Wow, I have been out of town and Pinside for a while and seeing this news on the back end. Guess I will wade in and take my shots. I have read many of the threads and the banter back and forth on lots of issues, and there are some common themes. Basically mostly opinion and speculation at this point, as no one knows what will pan out in the end. A couple of observations:

The initial excitement and exuberance of people buying 1000 games within a matter of hours is unprecedented. People falling over themselves and salivating in a frenzy to pay $9000 (with tax + shipping) for a reproduced game, though, is staggering for me to think about. The market is what it is, though, and supply will meet demand. With the high end LEs and WOZ and this, it seems that $8000 is the new base price. With this success, I can almost guarantee AFM is next with a similar tag. The vast majority of enthusiasts are still priced out, and I doubt many $9K pristine machines are going to be routed, so pinball socialism to allow access to MM probably still will not pan out very well.

The argument between "players" and "collectors" will rage on, and speculation on demand and price for original versus remakes. Only time will tell, but I see both sides and it will be interesting to see. While many say publicly they don't care about price, that they are in it for the playing and fun, almost everyone cares some about the price at some gut level. Even if you do not intend to ever sell, you still have a mental figure in your head what it is worth in an emergency, etc, and anyone would naturally be disappointed if that number fell (not saying it has fallen, can't tell by what's still for sale). Imagine the riots if MMR new price goes down to $4000 to unload a glut of leftover machines when demand dies down in a couple of years. Or if Stern remade a bunch of Tron LEs for $6000 after seeing this.

There seems to be acrimony and an "eat crow" attitude toward original MM owners in some threads, and immediate criticism of a remake by MM owners as well. There has been some snobbery, and some jealousy, and this is expected. I have a friend who has been wanting MM for years and when I told him of the remake, his first remarks were gleeful that justice has been done and all those MM owners were going to see their values fall to the "real world," etc. Then I mentioned that MB may be next, which he owns. He suddenly had a look of panic and said he better sell his before the price fell. I think we all would find ourselves acting like the opposite crowd more than we like to think.

Finally, I think the hype and the intense hunting for that good deal MM over the years has created a messiah-like culture and anticipation of the game, especially those who have not played it. Some of the posts are over the top with drooling and giddiness; I am waiting for one asking if you can have sex with the game or legal to be buried in its cabinet. It is a great game, but I think a lot of people will have a letdown once they actually have that object of their long hunt in their home for a while, and wonder why they wanted it so badly and paid so much for it. Anticipation is often better than the reality. There will be another . . .