Rare can fetch high prices. Rare and good fetch higher prices. BBB falls into the latter category. Punchy the clown? Played it once, had a lot more fun playing BBB.

Marc

Nudge-It. Supposedly 53 made?

Collector interest, PERIOD.
There are plenty of prototype and low production games that are worth less than $2000.
Many people have never even heard of at all.

An example not included.
King Kong (Data East, 1990) - 9 units (supposedly)
UberRare, Expensive, and coveted by owners.
Many will not even say they own it.
Why?
Artwork and theme.

Most of the data you require can be extracted from the IPDB.
It is already there.
If you want pricing information, it is all over the map.
If a collector wants it, they will pay the price for a rare game.
Many times private sales remain just that, private, there is no data.
Last time I say a KK for sale it went private sale for over $20k, which was insane at the time.

There really is no "scientific method" to understanding pinball collecting and its relation to rarity, cost, or interest.
Its like any other hobby.

"One person's junk is another man's treasure".

Transporter The Rescue 859 units

Varkon . 89 units to start . Plus the Williams conversion kits to change it to a video game drove the survivor numbers even lower . As far as value TheBlackKnight comment right on . A collector knows both what he ( or she ) wants and price to pay to enhance his collection . When the rare stuff surfaces you have to move quickly since you never know if or when the opportunity will reoccur . Good friend of mine bought a Stern Iron Maiden rather than fill his propane tank in dead of winter ( ran risk of freezing pipes ) because he knew he wouldnt get another chance . Enjoy your research , lots to learn ! Shane

Rare doesn't automatically equal valuable.

Pinball machines are a lot like classic cars. You see people trying to sell cars with oddball low-performance engine options and unusual transmissions options asking big bucks for them claiming they are "rare".

While they might be "rare" in terms of production numbers, they were rare for a reason. Nobody in their right mind ordered one like that and they were very undesirable when new (and still are).

More times than not, rare is worth a lot less than the more popular models. Machines with higher production runs were usually more desirable and appeal more to the masses. Demand usually dictates supply in manufacturing.

Just because a very small percentage of people feel BBB is worth $18K doesn't mean you could sell one for that to just anyone. Personally, I wouldn't pay half that for one unless I had some fool lined-up waiting to give me $18k for it afterwards so I could immediately flip it.

Then you have games like Spirit which IPDB has listed as a production run of 1,230 which while much higher than Punchy, pistol poker, Mystery castle- usually sells for north of 7K$.

I have a handful of somewhat rare machines, but they probably won't fetch more than what similar games of their era tend to go for. So, I'll repair them, enjoy them for a while, then pass them along to make room for something else.

Desirability tends to drive prices more than rarity does. And it's hard to manufacture interest for a game nobody has really heard of unless it has an attractive theme of some sort or an interesting gameplay mechanic (like varkon, for example).

You also have to keep in mind that production numbers don't always tell the whole story. From what I understand, Spirit in particular had a lot of them shipped overseas, so actual domestic numbers for this title are fairly small.

Not sure if this is what you are looking for you stated DMD games, but if you want lists of older SS games that are rare, there are many...(They can be found on IPDB)
Thunderball=10
Varkon=90
Star Light=100
Algar=349
Defender=369
Joust=402
Warlok=412
Time Fantasy=608
Solar Fire=782
Star Gazer=869
Cosmic Gunfight=1,008
Just a start...Then newer games...
CSI=250? I'm pretty sure # was under 500
24=250? same as CSI
Then you get into LE territory where the production number is limited supposedly making games more desirable and valuable IMO that is all in the hands of the folks that are interested in buying said games....Value all depends on what someone is willing to spend...and if seller is willing to sell...

Phoebe

Spectrum= 500 sold and the rest parted out due to low sales.

My favorite Asteroid Annie 211 made ~$1000

My buddy Gooterman here on PS has one of these and he said there were like less than 10 or something like that. https://pinside.com/pinball/archive/robot

Mermaid (600)
Kingpin (9)
Nags (?)
Pinball Circus (2)
Krull (10)

1000 Breakshots were made but they come up all the time and they're one of the cheaper DMD games out there.

Rare and in demand equals a higher value. Rare and not in demand is just rare.

Yeah as others have already mentioned, rarity doesn't dictate demand. Value ends up being a combination of rarity and demand. The saga behind BBB, combined with its exceptional art package and its rarity, makes for a near perfect storm of value. A game such as Pistol Poker is more or less just as rare, but it doesn't have the legendary backstory or standout artwork of BBB.

If rarity were the sole measure of value, the going rate for TAF would be like $50.

Wrecking ball 1 of 1 has its own rules
image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

Price- I'll decide

What about Caribbean Cruise!? I think there are only about 300 of those.

I heard the lowest production Stern was NBA at around 350...so CSI and 24 had to be more than that.

Stern has had plenty of low production run machines.

Striker Xtreme - Between 114 and 480
Sharkey's Shootout - Between 171 and 720
Monopoly Platinum Edition - 18
Austin Powers Gold - 10
NBA ~450
Shrek ~600
Dale Jr. - 600
High Roller Casino ~514
CSI ~550
NFL had certain teams that only got 25 made, but overall there was close to 700.

They also had a couple of one-offs:
The Brain
Good Morning America

Data East made the rarest pinball I know of . Production (1) unit . Richie Rich pinball machine . It looks like Tommy with alternet art. Value a lot$$$$$$$$$$$ http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=Richie+Rich&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick

Data East Kabuki (2) . Value a lot $$$$$$$$$

https://pinside.com/pinball/market?s=1&radius_latitude=38.5825&radius_longitude=-121.4209&keywords=&ad_machine_key=431&ad_what%5B%5D=machine&ad_what%5B%5D=parts&ad_what%5B%5D=mod&ad_what%5B%5D=other&ad_wantedforsale%5B%5D=forsale&ad_wantedforsale%5B%5D=wanted&pinsider=&ad_condition=0&machine_type=&ad_machine_manuf=&years=&radius_distancekm=845&source%5B%5D=pinside&source%5B%5D=ebay&sort_by=ad_time_placed&sort_order=DESC

Actually this game is for sale if you want to make Denis an offer. Has been for a long time. The art is hand painted and not sealed. The cabinet hardware is all gold plated. The code is unfinished and recycled.

There are other games with production runs of 1-2. Gameplan Loch Ness Monster for example. Phenomenal backglass less than 10 spares were made.

I wonder how many of those RR translites were ever made? I have one here, along with a Prototype GnR and Deathball 2000.....all of which are original's and not the reproductions.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, MI.
269-979-3836

I only have a few semi rare games.

Cyclopes 400
Godzilla 510
Pop a Card 825
Star Gazer 869

None of these are going to command outrageous pricing.

Why would anyone want to pay "a lot$$$$$$$$$$$" for an incomplete one off prototype of a game based on a terrible flop of a movie? (I haven't seen it, of course, but 24% on Rotten Tomatoes...)

Agreed. Ritchie Ritch was just designed by DE at the request of Kaminkow to be used as a movie prop. Maybe its got a shred of "cool factor" going for it from that standpoint (not based on the specific movie, obviously). It'd never make it into my collection, however.

7 made.

image.jpeg

Around 350 of these. Some collectors will stop at nothing to find one.

EM Charlie's Angles (1).JPG

Gotlieb Challenger. 110 units made.

Thanks for the pic.....LOL. I searched twelve years HARD for that game. Sold it about six years later. Wish I had it back but I'm not sure the stars will ever align again. Time will tell I guess. I've NEVER seen another one in person.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, MI.
269-979-3836

That shouldn't matter unless more than 350 of those collectors goes nanners at the same time. (Sleazebay price over the last 15 months was $767 with 2 sold.)

Did anyone else say Going Nuts 9 made

I know this thread is about value, but let's forget about money for a second. I like owning rare (hard to find) games just to give people something new and unusual to play. They're good for tournaments and shows. I know there's such a thing as "rare for a reason", but Strange World, Time Fantasy and Andromeda are all a lot of fun to me.

I had a Gottlieb Touchdown--711 made.

I have an Atari Airborne avenger--350 made. I also have all the other atari pins, except for Time 2000. No published production numbers, however, Atarians is exceedingly rare from what I can tell.

Allied Leisure Super Picker--no production numbers. Likely only a sample run with only a handful, if that. I've only seen one mention of it on RGP. It looks like the only photos that exist online are the ones I supplied.

Lectronamo--almost 2500 produced, but they seem to be fairly uncommon. Game-specific parts are very difficult to find. The backglass is always flaking in some way.

I also have an unfinished/abandoned prototype game without any game code, unfortunately. I was going to adapt it to use a PROC or FAST boardset at some point and try my hand at bringing it to life that way (when I can find the time). I managed to collect the missing cabinet parts and get GI on, but that was about it so far. No idea if the game in its current state is actually worth anything to anyone since it's not playable.

I have a Stern Viper for sale right and was curious if someone can tell me the actual production numbers on this machine.
I was told it didn't hit the 2200 they were slated to produce and they only made 466.
Is this true?

According to Mr. Pinball 2015 price guide there were 438 produced.

Probably the solid state version.

It was over thirty years before I came across a nice EM Joker Poker. I remembered it was fun to win on.

There are no records saying how many Williams Rockets were made. My best guess is around 300. That was in 1959. If you can nab a survivor, it is a fun game.

Was pretty excited when I picked up a 14 playfield haul this past July from a warehouse that has not been touched in 15 years. In the haul was a mint, fully populated CA playfield. After comparing to pics on ipdb, I discovered it was a SS CA playfield. Fortunes lost, but I'm going to make it wall art.

About 12 made, Williams system8 boards. Williams Still Crazy, vertical pinball.

s8_stillcrazy1.jpg

Although not directly related to this posting in terms of pricing, something that will most likely be overlooked is sample and test games.
I realize that these can be classified as pure prototypes, but many were made in numbers between 10-100 but generally never more than 1000.
Many collectors prefer these type of machines either from the standpoint of features not included in the production machines or rarity.

Although I could list many, one that comes to mind for me personally is Doctor Who (Bally, 1992).
In this regard, I am not speaking about the "Wobble Head" versions that most may be familiar over the recent years.
This was a "Version 2" sample and started production game.
In this case, I am referring to the "Version 1" prototype that used the Bally '89 cabinet style with the speakers on top.
This version included a lithograph hologram in the certain of the backbox. 10 were made, 2 exist left to my knowledge, after most were scrapped in favor on the standard cabinet style of today, when they were sent back to the factory for revision. Very rare, very collectible.

Just like John said, games like Charlies Angles (EM version) are sought after by others to no end.

Cosmic Gunfight in the orange cabinet, supposedly only 4-5 made. I have one, and have had 2 black cabs....jus saying

Critical Mass was made and at the York show.

Desert Storm was sold on eBay.

Kingpin is my favorite rare pin. I'm hoping it gets remade by Pps.

Your not looking at the EM version's on EBay. The EM. version will bring 5 digits easy.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, Mi.
269-979-3836

I heard that the Striker number was much higher. That may be what stayed domestically, but it seemed from my small sample size it did decent domestically too. I know there were three in route in Milwaukee at once at one point.

Dale Jr was technically a Limited Edition of NASCAR so it shouldn't necessarily be in this list. It sold very slowly because it came out after NASCAR which wasn't overly well received and was very specific about one racer, so you were taking the NASCAR audience and then splintering them further.

As others have mentioned, rarity rarely equals value. My belief is that unlike, say, video game collecting, since pins are so big we are all limited by how much we can fit. I don't want a rare game that is horrible taking up space I could use for something that I want to play!

I have a Viza War. As far as I know, there are two working ones period. It is not a great game. If I was to sell it, I think I would be lucky to get a few hundred for it. Luckily, it makes a nice end Table, so I keep it basically just for that!

Congo although production numbers are 2129 From old op's ive talked to and stories ive read many if not half were parted out for there circuit boards.

Joust- Just over 400 made. Selling for anywhere from $4000.000 - $6000.00

Is Gamatron considered rare? I have one running on the custom Pinstar CPU/RAM/Sound board.

The custom pinstar board uses a 6116 RAM, but 6116 NVRAMs do not work in it for those playing at home.

I also have a Bullseye 301 with a custom sound board in queue to get fixed up.