Sex
Pinball
Food
Sleep
Sex
Whiskey

I think a "big mistake" a lot of people make in life is assuming they need to spend a lot of money on certain items like food & clothing. If you work hard at it you really don't need to spend a lot of money on either of those items. Just eating a sandwich brought from home for lunch instead of going out for lunch every day can save you between $30 & $50 a week. Skipping buying a cup or two of coffee each day or a beverage out of a vending machine is another dollar or two a day.

My wife & I spend an average of less than $50 a week on food and we eat very well. We just don't "waste" a lot eating out and make cost saving meals at home. At first it kind of sucks but once you realize all the inexpensive healthy choices you can make when it comes to food you can save a good bit of money each week.

Clothing is the same way - you don't have to do without but a $8 pair of jeans will last just as long as a $50 pair of jeans. Just buy stuff on sale and watch for deals and you can save a boat load of money.

As far as fixed expenses:

Taxes come first because you don't have a choice when it comes to taxes
Then comes Housing, Insurance & Health Care - again very little choice on those
Pretty much everything else you can control and use cost saving measures if you want to give up a little to have some extra cash the end of each week.

Within a year? That's a lot of wasted money going towards interest especially as most cards are 19%

Pinball is a hobby and a toy, always comes last. Anyone who prioritizes any different is insane

You only live once so my main goal in life is enjoying it. Pinball makes it more enjoyable so it's a higher priority.
Kinda sad if happiness isn't one of your highest priorities.

Well, just to clarify. Shelter and health should come before pinball. Food should come before pinball. Safe reliable transportation should come before pinball. Insurance, such as health, home and auto should come before pinball. Adequate retirement savings should come before pinball. Once the basic needs of life are satisfied then pinball can be next, depending on where it fits in your priority of luxuries of life.

So are you saying you’d skip that next mortgage payment to get the latest box of shiney lights?

No because I wouldn't enjoy having to deal with the penalties. So I would rank them as equal.

But what if you only have enough money to pay the mortgage or buy that shiney box of lights, which one wins?

I'd sell a more expensive "box of lights" pay mortgage and buy one or 2 cheaper ones.
As long as your smart with your pinball purchases and dont buy NIB you can get your money back. Plus over the last 4 years my machines have gone up in value more then my house.

Food
Utilities
Pinball
Health care
Holiday / Travel
Taxes

I’m 60, healthy, debt free, retirement is funded, own the house and cars, kids are grown and self sufficient.

Yes. Pinball is a want and not a need and should be low down on your list above. If you do not have extra money for pins now your choices are making more money or cutting back on other wants you spend money on in your life. Buying Lunch and buying Starbucks are a great examples.

I think long term it is important to get to a point where you can be one in / one out where you add very little money, or even get some money back, when you sell a game to get the next game. The money added should just come from savings. I am like that now with $25k+ plus with 5 games but it took over 7 years to get here starting with a $1800 Stargate pin. I also didn’t make much money on pins I sold since I sold them to friends along the way. I don’t go out to lunch and make my own coffee at home.

It is also satisfying to tap out at a price point you are comfortable with and settle in. I can afford a POTC JJP, but don’t feel the value is there for me. I am ok where I am and really happy with buying HUO stern Pros. I really dig the value on CGC Classic editions now also and recently traded out my hou GOTG for a huo AFM classic and I am happy with the exchange. With this mindset I will likely not add very much money in from now on. Feeling satisfied with what you have but being able to afford more is a very good place to be. Manage your money well and you will get there.

You can go large saving to get BBB and King King in your collection to be satisfied or be happy with Firepower and Paragons in the Gameroom and get the games sooner also. Those older games are awesome. That is the equalizer - those who have $1000 games may love them more than folks with $10,000 Games. Or not

It is important but it isn’t. It is just pinball.

Pinball is a hobby, and goes pretty much last on the list. First thing that would be cut if my situation changed, and first thing to be sold off. I don't plan on that happening, but that would be the pecking order.

I do like that owning pinball doesn't have a negative ongoing cost, like owning a boat or other things that eat money.

It falls within our hobby/entertainment budget. I've tried selling some pins in the past to start rotating them, but my wife keeps vetoing that. She's the reason they keep multiplying.

In terms of forgoing things, I'll always skip pinball purchases and opt for a family vacation instead.

I've eaten ramen noodles for a whopping 1,152 meals in a row now.

Once I pay my mtg and investments, everything else is fun money. I do keep a decent rainy day fund that I won't touch.
My issue is, I want other things done around the house (new stone patio, redo bathrooms, flooring...) but every time I get a quote, I'm like ....shit....that's new pin money. Pins win every time.

It's basically last on the list, after

food
mortgage
kid's college
retirement
music stuff (I play in a band)
pinball

it should always be last, unless your an operator / repair them or something its just a toy / hobby should just be paid for via left over income or spare cash.

Its not even first on my discretionary income, that would be wake boarding/boating (super money pit). I am spending a pretty big chunk of change right now because we are adding another 600 square feet of game space. But at the end of the day with my family, boating and vacations would go ahead on the discretionary list.

Hobby stuff always comes last, although it does influence choices on other things.

Housing, storage, insurance, utilities, tools, supplies, etc.

This worries me too, but if he's churning (or other type of points maximizer) it's very possible that he always has a card that has no interest for X months.

Ah, you did remind me when I was house hunting the arcade was a critical component, and we dismissed some houses because they wouldn't allow for what we wanted to do.

Yep, exactly

The margins on these games for distributors is laughable. I understand why this practice exists.

To me, most everything other than cable is a higher priority than pinball. I love pinball, but it would be the first to go if I needed the money. For those of you saying your main priority is to enjoy life, I agree. I just would not enjoy life, if I had to worry about making the house/tax/food/utility payment each week.

I think a better question is, after the essential expenses(housing, food, utilities, tax, retirement, emergency fund, transportation, etc.), where does pinball rank on your priorities? If this was the question my answer would be:

Kids sports/outdoor equipment
Vacation/Trips
Home remodeling (to a point)
Fishing
Camp/Second home
Pinball
Cable
Video Games

Although Kids sports/outdoor equipment is first on the list, it probably costs me the least on the list. Maybe as it gets more expensive it would drop on the list.

I'm guessing your wife hasn't heard of StitchFix yet, or she has a lot better self control than mine!! Shopping without actually shopping....The SOB who invented that needs to be shot.

I’m so glad I’ve lost the “bug”. I’ve owned a lot of games, operated, restored and fixed lots of peoples junk. The cost of owning a machine is kind of mind blowing. I could own 2 stern pros or have a really, really nice fishing boat or a 4x4 truck. I’ll gladly drop coin, but pinball is out of my expenses 2019 and beyond

Any pins for sale?

Yep, see my ads. Avengers the pin is still being repaired, waiting on a node board.

It was pretty high on my list for a few years. But now with only 3 games to buy to complete our collection I decided to only buy with money made from buying fixing and selling games.

Same here - this is a great way to learn the games and how to fix 'em. The tough part is FINDING 'em!

Sex
Pinball
Sex
Beer
sex
food
sex
shelter
sex
work

When life requires it, my hobbies take a backseat. This was the case for a number of years. Right now pins are back at the top of my hobby list after being at the bottom for 10-15 years. I paid off the house and bought 2 new pins (one HUO and one NiB).

I have too many expensive hobbies so they tend to rotate as there just isn't enough time. Initially my pinball collecting mindset was buy and keep. I had to adjust my mindset to buy, play the hell out of it, sell, buy a different one. They are just too pricey to continue to keep them all.

No kids and no debt so aside from socking away for retirement and the obvious necessities it comes down to...where do I want to spend.

(no particular order)
Band/music equipment/recording equipment
Video games/Computers
Motorcycles
Camping
Pinball

But if you do things right sex is free!

does your wife have a sister ! lol

I always kind of hope pinball provides for some of my living expenses.

LTG : )

Pinball took a back seat when I purchased a new vehicle. Had to do it, my previous truck was 14 years old. Actually held off on replacing it to buy more pins. Pinball funds will start being replenished in a couple years.

Out of my work paycheck, pinball is dead last to any other expense. I probably only spend $20 a week and that's for league.
With that statement out of the way.>>>>>
Out of my self earned money, pinball is first. LOL

Fun money i dont care about or need . Just saw a 70 show rerun were steven says all a man needs is pinball,sex and beer and if he is having sex on a pinball machine while drinking a beer thats as good as it gets

I only know of one way sex is free, and I'm not sure that counts as sex....

You're not paying for the sex, you're paying for her to leave after.

I do it differently. I have a separate budget for toys. All of our household income is one account and pays all the bills and family needs and activities.

My toy account is money from anything I sell that was previously purchased with this money plus any personal gifts I receive or any side jobs I do. Also things like car parts or snowmobile items that I personally owned before we were married.

It doesn't leave me large amounts of money to spend but it's money I can spend as I please without worry. Occasionally I will buy my wife a new phone or a household item such as a riding lawnmower out of this fund. Helps keep the peace while I am buying and selling items.

If one of us were ever in need games or toys would certainly be sold to cover more important expenses.

Using this method I am able to buy toys while the household budget still has debt such as a house or car payment. Some would say it would be smart to sell the games and pay off debt but my ability to freely buy and sell also adds value to our overall net worth.

Beyond that, you only live once. I would rather have beer, pizza and pinball for 70 years than misery and boredom for 80 years.

I’m with you, brother. Boating is a money pit but the most fun my family has ever had.

I haven't used any earned income on pins in well over a decade. I built up the majority of my collection back when a TZ was 2k. My wife and I used to make mods and funded a couple games that way. Since then, as I've learned more and started to really enjoy working on games, I buy and sell them and use that slush fund for all of my pin purchases and maintenance. I keep cash at the house so I can jump on a deal anytime it comes up.

That being said, I'm not really building the collection any further. We have a core 10 or 12 games , and we rotate the other 10 or 12 as we feel. If any emergency were to pop up, a game would go.

From my experience it seems like there are three basic type people in the hobby. The first group is the "more money than GOD" people who just buy what ever they want because money is nothing to them. The second group that works their asses off to save a few bucks then buys a machine when they can afford it. And the last group that buys their machines with money that has been made by doing something with pinball machines (flippers, people creating unique pinball products, people repairing machines to fund their collection,etc).

There might be a couple other categories but I think most people fall into one of the three above.

After being heavily into buying pinball machines and parts for 10 years, I took a 6 year break where I didn't spend a dime on pinball. (Except the electric to power my collection...lol) Daughter was a junior in HS, college was on the horizon and I was determined she would graduate without being massively in debt. She's a senior now, will graduate from PSU with an accounting degree, CPA exam next up. Less than 10K in debt, mission accomplished. Every time I dropped $600-800 on books and supplies, my mind was thinking "there goes another project game". Tuition payment, a nice Centaur AND a Fathom. But priorities are what they are.

Depending on your credit score/accounts, you can get all sorts of great deals on Credit cards. I just got an offer for 1 year ( 13 months actually ) at 0% and 1% of purchase. I can take $10,000 for a year of interest free financing and it costs me $100 in total. I cant see a reason why this ISN'T a good idea.

EDIT: Plus they transfer the money directly to my checking account, so no 4% credit card fees when buying.