A cheap pin

^ this cracked me up

3 of the 5 are not hard to find at all. Who told you they are hard to find,, the guy selling you the machines?

For me, it always seems like the one I actually want.

Honestly, I don’t think any of the 5 are hard to find. Hard to find is something like Star Gazer.

Nessie No seriously, IJPA seems to be tough and at a reasonable price. Totan also.

Top 5 sought after games:

Raza, King Pin, Pinball Circus, CGG's Cactus Canyon, Jaws.

Hard to find and most sought after are completely different concepts. Which are you trying to answer.

Quicksilver, Stargazer, Dragon Fist, Seawitch, GNR LE

None of these are really hard to find. Looks like you are new to the hobby. Hard to find would be many of your classic sterns, kingpin, king kong, etc.

Nothing is hard to find if you have enough cash.

He apparently doesn't have that problem -

Owned all but 1 lol

I’ll take more than 5 of those lol

You know, I used to see Apollo 13 all of the time about 25 years ago and now I don’t see it anywhere… There’s some 90s games I’d like to play that apparently exist and never played like Tommy and Twister.

That’s easy,
BBB
TBL
Alien
MM
TAF

IMO most sought after = most wish listed. See:

https://pinside.com/pinball/top-100/various/owners

I think the answer is:

1) Twilight Zone
2) Addams Family
3) Medival Madness
4) Indiana Jones
5) Theater of Magic

Why do I think this is the answer? Because those are the top 5 in order on the "wish" list, aka "most sought after".

https://pinside.com/pinball/top-100/various/owners

LOTR is the highest Stern on that list. Surprised there is no vault edition yet.

I think in Europe: POTC LE, IM LE, EHOH LE,...

omg you beat me to it. While I was busy looking, researching, and typing, you simply linked it.

You win.

Any LE is difficult to get, which I don't understand because the difference from a more obtainable Premium is all cosmetics - stuff i just don't care about

CGC & JJP do a much better job with their LE and Collector's

JJP and CGC are the worst companies in how they handle their CE's and LE's in terms of the collectability because they simply re release their LE's under a different name/edition skirting the limited factor. Think MMrLE vs MMrRE or WOZ ECLE vs WOZ RRLE, WOZ YBRLE and WOZ InsertWhateverJackWantsLE. Spooky and Stern have never re released an LE making their LE's more desirable/sought after for me.

It's going to vary from person to person and there is no top 5. The games you got might be hard to find due to their limited production numbers but they are hardly sought after titles. And some of the titles people are throwing around on this thread are not highly sought after IMO.

For example MM had always been considered one of the holy grails before the remakes and I've owned 2 originals and sold then both because it gets old and the novelty wears off. Personally I would take AFM any day of the week over MM but that's just me. However before the remakes it was cool to say you owned a MM and it gave your johnson a few extra inches.

I have the same opinion on MM, it's fun and everyone loves it. But gets old quicker then most Williams/Bally''s of that Era. AFM has stood the test of time in my line up....games come and games go but AFM sits dead center in my line up because it will never leave and everything else has to go up against it. And yes I've had a MM, it's fun but I'd rather have a Wh20 or TOM. I may bring it back at some point because it's my wife's favorite game ......happy wife ...happy life

Any of those 5 you mentioned can shake loose with the right bucks pretty easily.

Sought after and CRAZY expensive / hard to find? Without being like impossible Pinball Magic level of rare?

Hmmmm… I’d take

- HEP Twilight Zone
- Tron LE
- Pirates CE
- GNR CE
- Lebowski

All I’d have to do it sell my other 20 games to make it happen, awesome!

I could not care less about collectability, just what comes with the machine
I would buy the CGC LE version even if they made 5,000 just becuase I like what they include with the package

Nothing wrong with that list but there are a ton of TZ's out there and anyone with money can just send one to HEP. Lebowski's are available if you are willing to wait and my buddy is on the list for his 2nd one from Cointaker. POTC is only sought after cause of it's limited production numbers and CE's were available for a long time before they announced they were done making them. I owned Tron LE and it gets old. Found myself only shooting for Gem so I could start SoS. Guy who bought it of me sold it as well shortly after because at the end of the day it's just another Stern.

It took me 4-5 months to find a nice Bally AFM. I had no idea when I started looking that it would be that difficult. I did pass on 2 or 3 that were a little beat up and/or overpriced. It seems many of the originals have found their forever home.

Titles where there is way more demand than supply?

Rick and Morty
JJP Pirates
Star Gazer
Funhouse * In nice condition
RAZA

Fair enough! I was thinking of desirable stuff amongst the general public. Which again I would never go for as I can have just as much fun with my Stars vs. any of those

OK so here’s my updated list of pain in the ass stuff to acquire I’d love to have if money was no option!

1. Dragonfist
2. Punk
3. Defender
4. Supreme
5. Quicksilver (well, at least I have one!)

Criteria can easily steer this list as there's just too many ways to define it, and too many 'rare' games that people oogle after.

I mean, Zaccaria guys are always trying to find Spooky.
Classic Stern guys look out for games like Cue, Viper, Dragonfist etc....
Gottlieb fans would give up an appendage for Krull, Goin Nuts, QBert's Quest

Lots of potential residents of this list for sure.

5 working GamePlan games.
Seriously.

Top 5 most sought after:

1. Your Grail Pin, whatever it is;
2. A better condition Grail Pin;
3. The pin you sold and regretted it and now you can't find it at a reasonable price;
4. Whatever must have theme that has not yet been made (insert Harry Potter, Queen, New BTTF, Food Truck etc); and
5. The pin your brother, cousin, neighbor etc. remembers playing as a kid and keeps asking why you don't have it every time they come over to play, just to shut them up.

Stars is a great game and one of these days I'll find a machine for my NOS PF. One thing I learned over the years is any game is pretty much obtainable if you have enough money. And most times the game never lives up to it's desirability and gets sold shortly after. Even I sold games I sworn I never would and that they were bolted to the floor because people made me crazy offers.

My buddy was able to score a BBB a few years ago but the game was just average and didn't live up to all the hype. So he sold it shortly after and still has no regrets. That was always on my wishlist as well however after getting to spend a lot of time on the machine I decided there were other games I would rather own.

I want a perfect krull. That’s all I need.

Same. MM got old, and why people think it is so great is a mystery. Even TOM is more fun than MM.

I’m biased, so take this with a grain of salt: I feel like the Shadow is up there. A lot of people really love it and want it, but there were only 4000~ made, nearly 30 years ago.

Of course this is all opinion, but audio is a huge factor in whether I keep a game or not. I would MUCH rather hear the humorous callouts in MM as opposed to the hokey, over-the-top female announcer in ToM. She is like a female Doug Henning. Haha.

I do understand that many of these games were programmed to catch someone's attention in an arcade and needed to compete with many other sounds, but in a home environment (to me, at least) games with this type of overly-dramatic announcer (also see WCS) wear out their welcome faster. CV is the exception to the rule for me...I just enjoy the gameplay, and at least there is the 'Ringmaster' voice, as well as the announcer.

The Matrix

Thats actually false. Trying to get a hold of some of the truly rare games usually takes more than just cash. Most of these types of collectors have plenty of cash. Its easy to go buy a normal game, you're not just gonna go out and get a goin nuts or something usually unless you have something else desirable to trade, as cash is pretty unimportant when you've got certain tastes and tons of cash to begin with. These types of games usually just trade hands behind the scenes with elite collectors, and not usually just for cash.

Rush, BTTF, Goonies, Jaws and WuTang

lol. no.

#1 - PTC
#2 - EFL

Accept no others.

LTG : )

Four years here and I had no idea this existed.

Very cool.

Except for all the no longer active accounts who are no longer looking for anything. I also doubt even active members edit their wanted list very often. Too much old data. Really, people are still clamoring for TZ?

They made more twilight zones than any other game ever i believe. 16k + i think! So that’s not an accurate way to look at most sought after. (Just because there are more TZ in collections + wishlists by default)

disclaimer: TZ is one of the best games ever made, it’s been in our family collection for 25+ years!

8BD AKA “pinball deluxe” (people get it wrong) is a high requested game.

Williams “Spacelab”.

15,235
https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2684

#11 most made of the modern era (TAF of course #1)
Still, I agree more made means more people exposed to it. It also means more made because it was/is a very good pin.