Quoted from Eddie:Personally I don't think there is a topper made that is worth the asking price.
I dunno.
Money spent on pinballs has different value to different people. I just delivered 5 pins to a guys house, couple of LE's couple of other machines.
He has a house worth north of 3 million. Furnishing his house with pinballs that had an additional 2k topper cost wasn't really a concern for him... he just wanted a good looking lineup.
The asking price of the toppers was well worth it for him to get a consistent look across his line-up.
And a friend of mine is absolutely obsessed with James Bond. Of course he needed his 'Bond Room' to have a James Bond Pinball with all the nice goodies... which included the factory topper. He wanted the best version of the game that Stern made, with all the Stern accessories because that's in line with what his other Bond memorbilia has. Top quality stuff, well presented, no expense spared on the quality of the pieces in his collection.
The asking price of the topper was well worth it for him.
Pinballs in your home are high end luxury goods.
Different people assign different values to the pinballs and the pinball accessories they buy, but it's all money spent lavishly on luxury.
From a 'is it worth it' perspective... well, antique jukeboxes like the 1943 Wurlitzer 1015 had expensive accessories like a 'ceiling speaker'. These luxury add on's that Wurlitzer didn't sell a lot of (because they weren't 'worth it') are now quite valuable:
ebay.com link: itm
We don't know what the future collector will value, but I suspect that from now until eternity, a pinball with the factory topper is going to have better resale value than the pinball alone... and possibly the topper will become VERY collectable.
Whether it's 'worth it', I don't know. I do know that many items prized by collectors that are willing to spend serious money are more valuable if they are 'complete with rare accessories'.
As for my favorite factory topper? I like a lot of them. I don't know of one that I don't like.
Monroe, NY
Calgary, AB
. The attention to detail with both gangsters firing independently is epic.
Malvern East
