Kind of an unfair comparison

I think you hit the nail on the head!! Imagine being young, growing up in the 80s watching shows like Silver Spoons, thinking only rich people can afford arcade games. Then you get older and still have that notion of unaffordability. It makes sense how people would be naturally curious and confused how normal people own arcade equipment in the home.

I guess I'm not as good at BS'ing people as some of you in this thread. It's hard for me to be asked point blank what a new game costs and not tell the truth when asked since it's so easy to lookup pricing for new games.

I usually explain that my MO is to buy project games to fix up and sell to fund my new game purchases. I've bought two new games over the past 4 years and for each I had to sell something else to get them. Once that sets it it makes sense to those that are asking how I can afford buying new games. My MO is changing though since it's hard to find project games I can fix up and make an actual profit on nowadays.

When talking about pricing with newbies I always make it a point to explain that their is a price range for games. You don't have to spend $8k to get a nice game. It all depends on what you are happy with and what you want out of your purchase.