Yeah, but it ain't a poor man's hobby, either.

On a comparative basis, IMO pins work out to be cheaper than golf or power boating. But on an absolute basis, it is not a cheap hobby. Especially, if you cannot do your own trouble-shooting ad repairs. And even of you do your own work, you are looking at buying more than a few dollars worth of tools.

A poor man's hobby would be a cheap acoustic guitar.

Your brother sounds like he is a married man. And you sound like you are not a married man

Ha Ha Ha. The oven part of my stove blew out 25-30 years ago.

I have one pinball left on my shopping list.

I can still fry steaks, bacon, eggs, potatoes, and make tapioca pudding, so I'm good

10-12 years ago I stopped at a Cabbala's sporting goods store in western Nebraska. There were all of these fishing boats for sale. These were run of the mill fish boats. There were not any Rangers in the bunch. All of them had signs attached that said $100.00 per month (or some similar price). In smaller letters was the statement "for 120 months". My mental calculator kicked in and 12 months per year divides into 120 for 10 years !!

10 years for boat payments !! $12K for a fishing boat !! Most cars pay out in 7 years now and I remember when car loans were a max of three years. 10 years for boat payments ?? !! I can buy a lot of fish from the grocery for that kind of money.

Recently, as I was doing some nationwide looking on Craigslist for pins, I was a shop down in the southeast part of the country that was listing quite a few pins with monthly payments as part of the sales pitch. While I can justify making car payments ( I have never made car payment. I go for the depreciated high milers), I cannot see making payments on a used pinball machine. And without available financing (for anything) prices come down.

So, the questions are:

How many are financing their pin purchases to satisfy the addiction?

Would Stern shut down if financing was not an option? Or are there enough people flush with cash to keep the train running?