The only topper I'd pay $2000 for would be a AFM-LE... now that's a topper! This one is cool if the price fit for what a topper should be ($500-ish). We the collectors didn't create the $2K topper market, Stern did by limiting production so much on them. They are cash cows for them yet don't seem to focus on producing enough... instead, they make new ones and charge 4X the price?
I'm not sure who keeps paying the high Stern prices, as some have mentioned here, I guess it's the new guys? All of my old collector friends are not buying at these prices and just trying to MAYBE get some money back out of the ones they already have to get the new ones that they really want. Gone are the days of the guys I know buying every single Stern release, or so it seems. Most of the guys I know in this hobby are PINBALL rich, but otherwise live in modest homes and drive cars that get them and their family by. Now it feels that the "pinball rich" lifestyle is not for the average Joe anymore but for the "rich rich" or even... suckers (in fairness, perhaps I am a sucker?).
I remember when (and I think a lot of us can relate to this) years ago I'd have someone over (or a repair guy, lol) that was not in the pinball hobby and they'd comment on the pinball machines in my living room... if the conversation continued beyond just looking, it always ended up with "how much does one of these cost"? And 10 years ago, a NIB Stern was $4600-ish and up to $5K+. Used Bally Williams were sometimes cheaper, depending on title ($2K Shadows, Wh2o's, Fishtails, etc.). Generally, the overwhelming response was shock and "holy shit those are expensive". But most could do it and see it.
Now, when I tell them that my new game cost $10,000 or my TBL was $16,000, they want to refer me to a psychotherapist LOL.
So for those defending the price of new pins on "inflation", I plugged it in to the inflation calculator, the results of what a new machine cost in 2010 to what that money number is now may surprise you:
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