[I posted this a couple of days ago in my current Pinball thread, but I don’t know whether anyone saw so I’m posting it again.]
I don’t know if anyone will see this, but I’m posting anyway. I just found out there’s a Gilligan’s Island pinball machine available for only $3,200. I checked it out, and it’s in great shape. That’s an amazing price for that machine. It usually goes for about $1,200 more. I have to rent a truck and pick it up, but I can do that for about $40.
So to make room, I am thinking of letting Star Trek go. The thing about Star Trek is that even though I like it, and I really like the Star Trek theme-- and it’s a very early TV/movie themed machine-- its play has turned out to be very similar Lost World, and I’m not giving up Lost World-- it’s my all-time favorite machine. So I called around, and got an offer of $990 on Star Trek. I bought it several years ago for $1,200, and have gotten a lot of use out of it. Right now, it has a couple of bulbs out, and one switch that is a little off, and doesn’t always register points. I won’t have to fix those things-- $990 is the as-is price, and the buyer will pick it up. He’ll fix those few things, polish it up with Carnauba wax, and resell it, probably for about $1,200.
I suppose I could do all those things, and then try to sell it on Craigslist or eBay for $1,200, but it would take time, and in the meantime, where would I put Gilligan’s Island? I have to move on it right away. What I’m going to save over what it usually costs is more than four times what I’m “losing” on Star Trek, and I’m not really losing it, because I used it for several years. And I used it a LOT. Once, I invited people over for a Purim pinball tournament (if you know anything about Purim, you know it was a drunken pinball tournament). The machines were set for tournament play, and gave points instead of replays for specials, and we referred to that as “Hanging Haman.” The winner of the tournament wore Mordechai’s crown. Star Trek was game one in the tournament.
That means we’ll have these:
Lost World
Bad Cats
Funhouse
Black Knight
Gilligan’s Island
That seems like a bit of a better mix. I’d still like to have an EM machine in there, but maybe when I win the lottery. Y’know, if I ever buy a ticket, or something.
Boy, would I love my own pinball hall of fame. I’d put in some arcade games, an air hockey table, and a 50s or 60s style jukebox, and call it “Lost World.”
Maybe I’ll get lucky, and pick the next stock that turns out to be Amazon, or Apple, or I’ll write a bestseller, and I can sink all my profits into supporting a Lost World. Sigh my uncle tried to talk me into going to rabbinical school when I was 22, but I wanted to be an interpreter. Rabbis make boatloads of money. Interpreters do OK, but they do not make boatloads of money, plus they have to buy private insurance, and plan their own retirement.
Sigh
ETA: I actually have several other things on my plate: I have a chance to go to Israel in December, and I am flying out to my brother’s in LA for Thanksgiving: I’m going first class, because it was a much shorter flight, and I saved the baggage fee, the lunch fee, the booked seat fee, and am allowed to put a carry on in rhe overhead bin, which isn’t allowed in coach. The price difference of $350 beween coach and first class narrows even further when you add all the fees to coach, plus allow for the possibility of a lost bag. The, in October, I have my trip to Las Vegas.
So I may be crazy to buy another pinball now.
Am I?