I love pinball and have been playing it regularly since I was in high school. I'm 38, so I was lucky enough to "discover" pinball just in time for the 90's Williams/Bally years. Like many of you, once I was settled in a career I had interest in buying one of these games that I loved so much. I've only owned four machines- TZ (twice- the first time in 1999 and I got a beautiful machine for $1500.) Then I started a family, lost interest and sold, and got interested again within the last 5 or so years. I bought TZ again and sold, Tommy and sold, No Good Gofers and sold. As you can see, I'm one of those who is pretty much allowed one machine at a time. I suppose that it is better than no machines.

Anyway, I figured I'd give a little background since I never posted here before, so back to the topic at hand-- Do any of you feel that despite the uptick in pinball popularity over the last few years that this trend has any chance of carrying on for very long? Unfortunately, I think the answer is a definitive "no" and here's why. I think that my generation, Gen X is it for pinball, and we're now in our 30's and 40's. I am a middle school teacher in a suburban Detroit school district, so I think that I'm qualified to say that I have a finger on the pulse of the current crop of teenagers. And believe me when I tell you that pinball is NOT even in the top 100 of things that they enjoy doing.

If the topic of hobbies happens to come up and I make mention of the fact I'm into pinball, the kids look at me like I'm a rack of yard tools from Sears (Great Outdoors movie reference...Sorry.) Anyway, once people realize that buying pinball machines is not a retirement plan, like many people seem to think it is, and that the minimum age of prospective buyers in 20 years is near 60, what is going to become of peoples' pinball collections?

People need to enjoy pinball for the moment and not agonize over it like a classic car. By the way, I also believe that 60's muscle cars will tank once the boomers are too old to care.

But who knows? I could be completely wrong in my assessment. I'm curious about what other people think. And yes, I am looking for my next one, singular, solitary machine that I'm allowed to have. Thanks.

Right. But do you think that those kids will go on to desire their own machines one day? That's really the only way that pinball will have any longevity. It's the nostalgia aspect that makes adults who have a little extra dough want to go out and get their own machines. Of course, new machines don't have the nostalgia component going for them and are certainly purchased nonetheless, but I do think that when they're bought and played for the first time that people are ultimately looking to recapture the excitement of playing a machine for the first time when they were younger.