Must be a nice fridge

Buy a foam cooler, dorm room microwave & a BM66SLE instead

Don't get a glass cooktop. You can thank me later.

Yes, pinball is expensive, but you're clearly buying high end appliances.

Also, try selling those same appliances second hand and see what you get for them compared to pinball.

Consider yourself lucky.

My wife's oven and ranges cost more than her car. In other words, it was a complete waste of cash, but it keeps her happy.

I looked at your collection . You are like me. You buy the best of everything . And yes that is ok. But I will add that the Price of High End Pinball machine's that is all I really like to buy is getting to Expensive absolutely IMO.

Those all sounds crazy expensive, like 3-4x normal appliance prices.

But even at normal prices, these things are mass produced overseas, and have economies of scale plus cheap labor and materials.

Pinball machines are either no longer produced and exist in very limited quantities, or are currently produced in limited quantities and without cheap labor, or materials.

Basically the comparison is not valid. I wish it were, I would love me some nib Sterns, but it's not.

And wait until you have to connect all that new kitchen technology. Surely, millwork, plumbing, and some electrical mods a must....( ouch)

Pinball is truly not that expensive when compared to other high end toys....actually cheap in comparison...go buy a nice boat, sports car, high end golf clubs, a nice pool, high end home cinema, etc......you'll find pinball compares nicely.

And you only have to plug it in.....no gas, millwork, CRAZY maintenance costs, etc.

Good luck.....you're buying commodity appliances...a no win, fiscally ( but gotta have them)...

I have been into drag racing, road racing, RC Cars, planes, helicopters. Drag racing was by far the most expensive with $40k motors and the parts cost was through the roof, never mind the paying for the car. Road racing was high up front cost, but reasonable maintenance costs. The RC stuff was from $500-$5000 (for a top of the line 3D stunt heli). So, yes I do think new machines are crazy expensive, and I've committed to not having anymore than 6-7 in my house at a time. Heck, I just had a bathroom redone and when I looked at the quote I thought "well huh, it's the price of my TSPP, so not a bad deal". The weird part is Even though my total investment was higher in some of my other hobbies, buying a pin always feels more expensive. I guess it's the mindset of paying $1k, ten times over 3 months, vs paying $10k a pop for a pin feels worse in my mind. I'm sure it doesn't make sense to most, but I have an easier time ponying up when I am paying a small sum at a time.

I guess it's the same reason i leave a smallish balance in my checking account. When I see a good amount saved up, I start getting into that "hmmm, what toy do I need this week?". My wife is completely on the other end of the spectrum and won't even spend money on the things she needs. I have to commend her for it and luckily we both compromise and meet in the middle on most things, so there is rarely an issue.

Or try high end audio ... Where a budget amp is 5grand, a phono cartridge several thousand and just the AC duplex outlet (plated with rhodium) you plug it into can cost over $100. And after a few years expect to get back half of retail (though there are high marks ups /discounts)

Also you need a lot of empty space to develop a sound stage, which is why I can only have 1 pin.

When compared to something like drag racing, sure, pinball is cheap.

But comparing pinball in 2017 to pinball in 2007 is like night and day. It's great that the popularity means a company like JJP is viable, but the flip side is now all the old timers like me are priced out.

I just did a big backyard reno with pool, etc, and that money was literally thrown away into a hole in the ground and no getting it back.

At least with pinball it can be liquidated at any time.

The thing is though is that pinball is a toy. Sure it CAN make money but it's difficult to do so. I mean getting a car, not going to a restaurant, laundromat, etc. There are so many things in life that have vastly more importance than a pinball game. That is the main trouble with buying instead of paying to play a pinball machine. I mean if you owned a laundromat you will get money because people need clothes clean. Most people don't want to "lose" a $1 for a few seconds and didn't have fun because they don't know how to play pinball.

That's why I say locations need a few older .50 games. Most all games now are at least $1 and it runs away the casual person that loses the game in a minute. If you hook them with some lower cost/longer playing games they might make the progression.

Appliances are designed to go bust shortly after the warranty expires. It's called "Planned obsolescence."
There are companies that wholeheartedly believe consumers enjoy replacing appliances every 5 years.

I don't believe pinballs are being designed to be that way.....at least not yet.

I see used appliances at garages sales for a couple hundred bucks occasionally. The best ones are usually from kitchens that were remodeled, and are usually still nice and in working order.

I have a 14 year old Maytag stove with the ceramic cooking surface. Not a single scratch on it after all these years.

Whatever materials the manufacturers are using these days really sucks. They scratch VERY easily. In less than a year's time, the cooking surface will look totally trashed.

Pinball is expensive.

Pinball is expensive but compared to appliances - or other hobbies - you don't have as much depreciation with pinball. If you're lucky you might even sell a game for more than you paid for it!

Or don't get married.

Everything is expensive, sadly.....

Expensive are you kidding me.
Everyone has 4 mortgages right?

Holy crap, appliances are insanely expensive over in the US.

I have a fridge that has a camera in it linked to my mobile (cell) phone so if I forget what I have in/need to buy I can simply check what I need/already have in, my oven is also linked to my phone, misses often puts stuff in the oven while she is out with oven off, while she is out she can turn the oven on and set it from her phone so once she gets back in with the kids food is pretty much ready.

These are high end in the UK but about half the cost of what you listed, which I find surprising as nearly everything in the UK is a rip off compared to everywhere else in the world. I thought I was mad when I brought my stuff, you are a whole new level of mad

To answer the main question though, yeah pinball is WAY too expensive but like most things I enjoy these days they are all too expensive so its probably my own fault I don't have cheaper tastes/hobbies

There's a formula; the larger span of time before you replace, the greater the mark up. So pinball is cheap!

True.

I like how you think!!!

As with EVERYTHING in life, price is not (nor has ever been) about a small markup on the BOM; price is about supply and demand. If people are willing to pay it, the market will float it. Currently, the market allows $8000+ NIB games. One day if/when pinball goes out of vogue again, the market will relent and you can buy your $400 Space Shuttles and $1500 TZs.

I only wish an oven could make my wife happy...

Was going to say the same thing. If you want to compare low volume pinball machines to appliances, then you also have to compare it to low volume appliances that don't have the benefit of economies of scale. Then you get to $9,000 Sub Zero fridges and $10,000 Viking ranges, although even those are still likely made in higher volume than pinball machines.

Kind of like questioning a 2005 Ford pickup that cost 12k and today a new truck can push 60k. Is a truck That much better at hauling a sofa or pinball machine??

Ha! Did you know that the white and black LCD spike boards are the same materials as the boards in new household appliances. The cheapest circuit boards possible. The old green boards actually cost more to make. If you barely use them and they are huo that's fine. But left on 8-12 hrs a day for years. Wait and see.

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I just gutted my kitchen and am doing a remodel. I buy all of my appliances from US appliance online. No tax and they ship straight to your door with free shipping. Honestly I have had nothing but bad experiences with Kitchen Aid appliances, very expensive to repair as well. If you are going to spend big bucks I would probably go with Viking. Most appliances nowadays last for about a 10 year lifespan. I prefer GE Profile or GE Café series, great bang for your buck appliances. 10 years from now when they take a shit, you simply buy new ones. Also if you decide to check out US appliance, call a representative and ask for a discount when ordering. Nobody has been able to even come close to the prices I get with US appliance. Just FYI

Damn, you should definitely shop around!! 3K for refrigerator? Yikes

A pinball machine isn't an appliance.

Or perhaps I missed the domestic task a pinball machine performs?

It might be able to fry an egg.

Those are hardly high end....high end are like 2x-3x that

I agree, I bought Viking appliances/venthood for our kitchen over 10 years ago and spent roughly 20k and that didn't include the fridge. We couldn't afford it so went with a different brand. It did take electric, carpentry and install work which I did most of myself our could have added even more.

Cooktop had issues multiple times and got fixed under warranty (extended that I paid for). It's finally been good but that's because it has all new redesigned parts put in it.

Double oven works like a champ, but the black printed on lettering is coming off.

The dishwasher was completely silent and worked perfect until it quit. Would have cost $1000 to repair and the repairman said it wasn't even the most likely to fail part which would be another $1000 so he recommended I toss the $4k dishwasher and buy another. I bought a GE for $1800.

Longish story, but all of that is sunk costs. We will never get any of that money back out of the appliances and most likely will have to replace the ovens and cooktop in another 10 years. If I did it again, I wouldn't buy the high end and just get something I'd plan to replace in 10 years. There was not any appreciable increase in quality going with the luxury models.

Now for pinball, sure new games are high. It's a hobby. It's also the only hobby I have ever had that is easy to liquidate at a decent return. You may/will lose some money on NIB purchases, but it's much less than any other hobby. Think guns/ammo, cars, rc cars (I do this too), golf, anything that is a luxury. All of those hobbies most money put in is lost as soon as you spend it and you must keep spending substantially to keep playing.

Pinball maintenance is fairly cheap after the initial purchase.

Pinball can also be an extremely cheap hobby. There are more and more locations that have pinball, simply go out and feed a few dollars in. It's pretty cheap entertainment.

Stupid Appliance Manufacturing story: We have a GE fridge, it was new when we built our house 3 years ago. One morning we woke up, went downstairs and the appliance had no power. Weird. Checked the circuit breaker, checked the outlet, they both worked fine. It was something in the fridge itself. Couldn't figure it out, so called GE and a week later they came out (luckily it was winter in MN, so we were able to put our frozen foot outside to stay frozen ). The tech spent an hour, couldn't figure out why the entire fridge had no power. Called a coworker, they couldn't figure it out. Finally they decided to pull all of the LED lights from the fridge... When they pulled one of them out, the whole fridge came back to life! Yes, a bad LED bulb took out power to the ENTIRE APPLIANCE. What kind of dumb engineering is that? Imagine if you had a bad LED in the pinball and it just wouldn't power on. So bad.

To give GE credit, they paid for the repair and gave me like $150 to help cover some of the spoiled food, even though it technically wasn't under warranty anymore. I wonder if an engineer was fired over that one...

This is my wife and I to the "T" lol. It drives me crazy when she won't get what she needs or even treat herself to something nice.

Nice!! Low maintenance!!

Whirlpool mid/low end dishwasher going on 9 years. Run it probably 3-5 times a week. Zero problems

Inglis lowish/mid end top load Washer and Dryer 9 years (got same time as and dishwasher). Zero problems

I spent $600 on a new Samsung gas oven / range top last September. Zero problems.

Fridgidair Fridge / Freeze made in 1999. Zero problems in the last 9 years I have been here.

My sister got some ridiculous super expensive fridge and she has had problems with it.

Lots of issues with ice makers it seems. My SAmsung shit the bed and after a year they refunded me.

Miele appliances for the win in my opinion. Mid to high end but are very reliable.

Why don't you ever respond after making a topic? Seem like your semi trolling?

All my Samsung appliances were complete shit. Thankfully they didn't offer a dishwasher, so I bought a Bosch.

Ha yeah I didn't buy a Samsung dishwasher either....luckily mine has it's steam vent right near the top of the door so it completely rusted out the metal above it in under a year. So that's good design.

Pinballs are expensive, but also the value of pinballs are rising, so you are most likely to get your money back later on if you need to sell the machine...