If you are not buying , then it has stoppped for at least one person...

It is all supply and demand, but I agree that NIB prices can be to blame also.

Insane prices will stop when people stop buying NIB pins for ever increasing prices.

It is a chicken/egg scenario (NIB cost more, so old go up; Old cost more so NIB increase) but I realy think the NIB prices are the main impetus behind the current RATE of increase.

There have been many threads here which make it completely apparent that the collector population is growing. Many new people (i.e. me for example) which bought their first game in 2012 and have had 10 come though the doors since that time. I also have friends that I have gotten into pinball and they have bought games since...

I personally know of 20 games that were bought by me/friends that 1 year ago were not into collecting pins. I am not unique >> many others have told a similar story. Pinball is growing in total number of collectors. Demand has increased. Their is a finite supply of good old games and new games have not yet offset the increased demand.

All evidence points to decreased supply and increased demand.

Pinballhelp >> I am not sure what you think a 'significant' growth or price increase is, but TAF has gone up significantly based on the graph you provided.

It lacks an x axis but it is pretty obvious that for a long time the average price was ~3000. Your graph now shows that for the first time in a long time it has increased significantly to an avg of ~4500-5000. I do not need to run the stats on it... that is a SIGNIFICANT increase and is likely a direct correlation to the growth of the hobby. Demand has gone up>> pushing supplies of TAF down and hence an increased avg price.

I do not care to research and crunch the hard numbers as the writing is clearly on the wall (or in this case the graph and case studies of pinside members and pinheads I have met in the wild in the past year).

You neglect to acknowledge that the current avg sales includes the ones from this year, so your value of $3400 is artificially inflated by this years sales if you are attempting to use it as a historical value.

In conjunction, of course there are fewer sold. There are more collectors that have bought them up and do not want to get rid of them. Back in the day TAF was every where for sale. Steadily as the number of collectors increased, they settled in collections. You can not use a value of 624 machines and assume that it has been a steady sales of 90 every year till now. More than likely in was 150 per year 12 years ago and the number has slowly decreased over the years. It is hard to tell from your graph but it sure looks like more data points earlier on and fewer as time went on.

good points Dave!

I would fit your idea of a landgrab. I filled all my available space in 2012. Buying almost any deal I could find becuase I wanted to build my collection. I have realized Ilike workin on them as much (maybe even more) than playing them. Going forward, I will either need to convince my wife to allow the game room to expand into other rooms of the house or it will be a 1 in 1 out policy.

That said, I also know quite a few other people that will be doing a land grab in 2013. therefore, I do not see things slowing down as much.

I do agree that the new gaming counsels could have a definate impact. Les space, cheaper, and no work to do may appeal to many.

Prices of older games have gone up due to supply and demand.

Used game prices have gone up at an increased rate due to the ever increasing price of NIB and how it has changed perceptions of what is a fair range of prices for a game.

Basically, IMHO perceptions of acceptable used prices have changed due to NIB prices.