(Topic ID: 4443)

Pinball price BUBBLE ... think it can't happen? THINK AGAIN!

By Hyperion

12 years ago


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  • 1,050 posts
  • 289 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 30 days ago by JWilberdog
  • Topic is favorited by 36 Pinsiders

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    Topic poll

    “Do you think there is a Pinball Price Bubble?”

    • Yes 265 votes
      45%
    • No 202 votes
      35%
    • Maybe 83 votes
      14%
    • I don't care long as I make more $$$ 33 votes
      6%

    (583 votes)

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    #323 1 year ago
    Quoted from youdontknowme:

    did machines level off in 2008, 2009? there wasn't any crazy increase, but you still had your "make a buck" guys that ran around,
    snagged up the craigslist deals, just to windex them and flip them on the same site.
    i've been waiting for this bubble to pop since the 2010s. i have a bad feeling i'll be waiting a long time with what people
    pay for now: site unseen, game unplayed, and all that. limited rush powdercoat: black. wow. thanks. but the flipping
    of limited titles will do nothing but cause st3rn/JJP/spooky to constantly increase the MSRP.
    when dealers have to pay 20% over cost to buy a jurassic park in today's market, you know there's a bigger problem.

    I don't know - I do know the early days of the internet and before reproduction art was available, pinballs were crazy cheap. I think someone posted on another thread a really good breakdown - it depends on the pinball being sold. If it's relatively rare, wanted by a lot of people, and popular, the prices are going to keep going up. If it's easy to find, and popular, prices are pretty level. If it's common and not very popular, you might find a bargain. That said, I've got a Centaur for sale that will test that theory.

    But for new pins, I haven't a clue. It's not my market or interest.

    #332 1 year ago
    Quoted from fosaisu:

    Is this right? Are prices on “common but popular” machines really level (ie about the same as they were a year ago)? My impression is the price on anything pinball has been rising markedly, and that it’s not limited to a specific band of games.

    I don't think I can speak to that. I haven't seen much of a price hike on that category.

    #333 1 year ago
    Quoted from Vitty:

    yearly summer pin spending freeze.

    Is this really a thing?

    #337 1 year ago
    Quoted from Vitty:

    Follow the pinside market - it is evident

    There is no aggregate tracker of prices, or of total sales that I know of, much less an filter specific aggregate of sales. Trend lines would be impossible to judge without it, because any small subset you might look at by archived sales is going to be too small a sample, plus the time to weed out those not sold, sold offline, etc.. Am I missing something?

    #341 1 year ago
    Quoted from Vitty:

    You're missing how closely I watch the market and buy/sell Its a subjective measure, but things like a NIB deadpool premium for 9450 not being sold is a solid example to start with compared to the $11500 they were going for several months ago.

    Yeah, disagree. I don't care about new Sterns. I want to know about classic Stern, Bally and Gottliebs. Or 90s DMD games. Your sample is outside of what I'd care about. Not trying to be snarky, but you see how it's not useful information to anyone not buying specifically a deadpool?

    #362 1 year ago
    Quoted from iceman44:

    Supply is gonna swamp the market soon.

    Don’t think they are making anymore Black Holes, IJTPM, classic 80s Sterns, 90s DMDs. So have to disagree. Maybe for the modern Sterns. I think the market continues to do what it always has - pins are never going to get cheaper. Maybe longer sales times, that’s it

    #365 1 year ago
    Quoted from HydrogenHuman:

    I'll throw in my theory as to why pin prices have skyrocketed across the board over the years:
    Many, many more people have jumped in on the hobby, which has led to some key developments that didn't exist as much in the past:
    1. It is now easier than ever to work on project pins and bring them back to fully, or near fully restored. Reproduction plastics, playfields, cabinets, you name it.
    2. Because pins now have the potential to trend and gain popularity to a "meme" like status, suddenly everyone thinks they have a holy grail pin.
    Swords of Fury? Grail Pin! Space Mission? Grail Pin! Bad Cats? Grail Pin! It wouldn't even surprise me if a machine like Motordome becomes a grail pin one day if somebody finds a way to greatly improve the sound quality on it!
    3. People are now hoarding their pins and bolting them to the floor, unless they can make thousands and thousands of profit due to their exaggerated perception of the machines value.
    The other factors mentioned in this thread play a big role too, but the added factors I mentioned above exacerbate the problem to a extreme level that has seemingly no ceiling.

    I’ve made point one before - worn art can be fixed

    #368 1 year ago

    I have yet to see any pin I want go down in price.

    #371 1 year ago
    Quoted from fosaisu:

    Last time the shit hit the fan did pin prices go down? I wasn’t in the hobby in 2008 but word is pins didn’t really track the real estate (or stock) market that time around.

    I don’t remember any dip in prices. Sales might have taken longer

    #378 1 year ago
    Quoted from koji:

    Truth. and as a buyer, if they say: "Well.. I'm into it for..." and that number checks out, it's usually a pretty darn good buy.
    The worst however is when someone has left the machine to rot without proper storage, or it has taken on massive damage and they still want what they paid.. that is quite frustrating .

    I haven’t come across many of those. But no price dips

    #382 1 year ago

    I'm glad there are so many resources for pinball replacement parts and repairs, pins that nobody wanted because they were so beat up are now worthy project pins. And so many mods to personalize more modern pins, it's no wonder our hobby is healthy.

    #384 1 year ago
    Quoted from EJS:

    Back in the day if you had a cracked TAF ramp you had to look for someone parting one out if you wanted a better one.
    Without parts suppliers, pinball KINDA might be where it is today but there’d be a trail of horror of parted out games.
    A lot of people make and sell parts for the sake of pinball and not the money. Steve Young among many others.

    Steve is a gift to our community. The downside of having CPR and others is, you have to look harder for the beater deals.

    3 months later
    #393 1 year ago
    Quoted from snyper2099:

    Besides, in 200 years no one will give a fk. about muscle cars, baseball, pinballs, or jukeboxes.

    Why wait? In my house we are already 75% there.

    But seriously I do remember those times too. I thought whitewater at 1200 was rich

    #396 1 year ago
    Quoted from iceman44:

    Inflation will be much lower this time next year.

    This I believe. But I don't see us going into recession. The other markers don't really line up like they would traditionally.

    #400 1 year ago
    Quoted from JohnTTwo:

    Are you seeing the slight drop in A titles up there or the second tier games only?
    Thanks

    I think terms might be good here. For me, A titles are things like Centaur, Fathom, Whitewater, Scared Stiff. What are A titles?

    #403 1 year ago
    Quoted from JohnTTwo:

    I kinda use a price index for "A" tier games, I could be right or wrong on that, like anything game fetching NIB prices (TAF, AFM, MM, TZ) today or higher. White Water is the one game moving into a tier "A" game in my mind.

    That sounds about right, but it's a subjective measure for certain. For instance, in my mind an "A" game is one that has proven itself to be very popular, long term. So most of the modern, recent pins are "B"s. Not that they cannot be A, but they haven't been around long enough to see where they settle once the bloom is off the rose.

    I'm overthinking it, of course.

    #405 1 year ago
    Quoted from RyanStl:

    I'm curious, what do you guys think how much a price drop on the secondary market would be considered a bubble burst? I have no answer, but I know the two camps would disagree. Not getting full resale on a brand new game or losing on a pre-order that turned out to be unpopular you speculated on doesn't count in my mind.

    I am of the camp it'll never happen, because it never has in the history of the home buyer market, but I'll play along. 25% decrease in the price of games would be enough of a drop to out of the give and take for any given older title.

    #419 1 year ago

    These conversations always devolve into the latest pins. The bulk of the market isn’t the latest flavor of the week. I think any discussion of the market really needs to be split into recent releases / rest of the market. They really are two different animals

    #428 1 year ago
    Quoted from DropGems:

    Headed to pre pandemic levels

    I haven’t seen it - but I only buy games that are older than 10-15 years

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