All three kids have moved out, so we are empty nesters. We stayed in the same house so now have the space and the disposable income to spend on pins. I think there are more 50 somethings and 60 somethings lurking out here than many Pinsiders realize.

Hey Bakushan, that is one of the best posts I have ever seen on Pinside! Congratulations and thank you for spreading the cult of the silver ball! Because of you, your friends and all those like you pinball lives on.

I think we can forget 10,000 units. Looking back at a day that we can't recapture isn't productive. The victory is that we got this hobby off of life support and it is actually growing. People are coming back to pinball, people are discovering pinball and we have multiple choices of manufacturers. I'm very encouraged.

Eric, good point about console gaming getting stale. I feel that too. I know the production values are better and the graphics are too, but I always get that "been there, done that" feeling with console games now. I don't have that with pins for some unknown reason.

I'm not knocking consoles; I played them for years. They just don't do it for me anymore.