Apologies, it's been a while, and you just teed it up way too nicely.

It has appeared that the insanity has been ending for at least 23 years:

2000:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/high$20prices$20market$20collapse%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/gzU8ZAOxvUE/qII_fx4klQ0J

2001:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/pricing$20decrease%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/3XZf_itbXjY/QI04T4Qr9UkJ

2002:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/pinball$20price$20bubble%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/8CDhldb5kyw/JxQRQPIGmQwJ

2003:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/pinball$20market$20price$20fall%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/clAO0zIHHfQ/CbExiOZrldIJ

2004:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/pricing$20decrease%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/pXZDb-2V6Yk/GSPWq06-nWsJ

2005:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/pricing$20bubble%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/ACTs0HpQktA/x-C5LZAF180J

2006:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/pinball$20price$20bubble%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/dBrqPnk7mkk/nQYyh65_fewJ

2007:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/pinball$20prices$20fall%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/femnxuH8a1k/oeXzsItDbOQJ

2008:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/high$20prices$20market$20collapse%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/44iMVjwb68o/wXb8-3F9vOIJ

2009:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/pricing$20market%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/JsgTrS05pCc/8pB5t9oUqTAJ

2010:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/pricing$20market%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/hNRZGnOAZ-Y/bs8Js1M7sUAJ

2011:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.pinball/high$20prices$20market$20collapse%7Csort:date/rec.games.pinball/DlcZoruS0Bo/VO_cueyPCEQJ

2012:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-price-bubble-think-it-cant-happen-think-again

2013:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-price-bubble-will-pop

2014:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/this-is-not-a-rebirth-of-pinball-its-a-bubble

2015:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/we-all-want-the-ass-to-drop-out-of-pinball

2016:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/when-will-the-stern-bubble-burst

2017:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/are-we-in-a-pinball-bubble

2018:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/why-i-feel-pinball-prices-are-going-to-plummet

2019:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/will-pinball-prices-come-down-

2020:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/prices-dropping-

2021 (this year was a fuggin BANNER YEAR for price bubble threads...maybe it's something in the vaccines! here's a pathetically partial list):
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-pricing-bubble-due-to-covid-one-nine
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/similarities-with-pinball-market-amp-the-2008-housing-crash
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/next-pinball-depression-
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-to-feel-about-these-exorbitant-pinball-prices/page/2#post-6254131
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pingreed-is-a-cancer-is-there-a-cure
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/prices-of-pinball-machines-today#post-6229413
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinflation-or-inflation
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/price-gouging
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f-you-stern-and-your-price-increases
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/are-pinballs-the-beanie-baby-craze-of-the-2020s
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/we-have-jumped-the-shark

2022:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/it-appears-the-insanity-is-ending#post-6954499

ANd here I had everybody thinking I typed that up freshly every time!

Foiled again by another Pinside Columbo!

No, the new saying is "$200 by the All-Star Break"

Virtual pinball?!?!?

The insanity, it appears, is just beginning!!

Mannix?

Guys, Guys, the majority of people on Pinside are incredibly young and hip and are simply not going to understand name-drops of these ancient TV cops/detectives!

Try and aim for something a little more relevant, as most things pinball are up-to-the-minute cultural references.

Crockett and Tubbs?

Remember when they sold those ridiculous fake out car kits at the airport?

Of course you don’t, you youthful Gen Z Pinsider!

Simon & Simon too irrelevant??

People don't exactly go to a Pawn Shop when they have the time, ability, and freedom to milk every last buck out of something they are selling; they do it when they need cash, now, quick, with as little friction as possible.

There must be a reason the industry exists and thrives; it's because there's a need/want for it. I don't begrudge these folks! It's a mostly-honest living. Sometimes you need money yesterday to pay the electric. Sometimes you need to hawk a bass because you really, really need some heroin. To each their own!

As for the TV shows, we all know it's completely scripted nonsense that has very little bearing on reality nor the actual pinball market.

Not that anybody needs to read this to know that, but here's a shocking expose on the world of pinball and reality TV! Prepare to rethink everything you know about life:

--------------------
rec.games.pinball
2010, 7:06:39 AM

I'm sure many of you have seen or at least heard
about the Bally Odds & Evens pinball that was
on the History Channel's Pawn Stars show recently.
(Could not find a YouTube video of this unfortunately.)
In case you haven't, basically it's a reality show
about a pawn shop in Las Vegas. A guy dragged
a 1973 Bally Odds & Evens to the pawn shop
(disassembled), and the pawn guys bought it
for $1000. Then they paid a guy $3000 to "restore" it.
At least that's how it was shown on the TV program.

Anyway, I was wondering why Tim Arnold (of the
Pinball Hall of Fame aka PHoF in Las Vegas) didn't
get the call for this.

But in fact, he did get the call. I talked to Tim
and he said: "The pawn shop called me and
asked if I would restore a game for them. I told
them I just didn't have time, and that was the
end of the conversation. I have NO idea this was
for the Pawn Stars show. I obviously would
have taken the free publicity for the PHoF, and
done the game restoration if I had known."

So who did get the call? Turns out the guy's
name is Micheal Scott. He's from California,
and within the last few years moved to Las
Vegas. Tim says he constantly runs ads in
the Las Vegas Craigslist for EM games and
doing repairs. And often you see him running
ads for plastics sets and parts on Mr.Pinball
classified.

I asked Tim about the show, and he had some
details. "Everything was scripted ahead, including
the pricing." I asked Arnold if Scott really got $3000
for basically a $200 'shop job' on the pinball game.
Tim says, "Again this was all scripted. Scott
knows what that game is really worth, and how
much his shop job would really cost. But the
TV producers feel things that are expensive
add more value to the story line. So the pricing
was dramatically inflated to reflect this."

So there ya have it. It's not reality, it's TV.
And higher priced items make for a better
story line. Sure we all know what the game
is worth, and how much the work done on
the machine should cost. But prices are
manipulated to give a more interesting show
for the general public. Reality shows are not
reality. And this is yet another in that
manipulation of reality.

My personal feeling on the show is if someone
called me, and asked me to inflate values
of an item and restoration cost of an item...
Well i would tell them to take a hike. (Present the
item correctly, or find someone else.) But the
intoxication of doing a national TV show and
the pressure from show producers, apparently
it was too much to refuse.

Any chance you can keep this (cutesy redacted bullshit) to the multiple dumb (redacted) threads with the same 3 cronies instead of bringing them everywhere else?

I mean, you aren't banned from ALL the redacted threads yet, are you?

It took a Hell of a word salad to get there, but I do like that you are giving us a solid prediction!

You heard it here first folks, bubble is set to burst in 6 months!

Ok, so one guy says the bubble will burst on January 1, 2023, but this one claims the bubble has, in fact, already burst.

Well, it was a good run. But it’s over. Time to dump all my shit.

Anybody want a nice TZ for $4,000?

I like it, but it would really drive it home if you can give us a timeline.

Summer, ‘25? Earlier?

I sold two games this week within 30 minutes of posting them on Facebook.

But lets keep pretending the bubble has burst and everybody is selling everything they own in mass panic because there’s a recession and gas costs $5 a gallon.

Whatever makes ya feel better!

Can't they just take some that water out from the fountains at the Bellagio? They got plenty!

Munsters is one of the great Pinside-defying games.

Everybody hates it. For about 3 years it was referenced in every "Dark night for Stern" thread.

Yet...it was actually a big hit and a huge seller for Stern. You hardly ever see them come up here for sale.

I know nobody will ever be convinced, but Pinside still represents only a very small, die-hard portion of this hobby/market.

Stern Star Wars was another huge seller, despite the common wisdom around here.

I know several satisfied Sean "The Storm" Grant students!!

The Fred Gwynne is always greener on the other side!

It's so weird how Turbo2nr gets triggered by someone saying GZ is anything less than the greatest thing every created, ever.

It's like someone going off on somebody who doesn't like chocolate ice cream, or sex.

It's like...almost everybody does! You are never gonna get 100 percent on anything.

There are people who like Yoko Ono music.

OK boomer!