I will predict pinball machines will not be made in the U.S. EMs will be even more plentiful and still worthless. The 90s machines will be priced way above everything else and the 2000s Stern machines will be the Data East/Sega machines of today. Manufacturers will balloon to double digits and then crash hard to 2 or 3. Stern will be publicly owned or have multiple owners at one point in the ten years.

Here's an outlandish prediction. Stern's name is bought by a conglomerate. They commission Homepin or a similar Chinese based company to make pins using the Stern name for the U.S.

This won't be true. The top titles will still be worth a premium especially in top shape. There will be less of them because some have been used as parts machines. No matter how small the buyer base. Collector's will keep the 90s titles at a very high price.

I'm curious what will happen to Stern once Gary dies. Will his children continue the biz? Will a minority owner step up and continue on the same path? Maybe he retires before that happens.

It's amazing to think Gary's been the driving force of that company for 30 years, through good times and bad.

I would actually challenge that notion because of the distractions that new cars provide and the false sense of security that leads to driver mistakes. I'm a more attentive driver when I drive a car with manual steering and manual brakes.

I think it's important to support location pinball as well. Not everyone has the means or space to own a machine but most everyone can drop some coins into a machine and play for a few minutes. Every time I see a location machine I try to play it no matter what shape it's in.

Kinda surprised at this response, Otaku. I may not be an "EM guy" but I don't think I've ever disparaged them. My favorite style of games are early SS but those are just 80s versions of EMs. The art and gameplay are things I love about EMs. I own two and always have to resist the tempation to buy more.

And that's why I said EMs are worthless. If you want an EM all you have to do is look on CL and you can find more than one nearby for a couple hundred or less. People are almost giving away games because no one will come take them. The two I bought were less than 150 bucks together.

Now imagine in 10 years when a lot of the older guys who have hoarded EMs start to get rid of them or their kids get rid of them. There's just going to be too many machines for the market that wants them. There will always be a place for the very high quality games but the average player's quality games are gonna struggle to find a home. There is already an industry of people stripping working games to sell for parts. You're even the beneficiary of parts for a rare game that someone was ready to pitch.

I know you're an EM guy and it has showed more than once but even you were realizing in your post the demand for EMs is dwindling while supply in the marketplace is rising. In 10 years that situation is going to be worse.

Is Sing Along a popular one? I thought it was because someone was making repro backglasses. There was one on CL in good shape for a little over $400. It was on there for more than a month. It might still be on there.

It's nice to see they are going up in price in the Northwest.

I wonder if Homepin will be the solution to your price woes. If Stern has them making machines for them too, that'll be even more machines coming your way.

Pinball may end of having a cooler factor with kids if they aren't exposed to them until they are older. It's an interesting idea.

I think you're right. We need innovation in pricing rather than tech. Prices have been continually rising but it hasn't hurt sales. If someone were able to produce a unique game with a fun theme at a low price, how many games could they sell?

This was done before Dracula but not a lot of people saw it. It could be the same with some of the other things, I don't know. A lot of the "new" ideas are just forgotten features of EMs.

Sega made a game called Galaxy with a moving magnet under the playfield that transported the ball from left to right in an arc. It was called the Space Patrol feature.

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Well I haven't played the either but I would love to.

Not all pins from Stern are devoid of unique features.

When I look at Metallica, I don't notice Sparky. It's the hammer and snake that draw my attention. The hammer is really cool because it locks the ball under the playfield where you can see it. Ghostbusters has that ramp that goes under the playfield which is pretty cool but doesn't really tie into the license all that well. Wrestlemania has a very unique ring but the problem is it dominates the playfield and the code doesn't use it well. Family Guy has mini pinball which isn't in another game that I know of besides Shrek.

I feel like Stern did that with Whoa Nellie. They didn't have to make that at all and the demand has seemed pretty low.

I enjoyed it. Whoa Nellie is pretty fun if you get a chance to play it.