They go with me to the afterlife.

Maybe do something like put an estimated price sheet inside each game and box of parts? Show your partner your system so she knows.

Likely the dumpster

I'm dead.Don't care

Maybe i need to start telling my wife what i REALLY spend on these things.

Funny we were just talking about this because we are setting up some trusts and talking about estate planning and I think I’m going to leave one to people I love, son picks first. Then I will gift the other four to people who are awesome and bring me happiness.

Your post hits a bit home. I'm 53 and my neighbor 51. He just died last night out of the blue. He was not a pinhead, but owned a glass shop, where I would by "normal " glass. Great guy, it sucks. Makes me think of your point. I would hope my local pin buds would assist my widow to have a fair market.

Due to COVID, I’ve had a lot of time on my hands so I contacted my attorney to revise my will.

Almost all of my pins and arcade games will go to the local youth center and children’s hospitals in the area. My kids don’t really love the games and I’m happy in knowing that they will be enjoyed for many years to come.

If anyone wants to add me to their will...please pm me..I will take good care of your pins

Auction.
Told my wife if something happens to me to send everything to auction.
Don’t want here dealing with all the low ballers and weirdos (some of which are sure to be friends of ours).

Don't care. My wife and kids are also not a fool.

That's funny. Over the years on RGP and here on Pinside, I've had people asking me about leaving me a game or two to use at my events.

Nice gesture. But I'd rather they stay healthy and can enjoy the games themselves.

LTG : )

Sell them all, make a better investment.

As for me? Cremation, flush the ashes down the toilet.

My wife will have a truck load sale. Cram as many pins as you can on your truck or trailer for one low price! Then she would go shopping with the $100 she got for them!

My kids set them to 10 ball with max extra balls and are happy.

I will be a ghost in the machine....inspired by
"Moffett's Ghost" in Airwolf.

Queue the Airwolf theme song

maxresdefault (resized).jpg

Wife would sell my machines cheap... maybe even free to get them out of the "game room" to turn back into a room for the kids...

My boss at work is a fellow pinhead whom I trust. I've told my wife if I dropped dead to wait a few months and then contact him for help selling them.

You'll be dead for sure!
I know I would if the truth came out!

Someone will get a lot of good deals going through my basement. Or they will just throw it all in a dumpster.

I have more parts than machibes down there. And only a pinhead would know what most of the stuff is worth.

A similar topic popped up recently.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/youre-pins-after-your-death/

Stays with the family.

I've a deal with my best friend... if he croaks first I need to sell his woodworking shop for his wife, if I croak first he sells my pins for my wife.

I told my wife to auction them off

My partner knows my best friend, and she has his contact information. He would gather some other friends, and they would take them away. Those other friends would take the games they wanted at reasonable prices, and the rest would just be sold. Finally my best friend would hand my partner a big wad of cash. Everyone involved is completely trustworthy, so I'd have no fears of anyone ripping someone off. I assume they would all sell at the "don't bug me" price, which is slightly under market, but not giving them away just to make it easy to sell them.

As for me, cremation and done. Have a small gathering of close friends. Order pizza, and have plenty of beer in the fridge. Raise a glass, and then get on living your lives. Bury my ashes next to my cats in the back yard with a knife and draw a pentagram, a crucifix, and a watch with the time reading 6:17 PM on the box, and a note that says "A curse be on the..." and burn the rest of the note so nothing else can be read. Because in 100 years, I want to be an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries 2132".

I have a single page Personal Property Memorandum (PPM) Addendum to my Will that I update from time to time which deals specifically with this question. It lists my pinball machines and who gets each one. I've asked that they be distributed to my best friends and neighbors to keep the games in that inner circle after I'm gone. It's the best of both worlds. My friends each get a parting gift and my estate doesn't have to worry about dealing with them.

Wife posts pinside price check!
Then goes on spending spree with new Bo!

With my bad luck (tragically passing away before reaching 100 years of age), my wife would suddenly fall head-over-heels in love with pinball and obsess over her new found riches. She’s soon find herself reading Pinside daily and ordering from the modding community often. Surrounding herself with these trophies, she’d probably start talking smack while she learned new trivia and her confidence grew. She’d discover how much fun pinball could be and that all pins were not the same.

No longer would she complain when a NAVL truck randomly showed up while I was at work,, nor would she feel the need to badger the driver, as I raced home to handle the situation. I’ll be looking down from heaven and laughing my ass off over how things “turned out”.

My Grandson is showing a lot of interest in maintaining pins. He helps me rebuild and clean as needed. Last month Buddy helped recap the monitor for Golden Tee. My Dad taught me, I'm passing it on.

Yup! This is often the truth and a very sad reality of life when one passes.
I find it disturbing that some object which you cherish, safeguard, protect, maintain, etc. for years is suddenly considered junk or worthless by others, especially heirs.
Living in retirement USA (N. Central Florida), I witness this each time I visit the many consignment/thrift/donation stores. Sometimes I come across that private estate sale where items that cost thousand's, now sell for a few dollars.
Example: A few year's back, my work colleague received a phone call from an out-of-state stranger who recently lost his Dad. The Father was into homebuilt, kit airplanes (experimental class), had purchased a Kitfox, but never initiated construction. The Son got contact information of my Buddy through a website reply, called him, and completed the transaction. The Seller was giddy over being able to sell this airplane kit - a $30K+ kit, selling for $6K! Of course, my Buddy pee'd himself upon taking possession.
Anyway's - a proper plan/descriptive will, appraisals, and local friends/references help to ensure the estate recipient receives fair or market pricing on such items.

So much of this Rings true. My big fear is that my wife will sell my machines for what I've told her I've got into them. Or worse, my son inherits them, sells them for a pretty penny and buys thousand dollar Plus sneakers that he'll never wear with the proceeds. Crazy world!

My kids will be fighting over them, as both of them want to put there names on the ones they want already.
I have told my wife who to call if something was to happen to me. Two local people that I have delt with in the past, and can be trusted. The funny thing is they don't know it.

Sounds like beelzeboob 's wife. Except she may help speed up the passing away.

LTG : )

Someone will tear them up getting them out of a tight room.
Or they will be sold to someone who knows how to break them down

Captain’s Auctions appreciates your support . I’d probably do the same, but give first pick for one to my pinball bro first. Gf couldn’t care less about playing them.

I'm dead and won't care what happens to them.
Be smart. Make a price list of each item and store in the coin box. Tell your family so they know where to at least start if they sell.

I have a trust set up for them until they turn 18, then they get the balance of my estate and can head out into the world.

So, they're going on route?

Just wait. Soon your food will start tasting like almonds. Takes time.

LTG : )

Never! I don't want strange hands fondling them.

Funeral pyre.....Viking style!

Just kidding....SO knows what they’re worth. Hell, she’s even picked out a few of them, plus gone to the bank to get the cash out when I didn’t have time, helped carry them in and even recently proposed going on a road trip with just her and a girlfriend to pick one up.....so sold to pinhead friends most likely and auction the rest.

Wife sells what she wants, keeps what she wants, buries me in Big Game.

Ha ha. I want to be buried in TWDLE. I then went hang on a minute. Game is worth too much money, I want the money to go to my family. Just make up stickers like the TWDLE cabinet and put them on the cheapest coffin you can buy.

My wife most likely keeps my pin and then buys a few others with my life insurance payout.