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Pinball Nerds Podcast Ep. 501- Craig Bobbie

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Jul 27, 2022
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TL;DR

John Craig discusses his industry news segment, background, and role in pinball media on Pinball Nerds Podcast ep. 501.

Summary

John Craig, President of PTM Industries and correspondent from The Pinball Show, joins Orville Albert on Pinball Nerds Podcast episode 501 to discuss his background, career, and role in pinball media. The conversation covers Craig's childhood arcade experiences in London, Ontario, his current work covering industry news across multiple manufacturers, and the significant time investment required for his segment. Craig emphasizes the personal relationships and mentorship within the pinball community that have supported his work.

Key Claims

  • John Craig has been working at PTM Industries (an independent industrial distributor) for approximately 27-30 years and became President about 1.5 years ago

    high confidence · John Craig stated directly in the episode that he's been there for 'almost 30 years' and 'maybe 27 years' with promotion to President 'in the last year and a half'

  • Craig's industry news segment requires approximately 5 hours of research and reporting per week on average, but can exceed that during heavy news weeks

    high confidence · Craig explicitly stated: 'But probably on average, you know, it's around five, I want to say, in any given week. But it can be more if it's a really heavy news week.'

  • Craig grew up in London, Ontario and visited the Pinball Palace arcade as a child, which was once voted as Kaneda's Pinball Podcast's number one pinball arcade

    medium confidence · Craig described childhood memories visiting Pinball Palace in downtown London with pocket change and friends

  • Craig's wife and he made beer soap for Mill Street Organic, and Mill Street (after acquisition by InBev) owed them approximately $800 for five or six months of product, which they refused to pay

    high confidence · Craig stated: 'My wife and I used to make the beer soap for Mill Street Organic and I had to stop drinking Mill Street because after Mill Street got bought by InBev...they owed us like eight hundred dollars'

  • Craig had not done any podcasting before starting with Ken Cromwell and Bill Webb on a podcast (implied to be The Pinball Show or predecessor), though he had lifelong interest in film and performed audio/video projects as a hobby

    high confidence · Craig: 'I've never done any, any podcasting. Um, I first started podcasting with, uh, of course with a good old Ken Cromwell there and Bill Webb on special inlet'

Notable Quotes

  • “I jokingly always say the amount of energy that I put into one show is about the energy most podcasts put into 10 because I'm not doing any editing. I'm not doing interviews.”

    Orville Albert @ Early in episode — Establishes Albert's philosophy about podcast production and independence from traditional interview format

  • “I'm a big beer drinker um I don't love a like for my daily drinker it's you know it's Mill Street Mill Street Organic easy drinking lager”

    John Craig @ Midway through episode — Establishes Craig's beverage preference, which connects to his later story about Mill Street business conflict

  • “It's a labor of love. So it doesn't feel like work because I just enjoy it so much and I enjoy putting it all together.”

    John Craig @ During discussion of news segment time investment — Craig articulates his motivation for the significant time investment in his industry reporting

  • “You have to stay on top of it...so thank you so much for all you do for pinball because my job's easy I just watch whatever I want on Twitch and then I'll report it to the nerds”

    Orville Albert @ Later in episode — Albert acknowledges the disparity in effort between his casual commentary format and Craig's intensive research-based reporting

  • “I would have them do that. Like, if I was standing in Toronto there and we were having a beer together, John Craig, and I was chatting with you, that would be preferable.”

    Orville Albert @ Early discussion — Establishes Albert's preference for in-person interviews over phone-based conversations

Entities

John CraigpersonOrville AlbertpersonPTM IndustriescompanyKen CromwellpersonBill WebbpersonZach SharpepersonPinball PalacecompanyThe Pinball ShoworganizationMill Street Organiccompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: John Craig's industry news segment serves as a primary weekly information source for pinball community, with significant effort (avg 5+ hours/week) invested in research and reporting across multiple manufacturers

    high · Craig: 'it's around five...in any given week. But it can be more if it's a really heavy news week' and Albert: 'The Pinball Show is like where I get...one of my favorite places...just to hear the news of the week'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong appreciation and recognition within pinball community for John Craig's industry reporting work; positioned as essential news source alongside Pinball Market Trends

    high · Albert: 'your segment is the best. Every week I can't wait to hear what you're going to tell us' and 'The Pinball Show...my favorite place...to hear the news of the week'

  • ?

    community_signal: Toronto/Greater Toronto Area established as active pinball community hub with multiple barcades (Cabin Fever, Wurst) and recreational infrastructure, indicating strong local player base

    medium · Craig and Albert discuss multiple Toronto venues and organize potential meetup activities including visits to pinball locations

  • ?

    community_signal: Ken Cromwell transitioned from early podcast collaboration with John Craig to formal role at Jersey Jack Pinball, representing talent movement within industry

    high · Craig: 'I first started podcasting with...Ken Cromwell...before Ken left for Jersey Jack Pinball'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.263

0:00
All get around, he's on the rebound, hear the sound of our buddy, oh lordy, it's Orby, pinball now to rejoice, he's tugging pinball, craft beer and coffee, miffed with syrup and honey, hopes to laugh with his family in a random tangent, stories of his boys, he's on the poor man's pod network, We're going to get more listeners for the Pinball Nerds Podcast.
0:32
Coming to you from beautiful River Hibbert, Nova Scotia. Welcome back, Pinball Nerds, to episode 501 of your fifth favorite pinball podcast. My name's Orbital Albert, and on today's episode, I couldn't be more excited, I couldn't be more stoked, To have the one and only Craig Bobby, the number one, the only standing remaining correspondent from the Pinball Show, welcome to the show, Mr. Craig Bobby. Hey Albert, so happy to be here. Thanks so much for having me on your show. 5.01, that is unbelievable. Congratulations. That is quite the milestone for sure in podcasting. Congratulations, that's awesome. Thanks. I jokingly always say the amount of energy that I put into one show is about the energy most podcasts put into 10 because I'm not doing any editing. I'm not doing interviews. I've never interviewed a designer. I've never interviewed, you know, like people doing software, people from the company. So I kind of just spill out whatever's on my head having to do with pinball. And, you know, I don't even like doing the interviews like this. I think I got to episode 350 without doing one interview through the phone. I much prefer to do the interview. Like if I was standing in Toronto there and we were having a beer together, Craig, and I was chatting with you, that would be preferable. And someday I will get to do that. We're going to make that happen. Absolutely. That is on our bucket list, buddy. Absolutely. It will definitely happen. So I want to start with just some softballs just to get us a little warmed up because I actually haven't chatted with you before right now.
2:07
I just I'm curious to know because we hear so much about the industry side from you. I want to know about the real Craig Bobby. So what other hobbies do you have that you love to do other than pinball? Well, I wish my other hobbies were as exciting and wonderful as pinball. You know, I'm a father and a husband, so my domestic duties take up quite a bit of my time. But I'm a video game fan, although I have not played anything too recent right now, just from a time limit standpoint. But historically, I've been, over my lifetime, I've been a big video game guy. I love movies, love music, all the things that I think come together in the world of pinball.
InBev
company
Greg Boneperson
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Cabin Fevercompany
Poor Man's Pinball Networkorganization
2:55
I've been playing at arcades since I was a kid. Grew up in London, your hometown. No. Get out of here. Yeah, yeah.
3:06
I can remember going to downtown London to the Pinball Palace, which was at one time voted Canada's, I think, number one pinball arcade. if you can remember that. Was that across from the Galleria Mall there? Like just off Dundas, kind of? It was right downtown. So I just can remember, so we used to live in Westmount, and I can remember being eight or nine and getting on the London City bus with my friend, and we'd have a pocket full of quarters, and down we'd go to the arcade, And we would spend literally like all morning there until our quarters ran out. And then we kind of drag ourselves out of there and make our way home and hope we hadn't spent our bus money. Or then sheepishly try and call one of our moms with our last quarter and say, oh, we kind of ran out of money. Can you come get us? But, boy, those were the days. when I look back at those times, they were really idyllic in so many ways because I wouldn't even think of letting my 8 or 9 year old daughter go to downtown Toronto all by themselves, but they were in London doing all that, playing in the woods by ourselves, running around like crazy going downtown God, we were walking to school at the age of, since we were in kindergarten that doesn't happen anymore either so anyway a different time, it was a great city to grow up in and And so, yeah, just to get back to your original question, you know, and I've been in athletics off and on my whole life as well. I was a competitive swimmer for many years. Really? Okay. So still keep my, you know, I still like to do that. You know, love to work out when I can. The last couple of years have been a disaster just from COVID and keeping me away from the gym. But, you know, I like to keep in shape and do a lot of bike riding, mountain biking.
5:01
The Gambit. Camping. I hear you went camping this summer. camping yeah you know the whole bit that's awesome so i feel like we're you're like my brother from another mother because i grew up in sheddon ontario but like my aunt lived uh in westmount on like i don't know vicount or something like that you know um and i always went and played pinball at a place called lagaz which was right beside the cineplex upstairs at westmount mall okay yeah yeah yeah now this would have been more like 1987 to like 1990 but the funny thing is you were talking about the LTC and it's like the only the good old London transit the only thing that smells worse than the London transit buses was literally any pinball expo ever you know like those buses I can still just smell I don't know they somehow they maybe they got better over the years I didn't have to ride the old uh they used to call it the welfare wagon that's certainly something that I would call it but it's funny that you said kids walk to school because Hayden and Owen still walk to school this day um during COVID after the winter time came they asked if they could ride the bus. And I was like, guys, we're 600 meters from the school. We purposely live near the school. So you wouldn't have to take the bus. And I thought it was safer for them to walk plus good exercise, yada, yada, yada. And then by the time, honestly, COVID basically was, you know, gone this year. And I didn't care if they went back on the bus, they had been vaccinated, everything else. I said to them, I said, Okay, do you guys want me to send in your permission slip so the bus can pick you up every day? And they were like, Nah, I kind of like just walking, You know, like they just got used to it after two and a half years of just having to leave. Like instead of getting up 45 minutes before school started, they could just roll out of bed like 10 minutes before school and like run there. And I was like, oh, you lazy bones. But I mean, they're being lazy because they didn't want to get up early. But also, so some kids still do walk to school. But yes, probably not in kindergarten or when they're eight years old in downtown Toronto, obviously. Right. But it's as much about the traffic as anything. I mean, honestly, I don't think there's that much danger from a stranger danger type of, you know, I think, and I don't want to generalize too much because every city is different, every community is different. And I think people in general are more cautious these days than they were even back when we were growing up. But it is, you know, in big cities, it's as much about the traffic because cars aren't looking for kids, you know. I know. And there's some busy streets they got across, which is much about just making sure they get from point A to point B without getting taken out as much as anything. But, you know, and that's why you're living such a, you know, I'm jealous that you're living out there.
7:36
You got the homestead there. I love the Maritimes. I would, I think you made a great move in going out there. I'm sure it's been challenging in some ways, but it's such a great part of the country. and certainly for our American friends, if you've never been out there, you've got to go to the Canadian Maritimes and see what that's all about. It is unlike any other place, I think, in the world, in my opinion.
8:02
People are so friendly. The vistas, the scenery is unbelievable. If you like the outdoors and nature, there's no end to it. Great people, great food.
8:14
It's heaven on earth. What else can we say, right, Albert? Alright, so I think, Craig, that means you're going to come visit me sometime?
8:23
Hey, I'll come anytime. Alright. I love the Maritimes. Now listen, I'm obligated. I could talk about London for days, but I'm obligated now that I'm on the Poor Man's Pinball Network. I have to ask you, and it's okay if it's just water or if it's non-alcoholic, but they will fire me. Ian and Drew will kick me off this channel even after one freaking episode. If I don't ask, what are you drinking? I am a big um Mill Street Organic uh beer fan and that sort of sounds a little boring but but it's I'm a big beer drinker um I don't love a like for my daily drinker it's you know it's Mill Street Organic easy drinking lager it's just an easy drinking lager um you know so that's kind of my go-to beer um but i do like um you know the craft brews as well although i'm not a huge fan of strong ipas i do like to sample other stuff and see what else is out there um so beer would be my first choice and then you know we can get into the spirits okay but what you're drinking right now as the evening rolls along like what are you having a drink with me right now yeah i'm having an organic as we speak okay believe it or not my wife and i uh used to make the beer soap for mill Street Organic and I had to stop drinking Mill Street because after Mill Street got bought by Imbev which is the same company that owns Labatt's they owed us like eight hundred dollars it was only like five or six months worth of beer soap over their busy season but they they refused to pay it and then I had to threaten legal action with the head offices I was like but you guys took over anyways love you Mill Street don't love you Labatt's I'm not taking any sponsor from Labatt's love you Mill Street I still love the brewmaster there I'll still go to the tasting dinners, but I can't, I can't, I can't advertise for people to have it. The only problem with Mill Street Organic is it's damn close to canoeing. Yes.
10:16
Because it's real close to water, but no, it's good. It's a good, easy, simple, simple drinking beer. I'm about to have a, well, it's from a brewery I've actually had before. It's in Ontario and I purposely got it because I knew I was going to chat with you tonight. I just bought it in good old Moncton. It is the Collective Arts Dark Fruit Citra Goza. so it goes as like a sort of similar to a berliner weiss and that it's got a lot of wheat but then it's a little bit different because it's got a little saltiness just you know just a little saltiness around the rim sort of like canada no i'm just kidding uh no but it is it is a very it's got a little it's got a little bite to it you know what i mean so i'm just going to open it so everyone can hear oh all the way from hamilton ontario as close as i could get to good old craig bobby What part of Toronto do you live in? We're in the east part of the city, so East York, which is, for those people that might know the Toronto area, it's just off the Danforth on the east side of it. So it's Danforth and Coxwell, anyone that knows the city.
11:19
But, yeah, so we're in the east part of Toronto. We're maybe 15 to 20 minutes from downtown, right on the subway line. My wife works downtown, so she takes the subway. I haven't taken it much lately just because of COVID. But generally, you know, her office is downtown. I go uptown. And, yeah. What do you do? I don't even know what you do, Craig. I feel like I've talked to you so many times. And I'm stuck. You know all about my homesteading and the goats. And, you know, I have no clue what Craig does.
11:50
Well, again, I wish this were exciting as pinball. but it's been an industry that's really provided me my living for most of my career. I am the president of an independent industrial distributor called PTM Industries, and I've worked there for almost 30 years, Albert, if you can believe it. I've been there for maybe 27 years, and it's a family-run business. We've got two locations, one out in Calgary, Alberta, and our main one here in Toronto. And, yeah, I got working there in the mid-90s through my very dear friend whose family owns the business. And, you know, they've certainly been very supportive of me over the years. And I've done, you know, pretty much everything in that company, including now being president in the last year and a half. And it's been a fantastic run. I mean, I'm very grateful and pleased to have been working at such a great company for so long. I somehow knew you'd have a job that I wouldn't really understand when you explained it. I felt so bad when I asked Tim Lee what he did. Like, I've talked to good old Tim Lee, of course, from Tribe Multiball and the Poor Men's Pinball Tribe here, and with Tribe Multiball, with Rachel, of course. And I was like, Tim, I feel bad. I've talked to you so many times. I don't know what you do. And then he explained it. on messenger and i was like yep i knew i wouldn't i you know it was something to do with software and i was like whenever people like i can tell really smart people because i don't understand what it means when they tell me their job well it's amazing so many so many businesses to have their own language almost right and pinball is no different i i when i'm talking with uh with friends and family about pinball and i say you know i'm part of a podcast or if you want to learn more, you know, you can, you can tune in and hear me here or, or listen to this podcast there. And they listened for the first time. They're like, I don't understand a thing that's being said. Like I heard your thing and you sounded great, but I had no clue what you're talking about. So it's hilarious that there's so many businesses like that. And certainly our business is probably no different. So I, you know, I mentioned I, our business is in industrial distribution. So we're, you know, we sell to other companies here in Canada. And we sell industrial parts that are used in manufacturing or to original equipment manufacturers, OEMs. And we sell sometimes very generic parts that are used in a, you know, very broad range of applications. And these would be things like, you know, rubber belts, bearings, roller chain, stuff that's pretty generic but used again on a very wide variety of applications to more specific things that are very application centric um that are you know that you wouldn't sort of be aware of but again are used in material handling applications and on different conveyor systems and the oil basically it's a very diverse um uh it's a very diverse industry what i was going to say is basically you're the uh you're the zach many of manufacturing distribution in toronto exactly right exactly right we boiled it down okay i i'm still in the middle of the softballs because you're so intriguing i couldn't get through them quickly but i'm gonna jump one or two and i'm gonna skip down to here i've gotta know have you ever done either another podcast or other media before this because you're so professional i feel like you either worked in like a college radio or like you did some podcasting or something before this?
15:29
I've never done any, any podcasting. Um, I got, I first started podcasting with, uh, of course with a good old Ken Cromwell there and Bill Webb on special inlet, um, uh, before, before that, before Ken left for, for Jersey Jack. And prior to that, I hadn't done anything specifically on the podcasting front, although, um, you know, pretty much my whole life I, As sort of a side hobby, I've been extremely interested in film.
16:02
As kids, we had a video camera. My dad had an 8mm camera before that. We were always doing movies. We were big fans of Second City and SCTV, which was huge up here in Canada. I think it was syndicated in the U.S. for a period of time as well. Yeah, it was. I'm pretty sure. Levy, Martin Short, all those, you know, John Candy, those were our idols back then. And we, and we took it upon ourselves to, you know, emulate that and, and, uh, do our own little, little stuff. And we weren't watching that. So we did a lot of stuff on audio with audio, just like recording ourselves kind of like we are today with, uh, with tapes. And then we moved on to, you know, video and, uh, you know, I bought myself my own video camera and did lots of, uh, you know, little short movies and stuff like that. So really, I thought at one time I was going to go to school, you know, to try and be a director or an actor or something like that, because I've always sort of been interested in performing, but never really acted on it in a paying capacity, shall we say. So I think you found your niche, bro. Like, I think this is what you're meant to do, because I'm not saying you wouldn't be a great actor. I would come watch you in any movie or any if you happen to make it on to what's it's not Broadway in Toronto, what do they call it in Toronto?
17:20
You mean the acting? Yeah, there's like a theater district in Toronto, and if you're on that main road, you know. If you ever get in, I will come watch you. But, okay, going to do a mini pivot here. Do you think or do you agree that Market Trends is the best segment on TPN and or the best segment perhaps in all pinball media? It's a pretty damn good segment. Zach does an unbelievable job, I think, in compiling that information on a weekly basis. I'm actually shocked at how much time and effort he puts into that particular segment and how in tune he is with the market. So, how can I say, Zach is, you know, he's been a real mentor, you know, for me for sure, him and Ken, Greg Bone, you know, all those guys, they've been so supportive. TPN has been great in general. And like I said before that, you know, Bill Webb and Ken Cromwell before that. So, well, you know, Albert, this hobby and this pinball industry is pretty unbelievable in terms of the people that are all around it. And, you know, it's been fantastic. It's been a great ride. What can you say about Market Trends? It's entertaining. It's informative. I don't know if we can get much better. I don't know. Okay, I will say this. I do believe that from time to time, not necessarily like, I mean, it's nearly impossible because Zach is a distro to be completely impartial, of course. So obviously it makes sense that he cherry picks, you know, the market trends that he wants to highlight. I don't think he's making up numbers or lying whatsoever. And of course we know numbers don't lie. But I do think, you know, obviously it makes sense for him to kind of cherry pick the numbers that make sense. That being said, I think that Market Trends is the second best segment in all of pinball media. I think your segment is the best.
19:20
Every week I can't wait to hear what you're going to tell us. And so here's where I was going to ask you, now that you're doing all of the companies, not just Stern, is this taking quite a bit more time than it used to before? It's kind of like Market Trends. I think viewers would be shocked as to the amount of time that I put in every time I do a segment, you know, to do the research and to keep in touch with things. It's really, it's a labor of love. So it doesn't feel like work because I just enjoy it so much and I enjoy putting it all together. But there's some hours there every week to, you know, when it all boils down. And I'm very conscious as to how it sounds. you know I try and put myself in the listeners position and and try and think about what people want to hear and I try and make it you know I try and make it entertaining as well as informative kind of just like what Zach does and um so so I appreciate your your compliments it's um it's been a lot of fun but it is there is some work involved there for sure and I've actually been even you know surprised myself as to how much time and effort it does take but kind of like exercise if I can go back to that analogy the more you do it the better you get and you know speaking is just like a skill like anything else you know at first it's a little bit rough and it's like oh geez this is harder than I thought it would be but the more you do it the more it starts to become I don't want to say habit but you get better at it well and you know that you're a great speaker yourself so get out of here no but seriously like the amount of time and energy that you must put into honestly like sometimes your segment's like two minutes sometimes it's a little longer you know like the like lately they've been longer i think right with all the things your your segment i honestly think your segment must take sometimes five even maybe 10 15 hours with all your research and then not just recording but i mean like all the research and talking to different sources and reading pin side and and talking to people like you honestly thank you so much for what you do for pinball because my job's easy i just watch whatever i want on twitch and then i'll report it to the nerds, right? I'll just talk to whoever I want to talk to about pinball. And then I might mention that on the show. I'll go live my life, go play pinball in Moncton or something, go play in a tournament and chat about it. Yours is like, you're doing like, if I don't want to go on pin side for two weeks, I just don't go on. You know what I mean? You have to like, you have to stay on top of that. Like, so thank you so much for all you do. I have to stay on top of it. You do. You know I you know I will say it is like it is a labor of love And I and I as I said to Zach many times I wouldn be doing it if I didn love it because you know there is hours there There's no doubt. But, you know, without sharing all my trade secrets that I've learned over the last couple of years doing it, you know, it's kind of looking behind the scenes of your favorite restaurant. You don't want to kind of see all the things the chef's doing behind the scenes. How the sausage is made. Exactly. How the secret sauce is made. But there definitely is some hours there every week. And probably on average, you know, it's around five, I want to say, in any given week. But it can be more if it's a really heavy news week. You know, like lately it has been more just because I've been reporting on more things and there's been more things happening as COVID has sort of eased off and people are, you know, getting out there or the manufacturing is picking up again. So, yeah, it can be there can be more hours there for sure. But it's all good. You know, like I said, I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't enjoy it. And it's a real creative, enjoyable process. Well, I really appreciate it. And the cool part is, too, for me as a Canadian, obviously I get to hear Jeff Teolis on the podcasting airways, so I'll never forget us Canadians are well represented on the good old pinball podcasting. But it's nice every single week. You know, I consider, to me, like the pinball show is like where I get, honestly, like one of my favorite places, if not my favorite place, just to hear the news of the week and stuff. It's kind of like I like to grab a coffee, a good old Angry Alpaca, East Coast Dark Roast. It's the only coffee that's actually darker than Canada Soul. I love to grab a coffee and I like to just sit there and it's so fun to me. Maybe I'll go for a bath. Maybe I'll download the podcast and listen to it while I'm doing it. But it's like it's – there's other pinball podcasts maybe that I might listen to maybe for – maybe more so for other reasons. But if it's me coming to hear the weekly news, your segment has got to be my favorite. And, of course, I love the banter between, you know, Dennis and Zach. That's my second favorite. Now, here's my last softball question for you. If I were to come to Toronto and you and I got to go on a man date, completely platonic, of course, my perfect idea of us going on a date, because you do like to do more exercise and stuff like that than the typical pinball nerd I know, I would love for me to come hang out with you we'd go over to Toronto Island we'd rent those big tacky giant bikes they have over there the four-person bikes go for a drive around on those maybe find a nice restaurant with a beautiful patio have a little late brunch then maybe head over to Cabin Fever play some pinball for a bit possibly head over to Worst which is my very favorite uh it's like a sauce you probably heard of it but they have like every type of uh you know sausage known to man and then they have like 30 or 40 taps of different craft beers around gta which is the good old greater transit area for uh toronto area transit area toronto area for those of you not in canada and then maybe maybe maybe take the good old elevator and the cn tower to the top just on time to have a drink in the 360 restaurant elevator and watch the sun go down if only if you played your cards right at the very end of the night though okay okay You only go to the top of the elevator with guys that play their cards right. That's right.
25:18
Jeez, I'm falling in love already, Albert. There you go. Just tell me, what would your perfect, like if we got to go hang out in Toronto, what would you want to go do? What would your perfect mandate with Orby be? Yeah, you know, I love the Toronto Island. Here's what I think would spice it up a little bit further. Because, you know, definitely hit the Toronto Island. but we would take our frisbees and play a little frisbee golf over there. They've got an amazing frisbee golf course, which they've continued to, you know, as that sport has grown in popularity, they've done a better job. I can remember going over there as kids and playing that. But now, you know, I was over there maybe a couple years ago, and I was shocked actually to see how many people are actually still playing and how they've improved on the course layout.
26:05
It's hard. That's a hard course I've heard. I haven't played it. I've heard it's really hard. It's so fun, and anyone can play. And so we definitely would have to take that in, as well as hitting a restaurant over there, an outdoor spot, enjoying a few brews over there, playing a little frisbee golf. And just like you said, then we're like late afternoon, we cruise back to the city, we hit Cabin Fever, and maybe a couple other barcades that are in the downtown area. And, you know, that's going to eat up a ton of time. Yeah. and then yeah let's let's finish let's let's finish let's have a nightcap up the top of the CN Tower and just look over the world all right you what you walk up I'll take the elevator I'll meet you it's not far don't worry American listeners I'll be too drunk by then Albert I can't believe that you froth it up that's so cool um I I mean my best score back in London at St. Julian there's a course called River's Edge I lived like five doors up from in London and like my best score when it was all on the short uh from the short you know was the short teat patch t-pads with the short discs uh like the basket setup basically it's just the whole course is short i shot a minus six but i've been to like real courses in chickabee and kitchener and like i can't even get like minus like i can't even get minus one like i can't even break even harder than you think and especially if you're not playing it often uh just like golf you know like you have a couple of good shots here and there, but it's like you find yourself either way, way short or way off course more than you, more than you're making good shots. That's for sure. Well, and I might, I mean, we're here in Canada where marijuana is very legal. So there's, it's a possibility like after the whole three and I feel like there's not many people around and they can't see me and I go off into the side. I know it's legal, but I just, I don't like to bug people if you know the smell or whatever. I feel like after that I lose so many more discs. I'm just like, where did I throw that? You know? And you start, it starts to be, yeah, you start to care a lot less. Yeah. Somewhere around three vaporizers and five beers in disc golf takes longer, but okay. I'm just hanging out here for a little bit. Okay. Just like the Blue Jays playing some baseball at the Sky Dome back in the day, right before they won the World Series, we are done with softball. It's time to move on to the major leagues. All right. Here we go. So I mentioned this before, but if for some reason I ask a question that you think is off center, just blow the whistle. Say time out. I'm not answering that. I mean, I don't throw in, I don't, I don't do any type of editing, but you know, it's, it's fair game if you want to skip a question. Okay. First of all, how much money are you worth? No, I'm just kidding. Uh, no. First question. Uh, not enough, not enough to own enough pinball machines yet. Um, okay. So I'm very curious. I don't want you to give us out any of your sources for all your work that you do with the pinball show, but I'm very curious. Do you have like different, like, do you actually chat with either pinball designers, software people from actual companies and stuff, or do you have to tell them when you're talking to them, by the way, like this is off record? I think most, well, I, I ask them pretty specifically when we're having conversations, when I'm hearing things and I'm like, Ooh, that would be an interesting tidbit or, Hey, so I, I'm usually pretty, you know, I'm very upfront with people when I, and I say, Hey, would you mind if I mentioned this or, But I want people to feel comfortable as well, and so I might have a bunch of conversations and not use anything that's being told to me just because I want to respect the confidentiality and develop a rapport. It's tricky. It sounds like it's very tricky. yeah you know um i don't really see myself honestly albert as a as as as much of a journalist as i do as an entertainer but i know i am um portraying a journalist on tv so i and we are talking about sometimes sensitive information um that you're cognizant i can tell when you're talking that you're very like aware of like okay this information obviously i shouldn't share yet and i and what I do appreciate is that like I I don't mind being rumortained from time to time okay but what I don't like is like I don't want to do nine shows talking about what pinball machine might come out next because to me at Christmas time I knew where my parents kept the presents but I didn't go look I wanted to be surprised and I'm the same way I don't want to see grainy horrible video two days in advance I want to wait for like the real the real video the way it was meant to be watched. I want to see the whole thing. I want to see, you know, I like to be surprised. So I don't know necessarily if that brings me into my next question. I don't know if anything could. Again, this is a pretty hardball question, so feel free not to answer. But Craig, why did your parents feel as if one first name was just not enough?
31:00
Great question. It's something I've been fighting with my whole life, Albert, and I'm sure the fight will not end you know um well you know bobby it's i i've been called many things over the years so like is it a family thing or when i was growing up they you know they uh they called me by my last name so i went by bobby quite a bit i still today some of my some of my best friends still call me bobby uh you know we're hanging with with uh with the guys and all that um craig greg yeah you know so wait your last name is bobby you know robert i haven't called everything so sorry is your last name bobby my last name is bobby oh i just thought like literally thought like a lot i thought there was a lot of americans with drop target danielle just walked through the room i was laughing at that i just thought literally your first name was craig bobby like my name's like you know my middle name's adrian i thought you know they just craig bobby well that's so cool okay that makes more sense you know like craig bobby I just, you know, like in, in, uh, not, I was going to say days of thunder, but what's the other race car movie with Craig Bobby? Uh, Ricky Bobby, Ricky Bobby, Ricky Bobby.
32:13
Oh my God. Okay. Number two, number two of the heart of the hardball questions. They're not that hard. They're not that hard. Come on. Um, the hard stuff, all questions. Oh, they're just, They're just so hard.
32:26
I wanted to know what it felt like when you had to fire all of the other correspondents. Well, did we fire them or were people... Tell me what you can. Just leaving. That's what I was wondering. Were people not having enough time to do it mixed with summer, mixed with you volunteered to take over? Or did you have to actually like call them up and be like, you're fired? No, it was mostly I think there was two things going on. One, I think that format of having multiple correspondents was starting to run its course a little bit. And not because it was getting boring necessarily. But I think, you know, when you do the same thing for, you know, over a year, you know, people sometimes want a bit of a change. And so I think there were a couple of the correspondents who were like, I'm starting to, you know, they still love the show. They love doing it, but they were starting to feel like they wanted a little bit of a change. And I think the show in general was looking to take a slightly different tack and and change things up a little bit. And, yeah, so we just kind of it was it was I don't want to say it was a collective conversation, but there there were no surprises, I don't think, to anybody really. There were enough people that were willing to step back that it was no big, there were no hard feelings. We still, you know, chat quite often as a group and compare notes about what we're seeing in the industry. And it's the whole thing started from friendships, you know, and people just wanting to come together and present information to the community, I think, in a fun and unique way. And that was certainly brought on with Ken and Bill and the genesis of there. ideas and I think Zach and Dennis have you know continued to run with that um and we've kind of channeled the best parts of that uh and certainly for for the time that the court all the correspondents were there that was that was the best parts of those ideas you know so Craig I liked your answer but I thought it would be more like squid games I thought all the correspondents had to do yeah there was no I thought that all the rest of them are dead now uh and blindfolding them or anything like that um okay well maybe chris chandler maybe chris chandler maybe no i i always loved that and like i kind of wanted at one point i thought it would be neat to be a correspondent and i'm not going to say ken cromwell got the idea from me because he very well could have just thought of it on his own or you know heard it in a different podcast or something but i actually had chris the pin turn of course chris grosner uh another poor men's pinball tribe member of mine good friend um he actually was a pin turn for me at tpf like four years ago i think it was maybe i think it was a couple months before special when let's started doing the correspondence so i'm not going to suggest you know maybe if i've had a couple beers i would be uh courageous enough to ask ken cromwell maybe he got it from me maybe he didn't i have no clue i like to think that i helped you know bring in the whole pin turn i didn't call the correspondence like so many things there's like you know great ideas kind of just find their way around right and i think like people sort of start to think the same way and um you know we ken ran with that idea and and certainly when he was doing it and i can't remember how long they've been doing it before i kind of got listening to him and and there was kind of a a bit of a roll call at one point where ken and bill were saying oh one of our correspondents is thinking of stepping back and we could actually there's so much going on we could actually use some more hey if you want to be a part of it send in your thing and i thought i've been listening to them for a little while and i thought oh shit should i do this is this something i really want to do do i really want to get this involved this is going to be something i like am i going to you know are people just going to laugh at me are these guys going to say you know you're shit all the things you know the negative thoughts that go through your head when you're taking a little bit of a leap and getting outside your comfort zone it's hard it's hard because you think are people going to want to hear what I have to say yeah I mean initially it was just like can I do what they need me to do even you know and you know is is that going to be entertaining in any kind of way and so those guys were extremely supportive I you know I sent them a little a little thing you know I was I was really like you know I went to my wife and I was like oh god I've been listening to his podcast and I'm looking for they're looking for um correspondence and you think i should do and she was all over me she's like oh you gotta do this you love this hobby and you know this is right up your alley you got it you'd be great at it and i was like you think so anyway so i sent them kind of like a hey guys you know it was just a voicemail i said this is you can use this as my little audition and i think it was like a three or four minute thing and i was shocked when they got back to me right away they said wow this is you know you're great just we're looking for when can you start well we we owe your wife tell her from orby and the rest of the pinball community a big thank you because had she not and i'll be honest my very supportive wife dropped her danielle about eight nine months after i started saying we're you know like after i'd stopped doing the show last year i said i kind of i'm kind of getting the itch again a little bit it's been a while you know i'd love to chat about, you know, I had never talked about Godzilla on air and, you know, there's a lot of stuff happening in pinball. And she was like, just do it. If you want to do it, just do it, do it on your terms. Don't commit to doing three shows a week, you know, just do it on your, and that's why this new show on the Poor Men's Pinball Network, I'm only going to record when I want. But something interesting, my next question, I literally have it written down here. I could take a picture and show you. Question four says, since this is your first time, not on TPS, and you've never said a swear word on the air.
38:24
Why? Until two seconds ago. But I was going to ask you, I said, would you like to swear together on the show? Because I haven't been able to swear in 500 episodes because I made an oath on episode one that I would just not swear in case my sons ever wanted to go back and listen to it. And let's be honest, they haven't listened in about 450 episodes. They're not going to start today. So at the count of three, do you want to say the F word with me? I think it'll be liberating. All right, let's do it. Okay, not on go. there's no go it's just three two one and then f word ready three two one fuck fuck ah yours was way better yours had like angst it's so fun spice it up you know that albert it's so fun okay this is honestly the hardest hitting question on here okay why don't you play tourneys an interesting question um i did I love Jeff Teolis and Marty Robbins. They are also responsible for me getting more into the hobby. I think both of those guys are extremely entertaining and informative. Jeff is a true ambassador of this hobby and is so supportive to so many different people and so many different tournaments and just to the industry in general. probably one of the most recognizable names I'd say you know in pinball media would be would be Jeff so I actually did try some tournaments and based on Marty and Jeff's encouragement when they first started their their podcast a bunch of years ago before COVID and I actually really liked it and found it very entertaining and and very fun there was a couple things I didn't like about it one they're very time consuming yes and they're very um physically draining just because you're standing for the entire time now don't get me wrong there's chairs and stuff but you get so amped up and and i'm not a sit down kind of guy so you know you're on your feet for a lot of hours um i i found it extremely humbling and i think this was the first this was maybe the thing that keeps me from doing it uh a lot was that um i'm a competitive guy and when i get into groups of people and i and i'm not nearly as as good that's a that's hard for me yeah not that i can't get over that but i was i was actually really surprised how um pissed off i was getting internally when I wasn't doing well in games. Right. When you step back and you think about it, you know, and I've always thought I was, I'd say on average, an average pinball player. Better than a guy just off the street or a woman just, you know, the average person on the street. But not like a pinball wizard by any means. Well, when I went into these, the few tournaments that I've been in, I was like, dude, you're not that good. In fact. okay okay i swallow that was a tough pill to swallow so in some ways i like just living in my own bubble in some ways and and just kind of playing for myself but you learn so much at these tournaments and you meet so many different people that if it wasn't for covid i would be doing it i would be part of a league okay and would be doing it on a regular basis um here's here's what i think happened i think that you went out and i believe that you probably play if you're in any tournament with jeff teolis you were probably at either topple tcpl or like the tri-cities or what you were at a league with a hell of a lot of good players yeah i got the first guy i actually played believe it or not and i told you know i had my own podcast at one point and i told a story of my first tournament my first game at the tournament was actually where i actually got to meet jeff in person and I played him on no fear, which was a game that Jeff owned, which really pissed me off. And, uh, and I actually beat him on the first ball, which was, I was like, damn, maybe I am better here. Cause I knew Jeff was a top 50 player at the time. And I was like, shit, maybe I had visions of being this, you know, unfound, um, you know, pinball nerd, pinball hero. No one had heard of him before and I'd just step in on my first tournament and I'd blow everybody away. Yeah. Here's what I think. Jeff quickly put me down in my place and said no. No I'm incredible. I like you but enough. Like okay but Teolas is like I've already played over 200 like tournaments. I think 150 IFPA like sanctioned tournaments. If the tables were termed and you had played, I'm guessing Jess played, he played for years before me and I played, started playing five years ago. So let's say, and he plays in more per year. Let's say Jess played, I don't know, 300, 400 tournaments. If he had played in three or four, if you had played in 300 or 400 tournaments all around Toronto and North America and all of a sudden Jeff was coming in for his very first tournament and he just got destroyed by you he would feel the same way So what I saying is if you had had the opportunity I had to to go to Monday Night Pinball at Call of the Office in London Ontario where like of the 30 people there, most of the people there were just honestly there primarily to get a little bit drunk, a little bit high, have fun, socialize, eat the food. I knew people who came and didn't even, they would come almost every Monday. They wouldn't even play the pinball. They would either come to watch the music or talk to the bartender, just hang out with the crew or go play like pool or, you know. And so it was like a hangout. It was like a place. And so I honestly think if your first night you had ever came out to a place far less competitive than when you went to in Toronto and you just you probably would have got like top 10 your first night because it's so uncompetitive. Like if Jeff Teels ever wanted to come to a Monday Night Pinball, he would probably typically win. I mean, other than there's two or three guys there who also like top couple hundred who are incredible, of course. But I'm just saying, like, for the most part, if you had started in a much smaller town and a less competitive league and like so I had six or seven months of playing a Monday Night Pinball before I ever played a London Ontario Pinball League, which was Jeff Teolis is in that one. Of course, Mike Dimas, a lot of other Julie Dorsey, a lot of other really good players.
44:56
And that league was much more serious. That league was like if you took someone's ball when it wasn't your turn, people were like, dude, what you know, what the hell are you doing? like don't be doing that at this type of high end you know but where it called the office like almost every night someone accidentally took my ball and i was like oh okay i'll just get an extra ball you know like i didn't care i was like whatever like freaking buy me a shot at the bar or something you know like and i think that what happens is a lot of players like you go out in a big town and they go to a really tight-knit group of really really good high-end players and they don't do as well as they thought they would and they go that's it i'm done with turning pinball here's my question for you though if i do god willing i don't think it will happen there's a tiny little chance there's like four seats left on a plane going from saint john to toronto for the cne if i fly my butt all the way up there will you come play even just like a small classics tournament you don't play one of the big ones would you consider consider coming out to the cne to play with me 100 okay 100 that would be awesome 100 if you come for the cne thing I will 100% accompany you down there and sign up and we'll do it. That would be awesome. That would be so cool. If I get to even buy you one Mill Street Organic and high five you after we play a game, it'll just be fun because I think that I'm the only one, not the only one, but sometimes I did go to Toronto tournaments and I was one of maybe four or five guys taking it a little bit less serious. I want to win and stuff, but I'm also there to socialize. I'm also going, instead of practicing between every round, I'm the guy going outside and you know chatting with people or or even maybe inside like just going and playing a for funsies game not even practicing on the machines that are coming up and that's my thing and I have played in big tournaments like if you're at Pemburg and you know you're playing in a division like I was in the next day and you accidentally walk up and you're about to take Robert Gagnon's ball which I did on here on Dirty Harry he's not going to take it lightly he's going to run across the room going Albert what are you doing you know like so I mean I get it you don't want Pemberg to be your first tournament but I really think that if you try to make it a pinball for change run by Walt Moreau he has a lot more I know Ed Robertson makes it out to those from the Barenaked Ladies from time to time and you know they're a little bit more I've met him a couple of times it's more charity right yes it's not as serious where I met Jeff at that first tournament okay and they certainly run a league which which I've been pre-COVID had signed up for.
47:25
They run a great ship over there. I was certainly slated to play at the Maple tournament. Okay. That was a couple weeks ago. I had run before I got COVID, unfortunately. Dude, I didn't know that. Yeah, it was a bummer. That kind of knocked me out of that. I was really looking forward to that because it had been so long since I had played at a tournament. That Maple pinball club up there too has so many nice modern titles. They've got a great lineup up there. It's kind of like Bluffs, but a little more modern, I'd say. Bluffs is great because there's so many vintage games in that club that are fantastic that you don't see as often. But Maple, I'd say, is more... They have a bigger collection in general and more modern pins. So I was really looking forward to that. And every Canadian gets a Boston cream as they walk in the door of Maple Pinball, of course, right? Exactly. It's exactly right. So, and it's just like, you know, the proximity of some of these things as well. Like, you know, it's, I know they're in kind of the same, the greater Toronto area, but, you know, it's a bit of a journey to get to these things. And again, it's a bit of a time commitment. So you just, it's like anything, you gotta, you gotta commit to the time and the process. Well, I hope you get back into it. I know it takes a lot of time, but I hope you get just each year, just go to a couple. Because here's the thing is, I was so lucky growing up, like living in London. My wife would drop me off on Monday. Usually if I knew I was having more than two beers, she would always drop me off because it was four or five hours. So I could have two beers if I was driving myself. But most Mondays, if I didn't have to work on the Tuesday morning, she would drop me off. And it was just such a casual environment over the period of two or three years as they brought in, I don't know, you know, Mike Speedy of Speed City Records brought in, I don't know, 10, 15 machines. There was always one or two solid states, maybe one EM, two or three moderns at the same time. Like, I just got, I just slowly, incrementally, slowly, casually got better. I mean, I think it was like, you know, it was basically free to play for the night other than coin drop and whatever you spent on beer. And you would get to watch the punk rock show there for free. So I think a lot of people that their very first time, they go play in a big city with a league where everyone really knows each other very well and they're tight knit. and these players know these particular machines so well and they just feel kind of a little like, wow, I don't fit in or I don't know these machines that well or I didn't do as well as I thought I would. And I want to encourage every person that that happened to and say that's every person playing every sport or new hobby the first 10 times you go. It doesn't matter if you got into Comic-Cons. I went to my first Comic-Con last year. I felt like such a dork. I was dressed up as the dude from The Big Lebowski. Nobody under 30 knew who I was. they're like why is this old man like looking like a stoner in his house coat tell him to go home this creep you know like they didn't know who I was right so I mean that's what I'm saying is you got to kind of it takes a little bit of while in any new hobby so I hope that you get back to playing in pinball tournaments because I like collecting pinball but I love playing in pinball tournaments like Orbeez Arcade is empty right now unfortunately I had to sell a bunch of it to come up with basically money for my solar unit but long story short the good news is it we'll slowly get full again, but even today I got to be at Spin It Records in Moncton playing pinball, right, there's a bowling alley there, like, I'm in the middle of nowhere, and I'm still 45 minutes away from a record store with 15 pinball machines there at very fair prices, like, you know, a toonie for three plays, which for me on Iron Maiden, I'll never even play that third game, because, you know, I've spent 45 minutes playing Iron Maiden, I'm good, I can, you know, walk away, and then there's Zero's Arcade right up the street, where you can get awesome craft beer and play everything from Adam's Family to Cirque. Like, you never see Cirque du Voltaire on location, especially not a beautiful one like this. And then you can walk up the street and you can go to the bowling alley. Now, it's more the French side of Riverside, so if you need to get quarters, no tabernac, no ferme la bouche, ou la salle de bain. You've got to be speaking your perfect French and say, dans la quarter pour la tête. No, I think la tête is head. I don't know. I don't know what hand is, but anyways, they speak French there, so just get your quarters ahead of time, but even they have, like, Halloween, and, and, and, of course, your co-worker, I don't know, boss, Zach Menny, they have Popeye on location, like, nowhere has Popeye except for 45 minutes from me, right? That's unbelievable. Now, listen, we've been on here a long time, and I feel bad, because I told you I only needed you for half an hour, and I think we're well over an hour, but I have two quick questions left. Number one, how come we haven't heard from Little Flipper anymore, and how is she doing?
52:02
She's doing great. Yeah, it really just got to be mostly about time. And I loved doing that segment with her when I was doing my own journey as I was buying,
52:14
you know, my journey in buying Avengers, which was my first pinball machine that I'd owned. And I chose to go down the new and boxed road. And as just sort of, again, another thing that I thought would be entertaining and I didn't think nobody at the time was doing, was to get kind of a child's or a kid's perspective these days since so many of us are in this hobby because of the fond memories we had of playing pinball and being in arcades when we were kids. I thought it would be interesting to see what my daughter thought of these new modern games that were coming out and getting her opinion and making a bit of a spoof on it. So she's doing great. I wish she loved pinball more than she does. Unfortunately... She'll come around. a lot of kids sorry say that again oh sorry i was just saying she might come around like my kids didn't start playing on their own till nine or ten until you know but that's so cool that you have this memory craig of like or craig bobby sorry you have this awesome memory of like you can first of all you can embarrass her on her wedding day and be like play the very first one ever second of all you just have this cool moment in time that you captured her and even myself if i go back and i listen to an episode of my first 100 i'm only willing to listen to an episode where I got to chat with Owen or Hayden just to hear their voices and hear how they were at that time. So I'm actually, I'm really excited that you did that. And I'm glad that I wasn't the only pinball podcaster that brought on my kids to chat because that made it made me feel more okay about doing it myself. So, um, okay. Two quick questions here. Uh, number one, if you were to buy another Stern other than of course, Avengers, what would you buy? So I have my name on a list to buy Godzilla and Rush at the moment. Ooh, okay. You look at the Pro, the Premium. I didn't think that those were, you know, it's a double-edged sword. I love these games, but it's always painful spending the amount of money you have to spend to get them. And that's just the reality, unfortunately, of the hobby and where it's at today.
54:22
And, you know, Albert, we grew up at a time where we were all in the arcade and now everyone wants to bring that arcade at home. And if that, you know, it's a supply and demand issue, unfortunately, and these machines, as you know, are extremely complicated. Craig, what Stern would you buy? You want Godzilla? If you could press a button right now and Gary Stern would show up at your door, would you go for Godzilla or would it be Rush? Well, initially I thought Godzilla. I think overall Godzilla is probably a better, most people would pick Godzilla over Rush. I'm actually thinking I want Rush more, though, now, because I've always been a Rush fan. I had a chance to play it before I put my name on the list just to make sure that it wasn't a complete dud, because you never know, or it just doesn't click. There are rarely duds these days, but it just doesn't click sometimes. And I was shocked at how fun that game was to play, how great the music sounded while playing it, how I thought Borg has designed a really great game that's both challenging yet not too hard, so it keeps you coming back for more.
55:31
I just loved it, and I was like, wow, this is, I cannot get this. You can't be, you know, I cannot be a Rush fan or be a Rush fan and not get this. Yeah, as a Canadian. So maybe, like, if you're playing with a whole bunch of your friends and you're in a room and you're having some Mill Street organics,
55:49
you're probably going to crank up some Rush. But maybe overall, just game features and gameplay, possibly Godzilla would be better. I think Godzilla appeals to a wider audience. And it's probably a little more entertaining overall. But I've just wanted a music pin for so long. And, you know, I love Iron Maiden. I love Metallica. But Rush, you know, was one of my grails. and I honestly didn't think they would ever make a Rush pinball until I was thrilled when I found out they were making this thing, that the rumors were in fact true, that this was going to be done, and that they got Eddie and Alex to do the thing, and Getty and Alex to do the thing, and John Borg did a fantastic job designing it, and the entire Stern team just hit a home run, I think. You heard it here first on the Pinball Nerds podcast. Craig Bobby thinks that Rush is a better pinball machine than Keith Elwin's masterpiece, Godzilla. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, buddy. As a Canadian, you have to say that. Okay, I've kept you way, way, way too long. My last question before we go into our mini quick... I don't want to call it arguing with Albert, because that was what I was going to call it, but before we talk about pinflation a little, this is more of a comment, and you don't have to comment on it, but although you and I both do talk to Chris of Canada's Pinball Podcast, a couple weeks ago, I thought it was a little bit unfair and I'm not sure if he deleted it or not. I wasn't sure what show it was in, but one of his live streams, he had kind of said he thought that you were supposed to be very, you know, you weren't being, yes, he said yes. And I said, Craig Bobby is an entertainer first. He's having fun. It's pinball. You're not talking about heart attacks or frigging rocket scientists or whatever, sending people. You're not Elon Musk trying to put brain implants in people's head and send them to Mars while driving an electric vehicle. This isn't heart surgery. You're having fun. And yes, I loved it. So I listened to you do the piece on TPS he was talking about when you talked about Toy Story 4 or Toy Money 4, depending, Dollar Sign 4, depending on what you want to call it. Let's just be honest. I could give Plasma every day or twice a week for the next 10 years and still not afford one of those bad boys. But not that I would be in the market for one because, frankly, I didn't watch anything past Toy Story 1. And maybe that's why it didn't upset me this much. But when Chris said that you shouldn't really put your own views into it, I thought that was very, very unfair. If you want to respond to that, you can. But I just thought, like, because Chris is right sometimes, but I thought it was unfair. Yeah, it was a fair point that he was trying to make. And I, you know, I can't lie and say that it didn't occur to me as well. I'm like, should I actually be doing this? And I have had a bunch of conversations with Zach about how if I was going to, you know, be taking over for or doing the correspondence for the news for all of the manufacturers now. Right. And be the lone correspondent that I wanted to change it up a little bit too and not just be reporting strictly on the news, but to put my own spin. And kind of like, what I explained, is that kind of like Andy Rooney from 60 Minutes. Yes, or like... Or like what they do on Saturday Night Live, or...
59:17
I guess his name escapes me right now. Even Barbara Walters, Walter Cronkite, all these really good reporters, the best reporters always gave, they gave the facts, but they also gave their personal point of view. And I know that those are a lot of dated journalists, but I like it. I like hearing you change it up a little. I think that you reported all the facts, but you also gave a little bit of your own personal flavor. And I think that's a great idea. I think it keeps it fresh for, and people understand where we're coming from as a show in general, that it is first and foremost about entertaining people while at the same time, you know, informing. And sometimes, you know, that means we're going to give our own personal opinion. and I can't resist and not do that kind of stuff and I think it would get old for everybody, listeners included, if we didn't go there from time to time because I just think it's, everybody in this hobby has their own opinion and I'm no different. And we want to hear your opinion sometimes. So I love throwing it in there from time to time and Zach and Dennis again have been very supportive of allowing me to go in those directions. Well, take that, Chris. put it in your socks and smoke it. No, I'm just kidding. Chris and I are frenemies. We have a love-hate relationship. Some days we love each other, other days we hate each other, and I think that's perfectly fine. For the most part, I attempt to like avoid most of those, you know, disagreements. I like to try to stay on kind of the lighter side of pinball, but from time to time, 500 episodes in, you set it yourself. You can understand maybe I want to change it up once in a while, and I'm not a perfect person. I say and do, if someone were to cut up all 500 episodes, which God forbid, I don't think anyone's listened to all 500, but if they did, they could find hundreds of things. I said that were stupid, that were wrong, that were, you know, so, I mean, keep doing what you're doing. I love your thing. I like that you're putting a little personal Craig Bobby flavor in there. Now, that being said, this is where the kindness ends because we got to argue, buddy. I'm not going to lie. I'm ready. I looked up some numbers here. Okay. So the inflation rate came out yesterday. This was not reported by some crazy off-center, you know, weird, you know, I don't know, E-bombs world or some weird site. This was CTV, CBC, CP24, as well as Global News all reported an 8.1 increase in inflation, which is a 39-year high. I'm only 41 years old. I'll be 42 in a couple weeks, but I'm only 41 for now. Let me enjoy it. So my entire life, only once before has inflation been this high. Now, I know what you're thinking, because you're a very astute, smart guy. I don't want to come in here just with the inflation talk, and then you come back and say, Albert, gross domestic product is actually a truer tell of how the markets are doing. Well, we had a loss of 0.2% in May, and then that actually increased in June to 0.3%, and they're saying it may increase to 0.4%. That would mean even if we averaged even 0.4 over 12 months that we're looking at a 5.2% decrease in one year of gross product. Like that's huge, right? So with all of a sudden the demand dropping and the supply getting higher and higher and higher, we know that what happens. I do have an honors degree in marketing. I'll put asterisks there in the air, which you can't see. But basically from Fanshawe, I think they call it Fanshawe instead of Fanshawe College in London because you have that much fun there instead of learning. So it's not like I went to, you know, I didn't go to Harvard or Yale and I don't have a degree in economics or anything. But from what I understand, when the economy slows down and gross national product goes down, people have less money and inflation goes up. People have less money and therefore they have less money to spend on other things that aren't needs, i.e. gas, groceries, payments, everything else. I understand there's a couple millionaires or billionaires or quadrillionaires in there. They don't really care. They'll keep buying pinball machines. But I think for the most part, it's fair to say that even if pinflation hasn't peaked yet, you've got to agree with me, Craig Bobby. It's slowing down. We're seeing inventory getting bigger by all the distros. We're noticing the average price come down on average on pin side. We're noticing, you know, it went from Zach Many almost having to say, I have no inventory. or he would say, I have Halloween and Ultraman and anything by American Pinball. And now he's like, no, I have Godzilla premium right now if you want to get it slightly used. I have this, I have this, I have this. The numbers don't lie. So what do you think? Is inflation slowing down? Well, if we had this discussion maybe four months ago or so, I would have told you, you know, there's always an end to the good times, but I would have been arguing a lot more vehemently that the bottom was nowhere near where the market was still headed.
64:13
So it's tough to say. I don't want to say – I would agree with you. I think there is a softening going on right now in the market and that the top is coming off the ridiculousness. Maybe not so much on the manufacturing side because I don't foresee guys like Jersey Jack, and they just proved it with their last release, which was less than a month ago, and charging $15,000 for 1,000 collector's edition machines sold out pretty quickly.
64:49
You can see that the high-end market is still pretty robust, right? Despite the fact that we're right in the middle of sort of unprecedented or inflation numbers that we haven't seen in many decades. So it's softening, and you can see it on the secondary market in particular right now. So I don't disagree with you. I mean, I hate to make this debate kind of boring, but what I don't think is going to happen, though, Albert, and where I will – we can debate it if you think differently. there is not going to be a crash here in prices where you see Adam family selling for 30 less than what they are right now I do not believe that going to happen let me pinpoint this let me just so we can get an exact number in here i think you absolutely right and i know it's boring for me not to say you're so wrong i'm sorry i'm going to be boring too and say i think you're right there's no crash coming because i think pinball machines were actually undervalued for decades like like an operator could go out i knew a guy i'm not going to say but I knew an operator who got, I believe, 18,000 plays in two years on his Iron Maiden. He was like, and it was a pro. So, like, he made his money back times how, you know, and then he sold it for $4,000. And I messaged him when he put it up for $3,900. I said, you're selling an Iron Maiden for less than $4,000. I'm interested. He said, Albert, look how many plays it has. He said, you don't want this. It needs all new flippers. It needs this. It's going to start breaking down left, right, and center. you know when you get a pinball machine even a modern one to you know 15 to 20,000 plays you need to rebuild it's kind of like a car when it gets to 200,000 clicks you need to start to put in a new trend or sorry for our American listeners 120,000 miles whatever you know what I mean like you have to things are going to start breaking down he told me he he told me don't buy this pinball machine from me Albert I said okay I won't so I think for years and years and years pinball machines were criminally underrated because they were one of the only hobbies like I think I've mentioned this before on my show but one of my good buddies here in town Ryan he bought a quad runner for like eighteen thousand five hundred dollars that's a four-wheeler for certain places whatever and a year and a half later they didn't have as much money he wasn't riding it much and he tried to sell it and he put up for 14 then he put up for 13 then I think he finally got like 12 and a half so he lost over 33 percent of the value in a year and a half and barely used the thing you that's just not going to happen in pinball even if you were silly enough to buy a Halloween or an Ultraman. You're not going to lose 33% on it. I mean, maybe, maybe, maybe if you owned it for a year and a half and the market continues to soften. But I really don't even think, even if you were to buy a Toy Story 4 at $15,000, you're not going to sell that a year from now at $10,000.
67:41
So there's no bubble to burst. I think you're right when you said, Albert, there's no bubble to burst. Because here's my question. I want you to help me pinpoint, do you think prices will will ever come down to pre-covid i i don't think they will but do you think they'll come down to like 10 higher than they were you know pre-covid do you think they'll be 20 higher or do you think they'll actually eventually get down to where we were three and a half four years ago ever again i don't think so but what are your thoughts on that yeah no i think those days sadly have sailed um it's like all comes back to demand so if if the manufacturers are selling them um you know let's just assume that 20 or 30 percent of the people get blown out of the market because the prices uh you know are are beyond people's reach i say that there's still too many the demand is still outstripping supply even at that point right yeah um there despite the fact that i was i was you know you kind of take for granted but there's probably five main pinball manufacturers out there that are you know pumping out more than one one or or could in theory pump out more than one title in in a given year we know that's not always uh the case but but in theory um and and then about the same number of of what i would call boutique manufacturers behind them there's a lot of choice out there and a lot of um probably more than ever, you know, more variety in this hobby than there has been in many decades.
69:17
And why is that? It's because the demand is so monstrous right now, and you only have to look at companies like Jersey Jack and Stern Pinball to see that these guys can't keep up. And it's not like they can't keep up by, they're oversold by 500 games or 1,000 games. They're oversold by, well, I don't want to say, but thousands, let's just say.
69:43
So even if the market comes off a little bit, I don't see these guys really sweating it too much because they're in a very strong position right now in terms of selling everything they got. They can't make them fast enough. No, Stern's in a very, very, very good position here to continue to just put a stranglehold on everybody else because they have, I think they get the best themes typically. And certainly a Stern Pro is still, I've never seen a company put out a product as good as a Stern Pro at that price. And until another company, I don't care if it's Spooky or AP, and I'm not suggesting their products aren't of high quality. But I mean, with a theme as good as you're going to get, retaining its value as good as you're going to get, you know, from obviously a quality standpoint is important as well. But I just think at this point, Stern is still dominating the market by getting the best designers. I think their machines, not to be too biased about it, but I do think they build an excellent product. I think you're right. they get in general. And I know sometimes, well, let's just take today, for example.
70:55
There was a new release, another music pin, Queen, the Pinball Brothers, whose last title was Alien. That's been out for a bunch of years. So that's their new release, which was rumored back a year ago. They showed pictures of a prototype that was in a store in downtown London in the UK.
71:17
What did you think? The very last question. I know you've got to go. I've kept you on your way too long. I feel bad. What did you think? I took very quickly while I was getting ready for this interview. I looked at the queen pitchers. My thoughts were the art is good, but it's not, like, incredible. It's not like a Franchi package or a Zombie Yeti package. But the art was actually pleasantly okay. I guess, like, decent. I thought it looked like it had more shots. I did like that weird little upper play field. But again, I still, I mean, other than maybe Aerosmith Pro, I still think I liked every other pinball machine.
71:54
You know, like, I think I would rather almost anything by Stern in the last 10 years rather than Queen. Just, I mean, to be honest. But I still, you know what, I think that they're coming along and they're doing well. They're coming along. I think, similar to what, you know, Jack Guarneri said on the Super Awesome Pinball Show last week. Shout out to Franchi. You know, the hobby has really come a long way in general. And the interesting thing about it is there is so much choice now for the consumer on the new inbox side that it is keeping the industry as a whole a little bit on their toes, I'd say. And they've got to keep bringing it because there is, you know, an incredible amount of competition for those pinball dollars out there. and people, I think, are looking closely because the prices are so high at exactly what they're getting for their money and what else is out there. They're always going to be comparing. Now, if your dream theme is queen... Oh, you get it. I don't know. You got to go. You got to get it. Right? I see a little silhouette of his man. His name was Craig Bobby.
73:04
You know, you got to do it. But at the same time, you're looking to see, okay, so this thing's going to cost me north of $10,000 US.
73:13
What do I get? What's the art like? What are the shots like? What's the resale value like? Is it going to break down? Can I get extra parts? So you're looking and you're studying.
73:25
Well, Craig, Bobby, I'm sorry I kept you so long. You're just so damn interesting. It's your fault this podcast went long. Everybody who's mad in their car saying, Orby, you've never gone over an hour in 500 episodes. Well, it's a new Orby. And I don't know. maybe I'll release it in two parts, probably not.
73:41
You know, I've heard a two-hour podcast that had less to say than we did today. So I think we did something pretty good here. We covered a lot of ground, Albert. I feel like we've been places together. We've bonded.
73:52
We've entertained. We've done it all. We've covered the ground. We've done it all. And you know what? I don't think there's anything in here I would even have to edit. So thank you so much for that. You're going to have to put in like some goat screams or, you know, something that… But something entertaining like that. That is my question to you. We haven't talked about your homestead yet. Yeah. We can give people updates on. Sure. So what's going on? I know you're heavily into the coffee these days.
74:21
Are there still goats on the homestead even? Because I wasn't clear about that from some of your shows. Oh, my God. And I feel like when you came back that maybe the goats had left. I don't know. So the goats actually left, I believe, about three shows in. we had friends who had actually have a hundred acre like farm homestead right along the ocean outside of Pugwash Nova Scotia and unfortunately Uncle Luke had started to bite the ears of of Darth and Chewie so we really I really wanted to find a place that they would for sure take Leia because Luke and Leia are twins of course and they had been together since they had been born in Annapolis Valley and we went and drove them in the Toyota Corolla here so they've been together for three years but we only have about 1200 uh square feet for them to like go eat the pasture when i'm not walking them and it just wasn't enough space you know the babies were starting to eat full food and he was feeling like hey these kids are eating my food so he was he was doing his natural thing but we had to get you know sell luke basically to them and then we ended up selling leia so that luke wouldn't be in the same area he would be with the other males who were you know had basically been castrated and he would be in there but they could see each other they could hear each other they could sniff each other smell each other go talk so luke and leia kind of got to stay together and it was the best of both worlds because leia got to have lots of other female mum goats that were there because they have a much larger herd so she really it was the best thing for her and when we moved here like danielle and i both are city slickers we had never like since we were little kids we had never lived out in the country and we said we're going to throw everything at the wall and the one thing like you know I wanted to do mostly like I wanted to do maple syrup I want to do apples I want to do cider I want to do mead I want to do honey I want to do lots of growing of stuff I want to grow as many you know we have three different types of peppermint that we use in our teas that we grow here you know we wanted to throw everything at the wall and say hey what works and what we found is is people that Danielle's favorite thing the way that I love pinball drop target Danielle my awesomely forever patient wife who's stuck in the room with Luna Elwin right now, trying to make sure she's not down here barking or jumping by the recorder. She basically loves, every weekend, her favorite thing is to go to a new town, whether it's St. John, Fredericton, Moncton, Halifax, Turo, Anaganish, wherever. Like, we travel to a new town, and we try out, like, their best ice cream spot, their best coffee spot. You know, she likes to travel, and she's kind of a foodie. We go usually to their best brew pub or the best place that has, like, cool little fun artisan gastropub meals or something like that, and it's really really hard to do that when you have goats that have to be walked several times a day especially on a day like today with where i think ontario sent us their weather it was like 40 with the humidex here today you know a day like today we'd have to be home all day we couldn't have gone to monkton for the day like one of the two kids had to stay home for three years you had because we have foxes here the bears i don't worry about during the day but we have foxes then also leia or one of the little guys would get out often it's just you know when it's minus 20 degrees out which it is all the way through January, February, you're bringing them out water every two hours. So it's not freezing. It's, it's a lot of time. It's a lot of energy and you get very little money back in return. Even though I still honestly, Craig Bobby, I still, to this day, can't look at the pictures and video of especially Leah, because she was like my bestie for three years. Like I hung out with her, like a good coworker at work. It's not like, it's not like losing a family member or anything, but it was like a good coworker or like a good friend that you saw all the time and the nice thing is the homestead there has said that we can go visit them but at this point I'm mostly like right now I have probably about 200 strawberry plants 150 uh hascap or sorry 150 blueberry maybe five hascap I have uh well right now six apple trees including two six-way apple trees I'm hoping to get cider from the one um unfortunately we lost uh good old Cletus uh our our head bee she passed away in February but she was three years old so that happens so we have to wait to get a new beehive next year um we still have some chickens we still kind of break even on that but our favorite thing to do is all week long like so this weekend for instance my wife is making scones all night tonight and all day tomorrow our favorite thing to do is we go to what from here oh yeah they're good they're blueberry lemon as well as strawberry vanilla right uh so basically what our favorite thing to do is and where we centralize is and what we did in london and what we do here is we find the best markets so we go to the pug wash market and for a 23 table we will do between 400 to 600 in sales well the margins on when you on on this saturday right because there'll be two to three thousand tourists going through some of them will be local some of them will be tourists uh pug wash is kind of like the muskoka up here like it's kind of near tatamagush and it's so there's a lot of visitors from out of town when we sell a bag of coffee i might only make you know seven eight nine bucks depending on whatever but when we actually sell coffees like when someone comes up to our cafe and they just buy a coffee to go the margins are like seven eight hundred percent like they're probably better than jersey jack ce on toy story 4 like they're huge right so um that's kind of where we specialize and then like this saturday we're lucky enough to get to go to charlottetown and do their big market with like over a hundred vendors we're the only ones there doing coffee tea lemonade arnold palmer's and then i think there's a couple other people doing baked goods But like we could make five, six, seven, like even at a Canada Day event in Pugwash, we were the only when we're the only cafe with like coffee and tea, maybe 20 people order teas and like 500 people order coffees. Like coffee is like a frickin drug. So as soon as we got into doing coffee, like their sales kind of went through the roof, which is great. And I do want to send a special shout out. I'm not going to name each and every one of them, but there is five people from the Poor Men's Pinball podcast that have contributed and bought coffee. and since I started asking for people to buy coffee just from the pinball nerds that I know because once in a while someone will order from Toronto or London and I don't recognize the name and I don't know if like they ordered because they heard about on the podcast for sure or not but just recently not only have five people including the first guy Dan the man who ordered has reordered so that's a good sign of people are reordering but Joe Chervino shout out who is of pinball degenerates he's in Yagpin today and he just put in an order so um for him I did throw in he's in he's in canada here i wouldn't i won't do this for the americans i'm sorry i'll you'll still get some pinball nerds podcast trading cards but he's in canada so he's actually getting some danielle's best damn jam as well as he's getting some maple syrup from us um just because when he sent me out my uh pinball degenerates hoodie he put in tons of extra rad stickers and cool stuff like that so it's you know i ask people this all the time but our little tea company people think it's just like a side hustle that we do which it is but like our top year in london before we left we did 70k so from yeah from a little small house to do 70,000 that's not profit that's just our sales maybe 30 40k profit something like that right that's incredible though just for a little side hustle where you do maybe like one market per week plus one extra show from time to time it's a fun side hustle and it allows me to be honestly like I joke around with the locals I say when they ask me what I do I'm like well I'm 25% homesteader 25% house husband 25% stay-at-home dad because honestly that's kind of where my times go because I don't do all of the cooking but I probably you could ask drop her Daniel I probably do 90% of the cleaning in the house literally the only thing I don't help with very often I should do more often is laundry but like short of that I take care of the outside I take care of all the animals I take care of all the weeding de-weeding almost every day for the past two months I've either picked blueberries raspberries or strawberries here so we now have pounds and pounds and pounds of our own berries because when we go to the market, we have to use like our own, it has to be like our own eggs in our, our good. It has to be as much local as you can. You can't just show up and buy like a brownie mix and just like, there you go. And it's not your own home, you know, your own eggs and your own, you know, everything of your own stuff. So it's fun. It's kind of like a fun, like, you know, as soon my boys will be, well, Hayden just graduated. Owen will graduate in another three and a half years. And then I'll probably go back to working. I don't know if I'll ever go back working for like TD Canada Trust or American Express again and work like 40 hours a week per se in an office but I could see myself getting back to you know I do put in 40 hours a week a couple times when we get really busy at harvest season or during maple syrup or kind of this time of year when we're doing several shows a week a little bit but um it's just a really fun way to make a living it's not the crappy part is like I'm not at Yagpin because I don't have a consistent income and honestly had I just got a job at McDonald's like three months ago and set that money aside, I could have gone. But instead, I wanted that quality of time to spend with my family, to spend with Danielle, to spend with my son Hayden in his last year before high school. He's moving out soon. He's working full time. I really wanted that time and energy to spend with them. And the trade-off is I can't afford lots of pinball machines right now. I can't afford to go to a lot of shows. But my time will come. The kids will move out and they'll stop eating like $700 a month in groceries. And I'll be able to start, you know, going to do that stuff again. But thank you for the update i think there is probably some pitbull nerds that love that um i'm starting to lose my voice and just give us your what's your website there albert just if so when when i go to place my order for your delicious coffee where would i go to do that you're the best craig bobby i didn't even ask him to do that guys here's the thing the easiest way to do it because we're on squarespace right so the easiest way to do it is to just go to angrail pack on facebook and if you don't have Facebook, go on your wife's Facebook or your husband's or your friend's, your family member's, your co whatever. And just, you don't even have to have Facebook. Go on to angry alpaca coffee and tea and click the shop now button. And that will bring you to our Shopify store. And, and basically it just, you know, everything updates through there. But the good news is right now, and this is the first time announcing this. Not only do I have a couple bags of the light roast, which is better for espresso. That's the, my name is Pinball Nerd. Then we have our, a little bit of the medium roast left, which is the Bean Me Up. Instead of Bean Me Up, it has a cool picture of a UFO on it. Danielle did all the artwork. It's awesome. But the one that's been selling crazy and the one that I joked about earlier is our East Coast Dark Roast. So we finally did a dark roast and I had so many Pinball Nerds saying, Orby, I'd just buy it if there's a dark roast. Well, there's a dark roast, so go and buy it. And Craig, you do not have to buy any. When I come back to Ontario just for being on the show and sticking with me for almost two hours. You are getting a free coffee. What type do you drink, my friend? Oh, my God. Are you a medium roast? Are you a dark roast? What do you want? Get ready. What do you want? What kind of roast do you like? I like it all, you know, Albert. You know me. I like sampling the world. If I had to choose for a daily drinker, I'd be a little more on the light side, the light roast side, what I like to call like a breakfast roast. So. okay well you're getting the pinball nerd i'm saying i'm setting aside we only made eight of them and there's two left so i'm setting it aside it didn't sell well enough to keep it going i'm still going to use danielle's awesome artwork and the next time i do a pinball nerd one i might do immediate more of a medium roast because it it took forever to sell like we sell more dark roast per saturday than i sold light roast in the last month but i do want to thank everybody who helped contribute because honestly like i didn't have tons of extra cash and even just getting 50 bucks here, 75 bucks here. It doesn't sound like a lot because the profit from an order is not like huge, but we're getting rid of inventory we've been sitting on. And more importantly, you know how addictive coffee is. Once someone finds a coffee from Angry Alpaca they love, they're probably just going to reorder. Am I right? I think you're absolutely right. I'm just looking at the, your square website right now. And I love the, the, the Angry Alpaca logo with the, with the mixtape there, coffee and tea. Yes, that's Danielle. That's all Danielle. All your, I love the names of all these things. You know, City Lights, Funny or Chai. Yes, that's one of our tees. Lucid Dreamer, Some Good, Beam Me Up. These are Beam Me Up.
86:35
Craig, you're the best. Awesome, dude. You can tell you put in some time thinking of all this stuff, which is great. Thank you so much. Listen, buddy, I'm going to let you go because I can see my battery is flashing on here and the charger's upstairs in my bedroom. but I'm going to stop recording. I'll still be able to talk to you on Facebook so just hold for a second but is there anything else you'd like to say to all the pinball nerds on your way out? Well, thanks guys for listening. If you're listening and if you don't listen you can certainly catch me on the pinball show every week with Zach and Dennis. The pinball, our podcast drops on Mondays and you can hear me doing pinball, the pinball industry's top stories which is the news and a little bit of opinion every week on that show. So anyway, thanks for listening, and thanks again, Albert, for having me on. This was a ton of fun and great to chat with you in more detail. That's awesome. Craig, as if I could have fell in love with you even harder. Thanks, buddy. Until next time, pinball nerds, remember to eat, sleep, and breathe.
87:31
The Pinball Show with Craig Bobby.