Just read the entire thread this morning. Truly, too funny. If a NIB IM is now $5,100 delivered without shaker motor and upgraded speaker system (which I feel are must haves) and you just add those two items you are at $5,500. What "cry babies" even if you paid $5.5K for your IM a month ago it has gone down probably $1,000 and will still fetch approximately $4,500 (assuming it is in great shape with shaker and upgraded speakers).....
The guys that open their NIB making them HUO will lose $350 anyway and will be lucky to get $4,750 or so after they open their NIB as it will be an HUO......so they lose some money as well is my point once they open it....
Again, it is a "hobby"......so the market for old IM's went down a grand or a little more....WHO CARES !!!! Anyone that does shouldn't be in the hobby in my opinion. People need to stop second guessing their purchases. Buy a home, stock, car, etc. and most likely you could always get a better "buy point" so the same just happened with IM. Hey, it happened with AC/DC premium (and yes I bought one of those NIB.....LOL). Would have been better to wait and save some money by buying a HUO after LUCI came out.
BOTTOMLINE.....HOPEFULLY, this helps stop SPECULATION which has been much needed and as far as I am concerned over the LONG HAUL that will save all of us A LOT OF MONEY to make up for any losses we may have on pins in our collection that are re-made. GREAT FOR THE TRUE HOBBYISTS.....it SUCKS for the INVESTORS and people that have been making money flipping PINS. I have always said "they are among us and make money off of us" and this will help alleviate that issue.
THE MET LE to me was the best. That was when I told myself the "top is really near".....I saw people buying MET LE's from pinsiders for $1K-$1.5K more then what the pinsider paid weeks before and they never even had to take possession of the pin.....people were paying $9Kish for a MET LE that didn't get one through the order process !!!! How is that good for the hobby ? It needed to stop and selling CC's, MM's, MB's, etc for those ridiculous prices.....that bubble needed to let some air out of it as well.
So anyone with an IM that lost $1K think about the money you will save in the future and ask yourself "is this really bad for the hobby if it stops prices from going up on used pins 10-20 percent a year like they were"....again, INVEST IN STOCKS, REAL ESTATE, FINE ART, etc. and PLAY AND ENJOY BOATS, CARS, and PINBALL MACHINES....PINBALL MACHINES ARE NO LONGER AN INVESTMENT AND NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN !!!! Hopefully, this nonsense is stopping finally and people will view PINBALL MACHINES as a true depreciable asset and not a PICASSO PAINTING !!!!
Well, HOP is going to play a round of golf and laugh with his friends about this as they always get a kick out of my pinball stories and the mentality of some of the people who buy them......
Good luck to all.