There's some truth to this, and I have a real life example.

I am deeply involved with the collector car hobby as well. In recent years, the brass era car prices have plummeted-- some cars are fetching 1/4 of what they used to sell for. Survivor cars from the late 20's-40's are being turned into hot rods (a criminal act IMO). Why? Because nobody wants to learn the eccentricities of the really early cars. Few have the skills to work on them. Even fewer have the money to pay the handful of specialist mechanics who command huge premiums for their services. Plus, the market is aging out-- the folks who have the deepest pockets in the hobby now are interested in the cars of their youth-- the muscle cars of the late 60s. The rest of the collector car market is literally dying out.

Sure, there are some exceptions-- London to Brighton run eligible cars (http://www.veterancarrun.com/) still command a premium because their numbers are incredibly limited-- there are probably no more than a few thousand cars on the planet that would qualify. Likewise, the exotic art deco cars of the 20s and 30s (the Bugatti's, Delahaye's, Talbot-Lago's, and Hispano Suiza's) still draw huge money, but those are mostly status symbols for the fabulously wealthy, not a toy for someone of modest affluence.

But it's not apples and oranges. Both are somewhat eccentric hobbies that require disposable income. Both have a very limited market for sales. Both have "barn finds" fed into the hobby stream by non-collectors. Both have limited parts availability and require significant knowledge to maintain. Neither appeals to very many young people.

Except it's not.

There are car shows every weekend in the nicer months. There are cruise-ins in practically every city. It's a FAR more popular hobby than pinball. We have a handful of businesses that cater to the pinball hobby. There are literally thousands of companies that cater to the antique car hobby-- from guys who run a small business out of their garage to huge international companies.

Shows are no different than leagues. People are competing for trophies in the different divisions, others come to watch the spectacle. Big shows (like the Hershey show coming up next month) are events that draw people from all over the world. The swap meets cover acres and acres. You clearly haven't ever been to one, because you have no concept of the scale... they make the pinball shows look tiny by comparison. A show like Hershey has thousands of cars in the show. Many hundreds more for sale in the car corral.

I know guys who have literal airport hangers filled with old cars. I know guys with enough parts in their collections to build entire cars and they wouldn't make a dent in their parts collections. Just because it's outside of the realm of your NYC existence doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

On this, you have a point. The cost of entry into the hobby is too high for most. The cost of a single desirable collector car would put a Big Bang Bar, a Cactus Canyon, and a HEP AFM. Most guys in the hobby have more than one car. While I don't have any really high dollar cars, I have a collection of 9 vintage cars (and enough parts to build about 3 more), and could sell them off and fund one hell of a pinball collection...

Then again, I don't know very many "older millenials and younger Gen Xers" who have large pinball collections either.

And now you're just blowing hot air. The "No True Scotsman" argument isn't going to work with me.

Nonsense. I work at a university. College aged kids don't watch old movies. They don't listen to any of the bands that have had pins themed after them... heck, many of their PARENTS are too young to listen to all of those bands except Metallica. They listen to EDM, they listen to rap. Very few listen to anything resembling rock.

I don't disagree. I was responding to the suggestion that the bands chosen for themed pinballs are "timeless". I mean, there's a certain population that drooled over the Elvis pin, and I'm sure there would be some limited market for a Danny and the Juniors pin... that doesn't mean that either are culturally relevant anymore.

The only thing that's ridiculous is this "precious snowflake" argument that you're making that nothing else can be compared to pinball. The parallels between the two hobbies are inexorable.

We will. I could agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.

If by "new stuff" you mean 90's DMD machines, you're right... that's where the collector market is right now.

If you mean new Stern titles, you should check your use of "we". Stern has made a couple of ok titles, but little that will have the impact of the B/W DMD titles. They haven't pushed the technology forward either... JJP has, Dutch has... and Stern is still building stuff that could have been built a quarter-century ago.

You are in a tiny minority.

Because it's a turd, not because it's an unlicensed theme.

For me it's not whether a game is licensed theme or not, it's all about the gameplay, and when you're using a licensed theme as a crutch to try to make up for mediocre game play that's a bad thing. There have been some truly inspired games made on licensed themes... and there have been some real turds.

So we can look forward to mediocre themes and high prices?

When routed B/W games sell for more than a brand new Stern, it's certainly not "all about NIB". The NIB happen to be more readily available, but any 90's B/W game that's priced fairly will move in no more than a few days.

Ha! I just caught a ban on one of the Facebook pinball groups that is specifically about *pinball* and I suggested a guy try a different forum for the shitty vpin he was selling.