This thread reminds me of the old "I'll quit smoking when the price of a pack hits $X.00" thing. I'm not sure why one would expect pinball not be subject to inflation or profit, and as far as quality, my kitchen set cost as much as a new pin, and I'll be lucky to get 8 years out of it, with next to zero resale value. Same applies to pretty much every big ticket item from washers, to hvac, to cars, etc. In fact, I can't think of a single piece that holds its value better than a new (or used) pinball machine. Not that I'm saying cutting corners doesn't suck, but we live in a consumer based reality, and everything has been going this way as long as I've been here. And then there's the whole it's a $10k toy that no one actually "needs". What difference does $100 make year over year, barely covers dinner out these days...