So have 95 others on Pinside! Luckily pinball affords you a great excuse for needing forgiveness since you can almost always sell your unpermitted acquisition for as much as you paid, if not more. What other hobby has this built-in feature?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/search?s=1&what=posts&q=Forgiveness+permission&subforum=0&include_basement=1

To answer my own question, thrift store shopping can be very lucrative and fun, I'll buy anything if I can make ten times my money or more. I've even made 100x my money on some things! But I do have to forgive myself for blowing a lot of the possible profit on storage fees. Need to concentrate more on the selling part, but the thrill of the hunt is irresistible, and it's been especially fruitful the last few years, thanks to Marie Kondo. But you can't do well if you just limit yourself to traditionally collectible stuff, they look that kind of thing up and price them too high unless you are buying them to keep. And the bigger the city, the more picked over the stuff will be, but the secret is still to visit often, you have to catch the deals soon after they come out.