I purchased my NIB LOTR LE and then later sold my NIB LOTR LE for $5k. Granted it was a while ago and prices are now up, so I don't expect that to be the going rate. But to say you never seen one sell for $5500 NIB is a untrue statement when I sold mine for 5K. You are entitled to sell your machine for whatever price you want and I wish you the best of luck. The higher yours sells for the more my HUO LOTR LE is worth

I'll keep my regular LOTR with LE software / figures / & shaker. The sky's the limit on price! ;-p

I paid $5050 for one NIB in July 2010 from Playdium, and picked it up locally. Not saying that is indicative of price now, but to say that they never sold for less than $5500 isn't true.

I wish I could find an NIB LOTR (or a SM frankly) for $5,500 . . . I would snap it up in two seconds . . . shame I didn't get back into pinball a little sooner.

"Congrats, it's an awesome game isn't it! How do you like TOM"

He iceman...just picked it up this week..it's sweet but has issues with the opto..have to post and ask for help

You know we're connected by mine and your lotr "returns".

Well I Payed 5400 for a Tron LE June of last year. Not sure what the prices paid for games in the last couple years mean in today's market. We have all seen what has become of the pinball market in just 1 years time. Seller is free to ask whatever he wants but is most likely to have a LOTR LE in his collection for a while unless he's negotiable.

Crap game anyways!!!! (;

I only referenced what I paid because of the comment that suggested that LOTR LE was never sold for less than $5500. It was. It isn't now, but it once was available at a fire sale.

Smassa said: Crap game anyways!!!! (;

IS NOT!

Even if someone offered me $10K, my LOTR:LE is never leaving!

I just got back from playing AC/DC at the It Never Drains in SoCal Tournament. I was lucky enough to be the first person to play it right out of the box.

In any event, these are obviously first impressions, but I thought the game kicked ass. Fast and furious...in your face.

I bet you would sell it for $10,001 though.

He should get $9k for having to deal with the price police!

Hey Palmetto! Looking at your location, I believe that I'm the one that purchased your NIB LOTR LE yesterday. If so, great meeting you! (& I made it back safely) I plan to unbox it tomorrow and get her set up. Thanks again for all of your help with this!

As to the price of a NIB LOTR, I have been looking for a new version of this for about a week or so and after an extensive search, I only found two available in the country. Automated's at $8200 & Palmetto's at $7500. Unless there are a few hiding out there, looks like these are drying up quickly...

Ha ha ha - I'm sure there's nothing ironic about that statement coming from a guy who is on JPop's team....

Yo G, don't be hatin' the playa.. hate the game ; )

No kidding, nothing like getting thread-crapped in your FS ad. People you do know you can MAKE AN OFFER!??

And, no, last year's pricing is not relevant... pins are bubbling up at 10% per month

Exactly. I also bought mine from Playdium, shipped, for about $5100 (after eBay cashback). The cashback basically covered shipping. If my math is correct, yes, I bought my LOTR LE NIB for under $5500. Although admittedly, eXidy didn't see it, but it's not BS. I guess he overpaid for his.

You post a for sale post like this expect comments regarding price especially when a HUO machine is being priced above the recent NIB price. IMO it is overpriced in the current market and I (and others) have every right to state that opinion.

In particular, when Pinside has a reputation for being "where noobs with money overpay for pins" amongst the Old Guard, and we have seen an influx of people registering only to list their for sale machine at high prices (not that eXidy did this, mind you), it is about time that there was a little flinching from an obviously high price. The RGP Price Police are 100X worse.

I've never heard of that reputation here. I came to this site after using other sites for years. And I came here simply because a friend told me about it. New members to the hobby can go to any number of sites to locate and buy their pins. Sellers love this site when they sell games, and buyers love it when they find the game they want. Its a simple matter of more traffic on any given site. And nobody is paying Ebay or Paypal fees. Everything in between is simply open market capitalism at its best.....and is dictated by supply and demand. There is no dispute among anyone that prices have gone up. Whether it is because manufacturers raised their prices or because new people in the hobby have driving up demand could be debated forever. Regardless....the market "is what it is" and its doubtful you can find a site where anyone can buy cheap and relist a game at another site and sell for a killer profit. Those days are pretty much done and we will all have to live with it and make adjustments accordingly.
It should also be noted that many people came to this site because it is moderated. Many of us got tired of the spammers, scammers and trolls on RGP. I'm sure many more will be coming in the future too when they find out they don't have to waste their time reading troll posts on RGP.

Automated's price is actually up to $8295 now...

I don't know what to say... only recently people decided to start are falling over each other to pay 7,9,12 even15k for single games, and the recent poll has 85% of collectors using only spare cash to buy pins.. in a recession. Pin prices have gone nutty in the past 6 months, how does one pass judgment on this mess of a market?

Well, the flood of new (and returning) people into the hobby is causing the spike in prices. There are more people entering the hobby and a finite number of existing machines. This will result in higher prices in the short to medium term and more manufacturing output in the long term.

The more interesting question to ask, in my view, is why are all these new people entering the hobby at the same time? What is differnt now from 3-5 years ago? The economy is not improving . . . what is happening?

Seems like a lot of it is simply just a d!@* measuring contest for having certain pins (generalization I know, but some of the prices people are paying for collections is crazy), but sellers recognize this and list for higher prices.

Maybe because pins have gotten more exposure from those not so real "reality" shows where they dig stuff out of barns, have guys restore them, take them to pawn shops to sell etc. The interest starts, then they google "pinball" and they're hooked. Many of my friends find out about my games too and then you hear that common line "I did'nt know you could get those anymore". I gotta believe that there are a lot of people who liked them in their younger days but are actually just finding out they can be found and bought. And now they have the money and need something to put in their finished gameroom or basement. Add the fear of breakdowns and they decide they want the newest game they can find with a theme they can relate to. Many of us are upgrading too as we sell off our "B" games for more than we paid for them, add a few bucks and buy our own dream games.

300 play unit just sold in MN for 4500 Like last week.

Ahhh Remember when a MM was a 5k game tops....I remember turning one down in 07 for 3200 because it needed to much work and the ipb PF's where just hitting the streets.

I am glad i have owned every a list title while they where cheap. I feel sorry for all you new guys who can either never dream of or have to spend 10 large on a pos MM .

CV's for 1700 was common place on close out!

The better theory is something collectors don't want to hear... A-list pins have become trendy for those looking for an art/status symbol. Thus why not ask for the moon as this market has proven someone will eventually come along and say "ooh shiny" and drop 5 figures without thinking too deep about the cost.

More like $2k. I know, because I searched around quite a bit when I bought mine.

Yea? in FL? I dont know of 1 person that bought a pin as an art/status symbol.

Every new collector that I have came across just enjoys pinball. Im sure there is that "1" guy who did a nice bar in his house with a pool table darts and maybe wanted to add an old school pinball game. This "1" guy is not driving prices up all over. Its simple math. Pinball arcade and other pinball programs that have hit the Iphone and Android market sparked a love for pinball that most people forgot about. They have well over 1 million downloads in a short period of time. Over half of the new collectors that I have spoken to have told me this is the reason they have picked up the hobby. Others just got married bought a house and now have some cash to get into a long lost love for the silver ball and have room for it.

Pinball Arcade and Zen Pinball. Ipads, Xbox etc.

Consol games are losing. They were bigger than movies at one point, and the tables were turned to the point where movies were made after games, instead of the vice versa.

People now have phones and tablets, and are back to more simple games. I'm all for this. I used to play PC games until they got out of control. Who wants to learn a game, know all the keys for the keyboard, plus the ctrl and alt for each key, and finish a game in a few days.

It's my opinion that simple games rule, in that, pinball is again taking off. What is ironic though seems to be that they are not all people that played them when they came out, such as myself, but for the most part new people, looking for that new "thing".

What is different now than 5 years ago? Kids that were 10, 12, 14 years old when TAF and TZ and CFTBL are now entering their earning prime. Guys that were 21-25 and drinking in bars when those A-Lost DMD pins were on location and hot are now financially comfortable enough to have the kind of play money that it takes to drive a market like we have here now.

Also, we just went through a financial winter where people were warmed by the flames of their 401K. Money moved out of the market - especially when those accounts rebounded. For example, the guy I just sold my TZ to lost his shirt in the market in 2008. He waited it out, and when it came back, he cashed it out and decided that he would rather invest in things he loved that had a good chance of at least retaining it's value - he went with vintage guitars and pinball machines. Sound investment advice? No. But what is now?