Quoted from jibmums:chicago.craigslist.org link
Not a bad price for a good DE Simpsons backglass but......"the machines are $6500 to $10,000"? Is this guy delusional??
It is no different than the PNW seller here stating that Funhouses regularly sell for "$6500-11000". (even when average, trashed, or faded)
There is no analysis from the market that is simply asking prices of other non-informed sellers, or speculating brokers/dealers.
These two people must be close friends or have the same doctor.
Part of the side effect of artificial price inflation being fed currently to the general public.
Pretty rampant right now, starting spiking around 2010 after return from the last "pinball drought" in 2009.
It is going to take a little while again before prices deflate for general stabilization based on the "feeding at the hog pen".
Somewhere around 2-5 years, once NIB "basic" games hit the $10k ceiling from Stern, then the market will stall for secondary sales, but the local interest in playing will remain.
Brokers/dealers/distributors are pushing games out as fast as they can, because the ones that survived the last drought "know the deal".
Basically, the market inflates on these toys, holds relatively steady, and starts over once the economy finally catches up to the asking prices of sellers.
The good news is during period of deflation, desperate sellers make good deals for collectors who stay with the hobby, you just have to beat out the brokers who are sharks in the pond during those same periods.
There will not be a "glut" (this is not the 1980s), but what you will see is another emptying of garages when times get tighter, interest wanes, and many owners who spent $90k on machines in one year move on or cannot sell the games with $2-3k worth of mods as nobody wants to pay for the junk they added to their games. It is a little different than the 1990s, as "modding" was not a motivator of collectors so that did not impact the price.
The key word is people have to stay in the hobby, and not bail, like farts in the wind.
It happens all the time, as many keep enthusiasm for around 2-3 years before they either are over their head by acquiring too many project games that do not work, run out of money, or pursue other hobbies.
Then you see major drops of money from old collectors scooping up all sorts of goodies, and then head back squirreling into their game rooms with these gems in tow.
Little known fact: The first recognizable "mod" on pinball machines other than changing light colors of incandescent bulbs with condoms and a few other various other pieces of artwork or prototype game features reinstalled (such as the "third magnet on TZ") was the "piano" on Twilight Zone from a McDonald's happy meal. Sellers now charge over $100 for a mold recreation of the same plastic toy that was free in 1998-99.