You’ll regret it when we hit 100k and are munching on Melvin’s tendies

And those are actually fun!

You might want to find a new hobby or some good blood pressure medication in that case. With prices the way they are, flipping games is only going to get more prevalent.

^^^^

Probably also matters what someone’s definition of flipping is. This guy sounded like he owned it for a while and sold because of how crazy the market is. Flippers that bother me are the ones that low ball folks and try to get pins for a couple hundred or thousand left then flip it the next day for a couple hundred or thousand more.

Shoot, we have bought a lot of pins before playing them. Some we like and some we don’t. They won’t stay long if we don’t. Sometimes I make money, a lot of the times I break even on those and sometimes I lose money if I really hate it or need space

Everyone is being a jerk, so you better be one too.

Great logic.

Not sure if you're referring to flipping games or my post, but flipping games is an unfortunate reality for alot of people, myself included. Unfortunately I don't have the money some people here do to load up collections with new and 5K + pins all the time. I buy, sell and trade games over time to get money to put into my games.

Flipping anything is going to be a reality in any hobby and if you're looking for everyone to subscribe to your personal pinball code of honor you're going to end up pretty disappointed. If finding the deals first and building my collection without bankrupting myself makes me a jerk, then I'd offer you a "great logic" right in return.

I'd actually like a deadpool and to upgrade my ST pro. Let me know what you paid for yours and we will see if you will take that amount or a little bit of a loss and maybe make a deal? It would be the honorable thing to do.

Interesting, This Op has been on Pinside for 8 years and looking back over his forum activities, I see no indication that he is a flipper at all. Seems to sell his games at market maybe even a bit lower. I do not believe it is fair to call out his integrity or anything else for putting a game on the market at a hi price. No one is holding a gun to a purchaser's head to buy this or any one else's game.. A question every one should ask is if they had a CE, and wanted to sell ,what would you put it on the market for? Would any one in this market put it at the original MSRP? I doubt it. On these sales, the market always speaks. POTC has gone crazy in its pricing (Disclaimer , I have an SE). When you post a game for sale like this there can be 10,000 people who say crazy price, but, it only takes 1 buyer to say I will take it. That's the way it works. How many times have we seen a used game sitting for sale at the original MSRP. When it does not sell we all say it didn't sell because the market does not support that price. We all live with that . If something is considered hot, the price shoots up. See some of the topper sales from Stern. Try and buy a BKSOR topper now. I have offered 3 x's the original MSRP price on several of them and got turned down and I can not argue the point cause they are worth more than that.
The market always speaks. Best wishes to seller and buyer.

The guys bitching about what this guy is doing would do the exact same thing if they were selling. I've seen it before and they sometimes have been called out for it when they get busted.

Amazing what a person feels a game should sell for depending whether they're buying or selling.

People that downvoted my anti flipping post probably view this fuck face as a hero. Remember this douche? Literally the same thing.

merlin_170438451_dd144ae2-8cd3-4d76-9196-7c12518b53a4-mobileMasterAt3x (resized).jpg

Man... if you squint, you can also make out a Rick and Morty and Pirates CE in the back.

Good for him.. America land of opportunity for those that are smart.

If you knew me, you'd know I always give good deals while selling. Rarely, if ever, do I sell for more than I paid because I want someone to enjoy the hobby and not kick each other in the balls over it. So there goes your logic out the window. But you tell yourself what makes you feel better.

This dick head actually had to relinquish his items and list out on the money.

It's not ok when someone else does it.

It's ok when I do it.

Yes, stockpiling products used to combat a global pandemic and keep homes, schools and workplaces healthy is literally the same as selling a non essential toy to make a few bucks to buy more toys. Really well said.

Wait until you find out that the store selling those products paid less for them then they are charging you!

Did you send me your asking prices on your pins yet? I think 10% off what you paid is fair. Be the change you want to see in the world, as they say.

This dick head actually had to relinquish his items and lost out on the money.

Oh yes sir, I'll pm you immediately, jackass.

People who let stuff like this cause them to melt down are in the wrong hobby.

Everybody here had a chance to buy a POTC NIB for $9K just a couple short years ago and almost everybody here thought the game was a shitty overpriced contraption and passed on it before they all suddenly decided they want it.

You want to be pissed off at someone, be pissed off at yourself. The drama queen hysterics are unbelievable, it's a pinball machine you don't need and didn't even want until everybody else decided they did too.

I guess that's the closest we'll get to an apology so I'll take it.

That is EXACTLY what it's like. Wow, you nailed that comparison. Slow clap.

If only I was rich... like super rich. I would just buy you a CE and we can end this conversation. But I aint got shit.
Ok back to Megan Markle and Oprah...

To be fair, the CDC recommends one POTC JJP game in every household to ward off COVID, so he really wasn't that far off.

Does any one actually play this game or just resell it with extra 5k on the price.

Win some ya lose some.

Like Levi said everybody had a chance to buy this game when it came out. Hell, I had a pre-order down and cancelled it because I couldn’t justify dropping 9k on a toy. Still can’t btw. Luckily it turns out there’s a multitude of other great fun games out there that can be had for less than the price of a kidney still.

For the 3 or so random sales I’ve come out ahead on there’s another 40 I lost a boatload on. Am I a piece of shit for profiting on those few rare games because the market decided they were suddenly desirable and I decided to let them go at the market rate?

Speaking of which, if anybody wants to overpay for my Beatles or R2D2 topper please hit me up. I’d post an ad but God forbid I get labeled a flipper!

Why be angry with the seller for following the trend? I had one -- NIB -- that sat on pinside for 6 months because the conventional wisdom (last year!) of paying 20k for a game was beyond market. When they all start selling for more than 30k, things will calm down until someone decides its worth 40k.

That said, I do enjoy the debate on this thread.

Yes and it's a rare debate to find on Pinside. You'll only find it in every single thread where anything is bought or sold or someone brings up prices.

If I did this, I would be giving away money... I bought my Pinbot for $750, my Bride for $950... If I sold them together they are worth about $5k to $6k total... so some quick math here... I could be loosing up to $4300 so, no I don't think I will sell them for what I paid for them.

Now as to wether POTC CE is worth $30,000 I have to say hard pass, but thats only because one doesn't blow $30k on a pinball machine when the price is as much as a year's tuition in college, or approaching a third of a years salary.

For people who sneeze and loose a billion in the stock market and could not care less, this is a bargain... which means pinball is no longer a low brow form of entertainment and all us peons now have to scrounge the estate sales, garage sales and landfills for our next reasonably priced machine. Which pretty much puts me in the "wait and see" club on the current price bubble.

I wonder if this bubble will ever burst? Or is there just to much money around and it will just keep growing.

Someone should start a thread pondering this question!

So you can add it to your collection

Hey Levi, has anyone ever started a thread about that question in the past? (Wait for it ....)

Me waiting for Levi whenever someone posts one of those.... and ive only been around a couple years!

tenor.gif

On a lighter note, what do you think this will sell for?

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/111508

It’s an auction apparently

This has been my favorite game since it landed. Play the heck out of it.

Its official! The NIB is an auction. Only asked for bid. Wouldn't give a price.

Anyone with 30k for a pinball machine will probably not not play it much being busy blowing cash elsewhere

Go OP!!!! Sorry but not sorry. This hobby is out of control, but watching this from the sidelines is a blast. $30K for a game that's not BBB or Supreme! We are in uncharted territories now. We never thought we'd see it, but here we are! Soon, there will be a $50K game! Imagine that, you can buy (2) Z06 Corvettes or 1 pinball machine! Think it can't happen? Look at this thread and re-think that!

More power to the OP. This is definitely a milestone.

I ask you all to close your eyes for a moment... Try to remember a time not that long ago... Y2k had just passed, and unlike predicted by all the experts, nothing catastrophic happened... IMac was the hottest thing in the world of home computing technology... Every company that resembled a .com had earnings of "negative whatever", zero strategy to monetize their products, and no long term viability, yet was trading in the middle to high 3-figures per share, and rising by 15% a day, on a bad day... None of it made any sense... Everything felt irrational and awesome!... Then the monster stepped into the room... AOL merged with Time Warner to form an undisputed giant in internet media distribution... There was nothing left to dream of that hadn't already happened... The entire market got smoked from there... People moved whatever remained of their money into the housing market...

I can tell you what happened in 2008, but I don't want to spoil it.

If I recall there was something...balloon like...and it...popped?

We still haven’t seen it. We’ve “seen” an ad with a ridiculous price, zero input from the seller, and a big reaction.

Compare the number of times trolls have done similar things to the number of times similar things have really happened.

It’s not impossible, but neither is it likely OP got near $30k. We’ll probably never know. I hope Pinside gets a cut. The joke was worth it if they do.

As a 100% newbie outsider can someone help me understand why this is a bad thing for your hobby?

Pinball is taking off. This is just the start and keep a G&R NIB will do better then a CD in the bank for sure in the next 5 years.

With all the G&R hype watch Willy Wonk in the next couple years LOL.

You guys are a lucky bunch, enjoy the ride, don't sell out

been so for a long time. how do these prices continue with covid !!??

People are stuck home, can't do the family vacations and other things they would normally spend money on. Plus the government is handing out money like candy, so people are willing to splurge.

Lots of hobbyists feel it’s bad form to buy a game with no intention of playing it just to jack up the price later when there aren’t any left.

I get it, people feel threatened because they think that prices will go up astronomically across the board and pinball will be out of their price range. For me it already has to some degree. There are many games that are out of my league pricewise. Especially this one now. I hope I won't have to say at some point in the future "glad I got in before it all went south"

I’ve been in the collectibles industry my entire life.
As a generalization, yes it is good for the overall state of a market and ensuring its longevity when a market grows exponentially.
More importantly than rising prices though is an ever expanding buyer base.
I.E. more collectors/buyers.

I’ve asked this question recently to a handful of my friends who have been collecting longer than I have:

What multiple number of collectors do you think there are today compared to when you started collecting?
None of them answered immediately and needed to think about it. One answered as little as 5 times and I think the most anyone that said they thought there were 100 times as many collectors today as compared to when they started.

This is great for the longevity of the hobby as there is a ready and willing buyer base every time a new machine comes out. Hence it insures there’s longevity on the manufacturing side of the hobby and we get multiple new machines released every year.
However for things that are not currently being produced there is a finite supply. For anything vintage or out of production, whatever is out there is what’s out there.
With a broader buyer base and a finite supply prices go up.

The turn side about when a market escalates at a rapid pace. People who have been in said hobby a long time wind up getting priced out of the market. This has happened quite a lot in other hobbies. People that have collected for years are accustomed to paying X price and now they sell for multiples of that. Some opt out of the new price structure by choice as it’s sometimes a hard pill to swallow. For some it’s economics and it becomes a factor of not being able to afford it and get priced out.

So to answer your question, yes the hobby will grow as a result. It will also lose people as a result.
Think about this.
This machine most likely sold for more money than the average “casual” pinball enthusiasts entire collection is worth.

This type of logic is similar to fine arts dealers and collectors of the modern age. They don’t know anything about art. Don’t care to even look at it. But if they drop 150k now, put it in a climate controlled warehouse for a year or two, they can put it back on the market at Sotheby’s or Christie’s for a million or more than what they paid for it. Just to have the next buyer put it back in the same crate in the same warehouse, for another year. And those of us that love art and love to view it can’t get close to it. Looks like the same people are finding the next good thing to screw up for the rest of us. But that’s just me. And hopefully not as bad as the fine art word has gotten.

Bad form came awhile ago as speculators entered hobby.
Core folks will be here regardless, just don’t get caught long.

Isn’t their collection value also steadily increasing? They might have to sell something vs continue to grow it but all pin prices are rising. 30k is rare if it sold for that. Many older pins from the 90s are so expensive I’ve been buying new as of late. Any one who has had pins in their collections for a while is sitting on more money than they probably ever dreamed. I could see losing some folks just because they aren’t as passionate as they once were on pinball and want to cash out while they can.

So why is it wrong to even suggest that JJP should do another run of these at some point? The argument that they sat in boxes for too long the first time around is not valid any longer. The market is clearly much different than 2 years ago. Demand is there, people are willing to throw money at great pins (and even not so great ones). Yes, yes, yes... they can't even get enough GNRs out the door quickly enough, I get it...

They aren’t dumb; surely this conversation takes place at least once a week over there in some form or another.

If it makes financial sense to do it, they will. I believe they have their hands full with GNR and will for a long time, so any potc rerun would be a ways off.

Awesome post. My wife call our new pin "a piece of art" she wants more, NIB CE games. But she doesn't like me "shaking the art" you shouldn't be so hard on it. LOL She wants more she will get more.