If true and no real wear/cabinet in very good shape and 100% working...
$5500 depending on where you're at..

If it's an LE, probably somewhere is the $5,500-$6,000 range. The regular version would be quite a bit less.

Pinball Pricing is out of control if you ask me. I bought a NIB LOTR L.E in April 5,900.00 with shaker motor installed. I think 4,200.00 is a fair price no more. 100_0007.JPG

Well said Rob. Low to mid 4's...... Prices are starting to come back down where they should be.

I would say $4500 tops for a nice LOTR with zero issues (mechanical or cosmetic).... there are enough of them to go around and pick up at a reasonable price

If the game really is basically NIB and you are ready to cash and carry>>>

4500 for regular

5500 for LE

JMHO of fair prices and of course your location can impact that +/- 500 it seems.

Between $4500-$5000 for regular LOTR.

I agree w/ Astropin,

$4500-$5000 for a regular LOTR

If you want one, 4500. If you have one, 5500.

Im with Gweem and PBintheSouth on this one $5500 or a tad more. Straight up thats what these are selling for these days. Examples...

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-huo-lotr

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/huo-lotr-fs-or-ft-nyc-metro

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fs-huo-lotr-ganham-style

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/beaitiful-lotr-for-sale-loaded-5000

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fs-lotr-regular-versionin-lower-michigan

Stock LOTRs are selling for $5500 or more?

HUO, yes they are.

Bought my LOTR a few weeks ago.
It was exactly what you described. A HUO with low plays on it and flawless cabinet and playfield. My only issue was one broken diode on a switch. Otherwise the game looked NIB.

I paid $5K. Add a bit of inflation for me being in Canada (we have very limited supply up here), so the estimates of $4500-$5000 are fair and will vary by location.

At least $5k

It appears of the examples, one of those sold for ~6k and was verified HUO and loaded, 1 was super loaded west coast and sold for 5k, one was verified as not selling for the original 5500 asking price but sold for a reasonable amount less it sounds, and 2 others are not HUO and not sold for current asking price. Just pointing out that from the examples provided the average sale price for verified HUO and LOADED with goodies is likely closer to 5k. The example being asked about sounds to be completely stock so I would have to assume it would be at 5k or under???

^^^ this is also a good measure and appears to paint that 5k is the avg currently of a stock HUO LOTR

LOTR will be $10,000.00 by Christmas after a code update

JK

I would say $3750 was fair/fast 2011 pricing. Today $4000 would be a good price. $4500 is fair but getting up there. $5000 is impatient pricing. Anything more is just silly.

I paid a shitload for mine but its special as hell.

well, I used the most recent FS posts. No two pins histories are the same. The point was that a REALLY good LOTR commands a bit of cash these day. I think gone are the days when condition would change the price a few hundred, and we are starting to get into a place where condition affects a thousand.

for sure!! LOTR has gone up 1k in the 11 months since I thought about buying one.

I think this is a spot on post

With that low of plays (almost NIB) and HUO, 5000-5500. 4500 would be a smoking good buy.

Remember, this is LOTR.

That would be a jump on it now b4 some1 else gets it price. 5000-5500 for a HUO.

Looking at that picture just made me think of something. Our "older" games that did not come with factory LED's on their own boards just might become more valuable in the near future simply because you can modify them however you want to by changing LED bulbs. Thats not an option with the brand new games coming out.
Hmmm.....prices on our older games might not end up settling down in the long run.

based on the response in this thread...

looks like you have got everyones number.

Anyone that suggests $4500 for a HUO LOTR, please attach recent examples. I suspect none shall be so attached. You don't have to like the market. But you can't affect it with wishful thinking, either.

That's crazy.

I bought a 3 month old mint HUO LOTR *LE* for $4k a little more than a year ago. My, how things have changed in such a short amount of time.

When will the bubble burst?

Special just like you.

2 recently SOLD examples from above are LOADED HUO that sold for 5000. Drano bought his stock HUO in Canada for 5k. It only seems reasonable that stock HUO stateside should be less that loaded ones??? If not, then current wisdom would be to look for a loaded HUO for 5k and you will find it rather than pay the premium for stock.

The price definitely went up quickly when the NIB were selling out and skyrocketing in price. The same thing happened with SM, IM, and a little bit with TRON until they re-ran Tron last month.

Sold in September with a Mckee topper. I was first in line for $4200 but couldn't make the road trip.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.pinball/browse_thread/thread/c3c1ff3d49c58af/9b5a8ae2223b9fd4?lnk=gst&q=lord+for+sale#9b5a8ae2223b9fd4

About the same time there was a HUO LOTR on Mr.pinball @ $4200 in the midwest somewhere..Chicago I think

So you are correct..it wasn't $4500...it was cheaper

I bought a HUO one two and a half months ago in great condition for around 5k. It was fully loaded with leds, mckee topper, new shooter rod, et cet.

Exactly. These are the same people that say $9k for Tron LE and BIB with a Straight face. If IM is a $5K machine than HUO lotr starts at $5k.

How do people think The Hobbit movie(s) will impact the value of LOTR?

Depends on if a Hobbit pin is made and how good it is. People may ditch their LOTR for a Hobbit. Otherwise demand may tick up a little.

I would say that due to the increase in awareness, nostalgia, and visibility, the demand and prices may increase. (As long as no more are created) There are only so many to go around.

Why wouldn't they want them side by side? Isn't this the thinking for something like KISS for example?

How many collections have Pinbot and BOP? Star Trek and STTNG? Williams IJ and Stern IJ?

Will you look into the mirror?

Spot on.

I quickly sold my HUO LOTR with shaker and protectors in September for $5000 near Chicago. Had 1K to 2K plays on it. I was the 2nd owner. Asked $5200 and there was a lot of interest in it.

Last week there was a HUO low play LOTR in my backyard for 4K.... deals are out there if you are patient.

In the SF bay area a routed beat up Lotr cabinet with scratches all over and a worn playfield sold for 4800 in 1 day on craigslist. I had no interest but it seems the prices are a 1000+ here from the midwest. If they do not mess up shipping I am pretty much better off buying from out of state.

Lets back up a sec. First off, I'm talking about the release of the movie, not the oft talked about "JJP #2". So I'm talking near term,and I speculate that it might increase value (maybe even to $10K in the 13 days between the release and Christmas! ). There may be quite a few soon to be noob pinheads that will see the movie and then realize that LOTR is one of the best games of all time.

As to a Hobbit pin, I do not think you're making an apt comparison. Any Hobbit pinball would be state of the art...not some mediocre SS (Star Trek), or roundly criticized IJ4. Even though Ill bet alot of Trekkies or IJ fans do have both machines. Pinbot and BOP? That's a massive stretch.

Even NON Tolkien fans might want both, because of gameplay, resale value, and the fact that if The Hobbit is a rockin' pin, it might be cool to own both. Especially for the many hobbiests for which money doesn't seem to be much of a concern.

The only way to be free of this nonsense is to buy a HUO LOTR now & never sell it.

Only then will none of this matter, only the next machine will be a concern.

I sold mine in Dallas for 5100. It sold in less than 16 hours from Craigslist ad to paid-in-full-cash-in-my-hand.....

But it wasn't stock. It had pinbits protectors, orthanc jam, new balls, was just shopped, original Arwen in plastic sandwich, shooter lane kickout protector, Gimli VUK cliffy, and PHPG's topper.

I think it's obvious that the price has increased on Lotr. I've spoke to a few folks that that have all sold stock lotrs for $5k plus this year and others for close to $5k.

The only question now is whether or not this is a high water mark. The game is easily as good or better than most games that sell for $4500-$6000, so I would suggest that folks that care about game quality more than the fact that 10 years ago you could buy NIB for $3K, will ultimately pay an increasing price to own Lotr. Some never will. My bet is that there are more of the former than the latter. Lotr will rise, incrementally, with most other A list Sterns that also rise in value. Why shouldn't it?

I would say that the thing keeping LOTR from rising too much yet, is that there is NO shortage of ones for sale on a regular basis. Demand may be high, but supply sure seems to be also. That may dry up at some point but I think for the near future there are still lots available.

I agree that supply will keep the price from skyrocketing, however, this game was routed a lot. So, as always, HUO numbers are lower. And some collectors - especially those with large collections - are less likely to sell their games.

Add to that all the "lightly routed" games that will start having more problems than the strictly HUO games and some buyers have even more incentive to buy HUO and there's a cost to that.

As a potential LOTR buyer someday, my logic actually starts to favor the opposite side of the coin.

If stock HUO are going to be sold at higher prices as the norm, then I start to be way more interested in finding and selecting from the plentiful numbers on route and offering/paying under 4000. Most are not too beat and need less than 1500 in work to make them like new (besides flipper button wear of course, but cab art is pretty much the bottom of my list of issues when buying).

I paid a little over 5 for a basically stock HUO LOTR last week in the Bay Area. Definitely more than I wanted to spend, but seemed to be only a little higher than the going rate.

I feel like this pin could go a few ways: 1) it's recognized as having a very good rule set and a beloved theme, so it will stay about on par with other classic games like TZ, TAF, etc. and stay at around the same price as those, or 2) either Stern will have a new run with The Hobbit movie (very unlikely?) or someone will make a Hobbit pin, which will scratch the same itch as LOTR but be brand new. Both of these would drive the price of LOTR down...but a substantial natural correction seems unlikely.

The price has been steadily on the rise ever since the NIB LE's dried up. A year ago you could still get a NIB LE for $5,500 or so. This is obviously no longer the case.

4900 for the one I bought yesterday. I came up from my original offer of 4500 based on the consensus of this thread. Hated to dig a little deeper in my pocket, but a local HUO LOTR with under 100 plays was just too hard to pass up. Didn't want to lose it sitting on the pot.

No kidding....wishful thinking all day!