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Financing pinball

Bobbdobalina

Bobbdobalina

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Joined
Apr 6, 2021
Messages
1,102
Location
UK
Hi all. After buying my 1st pin early last year for what I later found to be very cheap,I’ve recently moved on to my 2nd.
Now my 2nd I believe to have been market value and I’m very happy.

I’ve seen some of the collections on here and it got me thinking.
How does joe bloggs finance a collection nowadays?
I mean cheap pins are obviously few and far between so to build a reasonable collection in this day and age do you have to be wealthy?

I’m financing my 2nd pin by selling arcade cabs. Some of my cabs I sourced from the US where you can pay by F&F PayPal and so I put them on credit card and then banged it on interest free balance transfer.

Is this a practice that members on here do or do people take out loans etc?

Just find it interesting especially with the price of new pins and 2nd hand not far behind.
Wondering what peoples thought are.
 
From the moment I knew I wanted a pin in my first house I started saving along with my deposit.

I've got a job that has overtime available if required so that definitely helps.

Noway I'd be able to save for a NIB tho
 
All off the above!!

In my student days I put a credit card on paypal and sent a mate of mine £600 and he withdrew it as cash as he was flusher than me. Bought a Whitewater. Paid off credit card with a very low APR over the next 18 months.

Desparate times of the deranged collector...
 
David_Vi said:
From the moment I knew I wanted a pin in my first house I started saving along with my deposit.

I've got a job that has overtime available if required so that definitely helps.

Noway I'd be able to save for a NIB tho
Click to expand...
… yeah saving for a NIB would be quite a feat and a long term commitment for me!
 
Bobbdobalina said:
I’ve seen some of the collections on here and it got me thinking.
Click to expand...

One thing to bear in mind when you see the sizes of some collections is how long some of us have been in the hobby and what the prices were like when we started. We bought our first machine around 18 years ago now - it was a very nice Twilight Zone that came from eBay and we paid slightly over the odds at around £1.4k from memory.

Over the years the old games we bought at comparatively low prices steadily increased in value, and most years we'd put some extra cash into the collection - so the combination of those two factors has led to a collection which we wouldn't be able to build quickly if we'd just got into the hobby in the past couple of years.

Sure, there are some people who got in when the prices were already high and just had the cash to hand to quickly build up a large collection of valuable titles, but I'd suggest they are the exception as opposed to the rule.
 
I’d be very wary of taking out a loan or buying a pin on a card. Realistically you would be likely to still be paying it off long after you’ve sold it or got bored of it.

I suspect most people buy a starter model and gradually buy and sell adding a bit more to the pot I know I kicked off with a £500 game.

You do also have to ask yourself how much you are willing to lose, if a pin halved in value would you still be happy to chalk it up as money well spent due to the fun you had?
 
JustLikeMe said:
One thing to bear in mind when you see the sizes of some collections is how long some of us have been in the hobby and what the prices were like when we started. We bought our first machine around 18 years ago now - it was a very nice Twilight Zone that came from eBay and we paid slightly over the odds at around £1.4k from memory.

Over the years the old games we bought at comparatively low prices steadily increased in value, and most years we'd put some extra cash into the collection - so the combination of those two factors has led to a collection which we wouldn't be able to build quickly if we'd just got into the hobby in the past couple of years.

Sure, there are some people who got in when the prices were already high and just had the cash to hand to quickly build up a large collection of valuable titles, but I'd suggest they are the exception as opposed to the rule.
Click to expand...

This completely - my TZ was 800 back in 2006. TAF 1k etc . Luck of the draw to get in years ago.
I am by absolutely no measure wealthy but got a collection together when they were a lot less expensive. Combined with numerous cheap projects and deals over the years , working on games and selling on etc I am where I am .
No way in the world I’d be starting off now having to find 8k for a new game 😬Non pinball people think you are completely mental when you tell them the price of some titles 😂
 
JustLikeMe said:
One thing to bear in mind when you see the sizes of some collections is how long some of us have been in the hobby and what the prices were like when we started. We bought our first machine around 18 years ago now - it was a very nice Twilight Zone that came from eBay and we paid slightly over the odds at around £1.4k from memory.
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I totally agree but isn’t it all relative to a degree. I mean I bought my 1st arcade cab (Mortal kombat 2) in 2004 off eBay for £250 and thinking it seemed expensive.
I know pinball is slightly different and seems to be turbo charged recently but 1.4K isn’t cheap 18 years ago.
 
Bobbdobalina said:
… yeah saving for a NIB would be quite a feat and a long term commitment for me!
Click to expand...

Paypal credit purchases on 0% interest for 4 months (sometimes 12 months) can be useful. You can sell it before you need to pay it off, almost free pin for 4-12 months or possibly sell for more in current market if you're wise and/or restored/improved it. ;)

As said already, a lot of big collections are from when you could pick them up for £500.
 
Rob zombie said:
I haven't had credit cards in over 20 years, they're too dangerous. I just buy stuff on a Friday night if I've had enough wine and whatever movie I'm watching isn't holding my attention. But never on tick.
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It’s a means to an end. I’d have preferred not to use credit for some cabs and I’ve bought others with cash but it’s about when opportunity arises and not having funds at that time.
I put the balance on interest free and pay it off a couple of hundred a month.
But arcade cabs are considerably cheaper than pins.
Totally agree about credit in general though, been there done that and it’s a deep hole that’s hard to climb out of.
Learnt that lesson the hard way!
 
In my opinion loans are only to be considered for things you need, not things you want
Buying toys, holidays etc on credit isn't something I'd ever do - stuff needs to be paid in full for me to enjoy it.

I suspect those with the large collections have been in the hobby from the days when games were simply cheaper and getting 3 or 4 games would set you back 2-4K, not 4-8K and NIB was £3K not 6K.
 
Bobbdobalina said:
It’s a means to an end. I’d have preferred not to use credit for some cabs and I’ve bought others with cash but it’s about when opportunity arises and not having funds at that time.
I put the balance on interest free and pay it off a couple of hundred a month.
But arcade cabs are considerably cheaper than pins.
Totally agree about credit in general though, been there done that and it’s a deep hole that’s hard to climb out of.
Learnt that lesson the hard way!
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Arcades aren't dissimilar to pinballs these days. If you really want a particular title then you may not be able to wait for it to ever come up for sale again. I paid £2600 for MK2 not long ago. Could've had a pinball for that.

I think if you're determined to buy a load on credit then you'd be better off getting a loan for a large amount with low interest rather than juggling credit cards. I wouldn't do either personally as life is stressful enough without getting into loads of debt.
 
Pinball is a luxury hobby. Out of my league now.

Yes I trade a few games but none are really keepers!

Most games I can sell in a few minutes either with phone calls or an advert on here.

If you want quick easy cash them do medical experiments :) You may grow extra fingers but that will improve your playing.
 
I wouldn't be able to afford the collection I have if I was starting out these days, simple as that. As others have said, I got in when prices were lower (although not as low as some) but I also bought games that needed work, did the work and then sold them on for a small profit. That then allowed me to buy a slightly more expensive game that needed work etc and it went from there. This is a lot harder these days as there's less projects about and those that are cost a lot more than they used too.

These days I fund games either by selling one or more of my other ones (my NIB Turtles was done like this) or by using the savings I've built up over time that are specifically for funding my hobbies :thumbs: I definitely wouldn't be looking at using credit cards, loans or any sort of finance to buy a pinball machine. If you want to build a collection in the current market then you need a fair chunk of cash to chuck at it.
 
Rob zombie said:
I haven't had credit cards in over 20 years, they're too dangerous.
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Conversely, I pay for almost everything on credit cards - but I only spend what I know I can afford and pay them off in full every single month without exception.

I then use the airmiles I earn on those cards to fly in the nicer seats on the plane, only paying the taxes and fees which works out less than an economy ticket whilst also giving me the flexibility to cancel or change up to 24 hours before departure for only £30 fee per person... or at least I did before March 2020.
 
JustLikeMe said:
Conversely, I pay for almost everything on credit cards - but I only spend what I know I can afford and pay them off in full every single month without exception.

I then use the airmiles I earn on those cards to fly in the nicer seats on the plane, only paying the taxes and fees which works out less than an economy ticket whilst also giving me the flexibility to cancel or change up to 24 hours before departure for only £30 fee per person... or at least I did before March 2020.
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As I said on another thread, money isn't something I like to spend any amount of time thinking about. I didn't even check my bank balance at all for around 20yrs. So messing around with credit cards and trying to juggle what needs paying every month is definitely not for me. I used to fly to Dublin every weekend for a couple of years when I had a girlfriend over there, but these days I don't fly anywhere or go anywhere a credit card could benefit me. I did have credit cards when I was younger and soon realised that when you're a compulsive spender like me, they are a seriously bad bad idea.
 
Rob zombie said:
As I said on another thread, money isn't something I like to spend any amount of time thinking about. I didn't even check my bank balance at all for around 20yrs. So messing around with credit cards and trying to juggle what needs paying every month is definitely not for me. I used to fly to Dublin every weekend for a couple of years when I had a girlfriend over there, but these days I don't fly anywhere or go anywhere a credit card could benefit me. I did have credit cards when I was younger and soon realised that when you're a compulsive spender like me, they are a seriously bad bad idea.
Click to expand...

Yes, they’re a very useful tool when treated with care, but definitely not for everyone.
 
I’ll be honest and say I’m bad at saving however quite good at paying things off. A card on 0% finance is handy, when a machine comes up for sale you want you have a way of paying for it. Just now you could be sitting with money you’ve saved and that pin on your wanted list never coming up for sale as too few pinballs are available..
The motto is you need to be quick and pay the asking price or someone else will!
 
If you think this hobby is expensive then don't get into space memorabilia!

I've thought more and more about this recently though, if you are sensible, 3 games is the most you need, maybe 4 if you have a keeper then just sell and get the next game and keep doing that. Plan what you want to buy very carefully. Do you really need that TOTAN, Wonka, Star Wars or Munsters? Rule out the turds like those and also take a look at the classics. Something like a bally or stern will keep you going for months. I'd rather have my meteor, nine ball and Quicksilver over alot of games. Avoid getting into debt for a disposable income hobby, esp if you don't have your own home.

Neil.
 
The problem comes once your 0% card is used up on that machine you just couldn't pass up and then the next machine pops up for sale that you must jump on quick before someone else does...and so on and so forth. And then inevitably as the global economy becomes more settled prices will drop and machines will become more plentiful again. Much like the dips and troughs of the classic car market.
 
only use a credit card if you have the money to pay it off when it’s due. interest is the bane of the western world. We are heading into a deep recession imho, credit is going to get more expensive and the middle classes are going to be squeezed tight for quite a while. there are no financial easing measures left for any govt to impose, apart from higher costs and higher taxes. sell your expensive pins now while there are still buyers.
 
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