Here is my free pin story, and how I got into this hobby. Never really got much into playing pins growing up, played just a handful of DMD's in arcades. Around 2006 I was putting together a game room with a pool table, foosball and ping pong, and thought it might be a good idea to get a pinball machine too. Even looked on briefly on ebay, and gave up the idea as most of the better ones seemed to be in 2-3k range. Never told anyone about it, but probably a month later I got a call from my brother-in-law asking if I want a free pinball machine. He worked for a moving company, someone was relocating and downsizing to Florida and they had no room for their game. Without asking a single question I said I'd take it. He even dropped it off, it was a '69 Gottlieb Spin-a-card. I've never even seen an EM game in my life...Cabinet was repainted some baby-blue color, some wear on PF, minor flaking on BG, did not even light up, but I loved it. Had to figure out how to take the glass off on lift the PF. That same day I discovered IPDB, RGP, PinResource and Cliffy's repair guides. Figured out the schematics, I'm a software developer and was amazed by the electromechanical logic. Spent some time restoring it, got the game working 100%, even added some relays to make small changes in the rules. The rest, as they say, is history. A couple of months later I got another cheap EM for restore, then another, then got more into DMD's. Bought about 10 pins since then, sold 3, but the Spin-a-card is not going anywhere.