Well stated.

operative words in that post are "you have pins already"...

I think it sucks for the new collector that doesn't already have any (and is shocked when they find out the prices). I got in the hobby about 2 years ago, and even then it was starting to quickly climb, I can't imagine getting in now.

Also if you're buying B / C list games, they haven't gone up much in price. Yes, if you've bought anything in the top 20 from just 2 years back, you've likely easily profited $1-$4k without doing a thing.

I don't like to complain about prices, they are what they are. I'm just happy there is a resurgence and it's not dying. You can look at positives and negatives in either side of the market:

A: pinballs are expensive - Negatives: can't afford them. Positives: Your collection is worth more, there's demand which means more companies popping up to make them, makes it worth your time to restore one

B: pinballs are cheap - negatives: Your collection isn't worth poop, pins start getting thrown out because they aren't worth keeping, pinball manufacturers struggle to stay in business. Positives: You can buy em up cheap.

Good perspective on things

The one thing that irks me about the prices is I feel a lot of people are simply trying to take advantage of new buyers. Some people who have been in the hobby have been, and continue to offer fair prices for games where as others are clearly smelling the green and are dying to have some uneducated buyer take the bait. The price cheer leading from uneducated buyers is also a problem, as it can further mislead people and ultimately inflate prices without it actually being a "supply and demand" scenario (which is what it SHOULD be if the price increases are, in fact, accurate).

Now to be fair, I price my games for sale maybe $100 - $200 over what I'm willing to take, but some of the asking prices seem to be to the tune of $800 - $1000 over what anyone who has studied the market would think is fair (and "fair" is really the keyword - not trying to imply that sellers should be giving these things away).

But yeah, we're beating a dead horse here - guilty as charged - but I seem to enjoy discussing it for whatever reason.

-BB

A lousy comparison is the housing market- they are still building houses- when was the last time a TZ was made, and how many more are going to be made?

inhomearcades: I understand your point. Already having pins helps. But there are so many good "B" titles that are still reasonably price that I do not care.

MM for $12k ? Great, why not ? Why should I care ? I like MM, but I like my stargate as well and it was priced 1/10 of that. Would actually prefer 10 decent pins at $1200... but everyone's entitled to a different opinion.

What worries me more are the prices of NIB pros. We won't see many on location if prices continue to rise like that!

The shag we can do without, but those lighting fixtures are coool!

Every game in the top 100 is ranked 7.5 or better. 7.5 is usually a pretty fun pin.

There are ton's of relatively affordable pins in the top 100.

The difference between #1 & #100 is only 1.401.........1.401!!!

14 percent. MM is 14% better than Shrek.

If I sold MM, I could get 5X more pins

Yea.. I would rather have more.

more, More, MORE!!!!!

Well move those damn vids!

How much for the Time Pilot?

Oh, my MM is of the highest quality! Heres what I had in mind-
orangecounty.craigslist.org link

Bingo.

It would really suck to be brand new to this hobby. Your choices for affordable pins would be pretty limited in terms of DMDs.

that's a pretty good haul..

I'd do it.

Come and get it. You can have it.

Yeah, what a way to start the day, finding this on craigslist and being way too short on cash to beat all the vultures to the punch!

People who complain about prices need to spend their energy thinking about ways (and acting on them) to get more money. Be creative. Take a chance.

Kinda like clipping large amounts of coupons trying to save some money. All that time spent to save a few hundred could have been spent working on something to earn a lot "more" money than was "saved".

Or like some people have said here, just don't buy the more expensive games. Like cars, I don't dream about lambos and ferraris all day as they're a lot more money than I ever want to spend on a car. So I never think about owning them and I'm happier for it. They exist in someone else's world.

Open that safe!

You lost me at 'bubble'.

Bubbles make me feel fine.

You can't even say Ho these days without somebody getting offended!

WTF! Totally offended.

Tamoore - Where did you get the Time Pilot? I loved that game growing up- been looking for one of those 60-1 multicade games that included Time Pilot, Frogger, Donkey Kong etc. Plus, you have a Zaxxon?! That is very cool.

Anyway, as far as the price bubble - I am one of those people who just started looking for their first game. It is really frustrating to know that NIB were significantly less just two years ago, and almost all other games were also selling for significantly less as well.

Me and my big mouth!

I have a lot of video games. Time Pilot is already going to O-Din, so that is accounted for.

The Frogger, Zaxxon, Turbo, Pole Position, Asteroids, Battlezone, Super Offroad, Operation Thunderbolt, Capcom Bowling, Satans' Hollow, Joust, Robotron, Stargate, Pacmania, SSFIICE and Vanguard still need a home..

Thanks brother! You mind holding it for a bit? Although I would love to pay you a visit, it might be a while. Maybe we can talk shipping.

Re: Time Pilot - I was just commenting how cool it was. I didn't think you were actually selling it. To be honest I thought you were joking with o-din. I haven't seen it for probably 20 years. You are selling the others?

r

Everything is always for sale.

I placed 9 games on CL for sale up here about 5 months ago...

If you're giving them away I'll take Robotron Just for nostalgic reasons.

Yeah time pilot was awesome! They actually had a really nice version on colecovision.

I for one would take the build quality of a seventies house over the prefab crap of today...............Just sayin'

Good point! And I'd take those "ridiculous lighting fixtures" over can lighting any day!

here is my thing on pinball machines and pricing:
When I sell a pin, its to free up funds to buy a new pin. Since I will be paying current price levels on my new pin, I have to sell my old pin at current price levels.

To me this is why pinball is going up in prices. It's a gateway from video pinball to real pinball.

This part of a email sent to m,e from pinball arcade.

On February 8th, we celebrated the Pinball Arcade’s ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of our launch!

We started with just four tables on a single platform. With the Dr. Dude and Firepower Table Pack release, we now have 24 tables available on 7 different platforms. On mobile alone the Pinball Arcade has been downloaded over 5 million times!

We have also received a number of awards this year, with G4TV recognizing our game as their Mobile Game of 2012, PCWorld placing us in their Top 100 Products of 2012, Diehard GameFAN awarding us both Best All-Ages Game AND Best Digital/Downloadable Game of 2012!!! What a year!

The Pinball Arcade is currently available for:

All iPhone, iPads, and iPod touches (every Apple device from the iPhone 3GS and iPad 2 on)
Almost 2000 Android phones and tablets
Sony PS3 and PSVita
Microsoft 360
Mac OS

Our 2013 plans include:
Catching the PSN and 360 table releases up to the mobile offerings
Releasing Pinball Arcade on Wii-U, OUYA, as a Windows 8 app for desktop and Surface tablets, and as a PC game with cabinet support
Being a launch title in the digital stores for any next generation consoles released later this year
Continuing to release new tables every month
Adding support for more peripherals (like 3D TVs and the iCade) and features (more tournaments and online play)
Some other really cool stuff we can't talk about!

FarSight would like to thanks all of our fans! We can’t wait to grow this game into the dream game that we’ve always wanted to make for pinball fans everywhere!

Many older homes in desirable areas are remodeled (like popular B/W titles). Those older homes often run a similar price/sq foot as new ones. The reasons may be different but the analogy works. Prices vary with the market, often with reasons that make no sense to an individual buyer.

The market is there. We participate at the level we can afford and our individual actions generally do not influence the trend. Subjectively, we usually just follow the trend because of our desire to participate at any level.

It's supply and demand, a lot of collectors are coming into the hobby. There are many people that have been into it less than 2 or 3 years, more collectors=less machines available. Mhowever I love all the collectors and the passion for the hobby, it's awesome!

If people think prices are high now, what's gonna happen if some TV network comes up with a "reality TV" show called "Pinheads" or "Pinball Wizards", about guys who restore/refurbish pins? The current "high" prices will seem like bargains. I hate to play Devil's Advocate, but I'm just saying...

With some 300 viewers max, the show will be gone before it can impact the prices. Lol.

One thing to consider is that once you own the maximum number of pins you want, upgrading them is always cheaper then starting out.
My AFM set me back large but now it's a much smaller bump to trade up to an MM or even sell for a NIB.

If they can make a show about a guy making duck callers they can do a show about some wacky guys hunting and restoring pinball

Robotron, in my opinion is by far the best video game ever made!