Honestly, this sort of thing never impacts the price of pins. People were convinced a couple years ago that the new Dredd movie would make JD skyrocket in price, and it didn't change at all.

For money, I think $1500 for shopped working and nice is right on. HUO might be a bit closer to $2k, but there isn't really that much that gets damaged with this thing. I mean, I have a routed example sitting here next to me, and other than some cabinet damage and fade, playfield-wise it looks like it could be HUO. I bought mine unshopped just slightly cheaper than that about a year ago.

I love mine not because of the gameplay, which feels like it was thrown together by a committee (which, I believe it was), but because the overall art package is amazing, and dgoett is absolutely right that this would never be made today - the custom stuff to make it look like a boat is absolutely amazing. To me, if nothing else, Popeye is the pinnacle of Python art, and the package put together is quite stunning. The gameplay is okay, fine for what it is but definitely not a shining example of what B/W mid-90s gameplay is, but it's not as bad of a game as people make it out to be. If you are only going to have two or three games though, it's probably not a choice.

As for a NIB one, I would say that you can probably get a HUO one for around $2k like I said, so figure that you add to that $2k price what it is worth to you to crack open a brand new machine, but then minus from that the cost to repair the board that the batteries almost definitely destroyed. If it's worth $1k for you to open it, then you should probably be willing to pay about $2700 to do so. To me, opening NIB machines are worth a relatively minor amount more than the game normally costs, so I might personally call it a wash with the boards.

Good luck!

People start talking every time there is a new related movie about how it might affect the prices, but it just doesn't. Ops aren't buying up a bunch of Popeye pins to stick back on route and hope they make money because they are older and way more unreliable in a route setting because of that age, and they have nothing at all to do with whatever new happens. Home buyers aren't watching the new movies and going to find a pin that had nothing to do with it.

It's a nice hope, but I don't think that Popeye is going to change pricing unless people begin to fall in love with it's art package, which I just don't think they will. Like I said, if you don't have a bunch of pins, I don't think it's a great choice. I am lucky enough to have a bunch, and a considerable amount of my collection I think would be horrid if I didn't have all the others. The diversity works in a big collection, and it makes Popeye's awesome package stand out.