That's fine by me.

I dont believe much will effect our small hobby.

Hundreds of manufacturers? That seems like a lot. You must have a list or some sort of data base of manufacturers from then. Could you post that for me? I'm interested to see who all of those manufacturers were. Thanks in advance!

You are gonna have to produce proof that you own that DE King Kong before we can fulfil any requests.

Why did you spin that whopper anyway? The motivation was never clear.

Not for me. I sit around all day and post. I weigh 280 pounds and don’t exercise.

Coin op has never had to battle an app market this healthy and advanced.

Pinball is a big dollar industry that’s driven by home collectors. If the markets have a crazy crash, no way folks will be dropping $6-$10k on a wooden box with lights.

Some might.

But the average modern NIB buyer won’t.

You too? Im going to try to hit tree fiddy before 2019!

I'd post them, but I don't feel like violating copyright Laws. Get yourself access to Dick Bueschel's Encyclopedia of Pinball. He only published Volumes 1 & 2 before he passed away. They cover from the late 1920's to the mid 1930's. There are over a hundred manufacturers listed in the editorial indexes. A lot of us never heard of many of these companies, but they all made penny & nickel table-top pinball machines.

Effect of economic crash, odin??.....well, either pins will go up, down, or the same.
hedged myself here.

One things for sure, people in CA will start using them for housing! One person per cabinet!
Low cost real estate!

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California will find a way to get a boatload of taxes out of those that do that.

Oh brother don’t get me started about taxes!!!!

They really suck, am I right guys?!?!

If you have to use a credit card or take out a loan to buy something as stupid as a pinball machine you should have your head examined

My Brain is always being examined! Just did it again today!

If you factor in stock splits Apple was closer to $2.00 I think. Somewhere around 1997.

It's already here...y'all just can't see it yet.

Coin op in the Great Depression: As LTG noted, coin-op did good in the bad times. There were no jobs (well, that is not true. If unemployment is 25% that means 75% are working) so if you were broke and down to your last nickel and bored you------fed a pinball machine.

The founder of the Holiday Inn motel chain got his start during the depression with pinball machines.

(Google search is wonderful)

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/14/business/kemmons-wilson-90-dies-was-holiday-inn-founder.html

" He dropped out of high school at 17 and borrowed $50 from a friend to buy a popcorn machine in a local theater. But the manager got rid of him for making more money than he did.

" From popcorn, he switched to the pinball machine business and used his first profits to pay for a house for his mother. He built the house, saving $1,700, by doing the work himself. He then mortgaged his house, which had cost him $2,700, for $6,500 and bought a jukebox business. Other ventures, from an ice cream parlor to home building, quickly followed.

If the economy tanks I think an old fashioned dark bar with pins and drug sales in the bathroom will make a killing. People always want an escape from reality however they chose to do so. So if you can offer a one stop shop of escaping your life you should make a killing.

This is the kind of dark foreboding I come to threads for.

I’m gonna spend the weekend stocking up on guns and MREs!

80 years later things have changed.
A full on depression, people
Aren’t gonna leave the house for cheap entertainment. They’ll just stay home with all their cheap entertainment.

If my pin collection that I have been building gets hit I won't be selling in a panic. I'm retired and everything is paid for. But the poor boys who have loaded up at the credit barn and then lose their job.... I'd have to join that Warren Buffet "blood in the streets" buying opportunity.

The chart O-din put up is interesting.

2001 is when G.W. Bush was inaugurated. As I recall, almost as soon as he took office, the first words out of his mouth is "that the country is going into a recession". By the chart, he was correct, but maybe late in calling it (enter hind site). From February forward there is a little more of downward slide followed by the 9-11 drop.

In 2002 GWB starts talking about Saddam and his Weapons of Mass Destruction. Then the mini recovery and sideways action until around March 2003 when the U.S. invaded Iraq with Shock and Awe.

2004 and 2005 would suggest that war is good for the economy. A quick victory was expected.

In 2006 things stalled out on the chart. What I recall of things happening is that California came out with the 50 year home mortgage, and an outfit called Ditech was pushing zero interest home loans, and I starting hearing from people getting laid off and moving back home with mom and dad.

2008 was all GWB and Obama was inaugurated in Feb. 2009.

2016 and everybody was saying Trump would be bad for the stock market and look at that chart.

The question: Are we at the peak like 2006?

c430316a96de5ac150cd8b775e0828d182245488.png (resized).jpg

I do have to laugh when all of the pundits are saying that inflation is starting to pick up. I remember in 2009 when cat food went from 20 LB. sacks to 16 LBs per sack and the price stayed the same---a 30% price any way you cut it. Sugar was 5 lbs. then 4 lbs; I'm waiting for the 3 lb sack to arrive.

A gallon of milk is still a gallon of milk but the grocers use milk as a price war vehicle. A quart of oil is still a quart but to compensate the price had to go up; No hiding the price increase with smaller containers here.

And finally, we have bailed out all of the banks and all of the underwater homeowners; Somewhere in here Greater Fool Theory has to come in to play.

Next up on the list: We will start hearing about Galloping Inflation.

Sorry... do I have to get rid of my machines?

There is always money to be made in good and bad times with stocks. I remember during the Clinton era when you could throw a dart at the stock market printed in the paper and make money. Along came the down swing with GB and old fashioned investments paid. War is good for making money and tech stocks were king. Banks got a bailout and we all started from zero with a record low and have been setting records in closing ever since. This will happen again and luxury items maybe including pins will take a hit depending on how desperate people get. I don't think the prices will hit the all time low pins once were, but one can dream about making a killing at buying pins on the cheap. Cars, boats, trailers, rv's, and motorcycles did before. And the best were the houses you could get. If one can put off the wants of today and save you should be able to have more later and only time will tell about pinball.

Maybe when you were a kid you would dumpster dive to collect aluminum cans? Then later you see a guy with an old pickup at 2am collecting broken down boxes from stores. You would be surprised at what that guy was making. Better yet was the guy on the off ramp. There is always money to make or get.

There were at least 179 different manufacturers in 1932 alone......... https://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?yr=1932&sortby=name&searchtype=advanced

From those 179 at least 360 different games were manufactured. In 1932 ALONE.

I can't tell how serious this post is or isn't, but I am going to 100% agree with this.

When I read posts of "oh my God, I had to settle for a SE machine amidst my sea of LE machines...what ever will I do if the neighbors find out?" kind of posts - I just hope they are not legitimately serious.

I miss the days this site had some REAL content and not a bunch of drama or seemingly meaningless threads like "Hey, do you really keep your NIB boxes just in case you want to sell your game for even more money?" kind of threads.

You can find tech advice here and there, but now, the vast majority of that knowledge has been placed on PinWiki, Pinball Ninja, or good ol' wild wild west of RGP.

If you can write a $21K check for a game, life goals I guess...? If you can tell me how to properly test a PnP vs NpN transistor or properly trace a current flow on a WPC backbox board, or rule out a "all switches open, ground error" on the DMD - and you can actually carry out these actions and find and correct your errors a la Clay H - now you have my attention.

Oh, woe is me the good ol' days.... *half sarcastic/half truthful*

Dude, you got somethin' to say just say it.
Stop beatin' around the bush.

If you pay your card off every month , that's great. But most people don't, that's bad.

Is this Dave Ramsey?

That depends on who you are around here. Some people can say anything that they want and its ok, while others say nothing and get in trouble.

What you mean is Odin needs to kiss that pinball booty!

Pretty much, and i don’t see that happening anytime soon. O-din is what he is and doesnt kiss anyones azz. He may be goofy but he’s real and not a phony, i like that.

You can say whatever you want as long as you don't state an opinion or offend anyone. Good luck.

Everybody FEELS that way but I guarantee it’s bullshit. I’m sure Odin feels like he’s the only one who gets moderated. So do you. So do I.

You want to talk shit or constantly see how much politics you can talk and get away with it? That doesn’t sound a little like you?

Sometimes you’ll get moderated sometimes you’ll get away with it.

That’s life in the fast lane buddy!

Like i said though, that depends on who you are. Also these days almost everyone is offended by everything, its the cool way to be these days seems like. Thank God for cry ins, coloring books, puppy dogs to pet while crying, and Play- Doh is all i can say! How did we ever get by without these things for so many years???

I guarantee you its not bullshit is what I guarantee. Im not mad about it though, nor do i even give a shit. Im just talking

When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna stake my claim
I guess I'll change my name.

No

I would say with the exception of anything i own pinball prices will stay stable. I will keep my list of pinball machines (and purchases in general) so everyone will know what is sure to become worthless in the next months/years. No matter or market conditions the one tried and true rule is "if i am looking to by it is made of gold, if i am sell it then it seems to have no value"

it always makes me think of the jukebox boom, prices spiked they were cool for a hot second and now no matter what the true "market value" is the guy that bought in at the 5 - 6k range ain't selling until he doubles his money no matter how publicized his machines lack of worth is. I keep thinking that pin prices are sure to drop and level but that does not seem to be the reality.

Hey Odin, why are you always smoking short stubby cigars?

Odin's answer: ...because no one ever throws out a whole one.

............ ................

Or Bruce Williams; "Good Luck my friend".