Here's an interesting listing for a Zizzle machine.

newjersey.craigslist.org link

I understand the appeal of a zizzle-scale machine that's got most of the features of a "real" machine. That's cool. And the condition of the machine looks good enough.

The funny part is that instead of giving an asking price, he gives a link to an old ebay listing.

Screenshot_5 (resized).png

That was probably back when they were still in production. They seem to go for about $250-350 now.
(I assume it's because they're the only thing less than full-size that isn't completely a toy?)

Still a lot less than $2.6k.

Huh. I was estimating based on completed (sold) eBay auctions. I knew eBay prices are a bit high, but didn't realize it trended THAT high. That's 5X!

I have another stupid newbie question : Are ebay prices that far out of whack for real machines as well? That doesn't seem possible.

I'm convinced they just search eBay for "used pinball machine" and choose a price based on whatever comes up.

It's a lack of respect for the medium. In their mind, these are all silly kids games. There's nothing to 'em, so they're all basically the same.

I'll bet that if you tried to explain that the Medieval Madness that came up in their ebay "research" is worth a lot more than their machine, they'd roll their eyes and say "What? Because it's got a couple more bells and whistles? You're crazy."

I'll bet a lot of this is family members of the original collector who is now gone because of death or divorce.

Dad always said this thing was worth five-thousand dollars, so I'll be damned if I let anyone tell me he was wrong!!!!