Oh yeah, sold mine 1-2 years ago and still regret the game...
I know I can buy one back... but at a higher price now.

Nope. Sold mine to fund a Tron - best "trade" I could ever do. LOTR was a beautiful machine to look at, but I was tired of the 45 minute games. I'd destroy the ring twice in one game and still know I'd never make to Valinor. Nobody else was touching it, either, since I got a GOT LE. The dragon kicked Balrog out of the house.

PS - I just saw another post by you regretting selling an RFM. You've got to move past that feeling and learn to let stuff go if you're not using it. Otherwise, you become a hoarder. Then you wind up on a TV show, or on the evening news when the fire department couldn't get to you because of all the pins in the way.

I regret selling every pin I ever sold. But that said I needed to move on. There's only so much space and cash, and there's so many great pins I haven't owned.

I sold mine to buy a Tron about a year and a half ago. I agree with you completely.

Had one, love it for many years, sold it, and don't miss it. I let a friend borrow it for a year and enjoyed it when I got it back for a month or so, but there is a lot of pinball to play.

I've had mine for 6 years and have considered selling it a few times due to it getting ignored as new games came in. Never was able to part with it. Ive also never have been a good enough player to suffer many 45 minute games. Those are rare for me. Maybe that's why better players burn out of it?

Had a LOTR since I bought it NIB 10 years ago - sold it last year and got a Hobbit. The Hobbit still has the LOTR theme & Keith ruleset, but better cabinet art, better playfield art, better/higher quality sounds/music and a LCD.

Both are great games, but I haven't missed LOTR at all.

You might not say this if you owned a Cue Ball Wizard. :p Those call-outs drove me insane, and it had to goooooo.

Anytime you're strongly considering a sale, you're ready to move on. You can always buy another one! The beauty of pinball is that there are so many awesome machines to own and explore!

i dont miss my transformers le

owned 2 LOTR now and sold both. I dont miss it one bit.

Reality is that it is a game that noobs are drawn to but over time many people progress away from it I have found.
Actually, every single local collector I know that has been in the hobby for over 5 years, owned a LOTR at one point and has since sold it off.

I sold one a couple years back. I had it for several years. I liked owning it more than I liked playing it. It's a great game, but sometimes LOTR almost feels like a chore to play. I replaced it with a Williams IJ and do not regret that one bit.

+1. Had for a long time but it was time to move it out. No regrets.

Sold mine to get an ACDC pro. Do not miss LOTR.

I should miss LOTR but I don't. It's awesome and a dream theme, but when you play for 3 years, you need to move on. Too long for others to play with you, so once you tire of it, it's outta there.

Love my LOTR. Took Tolkien classes in college. Would never sell it.

I have 5 games and I have never thought of selling my LOTR and I have even gotten to Valinor before. I gave up my favorite game of all time that I never thought I would sell to get it (STTNG) too.

It's funny that hoarding was brought up in here. I bet there are a couple serious hoarders in this hobby.

That said I think I always had to be careful not to hoard in life, but I am sure a collector of various things. Less is more now, much more.

I love lord of the rings but I would also like a got instead, possibly or a hobbit.

The game is amazing Lotr but the have never experienced the game enough to have those crazy long games. Just a beatiful game though.

Blah blah blah am i making a point? Cheers!

LOTR is a great game to play solo. Waiting on someone to finish their 30 minute ball can get annoying.

Sold a minty HUO one with mods about 1 year ago with all of the vault hype. I wanted a vault...it hasn't come. I regret selling my LOTR. Especially since prices came up a bit more now.

What keeps mine hanging on is how different the gameplay is in comparison to my other games. If I want an epic game if flip it on. Admittedly, it is one of my least played pins but it sure scratches that itch when I play it.

Until I beat it, I won't sell it. I have come close to Valinor three times but just haven't been able to pull it off yet.
Plus, it is my wife's favorite pin. I don't usually go to that pin to start a game because I know that in the chance I have a good game, I will be there for an hour. I don't want to have to stop a good game because I ran out of time. Nowadays I rarely have the time to play a good game of LOTR.
I regret selling most of my pins, some more than others. It is natural I think. For me though, once I decide to sell, it is as good as gone.

I sold mine back in 2009 and regretted it since, so much I purchased another one in 2016

I will share a collector story.

I bought my LOTR in 2004 during the FIRST run. Sold it a year later for the same amount of money I paid for the game, notably $3200.

BTW, Stern games back at that point actually had mostly complete programming code, unlike today. HUGE important point.
I even helped Stern and Keith with some of the hangups based on design and code points, as Stern regularly accepted feedback by owners and operators to make corrections. I have not seen this willingness as much today.

Played the the living tar out of the game, achieved TABA many times, but finally achieved Valinor twice, but this was AFTER the code was added!

Never looked back.
LOTR stops having "just one more game" interest unlike other games from the period such as TSPP. Playing gets labored, and you don't want to play for over an hour.

Ultimately, it's just a pinball machine, not a relic.

Another reason it sold was due to to the "grainy art" of the period times in comparison to nearly ALL other games of the previous period up to 1999, and the Wal-Mart action figures.

No regrets.

You just know when it's time for a game to go, and when it should stay.
This is not necessarily a long term collector title.
There is a threshold.

Some games just get eventually moved on for others to enjoy.

I'll sell mine when I beat valinor...So prob never

Phone hiccups

So Lotr was the first pin I ever bought. Owned it for 6-7 years before selling. Regretted selling it everyday I walked into my gameroom and it was not there. I then picked up a refinery LOTR LE about a year later. Played it for a week and remembered why I sold it. Long ass ball times + I've done everything there is to do in the game numerous and numerous times (except valinor only once). I tried setting it up super hard with 2 balls + 1 extra ball max and in the end, the candle has fizzled out.

LOTR will always remain a 'classic' and one of the greats in my book; FOTR, TTT, DTR, TABA are some of the best modes in pinball, but I hope to never play one, let alone own one, ever again.

So while you may regret it at first, it's more than likely just a memory of how much fun you had on it. But that fun and adrenalin can only last so long on a machine. Sell it, and move on. If you ever feel like you regret it, go find one to play to remin yourself that, 'yup played all there is to play on this pin and that's why I sold it.'

I sold my first one and regretted it so bought another.

However at somepoint no matter how good a pin unless you have unlimited space and money I find I end up being done with a game and sell to buy something Ill play more.

Selling my LOTR is what brought me to Pinside!

Had LOTR for eight years and was done with it. I had one game last two hours and more than I could count last an hour or more......that got old. Sold it 5 years ago and still don't miss it.

I've learned that I generally prefer more difficult games....and by difficult I mean short ball times not getting to the ultimate wizard mode. I have Zero games over 15 minutes on IM and I LOVE IT!

Sell it....get something new and don't look back. Since selling my LOTR in 2012 I've sold 15 other games and don't regret any. There are a few I might buy back some day.....but probably not. To many other pins to try.

F'n noobs. GOSH

I don't regret not buying one. I don't have time for this game. Takes too long to play. Too many others to play...

i had one. it was fun. but i sold it. very long ball times. that is the part that make people either love the game or move on. at times i miss it but i havent missed it enough to buy it again.

I sold my first one. Since I sold it they have come out with led OCD, color dmd and colored Titan rubbers. So I just bought another one and with all the upgrades she is here to stay.

IMG_4993 (resized).JPG

One thing is for sure after this thread.

I need to own and get tired of a Lotr someday.

Hoarding - Don't do it. Your family will be left with a mess that you would not wish on anyone -that's a tale for another time.

LOTR has long ball times and I notice that mine is set to reward an extra ball every 30mil, probably up to a max number of EBs. Not sure if that is default or was set by the previous owner who was kind of a pinball novice. (I beat their GC the night I brought it home.) Anyone recall if that is the default EB score?

Obviously, turning off extra balls should make the game times more reasonable.

Might as well sell it if your not playing it!

I'm on my second LOTR, and I doubt I'll ever sell this one. Yes, I play it less than I used to, but it is still a great game. I've never had the "hour long games" that other complain about, but a 20 minute game isn't unheard of.

The cool part about LOTR is that even though I don't play it as much as I used to, every time I do I am reminded of everything I love about the game. Destroying the ring, or even better, a Super Jackpot callout from Gimli are the best.

There isn't a default EB score. The game doesn't award extra balls at any point incremental on default settings. Definitely turn that off.

Have had tspp and LOTR for 11 years and 4 years, respectively. They don't get as much play by me as the used to, but I do play occasionally. I won't sell either as I love the themes and when I do play, I love it. I don't care how long the ball times are, it's just flat out fun pinball. Those two games are among the best ever made in my book. When we have guests over, these are among the most popular.

Just remember that many people go with the "No Regrets" philosophy for life. So they mentally never regret anything they did, so this philosophy / psychology helps them to feel better - IE: I never make a bad choice.

You may want to consider this when evaluating the responses.

I sold mine and don't miss it. I just wasn't playing it much at all. The long ball times sucked the fun out of it for me.

So LOTR sucks regardless of what anybody says, got it! Wish I had this crappy game in my collection.

I regret selling every game too. If I had room I'd own them all. Except LOTR.....

In a large 10+ collection I don't see how you couldn't keep it. In a smaller <6 collection I don't see how you could play it forever.

If you have a small collection and actually like to play them then there really is no such thing as a lifetime keeper. They all get old.

"Ultimately, it's just a pinball machine, not a relic."

This is me. All games can come and go. STTNG was my ultimate theme, gone. AFM was my grail, gone. All of my games will probably go, just not all of them right now.

noragrets (resized).jpg

Not sure how you interpreted my post, but that's no where near what I was saying.