Pinball is very much experience a resurgence. Everything has gone up in price. The market is being flooded with newly manufactured pins as well from Stern as well as a few new smaller manufacturers.

Out of the ones on your list, BOP has probably increased the most.

Mine would be flipping burgers before id sell a pin!

Continues to grow in a period of revival, similiar in direct specifics of the early 1990s. General good news for remaining operators and enthusiasts. Completely different collector base category, however.

It has to be doing ok, because the only pinball company failures are of the "scam" variety, not because the market didn't support them (quite the opposite - they got all the "free" money they asked for).

How long this can all go on for, who knows.

I'd be curious to see some of the business plans of some of the new manufacturers, how many machines do they "need" to sell. If they all plan to sell multi-thousand per year, then obviously there will be more failures coming. But I wouldn't blame the pinball market for that, more on over ambitious companies.

Collector base: It seems there is a generation of slightly younger collectors than 3 years ago. I think there are many factors driving this: The success of The Pinball Arcade digital platform and the success of "gamebars" in many metro areas.

Values: I haven't been in this hobby for very long, but it seems the older games from the 90's have held their value in the past 18 months or so. Some a little higher, some a little lower. With every successful Stern release, many decent deals have popped up with DMD games produced in the last 20 years actually.

However there is a select group of games that has really spiked a lot: Early 80's Bally games. Games like Centaur, Fathom, Embryon, etc. These have skyrocketed....

Eric

Prices seem to have gone up a lot in the last year. It is a strange carryover where the asking price of "lesser" games have gone way over their fun factor. At some point that will correct itself.

Some would say we are in the Golden Age if pinball.

Thoughts?

The a-list games that have had higher prices have probably driven folks to look at b, c, and d list titles, which has driven the prices of those up. So, the more popular/fun ones in that range are getting more attention (centaur, to name one)

So look out--zizzle games are next

You need to go back over 40-50 years.
That is referred from the 1960-70s, during the primary era of EMs, when titles were coming out MONTHLY.
It is not coming back for numerous reasons that would make this post extremely long. A good information summary can be found on the "Special When Lit", if you have never watched it. That explained the last 1990s "blip" for those that were not around, but there are multiple ages through the 60s,70s,80s, 90s. The "History of Pinball", "Tilt - The Battle To Save Pinball" and others can fill in the rest. Available on Amazon.

Pinball barely survives by its fingers, and the claws it way back every time. This is not a change now, and the length of time of relevancy is partially determined by economy.

My friend was offered 2k for his jokerz. You might only get $1,200 it a golden age of opertunity for the right buyer

Not to bring something completely out of necro, but the phase change of pinball acquisition of "B, C, and D" titles already happened.
Centaur has been on the rise since 2000 when superb examples were less than $850.
Most B title spiking started back in 2005 after the drying up of re imports of quality.
"A titles" have already started to push people out of the hobby for newcomers, or force redirection to NIB titles based on reliability, condition, availability and cost in comparison to older titles.
C and D titles are creeping as newcomers realize, "I never knew this existed" (again).

The question that most new collectors ask is "should I pay the same amount of money for a 20+ year old game from BLY/WMS or a new one from Stern"?
The answer has already been received by most in force, and those that pay the difference have decided to step up their enthusiasm ante (or addiction), or purely due to lack of ability to maintain their games.

There needs to be more teaching of hobbyists technical skills (for those that are willing to actually listen, instead of looking at people like they have a $#@$ growing out of their forehead) in order to avoid another "drought" in roughly 5 years with a market instability, once NIB games push out new buyers from areas as well.
We are looking at Stern "price market testing" $10k new title LE games from distributors is less than a TWO YEARS.
Boutique sellers are already reaching that mark at the same time.
"A titles" will continue to keep pace with new games from all manufacturer sources.

Example:

I recently evaluated TAF that was in excellent working and cosmetic condition, but the asking price was $7k.
The owner thought I might be evaluating it for someone else, but it was purely for my interest and purchase (my third TAF), and I told him that clearly.
He was very amiable and helpful, and was generally knowledgeable.
It was based on what he paid, and his understanding of the inflated market at an average of $6k.
The reality is the game was in the low $5200-5800 range, market standard point only, as it was clean, with no major wear, and 100% working. It was a nice example.
However, it was not worth the cost even in the current market or popularity, and most knowledgeable people clearly understand.
This is not a "pinball dealer" here.
I was not offending to collector as he asked my opinion afterwords, and I stated that the asking price was not the breaker.
This was NOT the machine I am looking for to re add to my collection again as I know what I want from playfield quality, and remain patient, but I said to myself "what the hell" maybe this is the one I am looking for because he wants $7k and took the time to evaluate.
I did not feel slighted at all, that is the nature of the hobby.
I do not "tire kick" or "low ball", just politely say no thank you as I do not hold people "dangling on my decision".

Bottom line:

For $7k+ titles like this, they need to be superb+, not excellent, regardless of age.
This is the same cost as a brand new Stern Premium machine, but TAF is 24 years old with an over 20k production total and thousands of plays.
Given a few years the price WILL most likely standardize at $7k.
That is the current reality, not that I like the way things are heading.
Old collectors are not living in the Dark Ages.