I guess the goal is to show the manufacturers that the market for $5-6k pins would be significantly larger.
JJP managed to convinced people that $8k is the new price reference. In this range we have JJP, Sterns LE, MMr, TBL, P3... NIB buyers ready to spend that amount are not that many. And they are not going to buy every one of these pins. Forget about operators too...correct me if I am wrong, but I doubt there is a single WoZ on location in France. I doubt we will ever see a Big Lebowski pin in a bowling alley around here.

In the $5k- range we have Sterns Pro... nothing else (besides Predator, sold out). Here is where some competition could be healthy.

In between stand Sterns Premium, AMH, Full Throttle.

That rug really tied the room together...

Home vs Location...

Playing on location makes sense assuming:
- games would be in pristine condition
- games would rotate and I could try new games
- sound volume would be turned "on" (last time I played ACDC on location, music was off... )
- I would meet friends there
- It would not only be an arcade, but have a bar, with other games (darts, etc)

Having games at home allows you:
- to play old games you would never find on location (EM, early SS... I love my spectrum, which was a turd on location)
- to play with the sound on
- to study the rules in depth
- to adjust the settings to your liking.
- to have parties and tourneys at home, invite friends - pinheads or not - some will enjoy it; some will ignore it.
- to make temporary exchanges with friends - this is why I have a TZ a home for now.

There was one arcade nearby. I used to go regularly but it closed. Now all we have left are a few bars with 1-2 pins, where we can organize small tourneys for our regional league, after adding a few of our own games with the help of the operator. That's cool, regular bar customers enjoy it.

Not many in France either...
(but I am above 35... so I do not go to bars anyway )

Agreed. And probably far less than people who do not disclose their collection, or own more than one copy of a game (as far as I know, you can't specify if you own more than one). The latter case is not uncommon: ops, hoarders, flippers...

That makes two of us...

I am ready to bet that not a single $8k pin will be bought by an operator and put on location in France. (perhaps a few MMr but I doubt it... no Hobbit, no TBL). There is simply not enough money to be made to recoup your investment, even if resale value is not bad (say 20% loss after 12-24 months). Remember maintenance, cost of gas and labor and high taxes here.

Operating expensive pins would remain financially viable here if you get back nearly **all** of the pin cost when reselling it. Seems very unlikely with NIB pins. So an option could be to buy the HUO pins from rich / bored collectors once these pins have already lost some value, hoping no further major drop in resale value after putting them on location: seems possible assuming the pin is properly maintained.