How do you do in Vegas? No way to predict the future. If you wait for a 3K pin now, it may be a 4K pin in a year.

I just try to get a good deal based on current market prices.

Scott

Market could keep getting more expensive for the next 5 years, no way to tell. Get something you can afford now.

There are still pretty good pins out there for affordable prices. Just keep your eyes out and be patient. The new pinballs keep getting more expensive and the old one keep getting older and more collectable. Not sure if prices will ever really go down.

Because the prices will likely go up for A-listers. Which everyone wants.

Yes and no, things are overpriced.. But because people pay the overpriced price, so that's the new price! So don't be that guy. If you had gotten into the hobby 3 years ago it was by different.

But in the end.. No it's a hobby.. You don't NEED the pinside top 10 games to have a great time. Look on local Craig's list ask around for locals here, locate your local "pin club" someone will have something for you at a good price.. Now good price these days means under 2k .. There is no reason you can't start small in like a system7 or 80 machine. Great prices and gets your juices flowing in the hobby. Then when you get things figured out you can decide what's next.

Seriously you don't need a 4k$ game to have a great time.. Some of my most beloved are cheap games.

Patience is your key, if you don't have it.. You will pay for it.

Look at it this way, its entertainment money, there are many worse ways to spend the cash in that area, like going to any pro sporting event or a movie. A pinball is at your disposal 24/7 to enjoy!

edit-bang for your buck is what i was trying to say, drinking hard already in prep for the Packer disaster tonight.....

Every single pin I waited to buy or for the price to go down, actually went up in price. Every single one.

Now if you're looking at a NIB Stern, you will most likely take a loss (to some extent) when you go to sell, but it depends on the market at the time and whether the game is still in production.

I snagged a TZ two years ago for $3100. Can you still find it for that much today? Maybe, but not likely. Have money ready for when that moment does comes. Missing a deal because you weren't ready is one of the worst feelings you can have that isn't physical pain. ^_^

i recently bought my first pin...while patience is great...knowledge is better. A pin at a "great" price might be priced that way for a reason. A good buy is a "smart" buy.

Get it now man. I dont think anybody here thinks prices will go down in the next year. The only ones that tend to go down at all are the stinkers. But what do I know? I bet people were saying that about Condos in 2007.

just buy one, more will follow

But something reasonable in the $1000-$1500 range. I built a collection on those and I have as much fun as anyone else does.

Your asking a bunch of addicts if drugs are good?

Welcome to the hobby, Craigslist and cash are your friends.

ROFL

Stop looking on ebay.
Once you make some friends in the pin community, smart deals will come your way. As mentioned, keep an eye on your local craigslist. Remember, condition of the machine plays a huge part in price.

And the other aspect I find funny are that these same people who are angry with pin prices are also the ones who sell their games for these outrageous prices. Something is really backwards with the fincancial aspect of this hobby and I don't think everyone is as innocent as they appear to be. Keep hanging in there, a good deal comes around from time to time. ^_^

Ain't that the truth! Truly excellent deals go very fast. You are either prepared and, even more important, first in line, or you lose out.

There are still a lot of wonderful pins out there in the $1-2k range. That is where most people start and perhaps stay. I have fun on whatever machine I happen to be playing, and it is really great to have a little variety.

theres still plenty of great games on the cheap but you have to be all over looking. just yesterday i found a Terminator 2 on craigslist for $1000.00 there out there and $$ talks people can ask what ever they want for there games and you can always offer less. i find cash in there face brings them to reality of taking less always. good luck

There are plenty of pins in the $600 - $1500 range and you live in Ohio. That's pin country Dude! Do your research and put 4 or 5 titles on your want list, I guarantee they will pop up on your radar before you know it and then you'll be nuts like the rest of us.

Hi Evan and welcome to Pinside. My advice to get a fair shake is to make the most of your Pinside connection. We know you are in Ohio; how much do you plan on spending? What games have you played and enjoyed? Do you want DMD, electromechanical or new in box?

Folks here are always looking to sell pins - usually to create the cash to buy something else. If you let it be known, for example, that you are looking for a Bally/Williams and have $3,500 to spend, you will get more specific help. You might even learn of a machine or two for sale. The vast majority of Pinsiders take great care of their pins and know what they are talking about.

There are some good dealers out there too, but you are likely to get a better price from a collector, as they are not trying to make a living from pins.

It's the worst economy of our life times and the pins keep going up. Collecting is only getting more popular, with limited supply.

In theory, right NOW should be the best time to buy when people are having a hard time.

I don't see an end to the trend for some time, until we all get old and start dying and our kids have no interest in pins.

I think you can still get alot of bang for your buck out there...your just gonna have to pass on the machines that have rocketed...Look into Hs2, JD, DM, WCS....all great game under 2k. I still think some great system 11's can be had for reasonable prices

reason being, the internet and home entertainment imo. people rather stay home. it's getting weird. i'd hate to be a kid.

I think the biggest question u have to ask yourself is "can I fix problems that arise?", if no then either go new, or go cheap so if u do mess it up it won't be such a loss. I'd also see if there's a pinball tech in your area in case u come across gremlins u can't get rid of.

Hmmmm, my kids seem to enjoy all the pins and 4 arcade machines I have, Is it that bad?

i know me and my friends did everything but stay home. we went out and socialized in public. hanging out at the arcades was a good time.

a lot of kids don't even care about getting their driver’s license anymore. different generation.

I totally understand getting frustrated with the rat race that is buying a pin. The price advice you're getting is only attainable, as you've discovered, by being fast and hard core at chasing deals. Trying to get an excellent deal for your first pin is a sure-fire way to get you frustrated with pinball before you've even started.

You're not out to profit or collect pins, you're out to have fun. Don't worry about getting an amazing deal. Just chill out and make sure you don't pay too much. To avoid lemons get a Pinsider or local pinball hobbyist to view with you if you can.

When I first heard of this phenomenon my mind was blown. I'm not even that old (38) and I was looking forward to my drivers license for at least 5 years before my 16th birthday. Then I got my first car and was free and liberated. At 18 I left home for a job in a city 5 hours away. Packed all my things in my car and left.

To have kids not even care.... I just don't comprehend that. The generation gap is huge.

This is perfect advice. My first pin was a non-working FT, and although I got a great deal on it, it is frustrating. Definitely get a good working pin first.

Yr about 2 Yr's late for the Good Deal's .. I haven't read the 1st Post on this thread , but I knew what to Say !!

I've been in the hobby for 12 years now and every single pin I own has gone up in price. Obviously some have gone up more than others. But that is the one reason that really keeps me from selling any because I know I'll never find one as nice, as what I have now, for less that what I paid.

It's even amusing for me to reflect back on a few pin deals I did in the past. Trading a HUO Monopoly (straight up) for a TZ in 2002 and paying $500 over market for my MM in 2003. In both instances people thought I was crazy. Now, looking back at the values of both pins, I know I didn't make the wrong decision.

If you are in the market, it's time to buy. Go back a few years and everyone was saying the same thing. But prices were less. The good news, a pinball machine is an asset, so you aren't really spending the money per say. The day you need the money, you get most of your money back.

I am not implying pinball pinball won't cost you anything, or that you won't lose money. I am simply saying if you spend $4000 on a machine, take good care of it, you might spend a few hundred on maintenance, play it for 3 years and sell it for 3800-4200, pretty cost effective hobby if you ask me!

Good luck on your search!

This is what has allowed me to buy a couple pins over the last 2 months. They are big ticket items, but I can always get my money out of it (worst case, most of my money) if I needed to. It's not a money pit like a boat or something else.

I would never buy them as investments, but it's a nice thing to know they aren't depreciating.

You still need the cash kicking around to get into them, but there are worse things to spend your money on for certain. Because they are toys though, I would only buy if you had cash, never go into debt for them.

Yes, you can overpay for anything.
But that being said, if it's a machine you want and you have the cash, who cares!

you're not alone. almost everyone's overpaying. especially over the last 18 months. not the best time to start collecting. i'm sure you can still find some good deals, but those are usually pure luck, unpopular titles, or games loaded with issues. either one of the 3.

best to buy from a local collector. they should be able to steer you in the right direction. both for buying and repair advice.

Well, prices on pins back when I first started collecting didn't seem to fluctuate much. MM was still the king of pricey pins, but there was no guarantee it was going to go up anymore in price. It was always the same price from 2000 to 2003. That's why I knew I paid $500 over market for my MM to get it. Now in retrospect, I'm glad I have it.

I'm with the general sentiment of most everyone else, buy now if you want. There's really no compelling reason to wait.

Do you want your own pinball machine? You make enough money so.. if you don't like it there's a whole mess of nerds on the internet that'll buy it when you put it up for sale

Just find one you'll like to keep for a while and you'll be glad you did. Pinball is a pretty liquid en devour.. you can pretty much always get out of what you put in as long as you don't over pay to begin with.

just dont buy a stinker cause it'll be hard to move if you dont like it.

I don't see the prices going down any time soon. It seems like a feeding frenzy at the moment, and most people aren't losing money. If you buy a new car, and sell it in 2 months, you take a huge loss. With pinball, you might lose a little, break even, or make a little in that time. This allows people to buy anything to try out, then basically trade up to what they want at any time.

I have wanted a STTNG for years. I could have got one a few years ago for $1800, but that seemed like a ridiculous price to me at the time. I would have loved to have payed that for it now!

I think the market will eventually die down a bit. I see all of these limited edition pins as a really bad sign. There is too much inflated value with those, and I think people will eventually get tired of paying the difference. I used to collect comic books, and all the limited edition crap finally killed it for me. This seems similar to me. People buying those pins have quite a bit of disposable income though, so I don't think it will stop for quite a while. As long as they can sell almost instantly, there is no reason not to buy them.

Fortunately for me, there are only 2 Top 10 games that I am interested in, and I am not sure they are worth the price to me. I enjoy games in the $1000 - $2000 range, so I will probably just stick with those.

On prices, as long as you are not trying to buy perfect machines, you can find good deals. My pins are in nice shape, but not HUO or mint. I have found them all within the price range listed on Pinside.

This goes perfectly with my favorite saying "You can't pay too much for something you love".

The key with both is to find out what you really want, don't just buy something because it's a good deal, but absolutely jump all over something if you love it.

Compared to yesteryear? Then yes, you picked a bad time.

Compared to 3 years in the future? It might be a great time to get your 1st pin.

Welcome! I have a $5900 gameroom I posted here on Pinside. There are 5 pins in the collection. All were purchased for less than 2k, most around 1k. I bought these pins in June of this year. Now is still a good time to get in if you care more about fun than collectibility. I recommend No Fear and Maverick if in good condition. If you wanted to try System 11 you can't go wrong with Whirlwind . Don't wait

it's been a bad time since 2007. lot of speculators sitting on machines. i'd like to call them all f*ing morons...but they're all making money off of fresh blood.

i know people who have "must have" games, and finally get them, cost be dammed.
same people struggling to sell that game a week later, even at a lost. you have to play, a lot, before you pay. and never overpay, but looking around, if you sit on it, you'll get your money out of it.

I am in NE Ohio and have an F-14 Tomcat for sale at a reasonable price. I will PM you specifics!

Don't listen to my pinside friends

There is never a bad time to get your first pin!