Ok, here is a little “update” on the pinball market. This covid19 thing is a major risk to everything in the economy. My wife is a VP at the worlds largest health insurer, and they are taking this VERY seriously. They have shelved all internal work NOT supporting claims processing, they are mobilizing their entire workforce to do nothing but handle covid19 and corona virus related issues. They have a “get to the office” policy that is calling all workers to report to work, all work from home is cancelled, unless you are an approved tele-commuter. So, those prognosticators, yeah those health insurance handicappers are betting on a blow out overwhelming of their insurance claim systems, that this will push the system not only to the brink, but well past it. They are expecting at least 2 quarters of recession, and major hits to all finacial markets, their own included.

These are the people who bet on how many people will get sick, need treatment, or will die. So anyone thinking this will blow over anytime sooner than 6 months are betting against what the worlds largest health insurance provider is betting on.

If you think this won’t impact the pinball market, I enjoy your enthusiasm, but I am not in the market for any NIB pinball any time soon, and the secondary market will at first heat up as people will try and buy up other people’s poor decisions at bargain prices, but only the rich will be buying eventually, NIB or not. The disposable income glut is going to dry up fast.

@delt31, you will be the first guy I call when I need to sell. Fortunately for me, that is not going to need to happen for a LONG time. I’m not independently wealthy, but I have been fortunate enough to weather 2008 and came out smelling rosey. I expect to weather this one as well.

I’ve not got any dog in this race, you can do what you like. I’m just telling you what I know. Use the info, don’t use it. Don’t care. You think this is not going to hurt the economy? Great. I will do what I need to do. Notice 2 quarters is equal to 6 months... You have a nice day.

I have never bought a pinball machine as an investment except the very first one I bought, Pinbot over 25 years ago. But it wasn’t an investment for the appreciation of the value of the machine, it was to help curb my on site pinball playing bill. Back then, we figured a $750 dollar investment would pay for itself in reduced cost of play. Now it takes over 3000 games to justify it at a $0.25 a pop, but I was spending about $50 bucks a month on playing at the arcades... doesn’t take long to pay off $750 at 50 bucks a month. Ever since buying it, though, I have had that same feeling when I work on them... “one wrong move and the transistor gets it!” or board, relay, coil, or cabinet on fire, house burned down....

The people eating hand to mouth are in line to get steamrollered... the rich are getting their wealth hammered, but the ultra rich are just going to get even wealthier as the have capital to buy all these stocks at pennies on the dollar and wait. The ultra rich are good at this, and all that money the low end is loosing, both in 401k and wages, will end up in the ultra riches’ pockets, it always does.

Funny thing, have you seen any distributors on Pinside beside @zmeny? Have we heard from anyone at all, serious question. I mean they know if people are buying or not... if they were flying out the door, would we not hear about that? Has everyone’s inbox been jammed with offers from your distributor? How desperate are they? These are the actual questions that I have, because, if sales are in the toilet, do you tell people that? Not sure I would try to do anything but BAU... maybe have an “inventory reduction” sale to move some machines, then offer bundled deals when contacted about your sale. “I got a DI or a Hobbit you can have at $500 off, free shipping to go with your Stern Pro whatever”.

Just checked my inbox to see if I am missing out on any sales, and sure enough, 3 hours ago Bing! Like clockwork...

Maybe the market is on the decline?

The problem with the youth I think is a lack of respect for anyone outside their circle of friends and family... and inside the circle, the biggest person they care about is themselves. This is just a culmination of bad parenting and the parents just wanting “to get along and be their kid’s BFF” instead of being more strict and more disciplined and making the kids do the things they should. And yes, I realize I have become my father, but that is what age and wisdom does to everyone.

The 6 years in the Navy gave me great perspective. That “get the F up and get your shit in one sock” rude awakening should be experienced by everyone in my book. You see things completely differently after a drill sergeant puts his boot up yer ass on a daily basis for 8 weeks in boot camp. My wife looks at the difference between me and my brother. I ended up doing well, my brother, who went straight into the workplace, lives from paycheck to paycheck. Got to say, a lot of the luck I have had in my life comes from a good work ethic I gained in the military.

Hey, if someone posts a “unicorn” machine For sale anywhere near me, and the price is not $$$ but 1/2$, I am not going to pass it up on the guise that I am not doing this person or pinball any favors. Someone sets their price, and it’s a steal of a deal, Am I actually going to say “Dude, you know you could get more for this unicorn?” Nope, and neither would any of you pinheads out there. You would open your wallet you pull out his asking price and drop it on the glass, just like everyone else. I’m not paying for their life story, nor do I want to know why the low price, I will rub my chin, look up and to the right, shake my head back and forth slowly, say, “well, hmm... ok, you got a deal.” And due to the times flash him the Vulcan hand sign and say LLAP, dude.

My family is already earmarking machines they want when I die... talk about vultures. I told all the nieces and nephews it’s one apiece...

For you, and me that was blatantly obvious... now for the rest of the company? Not so much... some people just are not cut out to being told when to piss, when to shit, when to smoke, when to eat, when to laugh, when to cry, when to shut the F up, and when to sound off... and not everyone was a 4.0 sailor out of the gates. It took some guys 8 weeks to memorize the chain of command, your general orders, and how to tie a square knot or sheep shank. Much less being able to completely refold your locker and make your bunk during barracks inspection in under 12 minutes. We could make a bunk up, inspection ready, from completely unmade to hospital corners, folded pillow case and folded wool blanket in less than 3 minutes. That gave you almost 10 minutes to refold your 3 undies, 2 t shirts, dungarees, and raincoat. now could everyone do that by end of week 8, nope. But we had guys who could do two lockers and two bunks in 12 minutes and they were paired with guys who could not do just one in 12. So yeah, we cheated, but does cheating matter as long as the job was done and everyone’s rack and locker met inspection? Not according to the company commander (our drill sergeant)... he said, “this is how the Navy works, they give you a job, they give you a time, you get that job done on time. Doesn’t matter how, or what marine (sorry to the former or current Marines in our audience, but you know... squids and marine life never get along) you have to kick in the balls to get it done.” Now mind you, I don’t recommend kicking a Marine in the balls, it just gets their attention... it never ever stopped one from beating the phuck out of you, but hey they’re Marines, so what are you going to do?

We only took on Marines when the odds where at least 2 to 1 in our favor... or better. You would be amazed at how many sailors a group of 10 Marines will take on. We had most of 2 watches from the Engineering dept (about 23 guys) drinking at the EM club when 10 Marines stood up and started hassling one of the Deck Div MM strikers and his date, saying she had thick ankles (which all Scottish lasses seem to have by the way) and Banjo, our biggest MM stood up and said to stop it. And of course it did not go well for anyone... Shore Patrol showed up, threw half of us in the brig, sent the others back to our boat. Captain said nothing, threw all the discipline chits in the circular file and suspended liberty until we left for patrol. Fun times back then.

Actually the Marines had me in the recruiting station office when I saw the cut-away picture on the wall of a Nuclear submarine. They had me ready to sign up when I asked about the submarine... how does one get on one of those?, the Navy recruiter looked up from his desk from across the office and said “by joining the Navy, dipshit.” At which point he walked over handed me a Navy Nuclear Power Program brochure and said wanna go to lunch? The rest is history.

I didn’t cause a Nuclear accident at least... yes I was a reactor operator qualified to run S3G and S5W nuclear reactors circa 1982-1986, USS Andrew Jackson SSBN 619 (Gold), 7 strategic deterrent patrols off the coast of Russia during the Cold War. ET2-SS Roth at your service. Glad I could help keep the commies off the doorsteps for you.

Oh, and one last note... about submarines... we called ourselves Bubbleheads in the submarine service, hence my moniker, shortened to fit the old max allowable irc chat handle length of 9 characters back in like the turn of the century...

I got one story... not so classified, but funny... well it includes classified documents in the story... anyone want to hear it? It includes dead people, and white lies.

Only when standing next to a well lit pinball machine.

Not for some of us. When I buy a pinball machine, I don’t buy it, I really adopt it for life. So sits every machine I have ever owned in my game room from Pinbot to MBrLE, and none will move unless I need money to feed my animals, because that was the contract I made with the fury babies when I adopted them. “Bolted to the floor” also means they are not for sale, at any price, because, honestly, I own these things for my enjoyment, to play on, work on, restore, maintain, and keep working. They are not an investment, they are entertainment. Just like they were in the Great Depression, like they will be during this “event”, because you gird you’re loins before ever calling this a “recession” around this place.

This machine saved on site pinball for us back in its day... this was the ONLY new pinball machine we had seen for EVER when we thought Stern was about to close its doors, it also spurred me on to buy my first Stern to either get one of the last new pinball machines made in America, or help keep them afloat just a little longer.

Nope... the wife and I made the decision to buy MBrLE together at Expo in 2018, and we unboxed it together last April, our first true NIB experience. Its never leaving, 20K or not... We have made every purchase together since Pinbot, and each machine has its own special story on how it came into our lives... Call us sentimental, but 30 years on, and we still tell each other we love each other more than 10 times a day. And that is the secret to a great marriage. Not just saying the words, but meaning them like its your last time you will ever get to say them, because, if you accidently walk in front of that bus, you suddenly would be correct.

Also, she was the reason we bought Pinbot first and not a Sorcerer that had been left in the rain and had terrible water damage to the back of the back box for $500. She said to wait until we came back the next month to the operators auction, they were bound to have a Pinbot, and sure enough they had 3 up for sale. I got the best one out of the 3 for $750, the second one they sold that day. The second best machine went for a cold grand, and only because the operator needed a machine that earned, and at the time, it kept near the $900 price tag because of that, the first machine went for $875, but need shopped bad. Mine went for less because switch 22 (Vortex 100K) made it do the Knock Knock Knock check switch dance when powered up. I checked the switch in test and it worked fine, but someone had rebuilt the ramp plastic cover wrong and so the ball would hit the cover and fall in the 5000 vortex hole, or if you full plunged, it would just smack the glass and hit the 20K every time, you could never hit the skill shot 100K, so it thought the switch was broke. That check switch knock sound scares every new buyer to death, so I ended up bidding against the owner who only needed $750 out of it. Win-win in my book.

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...

Right now the slope of the case curve is positive, and like really positive, due mostly to more testing and more reported cases because the testing is ramping up as well. untill that slope flatttens out, we are in exponential growth, no ifs ands or buts about that math.

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Anyone played maiden lately, Run to the hills keeps going through my head for some reason, not sure why...