Quoted from thundergod76:This is shocking if true. Even a pin with less than 100 plays is one thing....USED! I'd never expect to get back what I paid selling a used game.
It is "just" a used pin as long as it's in production, as soon as it is not available any more it becomes collectable and depending on demand it may start rising in price. Pinball machines are not products that become technically obsolete (like e.g. PCs or cellphones that will just not work any more with time moving on) and newer machines are not "better" than older ones. AFM still beats many later pins. LotR is still better than WWF by a mile even though it's 10 years older. The factor that sells and defines the demand for pins is "fun", not LEDs, LCD displays or PCB size.
Even during production it can happen that pins increase in value. Look at MET - when it was released it was (at least in Europe) approx. 2KEUR cheaper than it is today. If I'm looking for a MET I can decide to buy a new one for 6KEUR or a used one for 4,5KEUR that cost just below 4KEUR when it was bought a few years ago.
People keep asking why non-NIB-buyers even care for Sterns price increases: Because those price increases directly influence the secondary market prices and the overall price level in the market!
Regarding BM66 SLE, even though I agree with most thoughts abut the price being crazy and I would never support this pricing model, I do understand that this market is a collectors market. Decisions are not rational and based on technical specs or regular consumer market mechanics, they are based mainly on emotions and perception of collector value. Due to this I do expect the SLE to hold it's value quite well.
Also, if Stern keeps up it's pace with price increases, 15K for any pinball machine will feel like a bargain 10 years from now... 
Quoted from thundergod76:And I sure as hell am not gonna pay full price for a used game no matter how rare it's perceived to be.
I get your point, but then the maket and not you will decide which machines you will buy in future - not a desirable situation either.
If you insist on only buying below new price you'll be stuck with pins like WWE, Mustang or KISS, which is not necessarily a bad thing if you love those. Personally I don't care if a pin costs less or more than NIB, I only care about fun.
If you would take value, which you are obviously focusing on, into account the ones that trade over historic NIB prices are the ones that will most likely hold their value or rise over time. The ones that trade below NIB prices are far more likely to go on depreciating since the demand just doesn't seem to be there. Decide for yourself which is the smarter move. Or just do what I do and buy what you enjoy...
Bottom line is that you will not change the market and how it works, no matter how mindless or illogical this market may seem to you.