Cirqus Voltaire
Bally, 1997
White Water
Williams, 1993You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider wolfemaaan.
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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.
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.
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
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
Quoted from PinballAir:Buy , buy , buy.
Sell, sell, sell
In a rodney dangerfield voice .
(caddyshack)
"Were all gonna get laid!"
Quoted from mbeardsley: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.
You should start a stock market for Pinball machines.
Quoted from JY64:Try selling one of your pins if you can't have cash in hand by the end of day than you can't even compare to stocks
Except when the market collapses to a point they limit transactions.
Quoted from JY64:LOL large cap stocks trade millions of shares a day the average person trades 100's liquidity is not an issue with stocks it is with pins
Nothing in the stock market turns to cash in hand on the same day. You might get digital numbers moved, but it’s not cash in hand. If a dude comes to my house with cash for a pinball machine, it’s instant cash in hand.
I just emptied an account from Fidelity and it’s going to take 2 weeks to get the check. And then I have to cash it
Liquidity Pins>Stocks
Quoted from 2pupPinz:I’m calling Gary and cornering the market on ramps[quoted image]
I thought Freeplay had the ramp market cornered? 
Quoted from JY64:Wow you don't have a clue
Well considering you can’t sell that LW3 for more than $2K, haters gonna hate.
Meanwhile me RN
5E5BADA4-A12D-4218-90D1-879CF00D4C86.gifQuoted from LukyDuck:I know people who invest in collectible autos. But it is a business, not just putting them in a garage, driving them and expecting them to appreciate.
Pinball machine collecting is more akin to automobile collecting. It depends on the current generation of collectors and buyers. In the auto world, they have shown how the market changes with each generation of buyer. There is only a small/tiny part of the market which appreciates continually.
In 10-20 years, you will see a lot of pin collections being sold off by family’s who have no interest in the collection. The same thing happens with each generation of automobile collector. The boomer generation is currently driving the pinball market. As they pass away, the market will decline. Then it might be another 10-20 years before the millennials start driving the market.
It is an easy argument to prove. Pick one pinball machine and one stock and compare the value in X months. I bet the stock will beat the pin, hands down.
In the last 100 years, we’ve seen several stock market crashes. We’ve only seen 1 pinball crash
Quoted from LukyDuck:Pinballs popularity has ebbed and flowed over time. We are nowhere near it’s height of the past.
There are more arcades/Barcades now and pinball machines being released every month than any other time in history
We used to have Gottlieb, Williams, Bally, Data East
Now we got AP, Stern, JJP, Deeproot, Chicago, Spooky, etc
You lost all your money last week in the stock market? Need a hug?
Quoted from LukyDuck:But I hope you are not seriously thinking you can get rich on pinball machines.
Meanwhile Gary Stern...
40C95C70-5E87-48C3-8E4B-921EC96A0F0A (resized).jpegQuoted from LukyDuck:I see what you are saying. But you are comparing individual machines to indexes. That would be like me comparing a single stock to the pinball market overall. I could pick a stock that easily beats the pinball market.
There is not enough accurate data available on pinball sales to make any kind of fair comparison. One or two machine sales does not make a market worth investing in.
I am not investing in TP or hand sanitizer, although there are some that would disagree with me. Some of them are now stuck holding items that are not worth anything more than they were when they bought them.
Pinball investing=very very risky investing=good luck, stay healthy and you will most likely work for the rest of your life
Lucky Duck so loaded and educated he’s here on the Pinside Forum
C7F0B702-D293-4CDF-96B1-2E1AF230A1D8.gifThe rest of the companies didn’t exist. So they are doing at least 100% better considering they were turning out 0 pins prior
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Montpelier, VA