My pinball friends know me as the black hole, where games come in and pretty much never leave. I started collecting in 1997 and I still own several games that I bought in those first couple of years. Most at coin-op auctions which I attended with my Dad who recently passed away. It is a fun hobby for me, and a nice side business for him in that we resold games for a couple of years, and then after that he would operate games in his ice cream business.

I tell folks my games aren't for sale and they always try to tell me "everything is for sale". And I'll admit, if someone showed up with a million dollars I'm guessing my wife would pretty much insist that they are, in fact, for sale. But for me with the ever-increasing values of the games it's never been a concern of trying to turn a profit off of selling them, I would just rather keep them than have the money they are worth. If I sold I would want to convert that money into different pinball machines, none of which would have the sentimental value that many of mine have now due to the fun times I had with Dad and friends going to said auctions to acquire them.

Last year I was finally convinced to liquidate a few games to pay for a home remodeling project. I sold off some of my bottom games but I realized I was going to have to part with too many to fund the runaway remodel. So I said screw it, my nicest and most expensive game was a near mint CC which pretty much put us over the top of the budget need with one sale. While it was a point of pride to own such a nice machine I realized I didn't really enjoy playing that one, and by selling it it would save the 3 or 4 lesser machines that would have to go.

So all that said, put me in the "sentimental value" category for sure.