Great price. If this was local I would have probably had to snag it. This is slowly becoming the new normal and is not a "fluke" as anyone buying a NIB should prepare themselves for a nice loss if they choose to sell it. Hey, isn't that the way it works on most items you buy new.

This should slowdown the purchases of NIB as people are going to think twice before buying. Hopefully, the days where someone buys a NIB and wants to sell it within months are behind us. This will slow down the demand for any NIB as well which might lead to lower prices which is good for the hobby.

These lower prices and "bubble" (yes, it was a bubble) should have been obvious to most hobbyist. Again, this is the "new normal" so get used to it. The days of buying pins and making 30% after a few years and playing them are long gone and may not ever return. The new normal might be buying a pin and playing it for a few years and losing 30%.......what is wrong with that ???? Should skinny down the prospective buyers in my opinion and help pricing for everyone. I keep asking "when did buying pinball machines become investing ? ".

Great price on a beautiful pin. The person who bought it if they play it for a few years and get $4-$5K when they eventually sell it had years of fun at a cost of approximately $500 per year.....how is that expensive. Play 15 games a week for 3 years and it truly pays for itself !!! To have the convenience of an arcade in your home what is that worth a year ??? Well for me it is worth a few thousand and that is what I factor in and it is money well spent and I don't even average playing 10 games a month but knowing they are available makes it worth it to me.

If people start viewing this hobby in that light it will help pricing and drive out the speculators which is very good for this hobby. Games like TRON LE, Spiderman Black and a few others fueled so much of this buying of NIB and just holding for appreciation...how was that good ? I knew we were at a top with MET LE when people were selling their rights to the game for $1K-$2K above what they paid !!!! Some people paid it !!! I know a guy that made $1.5K and never had to take delivery on a MET LE !!! Tell me how that was good for the hobby.

Finally, I called this and told people to keep the 2013 and 2014 pinball guides as that would mark the top in prices and compare future pinball guides to those. People forget in early 2000 what some of these titles were going for......I remember passing on mint TZ's well under $3K !!! My philosophy is since I don't care about buying a nw car every 3-5 years that pays for my pinball addiction and then some. Think about it. Buy a nice new $60K car and get rid of it in 3-5 years and calculate what you lost....then buy $60K in pinball machines and sell those. My bet is you do much better with the pinball machines and if you factor in all the years we didn't lose money forget it you are well ahead and it isn't even close !!! When people start looking at the purchase this way they will not get upset....key is keep the pin for a few years and enjoy it !!!

Reading all the posts. Good conversation. Lets just give the prices time to "play out".

You know what I do find funny. I bought a WOZ and truly I felt and still do feel it was a great value at $7K (had the invisiglass and shaker and was only used for one day by a distributor). I guarantee there was less profit margin on that machine at $7K then most of Stern LE games. That game if you really go through it had to cost a ton to make.

Now I see people trying to sell them for $6K and having problems. I would buy a WOZ with invisiglass and shaker any day of the week before I buy a comparable Stern. I love my Stern games (LOTR, IM, SM, AC/DC premium, X-MEN LE, METPRO and POTC) and they make up the majority of my collection but to compare even AC/DC premium (which cost me $6.2K with shaker NIB) to WOZ from a "build standpoint" there is no comparision. I would love to see Sterns cost to build of an AC/DC premium and compare it to Jacks cost to build for a WOZ. I would bet the ranch they aren't even close.

You know I bought at the absolute top (yes, as everyone knows I even told people it was the top....hey, I wasn't going to wait for prices to come down as we only live so long and the few thousand or so I could have saved wasn't worth me waiting a year or two for lower prices. However, and this is my point.....I got some "great values" and truly have not been hurt much. The key is to be smart when buying anything in life (hey, I bought my house in 2009 and housing continued to go down but I got such a great deal I am well above what I paid....it is about "shopping smart" and looking for "value" and not just paying anything. Main reason I never bought a MM, MB, AFM, etc.....I felt the "value" wasn't there. The only mistake I truly made (and I laugh about it) is when I traded a new AC/DC premium for an IM.....hey, who could have seen them reproducing it a year later.....good news is I love IM so no big deal as it is one of my favorite pins. In fact, RAI mentioned me in his IM hitler rant....was funny and made me die laughing. GOOD OLE HOP always feeling prices would go down and sure enough they did.....funny thing was HOP took a hit after he warned everyone. Now that is funny !!!

Just be smart when you buy is the poin t and sure this hobby will cost you some money but it will not be "crazy money". However, if ou want to buy every NIB LE and sell them months later I sure hope you have a lot of disposable income as it truly is no different then buying a new car every couple of years (it isn't cheap).

I doubt pin prices will COLLAPSE they have just "softened some". No big deal. From here they will probably continue to go down slightly but I doubt a TZ is going to be worth sub $3K next year. Still a supply/demand issue. Plus, lets be honest most pinball hobbyist have money. Think about it.....how many pins have you guys bought and sold and we all "know the routine" we go to buy with CASH and when we sell we expect CASH and in most cases we are exchanging thousands of dollars so I would say as a group we are very fortunate. Not everyone can bring a wad of hundreds and drive many miles to buy a pin for CASH and most people on this board do it numerous times a year !!
So I assure everyone not too many people are feeling sorry for us PINSIDERS !!!! People would truly kill for our problems so never forget that (truly, I never do).

Keep up the conversation.....you guys are rolling !!!