(Topic ID: 263019)

Pinball Machines better investment than stock market?

By wolfemaaan

4 years ago


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Topic Stats

  • 91 posts
  • 32 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 1 year ago by imnitguy
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Topic poll

“Pinball better investment than stocks?”

  • Yes, way better and you get to play your investment 32 votes
    24%
  • Nope, stocks make way more money and you can buy pins with that 82 votes
    61%
  • I like Turtles and could give a sh*t about investments 20 votes
    15%

(134 votes)

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There are 91 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.
-3
#1 4 years ago

So over the last 5 years I’ve seen the price of pinball machines steadily increase. Some have flatlined and very few decreased. Wondering if somebody could put together a comprehensive report for all pinball machines and get a graph (like stocks) and show the value over the last 20 years.

I can say this, with the Coronavirus tanking the stock market, I didn’t see any White Waters or Cirqus Voltaire’s dropping in price whatsoever.

#2 4 years ago

Definite investment if you bought one of these can find these bidders. Unbelievable. They were selling for $100 near the end.
ebay.com link: ZIZZLE Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man s Chest Pinball Machine FAST SHIPPING

#3 4 years ago

900% ROI!

Stocks Schmocks

#4 4 years ago

That Zizzle business is unbelievable. There were numerous ones I saw that sat on Craigslist over the last couple years for 100-150, a couple I remember seeing for 75 bucks.
Who would have guessed?

#5 4 years ago

Treating toys as an investment never ends well.
Past performance does not guarantee future results.

#6 4 years ago
Quoted from RCA1:

Treating toys as an investment never ends well.
Past performance does not guarantee future results.

I agree if "ALF" plushies were your toy of investment but It very much appears Zizzle pins have a nice ROI. This is far from the first time I've seen crazy Ebay sales for these. Very interesting to know, did the bidders know it wasn't the full sized Stern? To see their reaction when they got the toy.

#7 4 years ago

ONE MEEEELLLLIOOOONNN by xmas.

15
#8 4 years ago

Stock market is like playing a pinball game where you spend a lot of time building up a big score, just to have the ball drain straight down the middle before you have a chance to cash in.

-2
#9 4 years ago

Well all 4 of my pins are still selling for higher than I paid for. So Pins for the Wins!

#10 4 years ago

I have found apartment complexes and rental houses safer investments than stocks, at least it's been better for me anyway. No roller coaster, just steady property value gains and rent increases with inflation.

11
#11 4 years ago

Buy and hold. Nobody who has bought AND held the SP500 has ever lost money. Many people panic and sell when the market drops, the exact thing you should not do, you have to be very disciplined. Dollar cost average methodically each month and you will do very well. You have to have a long time horizon, like 10 years, otherwise you are just gambling.

#12 4 years ago

I have made and lost money on pinball machines.
I have money invested in the market.
I agree, to some extent ,with Odin.
Went to a trade show where the guest speaker was an economist. He was sure the economy would be great until 2022 when a recession would happen.
I agree that another recession is coming, but i see it a little further out.
Neither bear or bull market will change my investments in games or the market.
I expect my machines to stay steady at what i paid for them and i expect most of my gains in the market to vaporize by the time i am supposed to retire in 2026.

#13 4 years ago

I would say no . I brought my fish tails 20 years ago for $2,000 . If it was fully restored I would probably get 6 to 8000 over here . If I had bought $2,000 worth of Apple shares 20 years ago I'm sure it would be a lot more buy now . Having said that , I've had a lot of fun with my $2,000 investment and I won't have lost money but if you want to make money , invest in land , shares or gold .

#14 4 years ago

I have pretty much broken even in this hobby. I never expected to make money. I have had fun in the process and have met some cool people.

#15 4 years ago
Quoted from KossMan:

Definite investment if you bought one of these can find these bidders. Unbelievable. They were selling for $100 near the end.
ebay.com link » Zizzle Pirates Of The Caribbean Dead Man S Chest Pinball Machine Fast Shipping

I'd like to see these peoples faces when this box gets delivered to them. No way on earth do they realize they're bidding on a toy. I bought 6 of these when they were being cleared out at Best Buy for $99, just sold them locally for $149 at Xmas, years ago.

As for the pins as investments, that's a crap shoot. Some of us old timers are fortunate and got our A-listers before prices went crazy, but the remakes have taken a chunk out of those too. Just the same, I cant think of a game I have that I'll lose money on, with the possible exception of my one NIB purchase, MoPLE. But, as with anything else, you make your money when you buy.

#16 4 years ago
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#17 4 years ago
Quoted from beergut666:

[quoted image]

So that's what those guys look like without their human skin masks.

#18 4 years ago

We need an “It’s been X days since the last pinvestment thread” counter

#19 4 years ago
Quoted from o-din:

Stock market is like playing a pinball game where you spend a lot of time building up a big score, just to have the ball drain straight down the middle before you have a chance to cash in.

It certainly can be... especially if you don't know what your doing. On the other hand, if you wait till the drain, you may find some nice opportunity waiting for you. The bottom line is, you need more than a pocket full of quarters to play this machine!

#20 4 years ago
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#21 4 years ago

Wish I had a Blue Chip machine.

#22 4 years ago

I had one. When they say 3 ball play a must, they mean it.

#23 4 years ago

Not to be outdone by Bally. So is this where all the Stern & JJP fights originated from?

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#24 4 years ago
Quoted from wolfemaaan:

So is this where all the Stern & JJP fights originated from?

Think it goes back to when Stern owned Williams, and the bickering has never ended.

#25 4 years ago
Quoted from phil-lee:

Wish I had a Blue Chip machine.

I used to have a cow chip machine.

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#26 4 years ago
Quoted from pinzrfun:

I'd like to see these peoples faces when this box gets delivered to them. No way on earth do they realize they're bidding on a toy.

Yep, it's the first thing that enters my mind when I see these auctions. The best investment, if you had one, would be to gift it to a kid into Arduino programming and point them to all the pin related code/projects and let them go mod crazy with it.

#27 4 years ago

It depends on your time frame. Certainly pinball machines have done better than the overall market over the past week. However, if you don't cash out now, and the economy crashes like it did in 2008, you could see some serious declines in pinball prices.

#28 4 years ago

I made an unpopular thread a while back about the investment value of pins. My math showed pins increasing like 4-5% apy compounding over the past several years. And the stock market beat the pants off that.

#29 4 years ago
Quoted from jackd104:

I made an unpopular thread a while back about the investment value of pins.

Going back to the beginning until about 20 years ago, being a great investment was almost always part of the sales pitch used by the companies that made them, and promoted that greatly on the flyers for these machines. If somebody is still using these as an investment, why do others care or feel the need to complain?

#30 4 years ago
Quoted from o-din:

Going back to the beginning until about 20 years ago, being a great investment was almost always part of the sales pitch used by the companies that made them, and promoted that greatly on the flyers for these machines. If somebody is still using these as an investment, why do others care or feel the need to complain?

Back then they WERE an investment, because the use case was different. These days, can an op even make money back on anything but a Stern Pro...if that?

#31 4 years ago

See the medevial madness remake thead by okarcades.
He has had it on location and it is up to 26000 plays. After the split with the location he is showing that they can be a good investment if you get the right location.

#32 4 years ago
Quoted from jackd104:

I made an unpopular thread a while back about the investment value of pins. My math showed pins increasing like 4-5% apy compounding over the past several years. And the stock market beat the pants off that.

So maybe pins are a good nice piece of the portfolio investment pie next to stocks for diversification. The Dow went down 14% while Cirqus Voltaire is selling currently at a steady $7K and higher.

#33 4 years ago

You can’t take it with you, so play pinball

#34 4 years ago

Categorically no, but are bonds a better investment than stocks? Over time, stocks always outperform bonds, yet experts recommend you keep part of your portfolio in bonds to hedge against a major market downturn. I would equate the purchase of non NIB machines as in investment in bonds. It will not outperform the market, but at the end of the day the value of a used pinball machine made between 1980 and 2010 will probably atleast match inflation.

Am I going to get rich off of pins? No. Can I have a months pay tied up in pins knowing I can cash them out in an emergency if I need to? Absolutely! Do you know of any other entertainment related expenditures where you can get (most) of your money back or make a profit?

#35 4 years ago

That was my thought. If I get in financial trouble, painfully i could unload my pins and pay the mortgage for bit. Hopefully I never have to do it

#36 4 years ago

I only know the european situation:
The current generation >40 grew up with pinball machines in arcades, cinemas, pubs and even local village fairs and can now afford to buy some.
But what about the next generation? Most don't even know pinball machines, cause they are rarely to find compared to 20 years ago.

So the value of machines climbs as long as the current generation is interested in owning or collecting some.
Like lots of hobbies we don't know yet, if our kids or the next generation in general think these machines are still "cool" or "trendy" or if they think its old stuff from the old generation. In that case the value would decrease rapidly.

#37 4 years ago
Quoted from drgary:

I only know the european situation:
The current generation >40 grew up with pinball machines in arcades, cinemas, pubs and even local village fairs and can now afford to buy some.
But what about the next generation? Most don't even know pinball machines, cause they are rarely to find compared to 20 years ago.
So the value of machines climbs as long as the current generation is interested in owning or collecting some.
Like lots of hobbies we don't know yet, if our kids or the next generation in general think these machines are still "cool" or "trendy" or if they think its old stuff from the old generation. In that case the value would decrease rapidly.

One could say the same about American Classic Cars & Boomers. Some of the ugly 70s cats I thought nobody would ever want. But I’ve yet to see those prices come down

#38 4 years ago
Quoted from KossMan:

Definite investment if you bought one of these can find these bidders. Unbelievable. They were selling for $100 near the end.
ebay.com link » Zizzle Pirates Of The Caribbean Dead Man S Chest Pinball Machine Fast Shipping

Unbelievable! It sold for $1000??? Jeez, would a family member PLEASE do an unboxing video for us on YT !!!

#39 4 years ago

no, it didn’t sell for 1k... it’s been relisted. Won’t sell this time either....

1 week later
#40 4 years ago

Still not seeing Whitewater down 15%

#41 4 years ago

Interesting...I bought my Whitewater in late 1996 for $950, and I could probably sell it today for about $5500 (and I've added about $500 worth of stuff to it).

This means my "investment" in Whitewater has increased by 526%.
The Dow (over that same time period) has increased by 335%.

So yes, if you can get a good enough deal on purchasing a machine...you can beat the stock market.

But I think that this is really the exception, not the rule.

Edit : the S&P 500 increased 333% over that period (so about the same as the Dow), but the NASDAQ did better than Whitewater at 569%.

#42 4 years ago

last week I would of said NO
This week, Maybe

#43 4 years ago

Lol

#44 4 years ago

That increase is based on 2 things: 1) you bought it at the right time, so the increase in value is crazy because of timing.
2) The demand/ appeal will be constant.

#45 4 years ago
Quoted from PinballAir:

That increase is based on 2 things: 1) you bought it at the right time, so the increase in value is crazy because of timing.
2) The demand/ appeal will be constant.

seems to be the same as market guessing.

#46 4 years ago

Buy , buy , buy.
Sell, sell, sell
In a rodney dangerfield voice .
(caddyshack)

#47 4 years ago
Quoted from PinballAir:

Buy , buy , buy.
Sell, sell, sell
In a rodney dangerfield voice .
(caddyshack)

"Were all gonna get laid!"

#48 4 years ago

The question is will a bunch of people still have money to buy pins.

Just think of the number of parents who have to pay to temporarily move their kids out of the numerous colleges shutting down early, and likely have to float them some additional money if they were working part time at sports arenas/theaters/concert halls/etc... that are temporarily suspending operation. Operators are about to see a bunch of working class people who have to go with a few months of slow down, possible temporary layoffs, or other reductions in pay as the global supply chain has been disrupted, so less going to bars and less likely to play pinball for a dollar.

Of course, much like stocks...the value of the pins will eventually bounce back. But it's going to be rough for a bit as a glut of games come up for sale at once.

I feel like I'm seeing less insane prices than I was a few months ago, but it may just be confirmation bias. It's hard to seperate what is priced to move and what titles are just unpopular.

#49 4 years ago
Quoted from TreyBo69:

I feel like I'm seeing less insane prices than I was a few months ago, but it may just be confirmation bias. It's hard to seperate what is priced to move and what titles are just unpopular.

Please tell me where you are seeing these. Here on pinside they are as crazy as ever. I need a new source.

#50 4 years ago
Quoted from PinballAir:

That increase is based on 2 things: 1) you bought it at the right time, so the increase in value is crazy because of timing.
2) The demand/ appeal will be constant.

Yes, I was not trying to claim that pinball is a valid investment strategy...It was just the mention of Whitewater that made me examine it.

As a couple of other data points...

I bought my Mousin' Around in mid-2004 for $650, and just sold it for $1900 (292% increase).
For that time period...Dow was up 211%, S&P was up 227%, and NASDAQ was up 368%.

I bought my Eight Ball Deluxe LE in late 1984 for $900, and could probably sell it for $2500 (277% increase).
For that time period...Dow was up 1840%, S&P was up 1592%, and NASDAQ was up 3081%.

So...invest in Whitewater or Mousin, but not EBD.

Of course, seems like NASDAQ is the real way to go.

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