Cozmo...wow..
Its a long drive to Bakersfield.
Good luck with restore of those 2.

Those both looked like great projects to me. Was the damage even that bad?

I went and looked at those games, and passed on them. The damage was worse in person. I could have dealt with termite damage to the cabinets, but when they get into the playfield...

I knew they had termite damage but I wasn't sure the extent. That's still a couple of good projects. Its just good you get to stay in the hobby

I assume they were fully fumigated? I've read some scary stories here about termites!

Both are great fun games. Should keep you busy enough for a while especially with the termite damage. How bad is the fishtales playfield?

Yeah, I try to start over every morning.

Good luck with the house hunt. Are you out in the Riverside area? I may have found something in your budget...

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Riverside-CA/house_type/17834607_zpid/47401_rid/150000-250000_price/543-905_mp/34.02364,-117.28798,33.840478,-117.521096_rect/11_zm/1_fr/

How many pins can you fit in 800 square feet?

Not sure but I've got well over 30 in my 1400 sq ft house and garage with plenty of room to spare.

Plus this place has an over 6000 sq ft lot so there is room to expand. In So Cal, any house at that price is a good deal. I get a kick out of reading the past sales price history and tax assessments on those zillow listings.

Good knowledge question.

Roughly 36 games with "alley walkways" and 2-4 inches between back boxes, with some various +/- 2 games on manufacturer.
There will multiple runs of games along each of the walls. How many is dependent on their length of run.
However, the walking "lane" is at minimum of 35 inches wide.
This does not consider any older widebody games that have oversized backboxes, ultimately the determining dimension.
If there are doorways involved, this simply changes the configuration, not necessarily the number of games.

A few more games, if they are EMs from the 1960s such as GTB wedge heads, up to around 40 or so.

The key is the alignment of lanes to be able to remove playfield glass on SS titles with the lane straight corners. "Lift style" playfield glasses such as used by Bally EMs are a significant advantage in these key positions. Placing games "back to back" in this case is not an advantage as you lose more space, if the room has fixed walls.

Recognize serviceability will be a PITA, especially for EM back boxes, if not placed in the middle of backside alley runs for access.

Family first, if you were in the bay area CA, more then welcome to hook up and play some pinball here.positive thinking, positive things happen !

Good luck my man! The title seems a bit misleading though...you don't HAVE to sell, but WANT to sell. Regardless, you've committed to sell some prized possessions for the better good of the fam bam. Kudos.

Looks like a lot of the termite damage is on replaceable parts. Hopefully the actual playfield damage is able to be repaired easy enough.
I'll be following your restore when you begin.