Quoted from Vic_Camp:Sounds like with all the recent games you've been adding to your collection you might be out of space at grandma's house. It might be time to part with some of your video machines? How about trying to grab the family room level at Grandma's house to increase your space condition. Great find on the Sky Rocket!
(Buckle in for the long reply that may not be too relevant of a response...) Finally getting back to reply to you on this (been meaning to as I definitely wanted to) - running out of room for games but continuing to find ways to store them.
Games are meant to be played and seeing games stored away for years by others makes me a little sad so I am going to rotate through them but even if they're stored for a few months I don't feel bad as they have somewhat of a "destiny" to fulfill rather than just being storage eternity - my plan (and sometimes an excuse to hold onto yet another game) is to open a museum (similar to the Silverball Museum) one day.
I have been planning this on a realistic level for quite some time now and due to age and finances of course it is not viable just yet, but by having a collection of games ready to go one day it eliminates a huge expense you would need to spend to buy all those games when you decide to open a museum especially since you need the games immediately which will cause the price to go up times 5 (especially for rarer games) and the selection would be very slim, rather than seeking out games I tend to wait for games to come to me and that way I get them for great prices or even free. I don't go picking up every game I see, I still have a "wish list" like some people use for wanted ads, but mine is more of a filter than something I use to seek things out - if I see a game come up for sale and it's one I have been wanting or have interest in owning I jump on it. Obviously I'm not the only one and it's probably a pretty common way of doing things around here, I believe you did the same thing with your own collection. It's probably the more common way infact - but some other people just have a list and are destined to buy it all as quick as possible rather than waiting for it to come to you.
For example, I remember seeing your gameroom and falling in love with Domino, and rather than putting out a wanted ad (even though I really wanted one) I waited around, with Domino in the back of my head, and eventually months and months later I found my Domino at a pinball show and jumped on it and got it for a song. Now I probably have hundreds of titles in the back of my head after playing so many at shows and other collectors' houses or even just hearing of them or seeing pictures and that is what I use when searching sites like Craigslist with very broad search terms and looking at results (rather than being specific for what I want). Good things come to those who wait!
Anyways, getting way off-track here. Just wanted to explain why wanted ads were so expensive in contrast. (Plus people aren't "ready" to get rid of those machines if they're not the ones listing it, etc., etc.)
But yes, one day I hope to open a pinball museum with a healthy dose of arcade & video gaming thrown in. Although this is something I would like to begin within the next 10 years or so to share the love of pinball, the important part to me is later on (even if there is a gap in between and I start again later on) - I have thought about the future of pinball and I'm not sure what to think, without being too morbid I've kind of wondered how the mass of machines out there right now will fare once most of the people who care are gone, for instance today's mega-thousands Gottlieb TKO may very well be tomorrow's curbside trash pickup *while knowing the rarity* (yes there are oblivious people even today but that is different) - there are no parts of value inside of these machines for other applications and they have long since earned back their factory price and aged so much that the original price is not relevant or reflected through sales, so the worth of them these days is 100% only determined on collector pricing & demand. It is strange to think about how this will affect the already-low number of machines that have survived long enough to make it into collectors' homes when there are no longer thousands of people who care enough to keep them alive and also provide a worth/a market to them.
So in a way I feel partially obligated, though it's something I obviously want to do, to carry on the torch but I would also like to share pinball's fun and already-very-historical (and old!) values with everybody of today/near-future too of course, not just some long-term torch-carrying scheme decades from now, I am not too focused on that right now (that would be a little silly), so much changes in a few years let alone that many. Certainly keeping the door and idea open though.
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BUT, I am still primarily a collector and doing this for my own enjoyment right now, collecting the games I want to have in my own present-tense private collection rather than simply buying up pinball machines to use as future business assets, that is the farthest thing from what I am doing right now. That whole idea is still definitely secondary, and I'm in no rush, just enjoying the ride. 
Just happens to be a bonus for later on. Right now I am still only a collector and maybe a little bit of a dreamer. I still just buy pinball machines with my collection and basement in mind rather than thinking about a business and what would appeal there, it is very much separate right now. Which is good!
Kittery, ME
Duisburg
