Full disclosure:
I own a Medieval Madness (not Huo, not restored, just a decent or better surviving original with original decals and playfield). I would much rather own an all original good condition machine than a fully restored no longer original redecaled or playfield swapped machine. I understand that some machines are too far gone to save and they are good candidates for these replacement parts, but minor wear doesn't qualify in my view to swap original parts to make the machine look perfect. Some parts are only repros now and you must use them to keep your machine functioning, but that's really a different story.

If I had a choice between owning the original and getting a new repro at the 8K mark I would take the original, even at a premium of up to $2K higher, even if not completely perfect as long as it had no major defects.

To me it's an original, it's a classic, while the repro may play the same it's just not the same.

The repro is a great option for many players to now play a great game, but for a player/collector like myself I would prefer the original over a repro.

So if CC is up in the future at 8k I will search out an original if I can get it for that amount rather than a repro if the market drags the price down. Now if the original CC's are still above 10K at that time I would consider the repro from my prospective as a player, but from my collector view I would not be satisfied and would sell it after I tire of it without having any regrets as it would be looked at as just a game and not an original.

Also as a side note - will ths new mini CPU board even be serviceable in the future - I assume not but could be wrong - may be looking a a replacement if anything fails, same with driver board? I know a lot of new PCB's use a surface mount technology that is not serviceable with normal soldering equipment.

Just my stupid thoughts...your opinion may/will vary.