Games once out of production tend to go up. So resale of those 3-4 year old games is going to be much better then newer games. At this point JJP games are by far taking the largest hit so nothing about your post is really accurate at the moment. Why would someone buy a POTC HUO for a very little savings if they can just get it new.

Agreed.

Only other hobby that somewhat holds its value other than pinball machines is collecting guns. Especially WW2 and Civil War era weapons. I have a few but not as fun as pinball! plus ammo is expensive.

Sorry, I'm not buying that Stern Pros are going to depreciate over the next few years as much as Hobbit already has. Stern LEs and Premiums could see depreciation reach 25%+ like Hobbit, but I just don't see it with Pros unless we're talking about a total miss like WWE.

I'm also not sure why you think resale concern wouldn't impact buying decisions on new premium (i.e. expensive) games like DI, JJPPOTC, or Houdini. You can't buy a high-end machine today (obviously including Stern LEs) without looking at Hobbit and wondering what kind of haircut you're going to take down the line.

Who want to pay more games with incomplete code,

#whereisthecode

and disclaimers added for playfield quality? (instead of correcting the root cause)

e4128b73fbe67b6d8426d4a1ae18ceda065dcf0d.png (resized).jpg

I feel a bubble any minute.

IMG_3481 (resized).JPG

You're probably aware, but Stern's written warranty has never covered they playfield. Not back in the day of LOTR, not last year, and not now. Go read it -- it covers three things, and three things only: CPU, boards, and display. That's it. So this new disclaimer language does nothing to change Stern's written warranty, which already excluded the entire playfield.

So what does this disclaimer language mean? It seems to be putting in writing what Stern's in-practice policy already was. As home sales have increased, they're getting claims they never would have before (an operator in 2010 was not going to try to return a playfield over insert ghosting). They've seemingly adopted a policy of allowing for returns if there are "major" defects on a playfield (more than X ghosted inserts, significant warping, etc.), but not "minor" defects (mild ghosting on just a few inserts).

Should Stern figure out why they're having all the ghosting problems? Heck yeah. It's costing them a lot of good will, and presumably a lot of money doing playfield swaps. But the new language on the front of the manual doesn't seem to indicate any change to their "unwritten warranty" policies.

NIB pinball are now depreciating like normal. 10-15% off the top. Evan a game like AC/DC Vault is getting offered up at 11% off purchase price within weeks.

This is the cost of the hobby. For a while, it was free. And that was AWESOME. You could buy a game, and sell it a year later for more! You didn't even need to be that careful because prices were going up so fast.

Now we are back to reality. There is a tax for NIB. You try to sell it for what you have into it, and it sits because (hint), you paid too much. Situation normal.

(And as always, a bargain price will have plenty of interest)

Gentlemen, do not question. The great Egg has spoken!

Errr...No...Nooooooooooooo!!!

0e6369083_1499535115_humpty-dumpty-blog (resized).png

Somebody has to pay the dummy tax to keep the govt running. Errrr pinball industry

Ya I just have to pay a little more than them and it’s mine lol

Niiiiice! Just saw the boys not too long ago -

I seem to recall a thread like this about 5-6 years ago with all the same arguments. It was a big nothingburger....just like this one.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lets-talk-about-pricing
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/why-so-much-pinball-for-sale#post-3998223
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/when-will-the-stern-bubble-burst
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-machine-overpricing-gone-wild#post-3977936
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/nib-pinball-pricing#post-3728610
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/uh-oh-are-newer-pins-dropping-in-price#post-3722205
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/has-high-prices-influenced-your-pin-purchases#post-3596792
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/are-we-in-a-pinball-bubble#post-3526579
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-this-the-bubble/page/5#post-3525345
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/player-vs-investor#post-4000991

I do not think things are really all that slow. I have sold 4 and bought 3 in last 2 weeks. There are some good deals and trades to be made right now. Great time for pinball with all the options currently and coming in the future. I am going to watch out for really nice deals of people unloading games for new stuff. There are so many people getting into pinball right now. Out of the 4 games I sold 2 of them went to guys that have only been in the hobby for 1-2 months.