Quoted from CrisCrow:what about buying a game, playing it until you beat the hell out of it, and then selling it. no reconditioning, same condition you got it. does that make you a flipper too?
I think the thing here is all the NIB, "pay for my spot", "I just got this", etc etc.
You buy the newest game with all the hype, secure your spot (LE, CE, SE, Premium, Pro, whatever) with ZERO honest intent to ever play or even open the damn box. The sole purpose of purchase was to flip it. And THOSE people drive the prices up. So to get the game the buyer then has to (theoretically) sell their game at a higher price to afford the new game. So there's this huge trickle effect for the entire industry.
I don't really think playing the hell out of a pin and enjoying it and then selling it is a flip. That's like buying a house, living in it, then getting your value out of it.
But the FLIPS in pinball drive the prices of all the other machines up.
It sickens me to see $12k for a Mando and $14k for a Godzilla NIB when you know what they paid for it and are just taking advantage of landing a spot on the wait list. It sickens me because there are HONEST people that want to enjoy the hobby for what it is. It takes games out of the lives/hands/families of these hobbyist people and puts the games with the greedy, money hungry people that are collectively pricing the hobby out of a good percentage of enthusiasts capabilities.