Quoted from rai:Maybe some people won’t but some will do whatever the hell they want.
rai @zablon
I think both of you guys make some great points.
Although I'm just one guy, with one opinion, I believe a decent chunk of the pinball community has the same sentiment as I do. I'll give you my example.
I have a strict three pin lineup: WOZ, AFMr LE and DILE. WOZ and AFMr are bolted for awhile. My third game, DILE (which I love BTW), is my rotational game. My plan was to rotate that game out every year, replacing it with a NIB, most likely with a JJP each time. Here's where the conundrum comes into play.
1. I'm already paying a hefty sum of $9,000 for a NIB pin. Resale value will typically be about 85%-90% of what you paid for it after a year (unless it's the Thunderbirds of course). It pains me to pay $9,000 in cash for a pin, let alone knowing I'm taking a 10%-15% hit a year later.
2. Now we add in the 6.825% sales tax (for Minnesota), and my all-in cost is $9600+ for a DILE if I purchased it in 2019. OUCH. At the price for any NIB, I'm probably out.
3. What happens in the resale market? Are folks going to pay $8500-$8700 for my DILE? Or is the expectation that it still should be around $8,000 and I need to eat that 6.825% sales tax? It will be interesting to see how the market changes, but to be frank, when #2 happens, I'm probably out on NIB and consistently buying as a 2nd owner.
4. Another point to make is competition. If I'm buying my DILE with sales tax, there are states around me that haven't implemented the nexus law, or they have a lower sales tax than Minnesota, that puts me at a huge disadvantage when selling my game. It gets even worse when I open up the purchase to anyone in the US. A seller in Oregon, New Hampshire, Montana, or Delaware can sell their DILE at a lower price than I ever could, forcing me to take on 100% of the sales tax I paid.
I hope that gives some insight to my thought process. Unless there is a second "holy grail" pin being created, I'm probably either A) hanging on to my NIB for a lot longer, or B) I'm on the sidelines waiting patiently in the secondary market.