You have 18 pins, I do NOT feel sorry for you haha...

You could have 10 broken and still have 8 to play

I also think the games play great "as is", and people OVER mod them. You're right, the money could be better spent on another pin, or maintenance items...

Yea I'm pretty addicted. To every pin I own I add:
- invisiglass / Pdi glass
- shaker if it can take one
- sub
- powder coating full rails, coin door, lockdown bar, legs
- topper
- mirror blades
- target decals
- LEDs with spotlights

It's easily $1200 extra per machine
As far as maintenance, something needs to be cleaned and waxed weekly. Something small might go wrong every week but in general nothing major occurs. I consider a major issue one that takes me more than 30 min to diagnose and fix.

It looks like I have about the same number of pins...and I certainly don't consider it a large collection. But I do have a huge problem selling a game. I still have the first 5 machines I bought back in 1998-2000ish.

My games are for play...and not show. I'm not a big fans of mods...toppers...Christmas tree style LEDs and such. I turn them on when I wanna play...not look at them. I find once you really go through a game properly...in a home environment I seldom have to touch it again. My 40+ arcade games fail way more than my pins

I will say in the last couple months I have been warming up to LEDs in inserts for less heat (saving insert movement) and reliability.

I remember those days. Try having 90+ pinballs, maintenance/tinkering is a year round thing. Stocking the parts for that many games is another story. I try to rotate each game into the game room at least once a year so I can get to them all to keep them working ("try to" are the key words here). The nice part is that I never get tired of a game long enough to want to sell it (unless it's a duplicate). I choose to call it game room recycling when you have that many pinballs. Others call it other things ... crazy, hoarding, pack ratting etc. (I also call it fun).

Wait a minute, I thought you said a BIG collection of pins....? LOL. Just messing with you.
My suggestion is to keep collecting the pins you like, forget about the mods....
The more games you have the less many of them are likely to have something go wrong with them as alot of them dont get played very much. I know one guy that only put 4 games on his PM in a year because he has so many games to play. Same is the case here. Keep building that collection and enjoy.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, MI.
269-979-3836

Yeah it's the worst having a big pin collection. I have that same problem with money. I mean I know there are people starving to death while I'm typing this, but what about me?!?! Where am I supposed to put by bags of $100 bills? All of my closets are already full! FML!

I have about 30 games and it will be weeks, maybe months some don't get played, especially in the summer. Maintenance is an issue but as others have said when only one or two are down still lots to play. And really, who doesn't like to get dirty and dig into a broken pin every once in a while.

68 machines.... you are a sick sick man

I'm jealous

You have to keep up with them as they go down....in other words, don't wait until 10 of them need work before starting or you'll never keep up! Keep a lot of spare parts too so you don't need to wait for shipments every time you have an issue.

What does everyone consider as big? +15, +20, +30, +50?
Al

I have 14 machines and well its a start to a collection
But ok I see guys here are worried about maintnence but wouldnt it save alot of maintnence having leds instead of bulbs? Less strain on the circuits no heat substantialy longer life and preserves the inserts I would suspect leds would be a big step up to eliminate maintnence.

It is definitely a lot of work! Get a good friend that likes to fix as much as you! PAFASA is mine.

How many does your game room hold?

I think the leds helps but there is plenty of other areas such as switches, cleaning and waxing, etc.

If you are feeling that you are reaching your limits due to maintenance or space, and you cannot see yourself selling any games, then you need to refine the games that you still wan to add to your collection

I once had the dream of owning more than 100 machines. I have come to the reality that I will never have a gamesroom that will hold that many, maybe 20-25.
So rather than have 5 of every system, I am now aiming for games that have a high fun value, rather than ‘a deep ruleset’

I spend a lot of time working on my machines.
Most times I enjoy working on them...........sometime I need to take a break....or it starts feeling like a job
I have about 30 games set up in my garage,and the rest are set up in the house.I try not to have any games in the garage that my friends have in there homes

I also have a pin party every Friday night for my friends,which means a lot more cleaning and maintaining for me

Until recently....I rarely sold a machine.....I was 2 away from 50.Only so much space,so some had to go to make room for the new ones that are coming

If I pack it wall to wall with games, remove all the stored heads and boxes of parts, I can get around 27 wide body pins. If I set up EM single players, I can get around 5 more. Then, on the other side of the game room, I have the 3 car garage I can set up in if I don't have my cars in there. Never gone that far though, it's much easier to rotate in and out as needed. I have no plans to put on any shows at my house.

I have room for 7 EM pins and currently have 6. I can have 3 multi-players and 4 singles at any time and currently have to service them in my arcade as well.

I think between maintenance and just getting around to playing them I would like to be able to fit 10-12 pins in the same room and have a separate area in a room/shop next to it big enough to hold 2 pins to be serviced with plenty of room for tools and walking around.

Guess I'll have to buy a bigger house

Ken

I have 38 pins currently in great condition. I only do minor things regarding to maintenance. Jack comes monthly, to fix any problems. BR is currently reviewing each to maximize look with LEDs , Shane , makes code changes. For me , having others with great skills near makes the hobby fun!

well i really got the sickness and at one time had 109 pins - i can't do any maintence or fix anything. as hard as it was i sold lots of games. i try to stay between 30-40 games now. with a good 10 or so being sterns (they really never break) i am not in too bad of shape now.

one thing i learned is i had too many - some went long periods of times and never got played. the only games it seem to effect was superman. i had 2 working supermans and when my mom was sick i went a good 6 months to a year never even going in my basement gameroom.

when she passed i went down there and both of them no longer worked - try finding somebody to fix supermans - not an easy task - thank god for a local expert in mass named alan davidson.

fixed them both and even fixed a third set of boards - so i sold one of the working supermans and kept the other. i also have an extra set of working boards.

even with the smaller amount of games some go long times without being played - especially when you grab an acdc and that's all you play (been doing that for weeks now).

champion pub is a great example of a game that justs sits there - then once in a while when it's time to think i should sell it, i play it and say to myself "what was i thinking - this game is so awesome", but eventually i'm sure the weak moment will come and i sell it

thanks ed

I think the biggest draw back would be never getting laid.

1st world problems, lol

need lots of money and space.