Quoted from drfrightner:

This is what I love about pinside, clearly you’re choosing to be a smart ass. I was using collector cars as an example. Muscle cars was a hobby for people who’d put them in their garage and take 5 years putting it back together. They would take their cars to local car shows and cruises and basically kept the hobby alive and kicking. They were the guys who would scavenge junk yards for parts do everything by hand. Then all of a sudden cars became a collectible and prices soared to the point that the guys who kept the hobby blue collar couldn’t buy them anymore. A basic Trans Am once was $7500 now is $45,000 and the cool Trans Ams are 100k plus. What I’m saying is once the hobby goes down that path you end up pricing out the people who actually kept it alive. Let’s be honest here Stern didn’t save pinball, Stern didn’t keep it alive, the blue collar guys who kept playing and buying did. Stern can’t make pinball machines if no one plays or buys. The industry was kept going by the people who love pinball the most... now a game that was $800 a few years ago is now worth 8000. What? We’ll all start to feel the sting when Stern announces a PRO is $7500. Yes they will make fewer machines but their margins will be so much better it won’t matter.
The reason Pirates is so high is because pinballs have now become a new collectible for some people with a lot of money. These people are jumping in kind of late and playing catch up. They’re buying only the coolest most expensive most sought after games and driving up prices. The real question is are there enough very wealthy people to buy up all these games or was it a passing thing... meaning they got in there and bought up a bunch of stuff and that’s it. Or do they pass the bug onto their other rich friends and this keeps happening. The ultimate point here is this... these games are NOT worth 40k because 99% of people who are the buyer/players/sellers don’t have that kind of money. If pinball really becomes the next big thing for wealthy people to collect like ARTWORK or RARE EXOTIC cars then you can expect the super cool pinballs to skyrocket. That isn’t good for the blue collar pinball guy who kept this hobby in business thru thick and thin. Manufactures shouldn’t be confused by who the core audience is by some fluke sale of a game.

Can you imagine just for a second what will happen if JJP drops new code for Pirates. The interest and desperation to buy one could go thru the roof.

Depending on who you ask all pinball games are collector items, so are autographs, toys, cars, stamp collections. You can’t say the value will only go up, because you’re trying to sell a game for 40k and you have NO TAKERS! So from my perspective you’re wrong. Everything is only worth what someone is willing to pay and that is that. You placed an add and said I’m going to be the guy who tries to break the record and what you’ve found so far is ... no takers.
Lower the price down to 30k and maybe and I mean maybe there is someone out there with that kind of money to buy a pinball machine. Depending on the college, 30k can put you kid thru college, buy a new car, down payment on a house, put a new roof on the house, blah, blah. The price you put on this game is a price that says I’m looking for the one in a million, or I don’t really want to sell it.
I do NOT think this game or any pinball game is worth 40k not today, not tomorrow not ever. The fact is JJP, Stern and other companies will keep coming out with amazing games and eventually people move on to the newest and greatest. Guns N Roses CE are selling for 20k, if Pirates is worth 40k then Guns CE should be worth twice that money.
I’m a firm believer in selling something for what you can get... but 40k no way.
With that being said when JJP next game is released I expect the price will be higher but not by the same percentages that some are trying to cash in. You mention this game is collectible, but ALL pinball games are collectible not just this one. Another fact you failed to mention is ALL collectibles values go up and down based on the economy and the rarity. With that being said if JJP makes 500 more Pirates, which I hope they do, the guy who paid 40k for one is going to be singing the blues. Look at prices for Cactus Canyon, Aliens, Attack from Mars, Monster Bash, Big Lebowski ... when the manufacture made more copies the prices of the original ones crashed. Big Lebowski you can buy new for $12,500 why would someone pay 20k now? Cactus Canyon 2 years ago got up to 20k now I see people asking 10k. Alien got up and over 20k now I see people selling them for a TON less... so your theory of prices continuing to climb doesn’t hold water.
It proves out a point that there is a point where you’ve exceeded the means of the mass majority of buyers and you’ve done that in spades.

Quoted from jkashani:

I would pay 39k just not to look at Johnny Depp in the middle of the playfield.