makes sense

Sounds like most people are concerned about price for one of two reasons.

1) Wanting to unload games before they drop ensuring maximum profit

2) Waiting to buy games once they drop into your tax bracket.

Either way, it's a hobby and be ready willing and able to lose money on your hobby. Far too many collectors feel it is their right to make a profit on every sale. If you're serious about a game, buy it. Profit should not be part of your reasoning.

I have two NIB machines and have no doubt that once I sell I'll lose money, it is what it is.

Like that restored Sq Head EM that sold for $4000?

Is it bad?......that didn't understnpand a word but watched the whole thing? The hummer in the background was awesome......

Agreed. For me, nothing ruins a hobby more than people referring to it as an investment. That's what the stock market and real estate are for. Hobbies come and go and fluctuate greatly. Heck, at one point people were paying thousands for stupid Beanie Babies. Now they're worth as much as a dog toy.

For me the bubble already popped on many of the high price A listers. I'd rather buy NIB, as I think there are some great pins being made now.

people buy pinball machines with cash. No cash, no buy. no credit to default on. no bubble

Bubble pop? Lets play!

The bubble will never pop. It might inflate and deflate a bit over the years, but that bubble won't ever outright pop.

Lets vote for this.........jabronis with less than 2000 karma points can't start bubble popping threads.

If Roel dumped all the a-listers he has access to at once...I think it would be close. How many euro MM's could come back over? If even 20 were to hit the market at once it could cause a dip.

i dont think there is a bubble, pins are fairly cheap as far as a hobbie goes- when will they be dirt cheap, soon as we have a full scale depression and there all unloaded to try to keep the house for another month.

I bet a lot of bigger collectors have no house payment.

I don't think the 'bubble will pop' unless a lot of collectors stop their hobby. Maybe though the arrival of Heighway Pinball, Skit-B and Spooky Pinball can make the top-prices go down a little if they produce great games for lower prices.

Exactly. A ton of collectors would have to simultaneously flood the market with games for sale. What would cause this? Either they all get bored at once (unlikely) or there's some massive financial crisis that affects everyone - and at that point, it's all relative.

The only thing that causes the bubble to "pop", IMO, is time. ~40-50 years all these pin collectors will start to die. Will their kids & grandkids want to keep all these games? Probably not. Lots of collections will be back "on the market" at that point - and the next generation isn't likely to care as much. We'll all be old or almost dead, so - yay...you're in the nursing home but you'll get a bargain MM! LOL Life is short. Enjoy pinball now.

Well, I didn't mean in the next year or so, or 'a ton of collectors at once', but it could happen in say 5 to 10 years that pinball-collection-popularity decreases again. I don't hope or think so, but who knows.

what people seem to fail to acknowledge, is its not just "collectors" or operators who buy machines. there are normal RICH home owners that do as well and have no clue how to work on games or even play well for that matter etc. they buy for the title alone of something they like.
harleys, nascar, movies, musicians, whatever.

There isnt a bubble. forget new prices...look at used machines the past 20 years. any machine in the flipper era... em's, SS, alphanumeric, dmd, it doesnt matter.....they never ever drop in price unless one is beat to hell that is purchased.
they either remain the same or go up.
dmd have went way up. Partly due to NEW playfields and other parts becoming available to do full blown restores.
Also, as most everyone knows...When you purchase your first machine, it rarely ends there..
id say the majority of "collectors" have over 5 machines..
I just learned recently that someone who lives right down the street has 10 pins in their house..they arent on the newsgroups, they dont go to shows, doesn't associate with pinheads.....just a normal dude who has pins period..
the prices aren't ever gonna drop unless a major world economic disaster occurs.
supply and demand is shown at its best .

or an asteroid gets rammed up our ass!

Check out Gexchange's latest distributor LE pressure-fest! Bubble has a needle pressed right into it now!

BUY THEM NOW BEFORE THEY ARE ALL GONE!
'Whats the title?'
NOT SURE!
'Release date?'
THINK IT'S FALL!
'Programmers/designers?'
THINK IT'S RITCHIE AND LYMAN?!
'Any other info?'
NOPE! JUST SEND IN PAYMENT TO SECURE EARLY SHIPPING!

Yeah....

Rick. "I'm gonna have me some fun." #190

Stamp collecting is actually very expensive, google The Treskilling Yellow....

However, I don't think that was the intention of the post...is it a rehashed post sure and has been beat to death, but maybe it gives new members their chance to chime in.
The bubble will never "pop"....there is always new blood in any hobby. But pin prices will always limit new members. It's not like we are buying classic cars, but to say this isn't an expensive hobby is not always accurate. Perhaps if you were to buy an older EM game, it becomes affordable. To buy what the community deems an "A-lister" seems absolutely crazy to me. I have been told stories of the good-ol-days (5 -6 years ago) when the prices of these pins were exponentially lower (AFM instantly comes to mind). This hobby takes some money and does cause heartbreak but it will never really die....
Pin ownership, in correlation with the money distribution in our world will always fluctuate.

A slow and steady decline of prices over a 5-10 year period is *not* a popping of a bubble. That's considered a slow and steady landing. A slow landing indicates that there was no bubble. For if there's a bubble it'll eventually pop suddenly and outright.

I think the following things could cause the prices to drop suddenly:

1) someone starts remaking all expensive machines in quantity for half their price
2) new machines start surpassing the existing ones by a huge margin so much that everyone sells what they have to get new machines

I think you all are wasting your time, like me now.

That is exactly what's going to happen but prices won't drop suddenly, they just revert back to some level after a huge two year run up in prices....

That's the best video I've ever seen.