PM, if interested based on market data.

People are not looking at all, have enough network connections, or willing to work hard to find one.

I will give an example that is much more difficult than the one mentioned.

I needed a backglass for a Bally 1966 Bazaar restoration.
Historically the game is significant, with features not used on modern games.
The backglass has never been reproduced.
There are no high resolution scans.

The game is over 30 years old.
Around 3000 were made, 500 less than AFM.

I found a NOS backglass in two weeks.
Not two years, or two decades.
Reasonable cost for rarity.

Pinball machines are not unicorns, even rare ones.
An owner does not have to compromise with some jacked up original game or overpriced version either.

If someone wants to state "but that is not the entire game" I already found the game as well, I just need to pick it up.
"Near minty"? playfield as some would call it.
I need to do work on the cabinet and rest, since it has been in storage for a LONG time, hence the backglass being roached.
The cabinet is effed up due to an amateur repainting, that I have to redo with stencils that do not exist yet either, I have to MAKE THEM.

I used the same methods to find the entire game.

New owners don't believe it is impossible to find what you want because you don't want to look.
If that was the case most other collectors would have been gone decades ago.

These flash pan concepts are simply untrue.
Photos included for the PinSide "prove it with pictures or it did not happen" crowd.

"And now you know the rest of the story...good day?"
- Paul Harvey

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If a person is exclusively a player, not a collector, it makes sense to me to buy a AFMr.

That was not the statement.
People try to twist word meanings that were not made.
The statement was the ability to find "minty fresh" (whatever exactly that means, as I do not know as a collector) game, parts, etc are unicorns and do not exist.

Price is not the issue regarding games of any title, as people keep trying to circle wagons of limited deduction.
Price versus quality, value, and features is the issue.
This is the relevancy to this exact thread, not a off circle tangent of collector representation.

Of course people can throw down the gauntlet of a stack of Ben Franklins.
Money has done that for years in this hobby.
However, that is not going to always wrest games away from collectors, especially historically significant rare games.
They do not accept this concept (unless it is just insanely stupidly high, and the collector literally buys ANOTHER of the same title with contacts and pockets the difference), but it does work very well to dealers.
If someone offered me $16K for my TZ I bought in 1994, I would take it in a heart beat, "nothing is sacred".
Reverent collectors are not particularly going to be impressed when someone says, "I can buy anything I want", as they worked hard to have what they own.
They restored the games that new owners buy with the same stack of Ben Franklins.
Interesting is it not?
The same people that state collectors are "hoarders" are those that restore games and sell them to the back to said people?
Imagine that.
We must being pinball geniuses, or simply more oriented to common sense.

There seems to be equity in AFMr, but it has not been mass produced.

I do not buy games from concepts, prototypes, or samples.

People should judge them from actual production lines, learn from the mistakes of others from the past.
This is the first fundamental mistake of new potential buyers, and is exactly why there is so much huff on DP right now.
People made purchase decisions on TBL prototypes (or "sanctified" beliefs on BoP 2.0), which is the same as the CGC AFMr.
People rushed to be at the front of the line with no formal review of the product.
Fast forward, two+ years.
Most do not have their games, and most likely NEVER will.

People are rushing right now to AFMr with hopes that the game is "better" than the original.
It is still the same game with a new color screen, cool topper, and green side rails.
The electronics are not the same, nor the lighting, and I am not arguing or discussing differences here.
I never debated the potential ability for CGC to make games, PPS contracting, licensing agreements, or parts.

Oh, but wait, CGC has not made a complete pinball game since the 2002!
I really do not think most people here were even in the the hobby during that time (and yes, it has relevance not bravado).
The game was Vacation America.
The game was complete garbage, poor materials, and bad design (especially with playfield optos which are non-existent to find now, except...see my above posting again).
It did have a nice backglass with a license rip off from National Lampoon.
Value is LESS than $500.

I am NOT saying that AFMr will be cheap materials or bad design, but they have to now do everything that Stern already does.
CGC predominantly make cabinets, but do have other products and parts.

Do people see any similarities yet?
Knock, knock.
Hello?
Pinball is NOT %$@#ing video arcade games.
Pinball is NOT parts (Gene Cunningham with IPB learned that lesson REALLY well).

Geezus folks, there are 1001 problems that can arise during new production startup of pinball games that have been made by new manufacturers, yet not a single person considers any consequences.
People "trust" everyone, but have not a single ounce of experience to see some of the pitfalls.
People are nuts if you think that CGC has a perfect track record, if you understand the industry.

Why?

People (and manufacturers) are still making the same mistakes, over and over again, hence my limited presence here now.
It is pointless for some to try and become Houdini, the scourge of fake spiritualists.
People say, "It will different this time".
Manufacturers say, "I know how to do it better."
I have heard both, repeatedly, and they are generally wrong.

I do not see the same equity at all in comparison to titles by other manufacturers especially to games made over 20-40 years ago, although JJP is closest (features) coupled with Stern Aerosmith currently (price).

No one can convince me after 30 years of pinball to change my beliefs.
This is long after most people are already gone that made the same mistakes of the past including manufacturers.