OK -- I know this topic has been beat to death over the past few years but it seems like "cheaper machines" are taking much longer to sell and are bringing less these days here in Central PA. I was just wondering what other people in the hobby have been seeing in their area.

Right now I am really not looking to buy mostly because of both time & space issues but good deals seem to keep popping up and even at good prices cheaper machines just don't seem to be selling like they were a year ago.

Just a couple examples here in our general area:

A guy posted what looked to be a very nice working Black Knight about 2 weeks ago for $1100. After listing was up for over a week I contacted him and told him "I really don't have the space and really don't want another pin right now but yours is driving me crazy - would $750 cash buy it? He got back to me and told me if I wanted it for $750 he could live with that." I didn't follow up for about a week and it finally sold before I grabbed it but $750 for a working BK in good shape seemed crazy cheap.

I also talked to a guy who would have sold me a STARS for $300, and I could have had a Panthera for $250 if I wanted it.

I picked up a rough TORCH for under $200 with nice boards in it (too close to home to pass up) and picked up a couple better EM's fairly cheap this week.

It just seems to me like cheaper pins are taking forever to sell for people and not really bringing near what they did the past couple years. Anyone else seeing the same thing in their area?

I agree about even slightly higher priced machines. I was looking for a JD a couple years ago and found a super nice one for $1600 and passed because it seemed like too much money at the time. Now I would be happy to find a nice one for $2400. Even lesser titles like Road Kings & Shaq Attack have jumped in price over the past year or two.

But EM's and earlier SS machines seemed to have flat lined at best from what I have been seeing.

I am really not looking to buy or sell right now so it really doesn't matter all that much to me but I am out of space and still having a hard time resisting some of the deals I have been falling into lately. Picked up 5 machines in the past two weeks and don't even have room to unload my van. For me the buying has to stop regardless of price!

Before you start talking trash about me or anyone else it might be nice if you knew and understood the full story.

I made the guy an open ended offer and told him if he couldn't get it sold before Thanksgiving I would be a buyer after Thanksgiving for $750 to $800 depending on cosmetic condition once I actually took a look at the machine. I also told him if it was super nice I might even pay more for it.

I told him I was truly out of space and really didn't want (or need) his game so to go ahead and sell if if he was offered more. I knew a couple of the local flippers were trying to steal it from him for like $400 and I didn't want to see him sell it that cheap.

I always try to be "fair" with sellers - put a fair and honest offer on the table telling them to try to get more and use me as a last resort if they can't find a buyer for more. But I also make it clear to them if they get an equal or better offer I really shouldn't be buying additional games right now.

Bottom line is I really don't give a rats ass what anyone here or anywhere else thinks of me. I know who I am and how I treat people and have thousands of customers and friends that know I will be as fair (or more fair) than anyone you will ever meet. I don't need more friends! But I also don't like seeing people being taken advantage of so I always put offers on the table for pretty much any machine with in a 200 miles of home.

Actually first story was trying to keep it short and second story was "full story". My point with this post is about prices on "cheaper machines" and I didn't want to get too far off point.

I am actually really surprised more people don't pay more attention to what machines are selling for and speed in which stuff sells. I like to have some idea of "current market trends" so I can make logical offers on what I am buying and also know better what to pay for machines.

If prices are going up I'll tend to overpay a little at times figuring in a few months machine will go up in value a little to make up the difference. But if prices are coming down I don't want to pay top dollar even if it is a title I wouldn't mind owning.

Prices seem to be all over the place and I see a good many machines up for sale for double (or more) what they are actually worth. I figure those guys are just fishing or truly are clueless of the actual value of their machine so I don't consider those listing. But when a month or two goes by that I can pick up 3 or 4 machines a week at great prices (if I had room for all of them) I start wondering if prices are trending down.