San Francisco, CA
I've seen a bunch of posts about the upsizing and downsizing, and I'm wondering if there is a SWEET SPOT for the number of pins to own!
Only a "scientific" poll of 100+ data points will tell us the truth !
have fun voting!
MOF
(Topic ID: 44889)
At 1, I didn't have enough to play with a friend over. It's very fun to play side by side and shoot the $h|t.
At 2, I didn't have enough for 2 friends over.
At 3, I didn't have enough in case one machine was needing repair with 2 friends over.
At 4 now, I feel like I'm close to a sweet spot...
I don't know what it's like to have 5 or 6, and it's unlikely I'd have more than 3 friends over at a time (except for a playoff game or a party), so I'm thinking 4 is my sweet spot in terms of "keepers"...
6 machines total, means I have 4 possible to play, perhaps 1 needing minor repair. 1 stuck in a tear-down or rebuild. I think that would cover most situations. But, what about a rotation pin?
Wait, is 7 my sweet spot? I can fit 6 in my gameroom, and there's room for 1 in the garage for restoration, but I am hoping to keep the garage "free" of pins... (is that even realistic?)
The idea of keepers and rotation pins, is interesting. I'm thinking I might "want" 8 pins, and the "practical" spot might be 4 pins. I gather my sweet spot will end up being between 4 and 8.
What's your sweet spot?
MOF
I have six currently (and comfortably). I could go 7 decently easy, and 8 if I wanted to let go of the jukebox. I don't know though, it's nice to have some diversity in the game room. However, my game room is also my music room and I don't want my music stuff to get cramped because of cramming games in. It's a hard toss up. Ideally, I'd like 8-9 machines. Essentially, what I have now (maybe 1-2 swapped for something else) and three more off my wishlist. At that point, I think I would be done and happy.
Quoted from The_Director:At that point, I think I would be done and happy.
Let me make the addendum though that I am not unhappy by any means with what I have. I am very grateful for the machines I have and feel very blessed to be able to participate in this hobby; rather, I think 8-9 would be a nice number for me and allow me to have the diversity in collection that I would be really stoked with.
Villejuif
I'll be sleeping on the couch (with my pins stacked on top of one another) if even had the thought of considering 15.
-Rev
Quoted from ajb1138:Always seems to be "one more than I currently own."
Truth.
I think 5 is a nice collection, eats up about 12' of floor space (normal large extra room size)
you have another couple over, there is always one game free.
keeps a electrical circuit happy in a old construction home.
give you a lot of choice in collection
gives you acceptable breakdown "out of order"
gives you a easy "one pin that you would trade out"
Quoted from revmex:I'll be sleeping on the couch (with my pins stacked on top of one another) if even had the thought of considering 15.
-Rev
I've counted my house from a pin collection if I was single and lived with pins in every room. I came to 32 with keeping the extra bedroom a bedroom and keeping it somewhat livable. I wouldn't trade my girlfriend for that many pins, but it's fun to think about how many I could theoretically fit.
I think 6 is about right. But it always seems to be one more than you actually own.. 
Seriously, I like variety, but I also like playing. More pins than that, and I think you start swinging your time into the maintenance side more than playing.
Perfect is different for everyone. Depends on what your personal preferences are, what types you like to play, what you like to do (play or repair more).
I noticed that once you're over 15 or 20 you have to spend more time doing repairs, cleaning, .. than playing. Usually when you have less than 5, you can just play them and in comparison spend little time on repairs/cleaning.
However many you can actually maintain in a playable state. Currently, I'm going to go with 7-9 since I know I can keep that many working nice.
Toronto, ON
That all that we have room for in garage and gameroom 2 taf and sttng in the garage we have 4 in there. diner, ij4, babysitting banzai, JD due to the youngest who like to go on the xbox I could fit an extra 2 more pins in the gameroom 
but then again youngest would go bizzerk 
Quoted from spfxted:5 'cause that's all I can fit in my gameroom.
Quoted from mof:I can fit 6 in my gameroom.
There you go. Space is the limiting factor, and space can be different for each of us. I have 15 pins. Twelve fit nicely in my game room. I could cram my other 3 in the room if I eliminated the 3 posters (with recessed ceiling spot lighting) between some games, but I like it better with the posters.
I had 6 "A" titles and two didn't get much love. Four seems to be a good number. I might add a LOTR. We'll see.
Sunshine
Im a fan of 5...but thats probably because thats max for my space. Unless of course I move all the wifes stuff OUT. lol.
Quoted from Deaconblooze:I think 6 is about right. But it always seems to be one more than you actually own..
Seriously, I like variety, but I also like playing. More pins than that, and I think you start swinging your time into the maintenance side more than playing.
Once properly set up and cleaned, the maintenance isn't that bad. There's always maintenance. But if you spend a week playing 5 pins in your collection, you don't have more maintenance if you played 5 of 5 pins or 5 of 40 pins that week. The only time a bigger collection yields more maintenance is if you have regular parties where they are all played often.
I see what you're saying, Markmon. I guess I was referring to the amount of time to put into shopping out and making those pins reliable, initially. Then there's a lot of time that goes into tweaking, once that's set, then yes, there is less time that's needed for maintenance. I like projects, I just don't like to feel overwhelmed. However, I'm at a spot I'd like to take on another project in the near future.
Space is also a limiting factor for me. I have a 9' pool table in the basement, while I sometimes wish I could use that space for pins, it's a nice alternative to pinball. I love to be able to play pool and watch sports. Pinball requires your full attention while you're playing, pool can be played during commercials or slow times, and can be stopped and picked up easily. Same thing with darts.
Quoted from markmon:Once properly set up and cleaned, the maintenance isn't that bad. There's always maintenance. But if you spend a week playing 5 pins in your collection, you don't have more maintenance if you played 5 of 5 pins or 5 of 40 pins that week. The only time a bigger collection yields more maintenance is if you have regular parties where they are all played often.
Exactly.
7 to 9 because that's just enough to support a league night and still allow for 1 game to be "down". I'm at 6 at the moment with 2 "down". Wouldn't not be enough to host a league get together.
Quoted from MikeS:Perfect number of pins is your full capacity
+1 but I've already exceeded that....so now looking to build more capacity. I think it'll end up be a vicious cycle...build more capacity, acquire more pins, exceed capacity, build more capacity,...
Well, 5 fit in the game room, which is good for that. 18 fit nicely in the basement which is great for pinball golf which I like to play a lot...3 more fit pretty nice upstairs (1 in the office and 2 in the living room) so the answer is......"5", time for me to down size I know (ACDC and WoZ will put me well over my 21 limit), they are just so great and hard to break up my B/W DMD collection. For sale posts coming somewhere down the line.
Bill
Actually there's a formula for this:
Space + Money divided by Wife = X
Where X is the perfect number of Pins...
Mike
Interesting...
5, 7-9, and 15+ are clear favorites right now...
Glad to see I wasn't alone, in thinking 1-2 pins is just not a sweet spot!
Sounds like "3 - to - infinity" is a sweet spot for 99% of us, depending on funds and space.
Science!
MOF
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
