Can't you be a collector AND a hoarder though?... I personally consider myself both... A pure hoarder wouldn't care what games he had, he'd just want to hoard a stash... but the games I have (at least 80% of 'em) have been carefully selected to suit my collecting needs... The other 20% are there to sell as a way to help pay for the keepers... I'd also put myself in the 'player' category as I love to play and have at least one game a day with my kids on the TF I have set up at home...

Maybe I'm just jealous pslave Don't take it the wrong way...

I'd love a large collection, but having 94+ pins must be more of a headache than joy haha

IMO, if you really do like pins, you won't leave the hobby. I thought I would when I was faced with divorce. The most devastating thing in your life next to losing someone through death. Well, here I am on the other side, 18 months later, and through it all I did manage to sell one of my 3 pins. It felt good to let it go and prove that I could sell/part with one after so many hours into it. Now, after all the drama has died down I realize, hey, I have room for another pin! Haha...so there you go. Like I said, if you really enjoy some aspect of this hobby (repair or play) then it kind of sticks with you. At least it did for me.

Have you joined the mailing list? that is where every posts before they end up on Craigslist.

This thread is scaring me as I await the arrival of my first pin.

Be afwaid be vewy vewy afwaid

Today marks 2 years since I bought my first pin on Nov 12, 2010. Here is my track record so far for 2012:

Jan - The Shadow (in)
Feb - Theatre of Magic (in)
Mar - White Water (in) Flintstones (out)
May - Guns n' Roses (in) Judge Dredd (out)
June - Revenge from Mars (in) Ripley's Believe It Or Not (in) Johnny Mnemonic (out)
July - Tales of the Arabian Nights (in) Guns n' Roses (out)
August - Xmen (in) The Shadow (out) Revenge from Mars (out)
September - Lord of the Rings (in)
October - The Simpsons Pinball Party (in) Ripley's Believe It Or Not (out)
November - To be determined
December - I need another pin like I need a bullet to the head

Even though I am out of space I still want more and last weekend was playing around with putting my games staggered on an angle to try and squeeze in one or possibly two more. Hell I was even debating keep my one wall of 4 setup and folding up my other row of 5 and storing 10-12 in that area folded up and rotating games every few weeks. I can tell you one thing it is getting harder for me to part with what I currently.

I don't know. I just bought my first fixer upper 5 days ago. I've been playing it like mad and already looking to buy another one. I planned on 1 Pin, a multicade, foosball and dart board. Now I am looking at the 2nd Pin and not sure what to do because I know it's going to turn into a 3rd. Luckily, I don't have much cash so that will calm me down a bit. Good luck though.

Yep your hooked!!!
That is how it started here...we wanted a pin to go with our pool table...(guess where the pool table is now?) Then we thought the pin looked lonely....etc. etc. We pretty much went from 1 to 10 in very short order...then from 10 to 45 a few short years after that...we have pretty much been holding at 45 for a little over a year now...
We have seemed to have shall we say leveled off a bit, as far as buying everything we see..but I don't see it ever ending! We have our living room and dining room furniture and pool table in a storage unit and there are 8 pins in the living room, 5 in the dining room, 15 in the basement with our few classic vids(Pac-man, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Zombie Raid, and Primal Rage which both need to go they take up too much space could get a few more pins up down there without those 2), 100 CD jukebox in the entry hall with 1 pin, and 1 in the family room next to the couch. (pretty much only furniture besides kitchen and bedroom) and a couple that we are "working" on in the garage. Several projects in the barn and several more semi projects in the storage unit with the furniture. We are in a pinball league, and enjoy traveling to several pinball shows and taking games so everyone can play and join us by catching the "bug". We have a local pinball group, and have met many great friends through this addiction. We enjoy pretty much all aspects of the "hobby" from playing to restoring, traveling to shows, playing in leagues and tournaments and just socializing with our pinball friends! So enjoy the ride and have fun!!

Phoebe

I've only been collecting for 3 1/2 years but have owned ~45 pins (not including vids, Chexx and EM games). I currently have for 14 working, a couple project pins set-up, and 2 folded projects.

I have to say I am really happy with my collection as it stands and quickly tiring of the idea of having more than one ongoing project. But it helps that I have a healthy number of other great pin collections available through the Toronto Pinball League (TOPL.org). Also, Playdium, the distributor of new Sterns in Toronto w/ showroom is also relatively close to my home. But since I'm out of room, I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't thinking of trying to move some machines into my in-laws' basements.

And I still have a hard time resisting cheap projects.

Buttons and bompers into my coffin, maybe I will resurrect!

A collector foremost but also a player. My definition of which is someone who enjoys playing and plays often. I am only an average scorer though, so cant call myself a true playa.

Michael Corleone: Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in.

Great quote that sums up my pinball addiction. There are times I find myself a little bored with the whole thing but then the enthusiasm always comes back.
Alex

STUD

LOL

My wife is sensible and my kids are expensive, so there are boundaries around what I can do. Even so, I have six pins, which is four more than I expected to own when I got into this hobby--and I am certainly not done. I can easily imagine how obsessive I would be without those constraints!

You know you have pinball fever when you plan on leaving your current rental for a bigger house to rent to own more machines. I will be moving into a 4 bedroom house rental to accommodate additional machines. That and I have a 14 foot Lionel Train set-up (my other hobby!)

I feel I'm right on that fine line separating joy and headache at the moment... I try not to think about the amount of work ahead of me in sorting these things out and have learned to live with the fact that there's a fair chance I'll die before half these games see the light of day... First step is to build the gamesroom I plan to put them in, which will hold about 60 I guess... That will be a massive relief to have the large chunk actually accessible!! That room, however, is just a few lines on a piece of paper at the moment

All I can say to the op, and anyone else getting into this with no current partner to pull the reigns a bit, is you have to try and exercise some self control before things get out of control

Tip1: Do not buy a van which allows bulk deal purchases.
Tip2: Do not buy storage space that will allow you to store games which don't fit in places you have available to set them up at home.

These tips alone should help tame the beast a bit