Quoted from too-many-pins: With over 18,000 made they just don't seem to come up for sale often and when they do prices seem to be all over the place. .
As someone who has bought two project PB's & restored a 3rd for another Pinsider.....& all I collect/restore are Early Bally SS & Stern SS, I'd have to disagree a bit on that one. If you asked me the title I see come up for sale the MOST of the early Solid State Bally's it's definitely Playboy. I was at Coin op warehouse multiple times in past few years & he usually has 2-3 of them (project machines) at any given time in the warehouse for sale... see them at Allentown & York every year for sale as projects. I need both hands to count the ones I've passed up in past couple of years in person alone, let alone all ones I've seen on craigslist, FB marketplace, Pinside etc. Our local Pinball/pool table store in town has had one in the display window for sale for years (overpriced, hence why no one has bought it).
The one you listed in market looks to be a $1000-$1100 tops game IMO due to board condition/not working. PF is pretty decent for a PB, as they are usually all trashed, but I have seen better originals.
I paid $600ish for current project one I have to restore, Mint BG, missing boards & displays, which I didn't care about because it's getting all new stuff there anyhow. I think I paid around $900-$1000 for my first one couple years ago, which was complete but not working.
The ones I've looked at at Coin op warehouse were in the $800-$1200 range depending on condition.... all project machines/players quality.
There was a real decent freshly repainted one in the vendor area at York 2 years ago for like $750? I debated bringing that home even though I did'nt need it.... There was also a similarly priced one at Allentown in vendor area last year. It was still there on Saturday morning when I was able to go.....
To me, on the early Solid States (which is all I pay attention to), you see a ton of PB projects, Close Encounters of Third Kind, Night Rider & Flash.... Those seem to be IMO the 4 most common early Solid States I see for sale in past few years.
The guy in Calif who got $2200 for that one should thank his lucky stars he found someone gullible enough to buy it at that price. That's an $800 machine in PA. Weird thing is, I usually see ads from all around the Country & think to myself all the "deals" are always in midwest or West Coast, prices are always higher on East Coast for same machines, so that $2200 sale is a HUGE outlier IMO.