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Number of Machines in the UK

1stoppinball

Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2012
Messages
245
Location
Poole
Alias
Mel
This has been a discussion topic for a number of weeks and it would seem nobody I ask has a real handle on this.
How many pinball machine would you estimate there are in the UK.
If there are over 500 members on this group , with futher 2000 on the Yahoo forum , there must be at least the same number of pinheads who don't know about either site.
So put that at say 5,000 people liking pinball , if 50% have a machine and in most cases more than one machine, there has to be around 10,000 machines in the UK.
Any reasonbale advances on this !!!!!
Mel
www.1stoppinball.com
supporter of ~"~ Movember ~"~
 
I think you might actually have underestimated it.

If in the last month there are 62 machines offered from one collector and 10+ from another on this site then hopefully there might be a lot more than you would have thought hidden out there. I recently discovered another pinhead with his collection in a house 200 yrd from here, so how many more are hidden away. But not known as part of the scene? I'm guessing people like Mr Dreads would have a better idea of the collectors out there and the number of machines they've got.

I'm guessing a lot of people still haven't found the group or site, I had machines for a couple of years before I discovered the group via an ebay ad.

Also with the two large collections coming to light, how is that going to affect the "supply & demand" part of the increasing pinball prices...... are we going to see a reversal in the upward trend.....:lalala:
 
Mr Dreads has little to offer here I'm afraid, my UK customer base is tiny, I can confirm that there are no pins in Liverpool : - ), OFF TOPIC... most are definitely in the US..... Oz, France, Italy and Germany has it's share, I have even sent items to South Africa and most of South America but can't give much info on the UK pin population. I have met collectors with upwards of 60 machines, I currently have about 18 and no doubt there are members on this forum with a shed load, Jamie B springs to mind unless he has offloaded so my conclusion is that any estimate could be 1000’s out which on a scale of things is vast on a very specialised hobby…………keep guessing guys, there is no prize for the winner.
 
Andy 'Pinball Mania' Netherwood has said to me before about the number of call outs he does to people with pins that have NO IDEA about any pinball forums, pinball shows etc . There are loads out there.

Got chatting to our chimney sweep the other day - turns out he has a pin ....he doesn't want to sell it ......but I will get it off him, oh yes, I will ;)
 
Well at least that gives me an idea , like I mentioned I know of at least a hundered between about four or five people that I know, so it has to be in the 1000's.

On the other site ( They who shall not be named :) ) someone mentioned there were 12,000 in commercial operation in the 90's , they would have been turned around probably every three to four years or at least 50% of them would.

If you said 5% of them ended up in Private hands each year thats 600 machines a year, ok quite a few would have fell by the wayside , but like a old banger , if the machine is a loved one , you'll keep repairing it due to the love for the machine and not worry about the cost.
 
There's a few dogs on that list of 62 games , not worth a great deal , it wasn't as if the guy had a collection of the top 20 games and a smattering of others , I think from memory there were only three or four from the top 20 so wont making a shattering dent in the upward price the market seems to be going.
 
Agreed, anything that is not considered collectible or appreciating in value is not appreciating in value, know that sounds obvious, my point is that there a 100's of pins out there that are going sideways in value and will probably never be worth anything, same as some cars, it would take an abundance of the appreciating top titles to arrive from nowhere for any effect to be seen on prices, how long would it take for 10 MM's to be snapped up? answer, not long and that ain't going to happen same as with the rest of the sought after machines so the upward trend continues on the top 50 + some straggles further down the charts until the end of this year, the end of the world : - )
 
Someone mentioned this to me last week. I would say the figure is caround 20,000
 
I now have the definitve answer

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pinball-M...eo_Games_Coin_Operated_MJ&hash=item3f1e65581a

11,192 unique visitors in a year , must be the most visited pinball site in the world.

Good old MB's

You may have misworded that. It's more like an average of 1,100 unique visitors per month (then arguably the same visitors repeating each month) :) Also likely that they are *non* pinhead visitors, as most people within this hobby soon realise the, ahem, reputation that PP have gained.
 
...my point is that there a 100's of pins out there that are going sideways in value and will probably never be worth anything, same as some cars, it would take an abundance of the appreciating top titles to arrive from nowhere for any effect to be seen on prices...
I read this and initially agreed but whilst doing some sideways thinking I have to reconsider.
Take for example a factory run 1970's car that was not a luxury car and had no cult following, that would rule out Mini's, Jags and a large number of Rovers and Royces. So I considered the worst car I have ever owned, a car that I looked forward to being in an accident in so I would either die and the embarrassment would end or better still it would die and I could move on.
I am talking about the Austin Allegro, a car my parents arranged for me to buy so I had no chance of showing off (I still found a way to make that beige car amusing but never cool). A car few people ever wanted a lift in and certainly no one wanted to trust going long distance in. A car that few people liked, let alone loved and so were unlikely to be a collectors item. A car most people hated.
Would you believe it, there a at least one dedicated web forums for it, which has at least two members, possibly more.
Car and Classic has a for sale section where prices start at £600 and go up to £2500.
Ebay has a classified ad for £1495 (and it is the desirable baby sick colour too)
There are loads of repro parts available to keep your turd-barrow on the road including air filters for only £998.99 available here. Though I suspect they are not selling many when you can buy a whole car for £600, take that air filter and sell it on.

What I am trying to say is, when something has survived past its expected point of use, it can then get respect for just surviving. People will start to buy them because they wanted old, they want to have nostalgia or because they wanted another thing but it cost too much. Then the price goes up, oddly this attracts speculators who have odd sense of humours. There has to be something in this because the Allegro was never a cool car, it wasn't a good car in the 70's and I doubt it has improved with age. Mine was dangerous in the 90's, with poor brakes, suspension and an engine that ate the points.
Not everyone who owns pins has it for the game, some have it for the looks, the nostalgia and the cool factor. If a pin survives, someone will buy it and as the number of pins from the past doesn't increase, their price will rise over time.

As for the world ending at the end of 2012, it is just time to get a new calendar. 👅
 
Was more having a dig a MB than quoting the number s, obvioulsy maths is not his strong point , and he is attempting to manipulate the reader into thinking that he has had 13,000 individuals view his site .
 
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