Good man.....I'd sell it in two seconds and buy two the next week I have a lot of nice games that I enjoy playing, but I zero emotional attachment to any of them....sounds like I might be the problem

I do buy it...if someone offered me $20K for my Whitewater, sure I'd take it...and use that to buy an even nicer Whitewater. Same goes for my EBD-LE. I keep my machines for a long time. I've had my WH20 for 23 years, and my EBD for 35.

Selling my Mousin' Around (which I've had for 15 years) on Saturday, and using that money (plus more) to buy an MBr-SE. I would keep the Mousin, but I don't have the room, so something has to go.

We would still buy as long as we can sell a machine first. We have been like that for a few years. I think some games will still hold their value, some games will not. You have to take the good with the bad and we have had it very good for a long time. My wife and I want to enjoy the hobby for as long as we can.

Munsters is not a good example. A LE was always going to be a tough sell in Australia. 60 came in and everybody that wanted one got a new one and the game has not been out very long. Simple supply and demand. That is always the risk when you buy a new game that no one has played. We know that and I am sure you do too. We have one and I love it.

The market will likely be slower for a while.

To switch up your line up folks should consider doing temp trades with friends. Also trades should be considered more in the future to add a new game in and old out. With trades both sides don’t have to come up with as much or maybe even any cash to switch games out.

Hey if you are going to be staying at home more you may as well have an arcade in your house. No?

I just bought another pin, so for me, uh no

Society is pretty much shutting down and a crazy amount of the population is not working. Our prime minister just said most of the country will be on unemployment insurance right away. The pinball market and most other non-essential markets are guaranteed to TANK!

I give it five years or more to recover.

I like my games, and I'm still working, so I don't care. There are going to be crazy, crazy, crazy bargains soon. The nib companies are doomed without a bailout.

I'd be more willing to help bail them out than the airlines!

NIB companies will be fine if they will bring their pricing to a more reasonable scale. It is the near $10k pricing that is hurting them, even without this unprecedented time we are in right now. Make a profit yes, but a good product for a reasonable price will still succeed.

Pinball market?

I’m more worried about the stock market, world economy, and societal collapse.

I’m not. Pinball is all that matters.

I worked out a real fair and reasonable deal to get a BSD in my house month to month with a good local operator here. As someone without any games at home, I'm a location rat lowlife, and the forced closings was going off pinball cold turkey, woof.

See some others doing similar, and it's a win win with all these operators sitting with games off.

Boy do I wish I had the dinero all the NIB people have around here, so many tremendous collections I can only dream of. Id buy everyone's 1k Beatles platinum! One for each Beatle, why not. Location play is special though, some people missin out

Nobody will be buying pinball machines at any price because people arent going to have a job if this goes on much longer. Also the people that are working will be holding onto their money and wont be buying any luxury items like a pinball machine. Sure there will be a few that would buy but not enough to keep the pinball factories going.

Everyone keeps saying "Stern will be fine". I'm not sure why anyone would think that when they have a big ass factory sitting there that they have to maintain and pay all the neccessary bills on and they arent selling games.

No !!! I’m buying more projects and hiding out restoring them.

Thank god parts are made in the USA

I feel the same, particularly on the higher end, where potential loss increases in scale with the value of an item. Losing 25% value on a $2000 pinball is much easier to swallow that losing 25% on a $10k pinball. Apply as a multiple based on the size of your collection and do the math. Same goes for classic and exotic cars etc. It's a risky gamble, time will tell, speculation is all we have at the moment. Collective acts of self preservation will dictate what happens to the pinball market as this unfolds.

My take: don’t count on any kind of “return” from pinball. Invest in it what you can with full assumption that you’re getting what you pay for, no more.

Any resale down the road is a bonus, not a guarantee.

I just bought one today. I’m sure I’m not the only one

There will not be enough people buying if this continues to keep the doors open trust me. I can guarantee you that people at Stern are shitting their pants right now. There are tons of businesses shitting their pants right now and rightfully so.

I have a niece and a sister in law in Ohio who do hair for a living. Both are jobless right now and don't qualify for unemployment because they are self employed. Yes, ask the beauty salon industry in Ohio (or almost everywhere) how they are doing. This is going to hurt like we have never been hurt since a major war.

Right now I just noticed I opened a Party size bag of Doritos, ate 5 chips, and sealed up the bag... this could be my last bag of doritos for months...

And all this time I thought it was South Park. High Roller Casino is a way better game. Keefer busted his chops on this one. Thanks to Joe Norris and everybody else on the crew.

Well, guess I’ll be getting some good deals then

If you work, or can continue to work from home to begin with, it’s technically just another day at the office.
Why change spending habits if the above holds true for the foreseeable future and pinball is already factored into the annual budget?
Sure.
Shopping at the grocery store right now kinda sucks but, hey!
There’s always the option of supporting your favorite Mom and Pop dining establishments if they offer carry out.

It might just be the SoCal area in particular Who-Dey but, our local pinball distributor seems to be going like gangbusters since the quarantine has been in effect.

It’s also no coincidence that three of my single friends (not O-Din...lol) keep begging me daily to stay at my house.
These people who play pinball regularly/socially (but, don’t own a machine,) are jonesing for a fix.
Now that their beloved Barcades/Arcades/etc are closed, these normally happy-level-headed-coin-droppers might just get desperate enough to finally pony up for a game of their own.
Maybe a CL beater? Maybe a NIB JPLE?

Folks do some crazy irrational stuff when times get like this.
Kinda like stress eating junk food, but much more satisfying!

Pinball will continue to thrive in the home environment.
Hear that Gary?
One of the three legs of your proverbial stool will be just fine!

I picked up today a box of Kodiack buttermilk pancakes just in case.

Everyone I know almost is sitting on their money and I have friends that are losing their jobs like crazy. No way the stern factory is humming along with no worries right now.

The arse has dropped out of NZ and Aus dollar, we were 0.65c to the US 3 weeks ago, now at 0.56c So that adds about $800-900 to an already 10.6k Stern Pro.

Can't see many NIB sales over here and Australia for awhile.

“Humming along“ would definitely be a stretch.
Light jog or brisk walk would probably be more realistic until all this is in the rear view err...Gary’s SLE Harley left mirror?
They have to at least be better prepared than they were back in 2008-2010, right?
Steve Ritchie’s still an employee I hope?
Man, that would really chap his black-jeaned-ass if it happened again...

Either way, games here at least are indeed being sold both used and new.

Since the Hollywood crowd aren’t making movies or series, maybe they’re the ones buying up NIB’s like mighty gleaming towers of Charmin Ultra Soft?
Thus, leaving us/the rest of the modern world, to spiral into some, I dunno...“ZaNy” Rick and Morty dimension where- *buURRrrp* good hard working folks have to wipe their newly-broke-asses with their old high school gym socks that they CAN’T, EVEN, WASH, since there’s no effing soap to be found on any shelf, anywhere! Not even AXE BODY WASH FFS!

AhhhHAHA!
Good thing it was all just a silly dream, right Morty?
*BUuurrrRRPP*

There will for sure be people who are able to keep shopping, they will however not keep helping the price from dropping.
Why?

When prices are dropping, smart people able to Buy, will wait, because the prices will keep dropping.
It's not unrealistic to see a 50% or more drop if people are layed of or worried.

Sadly true. Someone suggested that Stern should offer a temporary discount - may be it would be a good idea? Or give an incentive for future sales if someone buying a pin now ("We reward our most loyal customers and we appreciate your support and trust").

Things are extra dire for us here in Norway. The OPEC negotiations failed and Saudi-Arabia and Russia are increasing oil production even in the face of lower demand. As a result, the Norwegian currency (which is -- correctly or not -- seen as a highly oil dependent currency) has dropped like a stone. Two weeks ago 1 US dollar was about NOK 9.2. Today it has been up to NOK 12.

So that NIB Stern Premium I just paid for today (invoiced in USD), cost me 30% more than it would have if I had paid in the beginning of March. That definitely hurts.

For $6000 Fathoms and $9000 LEs, I think it's gonna be tough sledding.

Everyone needs to open their eyes. The cavalier attitude that you’ll be able to snatch up everyone’s panic selling because this won’t effect you is foolish. Start preparing to take care of yourself and your loved ones. Pinball will be here once the dust settles, but it should be extremely low on the priority scale. We are all in jeopardy of loosing our jobs, whether now or months or a year from now.

Go back to School it adds 20%

Sure is nice to have a good pin collection to play when there is plenty of home time. I just bought a used Elvira that probably was not a great decision but it is so much fun. Trading will be a good way to get new pins in these uncertain times.

Well for one, just because you work from home doesn't mean your company is going to stay open. This is just the beginning. If people aren't buying what you're peddling, there is no job. We don't know if it will get that bad. We don't know if it will get way worse. Uncharted territory.

Understatement of the day.

See this too often. My favorite is someone wanted to buy my huo avatar le with mods for 5k. Their argument was that they had just gotten a TF le for 4400 so avatar was only worth 5k. Needless to say they still don't have one.

Yeah. I got so caught up in buying only higher end pins the past few years that I forgot just how much fun older pins for a much lower cost are. I always wanted an older pin with an NOS / CPR playfield in it, there's something about the way colors pop on older games as well as how fast they can play with a new playfield. About 6 months ago I picked up a very nice Mata Hari SS with a CPR playfield, new boards, and CPR plastics in it. I'm going to keep an eye out for more games like that. It's also nice having a blend of newer and older games in a collection.

Well yea, I don't expect to ever have one. That 10k ceiling for pinball is something I can't get past...especially for something that is unreliable and will likely be hard to get parts for in the future.

Why do people try to strong-arm their way into a deal like this? Does that ever work?
I was selling a MAME cabinet for $400 on Facebook a few months ago and it sold in a day. But not before 2 people tried to tell me that I was uninformed and it was only worth $50-$100. One guy told me I was lucky to get his offer of $100.

I think the second hand market will slow down but I don't see (and haven't yet) any real drop in prices. I don't see, for example, any Twilight Zone pins selling for $4,000. The NIB market I think will definitely slow down but I don't see any price reductions coming from manufacturers. The only reduction in sales prices will be what the distributors can afford/are allowed to do. Unfortunately, they are stuck with the games.

Because they think it will work. What is funny is the 7k avatar le listed on here, they are having a field day saying its only worth 5200 on fb. Game has some very pricey adons. I would love to get a chrome coin door like it has.

Well, the volume of newly listed games has really shot up over the last week but the asking price has been about what it would have been two months ago, at least it looks that way to me.

Most people who own pinball machines have money, if you need to sell than you couldn't afford them in the first place.

There may also be people looking to sell their pins now that were on the fence about keeping them, expecting it to be harder to move a pin in another month or so.

you keep saying this, the mark of someone who's never actually seen things get bad before. when things get tough, sometimes you have to make tough decisions. while it may be true that people who own them have money, that can change at any time for many reasons. as these are luxury items it would be one of the first things to go for many.

Most people's investments ( 401K, stock market, etc ) are worth 50% of what they were 7 days ago...........

I lost 26% in 2 weeks before I bailed (yesterday). That's, retirement and kid's college (got 10 more years before I need that one).

The next step is jobs are going to be lost on a mass scale, and people's homes are going to drop in value significantly. Wake up everyone.

RIP NIB pinballs.