I have to drive two hours to Pittsburgh or Morgantown,WV to play new games. Once you get to the bar, it’s usually too loud or crowded to get a true sense of the game. I hate playing games onsite. You can’t hear many of the call outs etc., and after an hour you make a judgment call.
I thought I’d get better at TNA in the home environment. It’s a great game for a great player but it’s unrelenting if your not. I got out before the hype ends and took a loss. Buying and selling seems to be a big part of this and if your financially able to walk away from something your not happy with , do so. That’s why rich and famous people get divorced more often!

I'd keep them all if money grew on trees and space was unlimited!

I haven't really seen a sell off on Iron Maiden? I think that's the only game right now that could get me to part with my Congo.

you forgot available space as a voting option

First world problem. Say you buy a game, and end up not liking it. Do you keep it as an albatross in your collection, or dump it?

The answer is, you dump it. If you’ve collected for a while, you already know some games just don’t work for you. So you just bite the bullet and get rid of it. If losing a couple/few hundred bucks on it is a big deal to you, you are in the wrong hobby. You will make it back on other games that go up. There are not many hobbies where you can leave and get most of not all of your money back. Treat that loss as a consumable item and you will be fine.

I learned all the rules to iron maiden from one Twitch stream, then got to all the modes, etc except the final wizard mode within like 10 games. Didn't see anything I liked, now I avoid playing it. If a game isn't for you it's pretty easy to tell.

Mistake on their part, code has gotten much better

Some people sell to make a quick profit on a desirable game. We've seen that a bit with TNA as of late.

Haven't seen anybody try to get rid of it and take a loss yet.

Some of us have limited space and have to cycle a pin in and out.

As for having to sell quickly soon after a pin is obtained, well, life events happen. Sometimes I need to make a sacrifice. It is nice to be able to sell a pin and split the $$ between a debt and a lesser value (but equally fun) pin.

Another reason I have sold quickly in the past is getting past the honeymoon phase early on. I like trading or selling to get different pins. Pins coming/going is just the way it is, no matter how quickly.

Yep this is me, Pins coming and going is just the way it is. It would really be hard to keep pins for years on end (not for me), You find yourself bored of the same theme/themes of pins rather fast.

I'll buy a pin knowing it won't be a long term keeper, like my 4th Terminator 2 I recently bought. A T2 was for sale local and I felt like revisiting it again after 2 years. I bought a TSPP because one was local and I knew I'd only hold on to it until the upcoming York show. But I never played more than a few games on one, so I wanted to own it for a bit to see what I thought of it. Sold it for exactly what I bought it for and got a few hundred games on it.

But short term to me is a few months.

Short term for me is a year. I don’t usually purchase a pin unless I know that I really like and want it.
When I buy a new pin that’s just coming out, I have to really like the layout and theme, if I
haven’t had a chance to play it.

Well so far for me I haven't found a game that has kept me interested in after about 1500 plays. So I move on..not a cheap hobby so something has to go to get a newer one..ok and some ADD may have something to do with it ha ha

.....to buy another game

I bought IJ cause it was highly ranked. I didn’t like it so I sold it. I bought Spider-Man but then my TnA was about to ship so I sold it to fund TnA and make space. Shit just happens

I wuz gonna say something along those lines.

Who cares. It's a hobby. You do what you want, whenever you want and not give a crap about what other people think. I'm certainly not curious as to why because you've had your TZ for 4 years.

I can't be the only one in this hobby that has brought home a game the spouse and/or kids don't like.

Every one so far.

Have you ever tried to sell one before you buy it?

Probably not their intention at all, but Spookys policy has created a NIB options marketplace.

This is why a theme is really important to me; a pin is more than just the game you play, it is definitely a piece of art; and a statement in a game room...There really is nothing like a lineup of pins; so a theme really does matter.

I try to buy games that will stay at least a year; but have had some out in 5 months; and others stay 4 years...just depends.

I like to buy, sell and trade because that way I can experience more pins. There are no local pins, closet pins are 30-40 miles away. I think that as long as you’re not losing money, it’s ok. Only so much money and so much room.

I'm just a casual amused observer here … haven't sold one yet. Got room for two more before I have to do the buy/sell cycle and choose the weakest one to go … but would also be based on what family and friends do not play.

I bought a MetallicaLE NIB because a long time ago I was into that band and thought it might re-spark my interest combining my hobby with music I used to listen to.

It was like that for a short time.

But quickly I became tired of hearing those songs and realizing that part of the past should have stayed in the past and music that I listen to now was where I was at. And then the past stopped being as good as I remembered it to the point of now disliking that music. And I also got tired of looking at it everyday as it was about the ugliest machine I had at the time. Bad theme, worse artwork is what it turned out to be. The game played OK though, but that wasn't enough to want to keep it around.

That's why I sold that one shortly after I got it.

Another was Batman66.

I was trying to get another new game that had modern deep rules and a theme that I was somewhat familiar with. I liked the gameplay and features enough after playing one for about twenty minutes that I bought it.

After I got it home, I realized I had pretty much played out what the code had to offer at the time in those first 20 minutes. After that it became stale waiting for updates that would not come very often and with very little when they did. After a short while I wasn't even wanting to play it like that and didn't care anymore. I was also tired of looking at it. An old TV show with two dudes in tights. lol. It was just taking up space, so again, this one had to go. Sooner than later!

A strategic business decision to diversify the pinball userbase in Australia.

Import container.
Repair/restore to 100% functionality.
Sell to first time buyers.
Rinse and repeat.

I keep all my games for years so don't know what you're talking about.

And if I had lots more money to burn, I'd probably buy an Iron Maiden, just to be able to post one more time in this thread.

here is one. ended two days ago.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/archive/67744

For sale is my #33 TNA w/ butter cabinet, shaker, and blades. Plays perfect, cabinet art has a slight scrape (see photo) but otherwise perfect.

The seller indicated the game eventually sold for $ 6,350.

====================================

and another. ended 3 days ago: sold elsewhere.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/archive/67867

PRICE REDUCED for quick sale. $5500.
Second owner. I had this game in my arcade for a couple weeks. Kids really don’t know what to do so up for sale is my TNA. Game is stock.

Same reason people lease cars, those most dependable miles are within the first few years.

Surprise nobody doesn’t just lease these from the get go. I think there is a huge market and for the most parts, some of these machine are as much as new cars

It only takes a few hours to get through the v1 code of any Stern game.

Had this been the RGP days, PA Derek and/or my name would have come up by now. For me, it's addiction--no joke. I'm an addict and have been one since birth. The great thing about pinball is that my addiction hasn't (yet) made my life unmanageable. I don't smoke, drink, or snort anything anymore, so my options are somewhat limited.

When was the last time you bought a new car? Cheapest thing out there is $15K, average car is over $30K. Not a lot of machines selling in that range.

People lease cars so they can have a better model and to get the newest model every 2-3 years. Apply that approach to pinball and the cycle is less than 6 months. Wouldn't make any sense for sellers to do this.

I agree with zach's summary above - I'm someone that didn't play pinball a lot when I was younger. When I started getting serious about pinball, I wanted to experience all of the games I could and realized I couldn't get a good feel of them in a bar. I found that having the game in your house made a big difference. Having a walk out basement really helped b/c moving these things is a pain (literally).

Now that I've gone through many of the machines, I'm circling back and buying the ones I really enjoyed (top quality if possible). I'm also the only pinball person in the family so if I had the ability to keep more than a handful, I would have. Unfortunately I couldn't so I needed to move in and move out.

I also enjoy the hunt. If I didn't, I couldn't accomplish all that I have. Meeting some very nice people along the way too.

I’m going to save this when it happens shortly. Have you heard of layaway? Bottom line, the purpose of a lease is not to get a better model. It’s to enjoy something today you can’t afford to pay for. And that is any new pin coming out. Unless you know of a company turning out new $500 Pins, then leasing is on the way (if not already here)

Because they aren't married yet, so it doesn't count as cheating!

Is Derek still around? I miss that guy's threads. He was easy to make fun of but on the upside he normally gave good prices on all the 14 day old games that he sold. I figure by now he must be laid up with a bad back or something, I think he posted that he was moving all those games up and down stairs to get them in his home. Crazy but then every hobby needs a Super Fan.

LOL musketd

I've definitely seen people quickly sell machines because they thought they wanted one, bought a highly regarded one, then realized some combination of the following:

a) the machine is too difficult and/or fast
b) the rules/scoring is not intuitive
c) Family does not like playing it and/or the theme
d) maintaining a pinball machine is way more complicated than they imagined

I've ran into casual pinball fans that would prefer a restored EM over a more modern machine because of those reasons.

On the other side you have collectors that want either want to trade to experience more pins, or they're chasing the high of the latest new thing and are too impatient for code improvements. I don't blame them if they can get equal value back, or only lose a couple hundred bucks for their couple hundred games of play.

I miss John Shields...

If it happens (beyond a distro or two for preferred customers) I'll eat my hat. I've heard of layaway, but have no idea how it applies here, as you don't get the item until it is completely paid for.

CAUTION - Carguments ahead

Leasing is just a financing instrument. People use financing for many many reasons, including getting into a better model. Just ask my neighbor who does it to get in to an S Class instead of a C Class.

There are too many things going against pins for a real leasing model -
Volume - more cars are leased every day in the US than the total annual pinball market. There just isn't a big enough market for someone to start this as a viable business

Financial Opportunity - at the transaction level, there isn't enough value to make money. A six month lease on a $7K item? The setup fees would be more than the financing value itself. It's just not a money maker and the costs required to make it worthwhile for a lessor would make it financially silly for a buyer.

Risk - There are no titles or insurance for pins, so risk of loss and theft are significantly higher than for cars. There is also a huge risk on remarketing a used pin, why would a distro want to sell a pin twice. And no one that's not in the biz would ever want to sell a used pin.

The closest business to leasing pins would be appliance and furniture rentals. This business is built on volume and predatory financing costs, and the target market is desperate, typically not people looking for toys.

Are you gonna use a knife and fork to eat that hat proper? Maybe add some of that Georgia hot sauce for some flavor

https://www.thepinballcompany.com/arcade-lease/

Yes I will. There’s more to a real business than a web page. When the 3rd company enters the market and actually has real business we can broadcast on twitch.

because they were too dumb to play the game before buying it to know if they liked it, or if its a stern if its actually got code.