(Topic ID: 290960)

Are we at the peak of pinball pricing

By the9gman

3 years ago


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    Topic poll

    “Is this the peak of the pinball market”

    • No, pinball will change with the times and go on 73 votes
      33%
    • Yes ,we are at the market peak 42 votes
      19%
    • we are not at the market peak yet 71 votes
      32%
    • somebody grant levi his wish 37 votes
      17%

    (223 votes)

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    There are 201 posts in this topic. You are on page 2 of 5.
    #51 3 years ago
    Quoted from CrazyLevi:

    somebody shoot me

    levi, one day everything will fall into place when you confront a bubble burster who is no longer "too early".

    #52 2 years ago

    The prices on new pins will increase every year. The pinball manufacturers have to raise their prices in order to cover their costs & expenses that go up. Stern and the other manufacturers have been producing amazing pins. As long as the manufacturers keep doing this then people will keep buying them.
    I think that Pinball is one of the greatest things of all time. I feel pinball will continue to see a surge. It’s something that almost everyone can do and enjoy.

    #53 2 years ago
    bubbles.gifbubbles.gif
    #54 2 years ago
    Quoted from kidchrisso:

    somebody wake me when Quicksilver goes back to >$2000....

    Wake up, its greater than $2000!!

    #56 2 years ago
    Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:

    Are you on crack? Younger people are flooding into pinball at record rates. Hell, finally all my friends are suddenly interested in checking out my arcade. I get asked often “how the hell can you afford all those games??”
    With millennials (in their 30s and 40s now) it seems many don’t care. But the latest generation, the zoomers are really getting into “retro” everything.
    Also “watch parts dry up” that’s HILARIOUS. You missed that by a decade. Right now the repro business has NEVER been stronger. Jody is making ramps for games that 10 years ago would be thrown in the dumpster when the plastics broke. Marco and Pinball Life among many others are sprouting up and booming.
    There was a long LONG stretch where Steve was essentially the only outfit in town you could get parts from, unless you raided a big operator and he pitied you.

    You’re so right!

    Lots of young people in their 20’s are buying 6-12k machines to put in their apts they share with 4 other people. Also, pinball bars make lots and lots of money with no overhead or very small start up costs, and reproduction parts people are amount the super wealthy. I can’t believe how wrong I am. Must be the crack talking. Pinball is the next iPhone!

    Once the 40-50yr olds age out, in 10yrs, pinball is on a sharp decline.

    #59 2 years ago

    Be glad pinball has the value it does. If they were cheap they’d get thrown away like ikea furniture when families were bored of them.

    #60 2 years ago

    Prices will never peak, they will continue to rise. Candy bars never went back to 10 cents.

    #63 2 years ago
    Quoted from the9gman:

    Prices did not go down but the market is not even close to what it was.

    Winner!
    Pinball will become more exclusive than it already is. Prices will go up to make up for the lack of numbers.
    I will share when prices will go down,
    An EMP weapon destroys the power grid, or hackers, or astroids, or weather.
    The dollar crashes to worthless.
    The US is taken over by China (its well known China doesn't like pinball despite Homepins efforts)
    The Sun goes out.

    #64 2 years ago

    When is the pinball bubble thread bubble going to burst? I think pinball bubble threads are exactly like 1967 GTOs...

    #65 2 years ago
    Quoted from schudel5:

    When is the pinball bubble thread bubble going to burst? I think pinball bubble threads are exactly like 1967 GTOs...

    Add "innovation", "what pin should I buy" and "top 100/best pin" and you have covered 90% of the pinside thread's

    #67 2 years ago
    Quoted from greenhornet:

    levi, one day everything will fall into place when you confront a bubble burster who is no longer "too early".

    I live in fear and terror of that day. It's kept me up at night for over 20 years now.

    When will a bubble burster actually be right and the bubble bursts? How can I avoid retribution and my ultimate comeupance? When $500 TZs are raining from the skies, where can I go to hide from the storm?

    In my darkest moments, these are the thoughts that I cannot drown out, nor flee from.

    Pray for me.

    #68 2 years ago

    Starting to think pinside needs to add to the list of banned topics.

    No politics and no bubble threads.

    #69 2 years ago

    I take comfort in knowing that there are so many well informed and vocal experts on this site regarding this subject.
    Armed with that, I should easily be able to sell my holdings just in time to narrowly avoid the great pinball apocalypse of the future.
    I can’t say that I’m looking forward to that time, but I am well stocked on bullets, gasoline, and non perishable food products. Assuming I survive judgement day, I feel I’m about as prepared as I possibly can be for the coming apocalypse.

    #70 2 years ago

    if only there were some way I could not read posts on subjects I dont like or I have already heard before.

    #71 2 years ago
    Quoted from Boblabla:

    You’re so right!
    Lots of young people in their 20’s are buying 6-12k machines to put in their apts they share with 4 other people. Also, pinball bars make lots and lots of money with no overhead or very small start up costs, and reproduction parts people are amount the super wealthy. I can’t believe how wrong I am. Must be the crack talking. Pinball is the next iPhone!
    Once the 40-50yr olds age out, in 10yrs, pinball is on a sharp decline.

    This may shatter your world and rock you to the core:
    They said the same thing in the 90s and Early 2000s when nobody cared about WPCs and all the “modern games”. Wedgehead EMs were considered the high-end collector market. Those guys were teens in the 70s and were in their 40s-50s in the 2000s.
    Now those hardcore EM guys are retired hitting their 70s
    And guess what?
    Holy shit, young guys are still buying all those darn worthless EM junkers and I can’t buy a Jacks Open for $50 from all those old guys liquidating their collections or dying.

    Curses!!! Any day now I’m sure they will be worthless.

    #72 2 years ago

    I'm wondering when the cost of developing time travel will be worth the payoff of going back and buying all those B/W machines and titles before the bubble started growing. There is some serious money to be made here. Your first truckload of sub $1000 TZ's and IJ could send your whole fam-damnly to Harvard or Yale... oh to have had the foresight to invest in warehouse space and B/W pins back in the late 90's and early 2000's...

    14
    #73 2 years ago
    Quoted from Bublehead:

    I'm wondering when the cost of developing time travel will be worth the payoff of going back and buying all those B/W machines and titles before the bubble started growing. There is some serious money to be made here. Your first truckload of sub $1000 TZ's and IJ could send your whole fam-damnly to Harvard or Yale... oh to have had the foresight to invest in warehouse space and B/W pins back in the late 90's and early 2000's...

    As everybody has said a million times, you'd just be better off buying apple stock or a sports almanac.

    Not sure how many pins you can fit in a time traveling delorean.

    People are obsessed with imaginary impending price bubbles because they are frustrated by pin prices and want to buy cheap games, as simple as that. Trust me, I understand it, but they think they can wish it into existence with these bi-weekly threads.

    They can't. There's 20 years of proof that these arguments are simply wishful thinking.

    The "bubble" may burst, but it'll be accompanied by a complete financial and societal meltdown that has you foraging for food to feed your loved ones and fending off attack from hordes of feral children and other Mad Max types who know you have toilet paper. Bringing home a $400 Fish Tales will not be on your agenda as the gangs of mutants attack your homestead and try to traverse your moat of radioactive waste in hopes of stealing the world's last can of edible cocktail weenies from your cold, dead hand.

    The "bubble" is of your own making; it exists because you want pinball machines. The only way it "pops" is if you don't want pinball machines anymore, in which case who cares anyway?

    Why people suddenly think that everybody in the world besides themselves will wake up in two weeks and decide they don't like pinball anymore is beyond me.

    You've been sayin this for over TWENTY YEARS.

    Give it up.

    #74 2 years ago
    Quoted from CrazyLevi:

    As everybody has said a million times, you'd just be better off buying apple stock or a sports almanac.
    Not sure how many pins you can fit in a time traveling delorean.
    People are obsessed with imaginary impending price bubbles because they want to buy cheap games, as simple as that. They think they can wish it into existence with these bi-weekly threads.
    They can't. There's 20 years of proof that these arguments are simply wishful thinking.
    The "bubble" may burst, but it'll be accompanied by a complete financial and societal meltdown that has you foraging for food to feed your loved ones and fending off attack from hordes of feral children and other Mad Max types who know you have toilet paper. Bringing home a $400 Fish Tales will not be on your agenda as the gangs of mutants attack your homestead and try to traverse your moat of radioactive waste in hopes of stealing the world's last can of cocktail weenies from your cold, dead hand.
    The "bubble" is of your own making; it exists because you want pinball machines. The only way it "pops" is if you don't want pinball machines anymore, in which case who cares anyway?
    Why people suddenly think that everybody in the world besides themselves will wake up in two weeks and decide they don't like pinball anymore is beyond me.
    You've been sayin this for over TWENTY YEARS.
    Give it up.

    This might be the most logical post I have ever seen from you

    #75 2 years ago
    Quoted from CrazyLevi:

    You've been sayin this for over TWENTY YEARS.

    Sorry Levi, I was being sarcastic... nobody is actually thinking that pinball would be a better finacial growth instrument than wall street... I got my cheap pins in the early 90's to play them, not resell them for profit.

    #76 2 years ago
    Quoted from Bublehead:

    Sorry Levi, I was being sarcastic... nobody is actually thinking that pinball would be a better finacial growth instrument than wall street... I got my cheap pins in the early 90's to play them, not resell them for profit.

    I meant the "royal" you, not the Bubblehead you!

    #77 2 years ago
    Quoted from CrazyLevi:

    I meant the "royal" you, not the Bubblehead you!

    I royally thank you for making that clear lol

    #78 2 years ago

    Unless someone invented a working crystal ball, no one knows the answer to any of this... That being said, so long as NIB demand is as strong as it is I just don't see any direction but up... Component costs will continue to increase which will cause continued increases on NIB pins which lifts the entire market and we get what we have now, a self reinforcing feedback loop. Something has to break that loop... Maybe it will... Maybe it won't...

    Jeff

    #79 2 years ago

    I don't think there is any pricing "bubble", and I sure as hell hope prices haven't "peaked" yet!

    The peak represents the ultimate best that can ever be done, and is the endpoint of growth. It follows then, that when we get beyond the "peak" of pinball pricing, we will also likely be getting beyond the peak of pinball demand itself, and it will be a bummer knowing that a pastime I love is headed for irrelevance and extinction (just one more reminder that indeed, like dust in the wind (dude), I myself am also headed for irrelevance and extinction).

    If the moment comes where a "bubble" actually "pops" rather than naturally trailing-off, the wider implications for life in general will be dire indeed; like Levi said, in that situation pinball will be the least of my worries and I'll happily raid your house for your last cans of Vienna sausages and Armour Chili while you are busy with your $500 TZs and IJs!

    #80 2 years ago
    Quoted from the9gman:

    I worked in aviation all my life and when I first started in 79 there were many private pilots and the industry was growing. Now take a look at how many private pilots there are. Far less than half as many ....small airports can hardly justify their existence. The hobby if you want to call it that became cost prohibitive and drove people away simply because they could not afford it. Prices did not go down but the market is not even close to what it was. With the decrease in places to play pinball how do you generate the market, the end result is the end result.
    so much for the car analogy

    Planegumemt!

    #81 2 years ago
    Quoted from the9gman:

    However I believe we are cresting the top of the bubble... in 2000 you saw the end of the majority of arcades and the beginning of Xbox , playstation and computer games. My kids grew up playing Diablo and Warcraft and were not influenced by arcades and pinball. I really don't think a lot of teenagers from 2000 on got the pinball bug. So if the market occurs when people are old enough with disposable income .....you see my point ....not much of a market coming ....

    It's a numbers game. Computer/console games are mass produced in the millions & then easily emulated/pirated if you want to play them in the future...and even then, physical retro games climb up in value to collectors. Pinball machines are only made in the hundreds, sometimes in the thousands. Addams was the one that reached 20,000 units. There just aren't that many of each game, and they are complex factory-built machines. Interest in pinball HAS been next to nothing for the past 3 decades...but there's just enough interest compared to the finite amount of units to keep prices high. ONLY THING that causes a price crash is every single person with pins dumping their collections simultaneously.

    #82 2 years ago
    Quoted from the9gman:

    I agree and that's the reason I took my pinball money and spent it on solar panels , inverter and lipo 4 batteries this month

    Yep that sounds like a lot more fun than pinball

    #83 2 years ago

    hahha yes....

    It really just goes to show you how much of fallacy continually comparing pinball to methods of transportation is.

    Planes / cars have NOTHING to do with pinball machines, except that I guess they are both nouns. I would dare say pinball machines are almost the exact opposite of a car or a plane.

    They don't move anywhere under their own power
    You cant use them to travel to florida
    They don't have engines
    you don't need a license to use one
    you can move them with a hand truck
    they don't require gasoline
    You can't pick up groceries with them
    they don't emit exhaust
    They can be kept in your basement
    You can ship them for $300
    you can see them in arcades and bars

    The list goes on and on. Why in God's name would you try to compare them in any significant way, shape, or form? At least the usual suspect - jukeboxes - has coin mechs and doesn't leak oil!

    #84 2 years ago
    Quoted from CrazyLevi:

    The list goes on and on

    yes Levi ...God of pinball God s you have opened my eyes I totally understand .....do I really give a shit ......when I think about it ....nope
    so who the fuck cares ? you're right I should spend my money and my time on things that are more profitable.
    just want to say........ thanks you have led me down the path of enlightenment

    #85 2 years ago
    Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:

    This may shatter your world and rock you to the core:
    They said the same thing in the 90s and Early 2000s when nobody cared about WPCs and all the “modern games”. Wedgehead EMs were considered the high-end collector market. Those guys were teens in the 70s and were in their 40s-50s in the 2000s.
    Now those hardcore EM guys are retired hitting their 70s
    And guess what?
    Holy shit, young guys are still buying all those darn worthless EM junkers and I can’t buy a Jacks Open for $50 from all those old guys liquidating their collections or dying.
    Curses!!! Any day now I’m sure they will be worthless.

    None of what you typed “shocks or rocks my core”. What you say/think is opinion ,and not fact. fact, mid 30yr olds are the last of a generation that played in arcades. There is no sentimental attachment under that age group. Also, people under age 30 don’t have the money for modern games and this may shock/rock you, but most people don’t like or want an old EM or old 80’s games. Check out most of the posts with interested in trades and they usually state, “don’t want your f14, or night rider, or collection of EM’s for my newer pinball machine seeking 6k and up machines.”

    Next time your friends come over , who just adore your collection , see how many are looking to buy their own machines for their houses and follow through with a purchase. Does me being right make you angry? Calm down a bit.

    #86 2 years ago
    Quoted from Boblabla:

    What you say/think is opinion ,and not fact.

    You should take this advice.

    Quoted from Boblabla:

    mid 30yr olds are the last of a generation that played in arcades Also, people under age 30 don’t have the money for modern games and

    Going outside might do you good.
    In case you didn’t notice, Chuck E. Cheese, Dave & Busters and Round1 are packed with kids... Barcades are packed with 20 somethings. Darn them spending all that money that doesn’t exist!!

    CFBAAB8B-ED33-4A8D-90AC-37F58940C7F2.jpegCFBAAB8B-ED33-4A8D-90AC-37F58940C7F2.jpeg

    #87 2 years ago

    I’m still wiping the margarita off my screen.

    #88 2 years ago
    Quoted from Thermionic:

    I don't think there is any pricing "bubble", and I sure as hell hope prices haven't "peaked" yet!
    !

    Sorry but prices need to settle soon and actually ease back some. I am hoping once all this COVID crap settles and the hermits start leaving their caves people will get back to regular life. People are just investing deeply in home entertainment. Pinball pricing has already gone way past my spending limit and that is fine. If others want to keep spending tons of money on these things then more power to them, but i am out at current pricing. My wife is loving the pinball stupidity because now she has a pool, boat dock, jetskis, nice backyard hardscapes, and more that she has always wanted.

    #89 2 years ago
    Quoted from woody76:

    Sorry but prices need to settle soon and actually ease back some. I am hoping once all this COVID crap settles and the hermits start leaving their caves people will get back to regular life. People are just investing deeply in home entertainment. Pinball pricing has already gone way past my spending limit and that is fine. If others want to keep spending tons of money on these things then more power to them, but i am out at current pricing. My wife is loving the pinball stupidity because now she has a pool, boat dock, jetskis, nice backyard hardscapes, and more that she has always wanted.

    with all of that outdoor fun to have you may not really need more machines anytime soon.

    #90 2 years ago

    I’m very concerned and plan on checking with my financial advisor Billy Ray Valentine to see what he thinks as soon as possible.

    0A82CCBA-017E-43EB-8516-A02962032D9C (resized).jpeg0A82CCBA-017E-43EB-8516-A02962032D9C (resized).jpeg
    #91 2 years ago

    It’s not just Pinball, the economy has been shut down so things aren’t getting made fast enough, all the while the Fed keeps printing money, so there are too many dollars chasing too few items. The end result sadly is price inflation of everything.
    All that said (IMHO) I think the entire economy is about to take a hit, Intrest rates are going to rise and prices will fall across the board in the next 6 months on everything (including pinball). It will be interesting to look back on this thread at the end of this year and see how things pan out.

    -1
    #92 2 years ago
    Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:

    You should take this advice.

    Going outside might do you good.
    In case you didn’t notice, Chuck E. Cheese, Dave & Busters and Round1 are packed with kids... Barcades are packed with 20 somethings. Darn them spending all that money that doesn’t exist!!
    [quoted image]

    Bill Murray said, “it’s difficult to win an argument with an intelligent person, but it’s impossible to win an argument with a dumb person.”! Lastly, your opinion is a guy in speedo underwear and poses for guys? Yep.

    #93 2 years ago
    Quoted from ultimategameroom:

    I’m very concerned and plan on checking with my financial advisor Billy Ray Valentine to see what he thinks as soon as possible.
    [quoted image]

    Look at that S car go!

    #94 2 years ago
    Quoted from ultimategameroom:

    I’m very concerned and plan on checking with my financial advisor Billy Ray Valentine to see what he thinks as soon as possible.
    [quoted image]

    Ok - best post yet. Still laughing.

    #95 2 years ago

    Thank you for stopping by with your wisdom.

    pasted_image (resized).pngpasted_image (resized).png
    #96 2 years ago

    These threads continue to claim active accounts. They are the widowmaker.

    #97 2 years ago

    He probabaly had only 9G to spend (his name), he was hoping for a bubble burst.
    He's now of buying stamps, or lurking at the crypto forums.

    #98 2 years ago

    You just can't fly too close to the bubble burst sun. You'll get burnt!

    #99 2 years ago

    It would be cool if Levi was creating these stormy rant threads just so he could respond to them.
    I’d still read.

    #100 2 years ago

    Is there a secret pinside achievement you unlock for making a post that sends someone into a tailspin and they deactivate their account?

    If not their should be.
    My suggestion would be “the burst your bubble” achievement.

    There are 201 posts in this topic. You are on page 2 of 5.

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