I am here to bring some brotherly tough love and reasonable advice ❤️. Unless you have more $ than you know what to do with, buying a bigger house just to have more pinball games at the time you are entering retirement is not a feasible plan. You have 9 games. Do you really need more? Make the tough choice to swap some out. Or, a more shocking thought, downsize your collection to put some extra $ in your retirement fund. Find some location play to scratch your pinball itch. You will soon have lots of free time to do so.

I'm retired now and don't find pinball getting any harder. I sucked at pinball many years ago and now I'm sort of maintaining my suckiness. But I still enjoy every game I play and have much more time to do so. It's so,so,so nice not going to work!

Find some local pinheads to split a lease on a space for private game room. Everybody brings their games to share.

I dont think that buying a bigger space makes sense. Im not sure if your house situation, but is knocking a wall down for a bigger space an option?
Try local barcades.
Travel to more pinball shows.
Do trades with local collectors.
Buy project machines to fix up and trade or sell later.
Join local pinball clubs. It allows you to play more, meet more pinhead friends, and get better at playing.

I would also consider trimming down to your ultimate limited collection (whatever your space holds), and selling off the rest.
You coukd also just hold on to what you have, and only trade when there us something you 'have to have.' If you trade smartly, you wont lose any money or gameroom value.

I’m retiring the beginning of 2021 and had the same dilemma. Didn’t want to move since we spent a lot of effort getting things the way we wanted. Any more than two pins was going to be a problem plus the setup didn’t allow for long term projects.
My solution was to buy a man Cave. A 48 by 20 unit with a 15x20 loft, climate controlled. About 10 minutes from home. Not for everyone but better than moving houses. Had 2 pins when pictures were taken, up to 4 going on 5. Still have 2 at home. Plan to swap machines between house and Cave from time to time.

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I'm considering pretty much the same scenario with a somewhat shorter time frame. I was thinking about getting a couple more of the newer titles then when I want to switch things up a bit, the cash outlay would be be minimal. And/or when retired, play around with more System 11 pins that are more reasonably priced.

I'm not thinking about how retirement will affect my pinball collection as most any of them can come and go on a whim.

Not thinking about a bigger house either as 1475 square feet plus a two car garage are more than enough for me to take care of.

What is concerning me though is the increasing amount of leafblowers in the neighborhood that start at around 7 AM each and every day. What good is being retired if you can't stay up super late just to have some asshole fire one of those up first thing every morning?

I live in north orange county about 10 miles north of Disneyland. The house cost around $20k but is now assessed at around $80k for property tax purposes. I can say the neighbors on both sides paid way more than that.

But they must be able to afford it by hiring somebody else to come do their yards. I think I may be the only guy on my street that still does his own, but I am courteous enough to not do it first thing in the morning. They seriously need to pass some kind of ordinance because it is long past way out of control.

My game plan is to just keep buying those lottery tickets.

This is what I did after years of wandering in the desert.

Learn how to fix and restore old pins. You will need to do lots of reading - it will exercise your mind. Your brain needs to be challenged or it will atrophy.

Project Pins are inexpensive and will solve your money issue.

It takes me 3-4 weeks to do a thorough EM restoration and 1-2 weeks to do a SS restoration. It may take even longer if I do a playfield touch-up. This is guaranteed to keep you busy and you get a great feeling of accomplishment that many retirees are missing when you finally get the pin working.

As far as your space problem, I have routed 9 pins and my best friend has one at his house. I still get to play them and so do a lot of other people!

the older I get the heavier they get!

That is SWEET!!! Man I'd be all over this... please let us know the details.

This looks like a rented storage unit. Any creature comforts in there? Water, etc?

If it is rented, miss a couple monthly payments and we'll be watching them auction off all your stuff on Storage Wars on TV.

Retirement is definitely different. I started planning what I wanted in my collection 3 years beforehand. Retired 5 years ago, and now I sell one before I add.

Anyone else like me not near retirement thinking they want to make an early deposit on one of these units?

Lol, I'd probably get get up earlier when retired since I wouldn't have to dred going to work.

When I "semi retired" a few years ago I started parting out "junk" pinball machines for a little side income & to help people get parts for their machines. I have been doing that for about 7 or 8 years now and still enjoy doing it but my "bucket list" is long and as I get older I feel less & less like dealing with the parts. I want to travel more and do things on my bucket list spending less time dealing with pinball parts & people.

I know my approach isn't for everyone but I would have no trouble funding the purchase of a new machine or a couple nice used machines each year with my profits from my little used parts business. If anyone is semi local to Central PA and wants to take over what I have started I have well over $100,000 worth of parts & parts machines plus everything else you would need to start making a little side money and I am looking to get $25,000 for everything.

Doing the parts 3 to 5 hours a day someone "doing things right" could make $15,000 to $20,000 a year without working all that hard. I will continue to do it if the business doesn't sell but I really want to take a 4 or 5 month cross country trip next Spring and don't want to have all this stuff just sitting while I am gone. I have had several semi serious people look at the business but at this point I still don't have anyone lined up to take it over.

The neat thing is the business could make more money if someone wanted to devote more time. And it is great having a full inventory of parts to pull stuff from as I fix up machines for resale & for our collection. But the days of me buying projects & fixing them up are coming to an end also. I just don't have time for everything and the pinball stuff has become less exciting to me over the past couple years since my son more or less lost interest.

I’ll try to answer all questions here.

https://www.garagecondosofok.com/

This is a purchased unit, not a rental. Upside is I cannot lose my lease. I’ll be okay with whatever portion of my investment I get back when I sell.

Unit comes with a utility sink in the back corner (see pictures). Bathroom can be installed but there is a clubhouse about 100 feet from my unit with bathroom and shower (also a place for small parties/barbecues).

My unit ran 91K (Oklahoma prices). This gets you the unit with heat, electrical and sink. Add ons such as the loft, epoxy floor and A/C plus a few electrical upgrades added 18K or so which puts me in the 110 range. Dues run around $600/yr. Property is gated with 24/7 access.

My unit is one in a building with 20 units (10 units back to back). Garage door is RV sized and back of unit is tall enough to easily accommodate the loft.

It’s an interesting concept which hopefully will catch on. Complex will ultimately have 85 units when completed. About 25 have been built and most are spoken for.

Hope that covers everything.

What are your association fees?

Does that $600 a year cover everything?

That gets me use of clubhouse with restrooms and insurance on the exterior. I have to cover insurance on contents.

You could actually live in a place like that.

After the divorce my dad just lived on his boat because the dock fees were way less than renting an apartment and they had the showers, clubhouse and everything all included.

It’s not zoned as such but you are correct. I have a refrigerator and microwave. It’s plenty comfy in there.

good one!

I was waiting for someone to catch that. Yes, it was about $20k. In 1966 when my grandma purchased it. And it's still on prop 13.

I had to give my brother a bit more when it came time to decide what to do with it and how to divide it up..

Thankfully that was before housing mania hit So Cal.

How else can someone earning slightly more than minimum wage afford this hobby? Or $30 bottles of Jack for that matter...

I didn’t doubt your numbers at all, I just liked the part about your neighbors paying more than 80,000. Around here these days $80,000 wouldn’t buy you 12 square feet to build a dog house.

My crappy neighborhood is exactly the same, built right around 66 and there are still lots of original owners here who paid that 20k back in the day. Sadly they are all getting up there in years and they are going away left and right recently. And there are a few around here that I know who are now living in their parents’ house just like you. Prop 13 is great for that. Of course all the young people coming in here new are now paying right about 10 times that 80k number.

Great advice, but it has me belly laughing. My better half asks me some of the same questions!

I live in a warehouse. 480 sqm.

How did it get to 80? Was that because prop 13 was instituted in '78 or something?

Under prop 13 they can still increase your property value, but it is limited to a small amount each year, I think 2% or something like that. So over the course of the years the house valuation does go up, although nowhere near to the crazy level of the current market which was the point of the whole thing. Your valuation also can go up if certain improvements are made to the property.

I had the same problem as well!! We sold our house in Redding and bought a bigger one out here in Palo Cedro!! You clowns who have to live in those bunched up communities is no longer viable! O-din gets his in the early A.M because of the growing inconsideration of stupid asses!! Come live in the country! Yes you can,your just lazy! I have expanded my collection with room to grow:)Get outta those cramped,destined to become minority ghetto places and breath some clean air for a change! The money you get will more than cover a move!!!

I own a home in Cal and I know about the small increases, but 20 to 80 means it must have been reassessed at some point. Odin's home would not be up to 80 now on prop 13 alone.

Wish you could have a basement area huh? How many can you fit in your house now?

I feel you should invest in shutters or better hurricane glass in this current home or your next home. Costs are lower than they were when I lived in Boca 10 years ago. Piece of mind is worth a lot more than AC or DP.

Thanks for sharing this. I don't know why I forgot, but a few years back I met a guy who was redeveloping land in Detroit to do the same for car enthusiasts. I was there when the community was just at phase 1. Amazing what it is now. Check this out https://m1concourse.com/private-garages/

We need some wealthy entrepreneur pinball guys to do the same. Imagine a community or club where people get these private garages for all different types of hobbies. How awesome to walk garage to garage to play each others collections, check out collectible action figures, artwork, music, lions and tigers and bears oh my! But, then I look at how much some of these units cost and I go back to drinking my coffee and thinking of the next big idea. We all need room for this hobby. Anyone have ideas in Chicago area hit me up. Until then, good reading thread.

There was a thread on here several months ago where a fellow built a 20x40 next to his house for all of his machines. Maybe someone could find that? Lots of pictures all through the build. Seems like what he spent wasn't an awful amount.

I’m 54 and plan to retire in 4-6 years. Plan to relocate to a different state, will have a house with large gameroom. I don’t plan to downsize my collection but maybe add to my collection as I’ll have more free time to play.

I’ll buy more pins in the next 20 years because I’m sure we will see a ton of fantastic pins. I like the excitement of new pins.

Do share. So far FL is the one most often coming up. Love to hear of alternatives.

I’ve

This is a great idea. When I retire will move to Florida currently have a second house in Florida but no gameroom. So it’s possible for me to rent a space like this while I look for transition to a permanent larger house.

Florida.

No basement but might find a house with guest house clubhouse to make my man cave.

we had our arcade in a 24x48 pole barn in northern ill.right next to our house.kept dirt,smoke,and spilled drinks out of the house.was a club house for almost 7 years...moved 3 weeks ago to new london nc..ill tax on house was cheap compared to most homes around us at $5200 per year..here in nc tax bill is only $1400 for same 1.5 acres with 40x50 shop..we will never set up arcade in house after having everything in its own shop...

Agreed. Originally the developer focused on car guys but has expanded his advertising. We have at least two musicians in the complex. I’d certainly like to have a pinhead or two come in.