Be nice!

Preach!

Nothing ever drops compaired to money, since money is just numbers on paper and next to worhtless over time.
If you want to look at pinball as an investment you should compare it to farmland in texas, cupper or whatever.

What was the price of prime farmland in texas 2013? Now?

I don’t think any bubble will burst but it will shrink slightly. Pinball company’s know shit is gonna hit the fan very soon so cashing in whilst they can. The looming recession will have big effect on pinball market I think.

I think I heard that same statement at the start of the apocalypse 2 years ago tho

Could not agree more. I’m laughing as I read these posts because I never ever counted this as some type of retirement fund. I have 10 games and I love them, and play them. Still baffled by people trading games with less than 50 plays but to each their own. It’s called a “game” for a reason. Relax Francis.

Also, thanks for trading with me!

I know no one who rents and owns pins. That sounds like a heavy pita.

In this housing market downsizing=smaller home similar price. Ouch. Unless you’re moving to that one bedroom down the street. I’m talking only my town, and circle, not nationally. Results may vary.

That’s how a lot of average people think. It’s been my experience that most people are bad with money and reasoning for emotional items.

Burst? No. Collector markets usually don’t burst.

Prices go up and down a bit, yes. The supply shortage will eventually correct itself. When prices are inflated like now just follow a few basic guidelines (if possible).

1. Don’t take cash out of the bank to pay inflated prices.

2. Sell games that have increased in value since you bought them to offset the increase of the new game.

3. If you want a new game, NIB at MSRP is often the best price. You just have to wait a while for the game.

When selling a game, I consider any loss of 10% or less just the cost of owning it for a while. Almost like rent. No harm. If I break even or make a profit, that’s a bonus. I’m sure this last bit is not to everyone’s liking, but it works for me.

Thats a Met PRO, they made thousands of them - only 500 LEs. The LE's are selling for around 16k.

I rent and own pins and you’re correct, it is a colossal pain in the ass.

This past winter, our landlord decided to sell the house we’d lived in for years without warning. Had to move all my games 3 hours away in a snow storm. I’ll sell most of them if we have to move into another rental from here.

My partner and I were finally ready to buy a house just as the Covid shitshow hit, and our traditional mortgage offers didn’t stand a chance against the plague of city folks fleeing out to the country with cash offers.

So, the pinch on the housing and rental worlds may have atleast one owner selling their games.

The only bubble that won't ever burst is the recurrent bubble burst thread bubble.

I dont know, I'm not a farmer.

I have a NIB Zilla LE. So it will be worth less next year?

Very unlikely. The LE remains very strong.

Yes.

Much like the Force.

I’m sorry man. That’s rough.

Is it still in the box tho?!? Yikes you are an oak Wyatt

Like we've been saying, the LEs are holding. Especially, LEs of the #1 ranked game of all time.

There is 1,000 Zilla LEs. 100% they will be dropping next year

Love Tombstone

Ah this will be interesting to reflect on, your credibility will go either way.

I enjoy and respect your post.

Price hasn’t ‘burst’ in the used market, but, the JJP GnR market sure seems to be having major problems as many distributors have been sitting on NIB inventory for multiple months. Makes me nervous about buying a used one even below MSRP.

Inflation means everything goes up (except sitting on cash or stocks) pins are no exception than any other material item.

Yeah, but they were doing it wrong. We really mean it this time.

Continue that train of thought.

If necessities go up and your pay does not more of you discretionary income gets shunted aside for food, rent & fuel leaving less for leisure activities.

Yes. Like, uhm…let me see…ahh. Pinball.

I’m thinking that most here aren’t choosing between eating or buying a pin. Although I DO need to thin up the middle a tad.

No one at a pinball show looks like they are starving and will need to sell games to sustain life. Most I see (including me) could live for months on water alone. Never mind the snacks they probably have hiding in their cargo shorts.

I’ll trade you a box of 12 gauge shotgun shells and (6) 16oz cans of baked beans for your Fish Tales.

Oh you have not even begin to feel the pain.

I work in healthcare and do a lot of ordering, several supplies we require are simply not available for long periods of time or currently at 3 times the going rate they were a year ago. Trash bags alone have doubled in the last 30 days. Sounds trivial but we go through thousands of dollars in trash bags per month.

The owner sold the facility; the closing is on September 1st. He is no fool, between the state being openly hostile towards long care facilities and ever increasing costs of operations he is retiring. I'm considering riding in till the crash or pulling the eject handle beforehand.

Its not a question of if the facility closes, it's a question of when unless things turn around.

- Everybody got thousands of $$$ from the Fed in 2020/2021.
- People could not go to their favorite bar/locations for almost 18 months to play their favorite titles, or any pins for that matter.
Result.
- Everyone that was on the bubble about starting their own collection gave in and started their own collection.

This added new buyers, new buying power to an already growing market.
Stern saw that and played it masterfully:
Mass produce the ok games, limit produce the desirable titles, watch the secondary market prices rise, then sneak in and announce the biggest one time price increase yet with arguable their best title in a long time (GZ).

Now that younger people are drinking the pinball Koolade (took the last 10 years for this to finally start to really happen):
There is no going back.
These prices are here to stay. They may level off, but they will not go backwards.

Rave's comment about the never again $4500 Addams could not have been more accurate.

Like so many others, I watch fb marketplace, Craigslist, etc. obsessively. Prices are coming down and things just aren’t selling, especially for B rated games. Newer games and the more desirable WPC machines still seem to be steady, but some of the older Williams, Gottlieb and Data East games just sit on fb marketplace and I watch the sellers drop the prices.

That’s not stopping people from asking $6k for a high speed, but who’s buying?

Maybe it all makes sense from a finance perspective. Middle class America lives on a tight budget and likely could have afforded those B level games before inflation took over. The A tier games not so much. It’s not every household that can drop $10k on a toy. Point being, the upper class likely still have some cash to throw around…

Certain A-list titles will remain that, A-list; There is a demand greater than the pool of available units and collectors with deep pockets who can afford them.

The price there will ebb and flow a bit but not too much. B and C list stuff the average pin guys play with? Different story.

Oh it’s already crashing. I went to look at this because of the massive price drop and the agent begged me to write at 1.3-which means they’ll take 1.2. It zillows out at 1.5.
Poke around on Zillow, price cuts everywhere

Folks already feel less rich because of stocks and crypto…and when they realize their homes are down big within the next few months it’s going to be a bloodbath.

Lending tree and synchrony bank have simple savings accounts right now paying 1.4-1.5% just to sit on cash…

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Nice work collecting the threads. Finaince 101 -> ITS NOT THE PRICES GOING UP. ITS THE DOLLAR GOING DOWN.

Well its also the pinball machine prices going up. I had NIB Metallica Master of Puppets I bought for 6800 sold 8K, worth 18K now. TRON LE I sold for 10K worth ??. Pinball Machines are better than savings accounts.

We are going thru the “Great Reset”.
Anybody interested in their future should look up the World Economic Forum and their young global leaders and Klaus Schwab.
It’s not a conspiracy theory it’s all out in the open.

Don’t give me too much credit. I simply copied and pasted Levi’s last post I could find

I appreciate that, but that mind-numbing (and notably completely partial) list of “bubble-burst” threads belong to the world now.

It’s the sun, the moon, and the bubble burst threads now.

Man I can’t hardly wait…exciting times ahead!

I was the schnook who lost it all in 08…but not this time

LOL. I can't believe a couple people actually downvoted my original post. Just saying that when Bill Gates is the largest owner of US farmland....but is NOT farming it....and the US govt continues to pay farmers NOT to farm....meanwhile the next bullshit war rages on overseas that is stopping food production globally...we all may have issues soon.

Not trying to be a downer, just stating some facts that people might not be aware of.

Bubble burst threads aren’t really bubble burst threads any more, this seemed to change around Early 2022.

Now they are recession prediction threads. Kind of a different animal.

Yet they feel like they’ve been going on just as long. And it’s still more than 2 years till the next election.

I predict many more of these new style bubble burst threads, but what else is new. They are the straw that stirs the drink!

To his credit, he only has 450 posts over those 11 years.

Remember, Half the population doesn't like facts.

True...Did you see that someone blew up the Georgia Guidestones!? The Globalist manifesto of depopulation went boom.

Levi you're bursting the bubble burst thread bubble!

that's just capitalism

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This is true.. there is also a fair amount of population that could give a shit facts or no facts.

Apple keeps all its cash offshore to avoid taxes yet everyone owns an Iphone or some other apple product.

People love to complain and do nothing...

The bubble will burst just like it will for just about everything else the fed overinflated last few years.

And when it does people will still complain..

Ain't that the truth