because most people around here have no patience for anything. Nobody wants to do the work to look, and drive to get something reasonable.

When they want it, they buy whatever is fastest and easiest to find, with total disregard for price. Maybe it comes from the "gotta have it now" generation? Who knows. With haste comes waste.

maybe in NY and CA. But around here, we don't make enough to wipe our asses with $100's.

Not many of us make anywhere near $30 and hour. most people i know are lucky to make $14-16 an hour. So I wouldn't value drive time at $30 an hour.

Pinball was not that expensive of a hobby. Not until the stupidity price era (2 1/2 to 3 years ago) did prices start to get to a level that the common person couldn't afford DMD games. It wasn't always like that. There was a time when you could go to auction and buy 3 early SS titles for $10. Late night thursdays, they couldn't give them away and grouped them for peanuts just to get them out of there. Kind of like they used to do for crane games later on. This is when TZ's and TAF's were $1200 for nice ones. There still are reasonable DMD games out there that are fun, but the numbers are getting less. Least the prices are heading back to the way they were 4 and 5 years ago and less from the 2 to 3 years ago climax of the hill.

As others mentioned. EM's go for $100-500 on a fairly regular basis. Some are damn fun. Lot of early SS's also go for that. Not hard to find a $300-500 flash. Because they made a million of them. That's a lot of bang for your buck.

it's still insane. Just not quite as bad as it was. it's going the right direction anyway.

This is exactly right. There is really, no purchase worse in losing money than a new car. (maybe jewelry). You lose so much just in the first month, then first year, it's not even funny. I think you would lose less playing blackjack at the casino. I would never buy a new car again. Spend $1000-2000 on a car and they last me 5-7 years, without having to fix hardly anything. I'm never going to get that $$$ per value out of a new car. If I did, i'd have to own that new car for 30 years to get my money out of it. 12 years ago I bought a Geo prism, with 130k miles on it for $900. Lasted me 7 years. Had 350 k miles on it when I sold it (fully running good) for $500. besides brakes and tires, the only thing I ever had to fix was the timing belt broke once. Van that I just totaled. paid $1200 for. 120k when bought. 200k when totaled, was running good yet. Had to replace muffler, starter, and maintenance items the 5 years I owned it.

New car costs 20k + usually. I can buy 10 to 18 of my cars for that money. Even if I get 3 years out of every vehicle. I'd still get 30 to 54 years out of the same amount of money. Not one car off that new lot would last me 30 to 54 years from daily use.