I heard something I never thought I'd hear the other night.
My mother in law has always thought I was crazy for spending so much money on these machines. When I first started talking about buying one, she and my wife were very against the idea. Their reservations were basically that it was an absurd amount of money for a huge ugly game that only I would be interested in playing. Don't I already play enough games? Can't you play pinball on your iPad for so much less money? We don't want some old blinking and bleeping contraption taking up space in the basement!
But the other night my mother in law told me that after seeing how interesting and beautiful these machines can be, and how much fun I have had not just playing them but fixing them up, maintaining them, and modding them, and after seeing so many people -- friends, relatives, children -- getting so much enjoyment out of them, she now says they were worth every penny and more.
That's why I don't worry about resale values.