Quoted from Tranquilize:Sad part in the steep increase in pricing is that a lot of middle class people that would normally get into this hobby won't be able to. I know it's always been a semi-rich guy's hobby, but even used prices are getting crazy. It's truly becoming a hobby for the wealthy and the grandfathered, like real estate in dense cities like New York.
I make good money, but I wouldn't have joined the party at these prices. Pinball is fun, but it's not THAT fun.
It’s certainly harder to get into dmd era games compared to a few years ago, but stern pros are still around the same price they were several years ago, at least in the secondary market. Star Trek, acdc, Munsters, Metallica, Deadpool, Spider-Man, avengers, xmen, etc can all be had for around 4500-$5k. That’s not much increase in many years. Other games like wpt, rbion, sopranos, nascar can easily be had for under $4k. There are also other great 90s games under $4k, some under $3k, like road show, fish tales, jm, shadow, bsd, etc. granted some of these games have doubled in recent years, but you dont need to spend $10k to enter the hobby. Clearly it’s become much more expensive to build up a collection, but you can easily have 2-3 nice games for around $10k if you try. Pinball never has been an inexpensive hobby.
The high end games are where the price increases are happening the most and that mainly seems because of lack of supply and people thinking they can buy these games and flip them. I’m stunned at how many potc games are coming on the market at $17-20+k, crazy to me, and I dont understand the motivation a buyer has at those prices. Some people buy the CE from jjp with the sole intention to flip it and so far that strategy has worked well. But for the buyers paying what I think are ridiculous prices, I don’t entirely get it. Do they think prices will go even higher...greater fool theory? Or do they truly think a game like potc is so good, they will pay any price?
