CPR has a lot of System 11 playfields in the pipeline (including Whirlwind). I wonder if the availability of these will drive up prices.

I don't have any interest in this particular game, but it's popular enough that I've seriously considered preordering one as an investment. Based on past experience with other repro playfields for high-interest games, I wouldn't be surprised to see the price shoot up to $1000 once the run sells out.

I disagree. If demand remains high, sooner or later someone will start making reproductions of the most popular and expensive WPC titles. Just because Wayne Gilliard couldn't get it together doesn't mean no one can. I expect MM and AFM to be the first titles reproduced because of several factors: relatively low bill of materials, very high demand, and no third-party licensing to worry about. Planetary Pinball seems to be pretty good about working with those who are reproducing Bally/Williams parts, so I'm sure a deal could be struck for the reproduction of full machines. Most of the custom plastic molds for WPC games seem to still exist (judging from the existence of reproduction parts) and IPB has already remade the playfields, and presumably still has the needed artwork. The biggest challenge actually might be the boardsets; it would make sense to work with someone like Ed Cheung to create FPGA-based MPU and display/sound boards so it isn't necessary to source obscure and outdated chips.

Oh, definitely. Making reproduction machines would be a labor of love. But I am convinced it could turn a decent profit, too, if done right. Someone, probably in the next decade, is going to give it a shot.

Even if productions are made - it won't be a Bally/Williams. I used to collection vintage movie posters - and reproductions are worth next to nothing. They are made with the same materials and the reproductions are printed with better paper, but collectors want the originals.

I have to disagree to an extent. I don't think this is nearly as much the case with pinball as it is with other collectibles. People already don't really care about originality; many of the high-end restorations we see are basically new machines built by hand with reproduction parts and a handful of difficult-to-replicate assemblies (wire harnesses, ball guides, etc.) ported over. If a machine has a new reproduction cabinet, new reproduction playfield, and NOS or reproduction parts for pretty much everything mounted on that playfield, is it really a Bally/Williams "original"? This is without even getting into the mods people routinely do to their machines - not just toys, but stuff like replacing under-spec'd IDC connectors for general illumination with Molex Trifurcon connectors.

If you look at the current pinball market, people want a machine that looks and plays good. Originality is a secondary concern at best.

What made this hobby impossible for the average person is Doctors, Investment Bankers, and other wealthy invididuals got into the market which priced it out for people like me.

Agreed. The big question is whether these people are here to stay, or if they will eventually get bored and leave.