I started collecting when I had the means. When I had the means I started collecting those titles (primarily) that I had the most affinity to...irrespective of condition (and purposely looking for relics). I wanted the titles that brought back memories. But, when I had the means to, I also started looking for deals. I found some of each.

Unless you're an op, you're a collector in some regards. But the beauty of any collector is the varying levels of collector and the motivation behind the collection. I have rare machines. Whether they be rare to anyone else is a matter of opinion in my opinion

And, despite, or in consideration of my above...there's a lot of pinball envy in this thread