TZ. Wish I still had it.

So I thought I was the coolest guy in the neighborhood when I picked up my first pin, a CBW. It was in nice shape and I totally wasn’t even looking for a pin. I was on a road trip picking up some vids and the guy said hey have you ever wanted a pin to add to your collection? I said no not really and low and behold I ended up bringing it home…now years later all my vids are gone but two and I quickly realized pins are way more expensive than vids but a ton more fun!

I ordered a new SW back in July. Never owned a pin before so when it arrives (estimated December) it would be my first. Fast forward 3 months, waiting patiently for the SW and the whole time telling the wife I just want one, and I’m going to pick up another pin this weekend. Pins are like potato chips, you can’t have just one (even when you have none). This time I promised the wife I won’t get any more unless we have another kid…

well Diner was my first and I felt that if I got Taxi to sit beside it, those would be my 2 pins. But my wife balked at me buying a second game... So I traded for a Tron pro and now 7 years later I have had well over 60 trades in and out. If she had just let me get that Taxi, I would probably have called it a 2 pin Diner /Taxi collection.

Gtb SPIDERMAN. That was 33 years ago now and it still gets played
regularly. Never gotten old. It was a fluke purchase and after fixing
and playing it for a while could see that I needed more. The rest
is history!

I started with 2 at the first time. T2 and BoP. Less than $4K for the pair.

My first new pin was Stern Potc 2006 which I still own. It looks and the plays like new.

Deadpool pro, but I'm hoping to own the premium version soon.

Fathom....700. Then Black Knight, 300, then Strikes and Spares, can't remember what I paid for that one - came from Canada.

You entered in at the same time I did. Rollergames was the first, then Robocop in 2019, and finally Black Knight SOR (pro) right before the shutdown in 2020.

I still have the 3 machines today and I'm pretty happy with them.

Maverick on 7/15/2014. Still got it and it's one of my favorite pins ever. Have had 30 pins altogether.

We got Taxi last year. Then we added a project Black Knight LE this summer. Then we made the mistake of playing a BK SOR at PinAGoGo a few weeks ago... my motorcycle may be up for sale soon...

I was single when I got my 1st pin and I knew since I had room for more it wouldn't be the last. That was in 2000, by 2002 six Gottlieb EM's. By 2005, only one Gottlieb EM but a Williams SS and several Bally's. My Xenon has been here for 19 years, Williams BK 18 years. She's going up up for sale soon.

The Flintstones was my gateway pin about 17 years ago. I still have it! Less than 20 in and out over the years, but always room for one more.

Funhouse! Still have it, hard to imagine it ever leaving.

Flash, in 1983. Bought it back in 2010, sold it a few years later, know who bought it but he won't sell it back. Maybe someday,,

Monster Bash....

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First pin we got was a 1984 Williams Space Shuttle in August of 2001. When we first met in 1984 we played Space Shuttle in the bowling alley where my now husband worked. After we got married and had a house with a basement, was when we bought our first pin...1st pin I restored, still here not going anywhere in the near future but there was really never any it was the "only" one we'd have...I think by Dec. of 2001 we had added 3 more. (Black Knight, Sorcerer and Road Kings) Gorgar followed soon after and we've not looked back! LOL!! Not planning on getting out of the hobby anytime soon!

Phoebe

Road Show 12/23/2014 as a Christmas gift for my family. Now my wife likes to say it was like Homer buying a bowling ball for Marge for her birthday haha. But at the time my kids were as stoked as dad.

My first was Space Shuttle too about 5 or 6 years ago now. Just sold it about two weeks ago. Wasn't a keeper but won't forget it!

I think that it was a Gottlieb Jack in the Box in 1989 / 1990. Bought it from a local pizza joint, put it in my dorm room, and then sold it back to the pizza parlor for what I paid for it, plus free pizza for the rest of my life. I ate a lot of pizza in college.

I remember selling zarco a Gottlieb Sinbad in the early 1990’s (pre 1994). My wife and I dropped it at his house, which had an amazing collection. I think the she and I went to see Richard Conger on that trip.

I have owned the same Paragon since roughly 1992.

My first was The Shadow.

My pinball journey was kind of weird compared to most people, I think, because I didn't grow up loving them. I was all about video games as a kid, never even thought about pinball.

So, nearly 20 years ago, I was in a pizza place with my first wife. They had a TOM in there. On a lark, I played it... I was about 30 at the time and I had not played a pinball machine since I was a little kid... and I never played one thoughtfully. Turns out, once I paid attention to pinball I @%#@ loved it! That TOM was clapped out and I don't think the trunk worked properly, but it really spoke to me. You know how it is or you wouldn't be on this forum.

A couple of weeks go by and I am looking up info on the internet and reading rec.games.pinball and I start thinking, I should buy a game... I soon found TS for sale at a local operator... it $1600 in 2002-2003? So I probably overpaid a lot. And I bought it not knowing much about pinball, really. It was just the first one I found that I could afford that had a decent rep. I kind of knew some of the stuff to look at as a buyer, because I am a good researcher. But I was certainly green!

Here's how much I didn't know about pinball: the first time I set off the knocker on TS at home, I had to look it up online. "WTF was that noise?!"

I got more games, as we do... I let some go, and eventually even sold TS to my wife's family. I turned them on to the idea of having games and they ended up with a couple. But I soon missed TS so much I bought another one.

That wife is gone, but TS is here to stay, haha.

Three years ago, we moved to a new house. Our Skee Ball was too long to fit down the stairwell to the basement so I told my kids we can replace it with a pinball machine. When they were in grade school, we belonged to Indian Princesses, a father/daughter organization. Each year after our fall campouts at Camp Tecumseh in northern Indiana, we'd head over to Pizza King on our way back home. They had 8 pinball machines there and it's where my oldest daughter got her first taste. Her favorite one was Monopoly. When I asked "which one should we buy?" "Monopoly!" was shouted back to me in unison. We headed to our closest dealer to see what they had. I was ready to pull the trigger on a new Jurassic Park but dammit if I didn't round the corner and there in the lineup was a beautiful HUO Monopoly. Guess which one came home? It now has a "story" with some history which will make it very hard for me to get rid of.
Jurassic Park is still sitting on my wish list.

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Sorcerer was my first, 03 Nov 2012. When I went to pick it up, the seller had a Cyclone too. I called my wife and the conversation went something like..
"You know what's better than a pinball machine in the house?"
"Ummm, how about NO pinball machines in the--"
"Nope! TWO pinball machines!"

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See I never said one pinball is enough so i'm not guilty. I still have the list of games i wrote on a piece of notebook paper from before I could drive.

Whirlwind. Tore the whole fucking thing down and had no idea what I was doing. Leveled inserts, tumbled everything. New plastics and rubbers, etc etc.

Swapped in color LEDs everywhere and ruined all the hard work I put in to make it nice. Noobs.

It was 1995 when I stumbled upon a "rule sheet" for Addams Family. My wife and I were all OMG, pinball has RULES? Not just try to keep the ball rolling? I printed a copy and next time we were at Wrightsville Beach at Johnnie Mercers Pier (it was made of wood then before Hurricane Fran, not concrete ), we had pages of rules. http://pinball.org/rules/addamsfamily.html

Then on a whim I typed PINBALL into ebay.... I had NO IDEA that you could BUY a WHOLE PINBALL MACHINE - OMG ^2!

NOT ONLY was I able to give my wife a used but beautiful pinball machine for her birthday, but it was ALSO her DREAM TITLE and we had no idea such a thing existed! We still have that $1500 Data East Guns and Roses :0

Never swore it would be the only one tho hahahaha....

The very first was a GTB Roller Coaster, a Christmas gift fir my two kids. Really bought it for them. Played it a little. After about two weeks I would guess kids were not really into it any longer so I played it a little. Then realized there were others that I could identify better with and there I went! Have nine now and play them occasionally. Enjoy making them look and play great actually more than playing.

Recently picked up a nib gnr and have played that somewhat. Maybe have 50 plays. Fun but hard! Just picked up a fish tales and really like that. Had one before and wanted to get it back.

Really like the art packages on the games. Dont even have to play then but simply admire them and get my fill mostly by doing that.

At this point have no more room for any additional games so I have worked to get the collection dialed in and feel that it is where I want it as again, have no more room.

They all have stories behind them. Where I got them, reason for getting them, work put into them etc.

I too in the 80’s was into videos and have a couple that I played a lot but those rarely get used. They got cleaned up and look great but the pins are what get played more even though they don’t get played much. They look great and play great though when I do and that is good fir me. I just try to keep that damn ball from draining. Rules, you mean there are rules lol!!!

A gorgeous DM that I got for $1800 from a retail outfit around 10 years ago. Wish I still had it!

Started out with only arcades as that's where my nostalgia lies. Then one of my arcade collector friends who has a couple of pins had a party. I ended up spending most of the night on HS and got hooked.

August 2015:

I remember thinking how loud and huge this thing was and couldn’t fathom how the maniacs on this forum had more than one. White Water, Iron Man, and Metallica showed up a month later LOL.

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Tropic Fun --bought it directly off-route in '75. probably 1500-1800 more after that. Most i've ever bought was a complete container back in '93. i believe it was around 11k at the time. Container came from Italy and taught me a lesson: Never buy imports from Europe--they're filthy dirty, usually soaked with some kind of liquid (I hoped and really wanted to believe it was beer, but, you know...) and generally beat to shit.

My first one was TZ, but I knew eventually I couldnt just have only one.

Cirqus Voltaire. Picked up up around New Years 2015. I played a bunch of games on Pinball Arcade and kept coming back to it. I knew a guy who knew a guy who had a large collection (50+) and was nice enough to let me play his games. And still liked CV. So that was the one.

By some coincidence i was able to find one for sale locally. Had to be fate as i was living in Ontario where supply was low and demand high. So i jumped on it. Claimed to be HUO, appears to live up to that as its very clean inside and out.

But then it got lonely. VERY lonely. I’m not cruel, how could i deprive it of friends? I still own my it today. Maybe not my best pin but will likely be my last purely for sentimental reasons. And its my kids fav so it goes nowhere.

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I love this story, it feels like it could have been mine.

Nice bass, @gorillabiscuits.

Earthshaker.

Nothing ate tokens faster than Dragon's Lair.

So I was getting ready to open up a rental cabin and I wanted to put a Fish Tales in there to fit the theme - and they were pretty affordable at the time. A local pinsider had one for sale and I rushed over there with cash in hand to find out that the machine was even more beautiful than the pics. I'm talking collector's quality beautiful. After seeing it in person, I couldn't just let it go out to the rental property, it had to stay with me!
I could easily sell it for double what I paid two years ago, but it had a great amount of sentimental value.

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A few years ago I started to look for the pinball I fell in love with when I was young: TAF
I had to have this game as my only one...space reasons
Was desperately looking for one but did not want to pay the high prices asked

In the meantime a friend wanted to sell his MSF which I finally took as my first game

Second one was then TAF
Of course did not sell the MSF but had to find space for both of them...
...long story short: I had to find space for at the moment 13 pins...although 3 of the relocated to a friends place...win-win

Marx Sweepstakes purchased in 1970 from my dad.
I had to help him wash the car every Saturday for the Summer.

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OMG!!! Thank you @starfighter!! Just seeing This ^^^ I have been trying to figure out the name of the game we had in our basement for years when I was a kid I used to play it alot. It is what started the pinball bug in me! I remember it was plastic and a light blue but I couldn't remember the name...I've searched and googled and searched some more but could never find it!!!

Phoebe

MMR

First pinball buy was a two’fer, a nice Bally Party Zone, and a nicely redone LW3. Got both for $2k delivered from a private seller, many years ago.

The LW3 had the longest stay in my collection, until selling it a few years ago. Now my Freddy is the longest in the collection.