Way!...Eventually people find these sites because of them goggling for technical help on their machines, just take your own microcosm as an example, I will use mine in FL, about 3 out of 4 pinball fans or collectors I meet are either here on pinside lurking/posting or on the local site. I would guess roughly 50% of NIB buyers being here as a safe number. Overseas sales however may be a some what different.

Yes! to think otherwise is just not realistic. We've been discussing the 8K market for a while...It does have a limited shelf life...it just takes a while for the idea to sink in. Just like the condo market, people were still buying as the market was crashing down here because the concept of market saturation was alien to them.

Well, perhaps the answer is to stop paying exorbitant labor fees in the US and have them assembled abroad....

Let's face it, assembling these things isn't rocket surgery... so lets get Foxconn cranking out these babies and there will be no threads tracking deliveries and no lamenting a company that takes 3 years to build 1000 machines.

BAM, solved!

Brilliant, so ALL new pins will be re-imports, and we'll spend months dialing in our new pins instead of days.

Ok. But playing on location kicks ass compared to playing in a basement or house.

Apparently you have never attended one of RVDV's pinparties.

I don't know who RVDV is. But I have played plenty of location pin. And I will take location pin over someone's house pin all day long

Serious ? Most location pins absolutely suck balls !

Most pins go down in value. We had a really strange couple years where used games were skyrocketing in "value", but even during that only a few NIB games went up in value. Most still went down, which is normal. Expecting any purchased item to retain 100% of its value is folly.

If you can't afford to loose 20% of the price, you can't afford to buy it.

Yes, I am serious.
Just playing at home is lame.

"Most location location pin absolutely suck balls??!?"

How much location pin do you play?

No good location pin in St George?
You could change that.

Scroll down for for pics, I will take these games over the broken LW3 on location up here any day.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-parlor-in-corona/page/9

Playing at home on well maintained pins with friends is hardly lame.

Location pinball can suck the majority of the time. Even assuming the pins are in good condition, the environment is often not pinball friendly, with bar music and noise often drowning out the sound of the pin.

Where do you live? Hopkins? Alameda? Boulder? Now that's some good location pinball!

Party at RVDV's!

Broken "ok, Ok, ok..."

I don't know where you are at, but here I have Wozle, acdcpre, TAF, DW, WPT, Afm, SnS, TZ at one location. STtNG at another. I used to have another 15 out and will soon.

Location pin owns home pin.

The replay and special actually mean something.
You get to be social, etc.

I have pins out in the DC area.

Playing on location is fun. It's nothing all that special though, pinball is pinball. I'm more social with people playing at home then I am on location, where frankly I'm often the only person paying attention to the fact that there's even a pinball in the place. At home the machines are well maintained, and I can hear the music and callouts.

Playing by yourself alone all the time can get a little old, but that's why you have pinheads over all the time to play and compete with and go to leagues and parties. See the photo I took above, plenty of socializing happening there.

If you live somewhere where there's a lot of location play maybe it's different, but it doesn't work that way in SoCal. The lifeblood of the scene here is private collections, for better or for worse. Maybe we do it differently, I dunno, but I play a lot of pinball with a lot of people all the time, so I don't feel like I'm missing out.

You have 37 pins but playing at home is lame? OK.

It's already been said, but location games are often dirty & broken in various ways & you can't hear the sound. There's nothing lame with wanting to play a pinball machine that's clean, fully functional, and audible.

***Please note, I'm not saying it's BAD to play on location, that's obviously what these machines are for....but we're a group of people that appreciates the nuance of pinball more than others, and we collect - it's totally cool and fun to play at home and there's nothing wrong with it at all!

Yes.
They go on location.

The slots where quarters go in?
They actually get used!

Pinball is a location game.
Something that seems to have been forgotten in the 2010's

Yes.
They go on location.

The slots where quarters go in?
They actually get used!

Pinball is a location game.
Something that seems to have been forgotten in the 2010's

Is that our fault? Blame operators and arcades, but don't sit there and judge us & tell us we're lame. We have passion for pinball and there's nothing wrong with private collecting. Both the location side of pinball and the collector side can co-exist, you know. It's not a battle.

Why are you adamant that it's one or the other? I live in an area with over 1.3M people and not a single pin on location. I'd love to have your 37 games by me, but that wouldn't replace having a half dozen games in my house. Either cursing them out by myself or playing with family and friends. I also enjoy fixing and modding the games at home. I would have never spent $8k for a pin when I was younger, but it's great to have a hobby in my 50's that provides as much fun as when I was a kid.

I have to agree with Chris, location pinball is serious fun. And I have thrown some great house pinball parties, but playing pinball out in the wild is invigorating!

You are right, pinball is pinball. If home pin is more social than location pin where you are at, that is
interesting.

Don't KME and Belsito operate pins in SoCal?

The bubble has already burst. Why do you guys think stern is making VE??? Cause the 8K market is gone. They will keep trying but the ship has sailed my friends. PPS is only getting 8K because it is MM. Other titles good luck chuck.

Hi,

This is Pinside. Most of the people on Pinside are hardcore pinball people, we like pinball so much we choose to buy heavy/expensive games for our homes. Many of us “Pinsiders” play on location as well, mostly because we can not own every machine.

Nice to meet you. ....and welcome to our home.

ma

Why blame operators and arcades?
Did you support them?

You have a passion for pin. That's great.
Like I said, pin is a location game.
Support your local operator.

Thanks for the welcome.
Now go play some location pin!

It’s not special...until it is. In other words, its special now. Over the years location pinball has died, but it is making a small “hipsterish” comeback to a degree.....(as I am sure you know) When a new place with 10 collector quality pins opened up a few blocks from me, I heard angels singing....It was special. . That being said, I won’t bet on going back in a few weeks/months to find the games working like they did the first week. I hope I am wrong though.

Your location is unknown.

Yes, I played the operators game until It no longer worked, then I played it half broken, then I gave up and went home.

Not always true....but normally so.

I said DC area. I have the pins @ Town Hall in College Park. Like I said, WOZLE, ACDC Premium, AFM, TZ, TAF, DW, WPT, SnS. STtNG @ Black Cat in DC.
More location pin to come.

Cool....I was teasing you for not having the location set on your profile. If I ever make it back to DC, I’m on that.

Back on track.... I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I won’t be paying 8k for one game.

It's their job to advertise, attract customers, and keep their games working. The state of the arcade isn't on me and my pinball habits. The state of the arcade is what it is because it's an outdated concept in an era of gaming in your pocket.

If I'm out somewhere & there happens to be pinball, I'll play it. The local movie theater has few games that are well maintained with the volume up. There's a bowling alley near me with 4 games, but they're usually dirty & dark and you can't hear them. Regardless...my couple bucks every few months at one of these places isn't going to save the arcade. I'm not the target audience.

I will when I can, but don't put the burden of their route earnings on collectors. There's a world of people out there for them to attract to the product they're offering.

Do you realize how big "SoCal" is & what the traffic is like? It often takes an hour to drive 15 miles somewhere. As far as I know, Belsito's games are hour(s) away. Driving hours to play location pinball is not our 'duty'. Hopefully the people who live near those locations are enjoying their games.

Like many others here, I'm fortunate to have games at home - I refuse to feel ashamed about it.

big city over here, i only know a few places, one with 2 pinballs (ac/dc and MET) and they look like crap and the other one is worst (and it's MM).
i have no problem supporting operators and arcades but for that you better have a good fully working pinball, in most case they don't and they don't really care, all they want is your money without fixing their machine (at a minimal cost if they do). most kids don't even know what a pinball machine is, most people don't even know pinball still exist, simple, because there are none in the wild, most operators/arcades want redemption games, why... $$$

playing at home gives you a better understanding of the rules on a perfectly tune machine and working 100 %.
now a day there are more collectors than arcades (over here thats for sure).
there are not only for arcades, the LE's are mostly sold to collectors and that's the market they want (stern/jjp).

every time i go to an arcade i look for pinballs, none..... man i love my collection.

Rare, why are you not the target audience?

It's not the burden of the collector to put games on location! If we wanted to be operators, we'd be operators...we have different careers and other stuff to do in life. There's nothing wrong about owning games in your home! Stop trying to shame us!!!!

I will answer unbiased for him....he has 25 perfectly working pins at his house. I have never been there, but I would put money on it.

I know SoCal is big. DC traffic is no treat either. But if there is someone operating Nice pins anywhere near me, I will seek them out.

LOL!

Lets bring this full circle to the topic Newsom...You don’t have any 8k machines, nor do I. Do you think you will buy an 8K machine in the future.....I’m out on that price, but will be glad to plunk $1 in someones. How long do you think it will take to pay off such a game, with plays from said 8K game?

The target audience of a location pinball machine whoever happens to be walking by at any given time...and hopefully the machine is compelling enough to get them to put 75 cents in!

I'm a busy guy...I don't have time to go hunting down every location machine and feed enough money into them to put an operator's kids through college....and again, for me and many others here, who LOVE pinball in a "more than casual way", it's just not as interesting or fun to play games that are dirty, broken, and inaudible.

Like I said, if I see one while I'm out and about - I'll play it...but once again - there's nothing wrong with collecting machines. This is generally a collector's forum. Not sure why you want to make us the bad guy.

So Cal is bigger than a lot of New England states, hell San Ber'dino county is bigger.
It is an hour and 45 minutes from Lake Arrowhead to Lake Alice.

The movie theater near me has Rolling Stones. I don't have Rolling Stones, so I like playing that game after a movie if I have time....but what do you want from me, man...you want me to sell off all my games and only play the ones at the theater? C'mon....just stop judging. You're in the wrong place to be negatively judgmental about pin collectors.

I can drive to one of the best pinball locations in the country, then through Mad Max-esque times back to my house in less time.

I get what Newsom is saying. 1980 called and said the arcades are bitchen ! 1980 was the time of my life, arcades with new Steve Ritchie games were the shit ! I did not even care who SR was in 1980 but loved his games.

Things have change in the past 30 years and it is not going back anytime soon ! We are the driving force that is driving pinball and the manufacture are trying to steal our thunder with remakes and other high priced games .

I don't know where things are going.

Settle down RH.

If you want to line up pins in your residence, that's your prerogative.
I never said "shame".

Collect on, collectors.
You are doing a fine job.

Then it wouldn't be a hobby anymore and I'd have to get in my car to play them.