The pinball market does not defer to the traditional rules of supply and demand. Prices are not based on the actual supply of product (as it is with, say, Beanie Babies until the market crashed), but on the willingness of buyers to pay more for certain games, even for those (like TAF and IJ) with high production runs. The high prices convince potential sellers to hold on to their games as investments. Meanwhile, tons of smaller-run games sell for less because their relatively lower ratings decreased their "collectible" value.

Not necessarily so. In a classic supply and demand situation, the market is efficiently priced. A collectibles market, such as pinball, is not efficiently priced, since the desirability of a particular pin can result in market values that are in no way related to available supply.

Here's an example from a different "hobby." The Hammond B3 is considered to be the best jazz and rock organ ever created. The Hammond A-100 series is nearly the same as the B3, differing mainly in that it has its own internal speaker (whereas, the B3 uses a specialized external rotary speaker but that's a whole different story).

Hammond produced thousands and thousands of B3s and A100s from the 1950s through the 70s. Look on any Craigslist and you'll dozens of both models for sale. However, there is a "snob appeal" for owning a B3 that isn't the same as owning an A100. Thus, B3s in very good playable condition are usually priced anywhere between $3,000 to $10,000, whereas A100s with external rotary speaker can easily be found priced between $1,000-$2,000.

The supply of both used B3s and A100s is plentiful. They're nearly the same machine. But because B3s are the desirable model their asking prices are much higher. This is not a simple matter of supply and demand, since there's plenty of supply for those who want them. In fact, since the market for these organs is very small and specialized, it makes no sense that prices should be this high--yet, high-priced they are, and there they remain on Craiglist at that price for weeks, even months, at a time.

Same with certain pins. There are plenty of TAFs and IJs for sale. Every pinball store I browse online has at least 1 or 2 in inventory. Mr. Pinball's classifieds usually have 3 or 4 in there every week. Anyone who wants either machine should easily be able to find one--although not necessarily local. The demand for these machines is not driven solely by available supply, but also by what the market is willing to pay for it beyond what a realistic market value would be.. Even if a thousand TAFs suddenly flooded the market in the next few weeks, it's doubtful prices would go far below what they are now. For high-desirability machines, the pinball market is very inefficient.