The one with the most toys wins!!!
But seriously I have a mix of pins and vids.......5 pins currently and 5 vids. I have had more but sold some to buy others.........ones I really want. I know plenty of friends that have large collections 20, 40, and some with 80 plus. What I find interesting is those with large collections don't always have room to set them up so many are in storage. Also, many have games with issues and constant maintenance is needed to maintain large collections. We all know the cost of just aquiring the games but factor in the cost of maintaining 40 plus pins....balls, rubbers, etc. I find a smaller collection of games allows me to enjoy them more and not feel constant pressure to keep them working. Gives me flexibility to pick and choose projects when I want and can always change my lineup if I get bored of something.

I prefer larger but not massive I have 8 now could see maybe 12 maximum.

Mine are newer so less upkeep, some games don't get played a lot but I still like having them around. PotC for example I don't play a lot but when I do it's still fun.

Great for parties if you have a nice big collection.

I know a guy with 40-50 but I think that's over the top. I think 8-12 is the sweet spot.

For me 8 in very comfortable and I have all W/B pins, "A class" and I don't have the maintenance to worry about and it is comfortable.
With that said I would love to have a couple new Sterns to add to the collection and I feel it would be perfect.

For those people with large collections of working machines, do you play most of them on a regular basis, or do you end up with machines that haven't been played for months or even years?

I've got a friend who has about 15 games set up and fully working, as well as many more out on loan. He only usually plays IM and ST, unless we go round and start turning on all of the other machines, which range from other Sterns, through SS through to EMs

I have just 8 but there might be a month pass when I don't play a particular pin. Typically I play 1 or 2 pins on a daily basis but others will not get played much, but I still like having them around. I don't play a lot of time, maybe 4-6 games a day.

I find that I'll play a new pin a lot and the other pins won't get played for a week. I get sucked into learning all the rules and game play and start to get mod ideas or see if anything needs to be tweaked or fixed.

I will also focus on a game I have for sale, figuring I need to play it as much as possible before it leaves.

Was playing BSD almost exclusively for a few weeks, but hardly touched it since getting Viper.

My wife and I will play a tournament against each other once other twice a week. That's a good way to get a few games on each machine as we just play on down the line.

I'd like 10-15 but only have room for 5. I can't host league night unless I have 8 games, but that's physically impossible.

10-15 seems like a solid number - lots of variety, and you can have "interesting" games that might not be great in a tiny collection.

I'm at 15 right now, and they are all over the map. 2 projects (only working on 1 currently), 2 broken games (minor work).

My sweet spot is 10-15. I find that gives me a buffer that when a machine has an issue, it is no big deal to just leave it powered off until I have time to do the work. That was I can group repairs.

I was up to 11 and thought that was a little too much. Now I'm down to 8 and that's better.

6 Sys-11 games
2 Bally SS games

All work reasonably well, but all need a little something. I like having eight game, but only two platforms that I have to understand and stock parts for. I've been working my way around the room cleaning and fixing. If I ever feel caught up (is there is such a thing?) I might add to the herd again.

Since I've had the game room and batcave up and running they all get played much more regularly. Especially cause I host one round of our local league, put on one major comp a year, and do social stuff with family and friends. If it were just me they wouldn't get enough play.

I don't think mine qualifies as "large" with 11 tables, but my play style really varies. More often than not I turn them all on and bounce between them. But sometimes I will just play one for the night, really depends on my mood. It definitely helps to have a variety of table styles, games that play differently, that way even with a bunch of tables you are more likely to play them all. Like Judge Dredd looks and plays very differently to all my other tables, Elvira is a simpler layout, AC/DC has the music theme going for it, Jackbot has the gambling aspect, Who Dunnit has the murder mystery aspect and the elevators, Time Machine is kinda goofy and over the top with its vocals and colors, etc.

The thing for me is that I play the newest game almost exclusively and the others slowly start to lose there luster, even with all the room needed for a 50 pin collection I would have to be comfortable with certain pins hardly ever being played and assuming unlimited funds I think I'd still sell off a few to get a new pin so what I'm trying to say is that I'm full of shit and simply trying to justify limited space and limited funds, who wouldn't want a massive room with many many pins? I had 25 at one point but half of them were in storage, that didn't work but with a nice big basement and space for 50 or 60 and money to buy without selling then I would have a large collection. In fact if I had serious coin then I would have every game that I desire, I would offer someone 2 or 3 times as much as its worth to get lets say Quicksilver or TX Sector and other rare difficult to aquire gems, all with a big smile on my face. Now try to argue with that friends, I'm looking forward to hearing the rebuttal.

Same here. I host 3 major events a year at my place where all the machines get a lot of play, otherwise I wouldn't have so many.

8 would be a good number. I have 9 in my apartment, that works really well.

rd

I guess I never realized you could possibly have too many... I love all my games and as long as they give me joy one way or another I will keep them. Of course, if for some reason my situation changed and my blessings were not as they are now I would not have issue with parting with any of them. They are only games and there are far more things in life that are more important.

I have always been told by my friends who have been collecting for 5+ years that "10" is the magic number. I only managed to go over by 2 but only because I am limited to space. My machines all look and play great, I can see it being a nightmare to maintain if you are the type of person who lets things slide. I'm pretty OCD and if I see a problem mid-game I will stop playing immediately and pull the glass off to troubleshoot or fix. If I need a part to fix a game I will probably toss and turn losing a bit of sleep lol. This is why I keep a nice stock of common wear and tear parts or unique ones for each game that are prone fail or break over time.

I've been to a few other collector's homes with lots of nice titles in 25-40 pin range. But sadly I find lots of issues such as flippers being weak, some switches not registering consistently or just not playing very well in general. That would drive me nuts!

That's a real cool question with no wrong answer.

I recently cut my collection in half. 15 or so of keeper games feels so much better to me and my game room now has some flow to it.

Well it looks like you have a ways to go then.

9 here, w #10 ( AlienLE) showing whenever. I have room for more, but agree w rai, I go for weeks without playing some of them, so I don't see me moving into the "+10" club.....

Personally for me and the space that I have my magic number is 7. Right now I have 6, sold one pin in the fall going to replace with SMVE. I could go to 8 and have but I like the number 7 better.

If they need service I still have enough to play.

I just did the same. Sold all my B/W and have all my sterns. Even got skeeball and pool table to take up the space.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to just have one high-end pin, keep it for a year or so and then swap it for another. I think that could be fun, it might be exciting to get a fresh pin each year and spend a good amount of time really focusing on it.

Yea I'm
Pretty happy with a small
Collection let's say 4 - 5 nice
Pins I just don't have the time to work on more. But if I had more free time I would be k with more
Pins.

Also if your collection is in your house I think having nice clean pins is better vs some beat up ones. But it I had a seperate game room maybe diff.

I have room for 10 tables and it's taken me 10 years to collect that many games. I host numerous events and don't find maintenance to be an issue as long as I keep up on it. I wish I had more room, I'd like to add another 10.

For me, personally I'd not want a huge collection even if I could afford it.

I work full time, have a family, watch sports, movies, am on the Internet fool around with my investments, read books, like to walk outside.

So my pinball time is limited to maybe 3 hrs a week and that's total meaning my playing time is probably like 2 hrs a week.

I'll play more some weeks less others. But if I had more pins than what I have now (8) I'd have a hard time just remembering the rules and trying to achieve some goals or high scores. I'd probably be better with 4-5 that I'd play more often, but I'm fairly compulsive as a collector so my number will probably be closer to 10 in the future.

I am downsizing from 20 to 5 slowly; I just hope Stern stops making games I want to buy for a while so I can achieve my goal ?!?

One day there will be 5!

When we got one, it was a large collection. It surprised people, it was fun. Then 5 was large. Then we had 10. Now I think 20 is a large collection. I've grown to believe these rooms of games are normal....until a repairman comes over and looks at us like we've got a circus in the garage.

I am limited to 5 max including 1 stored in the closet to rotate in/out and I'm fine with that. I'm heading toward more EM and early solid state games so hopefully once working the maintenance will be low.

There is always room for one more somewhere. Just have to be creative.

I think we all strive towards that high end smaller collection but getting there usually takes lots of buying/selling/trading up. Unless you make $400-$500k a year. Then you can have a large high end, large collection without much worry about going broke or pissing off your significant other.

Running out of space for pins would be a problem I would like to have. Love to double my collection but that's not going to happen anytime soon.

I have 6. I would like 7. After that I'll want 8.

Haha I know the feeling. I was 'allowed' 1 and was happy with that. That was 5 years ago.

Too much is like not enough

Wrong.

My collection of 13 just became 14. So much for that New Years resolution.

Couldn't agree more. Every game pick up gets completely gone through and I very seldom if ever have a problem. Most guys just pull the tops and clean which never makes sense to me.

Pull the coils..switches..targets...reflow all the boards. Replace all the plungers..sleeves..springs...problematic connectors and in a home environment...you're done

Twice thus far i have told myself I'm going down to 2 or 3 and thats it, then with in a month the sickness returns and with in a few more months I'm back to 12, 14 maybe 16, rinse and repeat. Its as if as long as there is space well I'm gonna put a pin there, damn pinball.

Why, were you aiming for 15?

This thread is funny As someone new to the collecting all I can say is I was going to only get 1. Currently have 2 (after 1 month), searching for #3, where will it end? either I run out of room and stop at 4 or my GF leaves me and I can have more room!

I think this depends greatly on the space available. I only have room for 3 with a fourth in storage so I decided to emphasize quality and replay value. If I had more space I'd have a larger collection with greater variance.

Jack

I bullet proof them and then can set them up or down depending what I want to play. I currently have like 24 on legs. I think LOL. I like a large collection because I like playing all of them. Have about 60 or so. Was up to about 300 at one time.

I have 6 SS Ballys in the basement, a Williams Jokerz! at a friends house and a Stern Nugent in the garage awaiting attention. No more room for more w/o major re arranging. 6 are enough to have to maintain. Only a few titles I still want, but that will have to wait for now..........

42 games and the last one I got doesn't work nor have I even looked at it yet. So the other 41 all work as they should. Sure every once in a while I'll have a game with an issue but it's usually minor.

Every game that comes in gets completely torn apart and gone through. Typically never have any issues after that. TZ was an exception, but it's been sorted out for several years now.

Large collections don't intimidate me.

About a dozen. I'm building my dream game room (building). I could have filled it. Instead I decided to have a nice space for about 12-14 games from different eras. Then I have a nice size work shop, an entertaining / tv lounge room, bathroom and a nice porch. I'm very happy about it and it will be game ready soon!

To each their own for sure. I have room for 40+ machines, had a high of 15, down to 7 now. I enjoy the game room much more now with a slot machine, foosball table, MAME machine. and a bubble hockey coming this Friday. I only play the pins but really enjoy watching guests enjoy the other things. My 10 year old son has foosball tournaments with his friends, wives love the slot, we'll all love the superchexx coming Friday, seeing people find a game on the MAME they haven't played in 30 years.

I guess as I get older, the game room is more for everyone and not just my hobby.

I like my current setup: 14 on legs in our basement, 2 in the shop, 9 in storage and 1 at my Mom's house so I can play when I visit her. It's definitely hard to keep 14 games all running well enough to compete on. Heck, look at this list of the things that happened during our SCS tournament:

DH: flipper return spring broke
LOTR: switch stopped registering
IM: rubber broke near the pops

...and I'm happy that they were all that easy to fix.

I have this problem also RD, I asked if I sold two, which two should I sell, we went through them and couldn't pick 1, then asks when am I getting a ....... pin