(I mean all of this in a non attitude- thankful I found Pinside and got my first pin kind of way.)

First of all - Pinball is a very reasonable hobby!!!! Especially for how fun it is! Look around for other collectables and see for yourself. Fyi - Boating is on the high side.

You can get the grail of pinbal MM for what $12,000, $20,000 for the cherry/best one around. Compared to the grails in about all adult collectables and hobbies that is nothing! If you can't afford that buy a Pinbot or F14 for $1000-1200 and have a blast of your own. Add more later if you like it and can afford them. It is that simple.

C'mon, man! Pinball owners do not dress, look and have as much money as that Monopoly guy!

If you are an adult and can't afford $1000 for something you really like you either need to budget better or work harder. Bring coffee and bag your lunch and a pinball will magically appear in your basement!

The toughest part of buying a pinball is finding one locally in good shape that you have on your wantlist. You pay not what a seller wants, but what it is worth to you. Though the next guy may value it higher.

You have some really nice people locally and online who are willing to help a total stranger adjust your broken flipper. Unheard of in most collectable markets.

Stern is a big part of the pinball growth with a great run of games, especially the last 5 years.

Nostalgia plays a roll, but the play of the table's rule. In the end people will pay more for a newer pin with more toys on the playfield than an older pin that is great as well, but has less bells and whistles. Newer technology is fun and can/will draw new players.

Stern may actually help keep older pins prices from going through the roof. Example - do I want a Monster Bash or ACDC Premium? A great decision to make, but these newer great pins at similar prices keep the older pins in check.

If there is a bubble, what is the worst that will happen?
Answer- You have fun playing your worthless pinballs in your basement with your few friends who still play and you laugh when someone tries to sell their Medieval Madness on Craigslist for $4000 and then say "that is way to high, what fool would pay near that?!" You then get it for $2500 and he delivers it and throws in a Pinbot to get the deal done. That is soooooo horrible!

All of these things mentioned have a part of making pinball more popular, but still what 1 in 1000 people have one in their homes? It is a growing bubble, but a tiny one.

So buy what you can afford and learn how to wax a playfield and have fun and remember that one of best parts of Pinball is the people.
Cheers!

Good point. Pinball is crazy on Pinside. The rest of the world doesn't really care. That is OK with me as long as new pinballs come out and people who do own and play still care about sharing a game and helping others.

You are right in that you don't even have to own a pin to play pinball. $20 for 3 hours of entertainment is awsome. Finding a good pin to play on location is like finding a diamond in the rough. I recently was on vacation in Maine and found alot of diamonds in one place- AFM, MB, Sstiff, Batman, Spiderman, Family Guy, Dr. Who, Black Rose, Freddy, and Ripley's. Thanks Coast City Comics!

My wife gave me the OK to get one then two. Mabey look for a game she might like also. Not Freddy Kruger.

So what games are you looking at? Good luck!

I agree you can see something and it may reminds you of the past even if you did not play them. I am 42 and love the artwork of EM's and enjoy seeing newer artwork with that retro look and feel, even if I grew up in the Pac Man generation. I remember watching people play the EM's when I little and went to Old Orchard Beach, Maine. I can smell the vinegar on the pier fries whenever I see an EM. Ahh.
I was mentioning earlier that unike most other collectables pinballs usually do not get more valuable with age. Look at cars, comic books, sportscards, toys, etc. and you will see that older rarer pieces sell for more. In pinball LE's get the top dollars compared to older, rare EM's. Why - technology and advanced game play.
EM's can be great looking works of art and fun to play. Did not intend to diss them. Not at all.

Great responses! It is true that things may not be "really" growing if a small amount of individuals buy 5 pins quickly and or people just added more pins in their basement and now are out of room.

Also, what would happen if Stern does a few stinkers and people have 3 newer pins that are each worth thousands less then the paid in the past year or so?

Looking around we may see a correction in the DMD's and Sterns coming up soon. Here is how I will tell. There is a flipper (whom I have no problem with) around my neck of the woods who usually has about 10 pins for sale at a time. I just looked and now he 25+ this Summer. He is probably thinking that they will all be gone and more by Christmas and have his best year ever! If he turns them over then no correction, but if he still has a lot left then correction time.

Now if there is a correction people with a lot of pins and flippers will go through denial for a while when they go to sell them at higher prices than they paid. They will just hang on to it for a while and make excuses. Then they start to move what they can. "I hate to see it go", they will say, but "I am glad I dumped it!", they will think. No one wants to get stuck with a pin.

I was about to buy 2 more pins, but after looking around and talking to people maybe there is a correction coming and I don't know how to factor that in because I just enjoy playing, but I don't want to take it in the chin in not being able to sell them if I have too someday.

We will see.

Are we at the 86-87 through 89-90 Fleer stage of basketball cards compared to pins today? 86-87 all the rookies came out when there was a gap in the card market from 80-81 topps till then. At first no one cared then people went crazy and so did basketball cards. Hoops came out, Skybox then things became about the limited stuff rather than about collecting.

Iceman 44 said-
I also collect vintage basketball cards and when card companies made a resurgence it was all about the LE, SE, 1 of 25, exquisite, pinnacle version, etc.....at first, the Michael Jordan LE autos went for a fortune as the "chase" was on, and then Lebron, etc......now, after so many years, there are so many "limited" version autos of this that and the other that its been played out and the reality has set in for those "chasers"....after all, if you buy and LE of anything, you have at least somewhat of a "collector" motive......
We are already at the "super LE" level with boutique guys like Jpop and SkitB, I think that model has a better chance of long term survival for the "collector", especially Jpop, than the current Stern, JJP approach...but its working now......

I had three machines years ago but sold them after we got married. Seem's I am obsessed with pinball now. Good thing as my bride enjoys pinball and never cared much for the car thing. Pinball is less expensive than my car obsession too. Bonus!

Great idea, tell your wife you are going to collect something over the top expensive, like boating, Tiffany lamps, elephant tusks or rare venomous snakes. Then when she freaks out she will compromise and let you get a much less expensive ACDC Premium instead!