In Baltimore. The National Pinball Museum. 900 pinball machines.

According to this - http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/uk-museum-pinball-idUSLNE78L02E20110922

and here are 700 - http://www.pinballnews.com/news/ppmdonation.html

and possibly The Pinball Hall Of Fame in Vegas - http://www.pinballmuseum.org/

What/where/or who has the largest collection of pinball machines in Canada?
in Australia / New Zealand?
in Europe?
in Scandinavia?
in South America?

I know the Pinball population in Australia is very low. Lived in sydney for a few years. Never saw one pinball machine.

What has happened to them since they closed? I keep kicking myself that I didn't get up there in time.

Hopefully he's negotiating a lease with extension options so he doesn't have to move hundreds of machines every few months.

There is a collector in Australia who has over 2500 different pinball and amusement machines. Hes been building a museum for a number of years now.

I believe most of the pins have been sold.

When were you there? I lived in Sydney for six months in 1993, and I played plenty of pinball while I was there. Of course, this was back during pinball's modern golden age.

This is a hard question to answer because it really depends on what you are talking about. People like - The National Pinball Museum with 900 pinball machines and Pinball Hall of Fame with hundreds of machines only have a small part of the collection on display. I know National Pinball Museum is now closed but they never had all of their machines in one location open to the public and neither does Tim at PHOF.

I would think PHOF has one of the biggest collections in one place open to the public but I know there are a couple others that might be bigger. I know there is a fairly big place at the New Jersey shore and another big place up by Chicago with tons of coin op stuff.

I think the key here is who has the most machines actually set up and playable not who has the biggest pile of projects sitting in warehouses somewhere. And for that I would think PHOF has to be one of the top 3 or 4 if not the biggest but I am not sure.

The Pinball Wizard Arcade in NH has about 115 machines... not only that, that are in super awesome condition. Not to mention... they have over 130 arcade games. It's the best place I've been.

The National Pinball Museum shut its doors... I've not heard anything about them re-opening. Has anyone else?

Go to MGC and do the private collection tour. 150 games or more at toms place.

I know there are some collectors with a shitload of machines, but I'd be interested to know who has the most pins that are actually set up and playable.

There's a guy in North or South Dakota that has 900+ games (probably more by now, he was still buying and he had that many 4 years ago). Said that he had rented out part of a town to hold his collection (out of business stores along main street it sounded like). I don't think it's far fetched to say that the top 5% of collectors own probably 75% of the games out there.

Tom's collection, not including non-pinball machines, is well over 300 including every EM Gottlieb game ever made!

I know of no other private collection with that many machines that are all set up and working.

Yep. He has at least that many from across all eras.

I know that Tim Arnold owns every single Gottlieb that is known to exist.

CP Pinball just North of St. Louis has about 80 machines that are playable. My dad, brother and I went there and it was worth the 4 hour trip. http://www.cppinball.com/

My bet would be on Tim at PHOF and no one else seems to have suggested anyone else to this point anyway. When I was there last year I stopped counting at somewhere around 200 if I remember correctly.

Tim also has a huge storage area of additional machines at another site but as far as set up and ready to play over 200 at PHOF. Totally amazing for a "one man band" & giving all profits to charity for years now.

There are always post saying what he "should be doing" but Tim does it his way and thankfully that isn't all that bad. Not every machine is up and running every day but with no paid help he really does an amazing job overall.

ok!!! So, for some reason I did not mention The Pinball Museum in East Bay, CA few miles from where I live. They have about 100 pins on site. However... They are applying for a grant for new space that will have over 1,000 pins. It seems only half are currently playable. But maybe some day!

"The Pacific Pinball Museum is currently applying for a grant to create a digital inventory of our collection of nearly 1,000 games. One of our goals is to have a fully searchable database online here. Some 500 fully playable games are currently in storage at our warehouse in Alameda, California. Your support of cash donations and volunteerism will help us expand into a new location that can display our full collection."

I went to a "private collectors" place in Germany who has 300 machines all set up and playable.

Mostly mint condition too.

Also, Freddie's Pinball Paradise in Germany has about 150 mint machines all set up for play. This is where IFPA10 was held.

I have a measly 60 set up in my current warehouse/house. The rest are awaiting restoration. Soon

rd.

Now that's impressive!

PAPA has 450 or so games set up and is open to the public two weekends per year.

PAPA in Pittsburgh has apx 400+ machines set up and playing perfectly. There is another collector in town that has apx 200 machines. I have heard that Gene Cunningham in IL has something like 1600 machines, but I'm not sure what his setup is like or if he has them mostly working.

Brian

Gene's are mostly firewood.

MNPinball

Another question would be how many people have you seen in these locations? I have been to most of the public places mentioned and usually I don't see more then a few people. I know tournaments and conventions usually have a crowd but any other public place better be in it for the love and not the money. I go into Flippers all the time and usually only see a few people unless it is league night. They currently have one of the best lineups in the country in my opinion......sad but true.

I recall Gene was selling some pins last year or ealier this year. There is a Pinside thread on it.

National Pinball Museum was great bit unfortunately didn't last long in Baltimore. Nobody seems to have heard anything lately as to any re-emergence .

Gene's aren't really playable, and who knows how many he really has left now.

Having said that, I wouldn't say that PPM has that title because the majority of their working pins are currently stored in a warehouse according to what was posted. I think PAPA would take that title, if you consider their extremely limited public schedule as open to the public (otherwise they are the largest private collection that is set up and playable, I think).

And then there is goatdan's gypsy collection.

Which Pinsiders have the largest collection?

I realize some Pinsiders don't list their collection for other to see,
but I've seen numbers of 70 or more displayed next to a few Pinsiders avatar.

Top collectors according to Pinball Owners:
stevie694 1077
finokiss 835
mpbola 544
jcg9998 500
bally.se 383

Hey, I only claim to own two machines, just like you In all seriousness though, I think you own more than I do.

I'm rather excited, over the next few weeks I'm actually going to clear some space to set up a couple more of mine in the house! About time!!

Gene's collection ( a few years ago, before he sold off the 100 or so "good" ones) was primarily a collection of "the most non-working pins on one location". Now that's all it is. If it weren't for the beer seals on the glass, they would be mainly science experiments.

I think a lot of guys own a lot of machines (particularly older cheap EMs) and horde them away in storage. I know a guy who has 50 plus here in NZ but they are all in storage except maybe 5 which are out.

I guess a better question would be "who has the most that are set up and working?"

As I said earlier in the thread, in Germany last month I saw 300 nice machines at one guys place and 150 nice ones at Freddie's. I've heard of a lot of other big collections in Europe, especially EMs.

In my new house I will have all my machines set up and running, so there is about 90 machines. Which is a big collection here in New Zealand. But nothing compared to Europe ....

rd.