This is like a bookie with consert tickets.
They are contributing to the community by taking other community members money and in the long run helping the pricing on machines go up even further.

How is it not bad for the hobby when prices go up, simple because speculation?

Well i care, i think it sucks when community members leech on other members.
I was also really pissed in the other thread were people was making excuses for big company threatening to put pressure on employers (hypotethically), when people voice concerns or critique for products.

With such community members, how do people expect to make pinball more popular attracting new members?

The more customers, the more demand for products, the more products, the more companies, more competetion between companies, the more pressure on companies, with a good community, more events, more notice and the good spiral.

The less interest, less companies, less products, less spare parts etc etc etc.

You think that a bigger and stronger community and a higher demand for products, will make products worse?

The demand is so small and the community is so weak that stern is pretty much in a monopoly situation.
How is that working out?

Just imagine a global strong community, with a demand for 2million games a year.
Williams would be a small player and the likes of lg and huawei were the big fish.
Then stern would be mentioned in the same sentence as homepin, well it would be out of buissness with the spike and shite games.