As said, I think the one size fits all answer is whatever the buyer is willing to pay for them. In my experience I've found it's always better to remove most of the mods, toppers, even the color DMD and sell them separately. Toppers especially seem to be give away items. If any mod makes the difference on selling a game for big money or not, that mod is probably worth quite a bit as a stand alone item.

I've had a couple games listed and by the time I did the math on the mods value used(removed), it came out to more than I was selling the machine for with them included. Both times, I removed the mods, sold the game, then sold the mods and came out ahead.

I absolutely add ~$100 for full LEDs.

I am picky about my lighting and I'll invariably need to adjust but I would for-sure weight a game with them over one without as I know I'll need to add $200 for my Comet order.

Some mods do tend to demonstrate "pride of ownership" which could add to the value.

Generally ad 50% of new value. Unless it is something that can be used universally across multiple games. Color DMD / Invsiglass / Topper / armor with powder coat. These items cost more then your average mod. And should bring at least 75% of the new value. If it is a good mod that most want to put in that title you can charge at least 75% of what it costs new. If you have an iron man with led ramp lights. That is a cool mod you should get at least 75% of new value. Bottom line you customized a game that looks great. If someone wants to buy it the way you put it together they should be prepared to pay the price you are asking. If you had a custom car or a car with no upgrades which one would sell for more money. Pinballs are collectable and customizable. The more rare or more custom ones should cost more money.

If you like what I created be prepared to spend some extra money. Or wait for a stock one to come to market and buy that one.

I, too, am in the "mods add no value for me" camp. I'm not a big fan of LEDs as it seems that in most cases they're not well done. Color DMD doesn't do much for me as I'm not typically looking at the display when I'm playing. I don't have any experience with invisiglass so can't comment on that.

Throwing "toys" on to the playfield just looks like clutter to me, so again - no value.

Mods that change game play, and seem like they should have been there from the start (e.g. dead world mod), would add a bit of value to me, but not a ton.

I think it really comes down to whether you like to try to make your game unique. If you like to add mods that make the game feel more like it's customized specifically to your liking, that's cool, but don't expect me to like what you've done and to pay more for that.

I don't. What if the previous owner has all these cheap ass LEDs that are clown puked all over, and way too dim? I'll have to take them all out, and do it my way.

For me, a situation like that would make me inclined to offer hundreds less for the game as I can see my time adding up to fix it.

I'd pay more for a clean stock game than a modded one. It's rare I'd ever find a game that has mods I like.

I love LEDs... but not cheap ones. Big difference. Some games - such as BSD - IMO look way better with creative LEDs. Some games look worse. But a generally white LED job is better than incandescent... even from an energy saving perspective.

Shaker is or is not a mod? If so, add it to the list of chargeable mods.

IMO... shaker is a mod IF the game has no provision for a shaker and you add one.

If it has the mounting point and wiring as a "factory upgrade" option (like Stern PRO models often do) then I'd consider it an upgrade.

I think the difference between value adding upgrade and cheap cheesy mod is sometimes blurry tho.

I mod certain titles, but I'd probably do the same thing and take them off and sell them separately at 75% or less of the value.
I've had a lot of games I've bought from the secondary market with a certain brand of LEDs and taken all of them out mainly because five or six of them already started to crap out. Maybe they were to dim etc. Bought an Xmen with red and blue LED's under the plastics, personally anything other then warm or cool white doesn't look very good in certain spots. Everyone has there opinions on LED's though.

I'm starting to see that less is more with playfield mods, maybe one or two really good ones and that's it. At least with most titles, that's if you put any. On some it's harder not to get more , but damn they can get expensive in a hurry. If I ever sold a game, and was to lazy to take the mod off I definitely wouldn't add it to the value of the title. That's mainly because, If I sold a game I'd like to sell it to a wider audience then just the people who like mods. I'd rather the game sell quickly.

My introduction to mods came in the form of motorcycles...which are probably more heavily modded than pins. There are several categories of mods on bikes, each with their own valuation. The same seems to be the case with pins.

Mods that address an inherent deficiency in the design and are, therefore, almost mandatory yield a high return. You figure you would have to do it anyway so it's worth it to you not to have to mess with it. (Doohickey on KLR650 = various necessary protection). Mods that enhance the performance return a pretty high rate of return (suspension updates = Invisiglass) as long as it is crazy esoteric super expensive stuff. Mods that add new functionality (saddle bags = color DMD) also have a high return but reduces the market a bit. However, these mods are easily pulled and sold to others. Mods that fall into the bling category yield a small return unless you just happen to find someone that wants those same pieces of bling. (chrome clutch covers = toys).

Now the interesting thing with bikes is that many enjoy adding the farkles (mods) as much as riding. Even if cost of bike + cost of farkles is greater than the cost of an existing bike with all the farkles already installed, they would rather spend more and customize it themselves. Anecdotally, I would guess that well over half of bikers would rather customize it themselves. I'b be curious to know how many pin people prefer to do it themselves versus have it already done.

When I got my brand new dirt bike it had so much EPA bullshit I thought it HAD to be messed up. Little research and a few changes and it will climb a tree. They engineered in the "fixes" to make it easy on you. They had to send it out like that but made it easy to fix.

Rather than talk hypothetical, here is a real example: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-indiana-jones-the-pinball-adventure-30

I personally would absolutely give value to the mods on this machine and value it significantly more than a same-condition machine sans LEDs and spinning propellers etc. but that is just me I guess.

See, that's exactly it tho. I don't care about the Ark or the planes. The LED job is kinda hit or miss. I DO like the cab decals, backboard light kit, lost plastic and replated gun tho.

Honestly that's not a bad price for that game here in California.

That's not a bad price for that game anywhere.

There are 2 types of buyers, those that appreciate and want mods and those that don't. Your specific game needs to match the buyer. I mod the crap out of my games and I attach 100% value to those mods. Fortunately I have a list of buyers that want those mods and are willing to pay for them. The bonus for them is that I can spend days working on the game and all the labor is free. Occasionally I get a guest coming over that says "nice machine buy I wouldn't pay extra for the the mods" and my answer is simply "this is not the game for you".

I have a question that hasn't been discussed.... What about a pinsound board? Does that add value? What about upgraded speakers / sub?

Is it worth putting in a pinsound to TAF?

I have no experience with it, but I'm an audiophile and hearing the sound through my system migbt be cool.

It's not JUST you but it's not everyone either. You can see it as these mods adding value, and I can see it as time I'm going to lose removing green flipper bats and "extra LED lighting."

I put Flipper Fidelity speakers in ALL my games, and I have Pinsound in my IJ with the John Williams reorchestration that was so masterfully done by Endprodukt here on Pinside. My IJ plays in true stereo with the real music and added callouts, and I could never go back to a "normal" IJ again. It is absolutely worth the upgrade and should carry over in resale like Color DMD does, without a doubt.

With TAF, I'm not sure if anybody has done the music and sounds for that. Keep in mind that with Pinsound, it usually requires that somebody painstakingly recreate all the sounds and callouts for the Pinsound card. Not many games have that right now, as far as I know.

Depends.

The little trinkets and hot wheels/johnny lightning cars and planes, etc, dont really retain.

The bigger items like custom molded and painted figures (T1000) (Custom Trex for JP) should retain the value.

I voted 50-75%, but too each person the answer will be different

a good mod can be one of 2 things:
a) - a mod that looks like it is meant to be in the game and you will want to keep it there
b) - a mod that you can easily remove and bring the game back to standard pre-mod state and then you package the mod up and on-sell it at 50-75% depending on the mod

a bad mod is where the game is modified in some way - extra holes drill in playfield, rails, ramps, plastics etc etc and then haven't kept the original parts.

I design and sell some mods but I do it for the design challenge and most of the time it is for myself and just make it available for others if they like it - they can get it.