BUSTED !!!!!!

Holy moly you have a Stern addiction!

It would be way more helpful if you'd tell me what's up with the US stock market.

That was breaking perfectly good working slingshot tech.

A move backwards.

Never again, please!

It's an interesting change-up after 70 years of sameness.

The first ramp in pinball was not all that good.

Neither was the first multiball, or speech, or.....

Non working em's ending at $150? Maybe in your area, but there are so many around here that I wouldn't take one for free. The last one I got I struggled to get $100 for. Not even worth the effort.

Interesting doesn't = good or functional. Some pinball things are just things that work. Slings have always worked well being slings. Changing them to magnets didn't do anything other than make them less sensitive to firing (due to 1 switch) & give you cheap deaths by randomly just making the ball drop down the middle for no reason. I love magnets in pinball, but they usually have a reason and purpose for the tricks they're doing. Magna slings don't do anything but make slings into worse-slings. It's a gimmick that wasn't well thought out...but hey, that's one of many things that weren't thought out on GB.

Plummet? No. However, I think we see prices on the high end games, $7k+, taking more of a hit compared to "lower" priced games. There are more newer higher priced games then ever and only so many pinball dollars to go around. As people want the latest games it means more inventory on the market which means overtime it will impact prices of existing games.

Newer games are too new to be relevant to long term price discussions. If a game is in production, of course used games prices will take a hit. Once it's out of production, the game will have to earn a reputation in order for there to be demand.

"Classic" games should remain relatively stable as their reputations have been earned (good or bad) and their supply is finite (unless they're remade lol)

I like them so far.

It will be interesting to see what the next version of the software does with them.

The Magno-Slings ®™ are not that horrible...I mean they don't work that well and the 1 switch on them seems to be a bad idea, but they don't ruin it for me.
I'm wondering what we would think if they were put on a good machine? The 1 switch is still bad, but I wonder on a game that isn't so...well...GBish what they would be like

Really.... Still going ? ....

Wow, I usually agree with your feelings on GB 100% (I hate the game). However on this point, I disagree. The magna-slings fit the theme perfectly and are something new and different.

Sure they fit the theme, but I don't really think they accomplish anything interesting for the player. Like - if you walked up to it and didn't know they were magnets - you probably wouldn't even notice except you might think they're weak....and then when they drain you you're like WTF. I really never want to play GB again but if I did - I'd rather play the Pro I think. I like Slimer more on the Pro, too.

Haha the grass is greener?

Right ramp that isn't a ramp
Right scoop that isn't a scoop
Slings sending most balls down the shitter

You're right - both versions are too fundamentally flawed to exist.

My buddy scored one last year out in the Dalles Oregon for 1500, the stars lined up nicely on that day.

Just wanted to add that yeah, as someone who has only been in the hobby for 5 years or so I completely agree, and we have our own discussion going on about the lack of supply at the moment.

For me NIB is totally out of the question, far too expensive as has been re-iterated by a lot of people. It's the sky-rocketing price of games due to supply that has made me concerned. My first DMD cost £999 and it was a nice example of a JD 5 years ago. Now I'd be lucky to find a beater for that price.

Same as how other games have totally gone up to incredible values. When I first started my grail game, T2 was a £1200 game at best. 3 years later I found one and paid £1600 which I thought was high for what it was but it was a nice example. Now T2 easily commands £2000 or more for one in nice condition.

As OP says once the older generation start to downsize and get rid of their collection they will probably be in for a nasty shock when nobody wants to pay what they paid, but swings and roundabouts. I often hear stories of when pinball was in its downswing in the early to mid 2000's and people were picking up MM and TAF's for less than 1k each. I can see the high prices sticking around for a few more years but yeah, it can't last forever.

Come on Vid!!! Gorgar said eight full words...and sounded like a demonic robot. Actually I think the speech on Gorgar kind of sounds like a half-asleep James Earl Jones. Getting my minty one back from the guy I sold it to hopefully next week...can't wait.

Sorry to sidebar, back to the shitshow...

Eight? I think it's 7. I was also thinking about the magna slings, they are like black knight when you have the magnet time set really low. You try to save and it slings wherever. Oh and lane change on firepower. Everyone knows that never caught on.

I stand corrected. 7. The 8th word must have always been me yelling "f@#$" when the ball goes SDTM out of the left kickout.

That is awesome. Congrats to your buddy on that. I would be elated to score one for double that cost, hell even triple!

Prices going down? Let's find that Hot Tub Time Machine...

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Don't like high prices? Stop paying high prices.

How did I get dragged into this?

...and you're either Forum or against 'em, right?

Haven't seen a troll thread this successful in a long time on Pinside. Well done OP. Feigning outrage at personal insults really kept this thread alive!

Please define "plummet" and "dramatically drop" ... a price drop of 20-25% or more??

I can see market correction of 5-10% if the economy drops off. And what games drop out of favor
I see more people getting into the hobby and less people selling games from their collection.
Look at the collector car market, more buyers and a finite supply of cars.
So we have MMR and the collector cars has: tribute/clone/recreations made from base models and repro parts.

Saying the pinball market will drop in 5-10 years is like saying nothing. All markets fluxuate and the next downturn in pinball with have more to do with the economy than anything else. When the stock market starts to drop, so will pinball prices. I would also add that because of high NIB prices, individuals who pay big bucks for crap games will lose a lot. I think we are seeing this effect with Kiss, Hobbit, Mustang, WWE, GOT. That being said, if Stern continues to bring out strong titles, there is no stopping this train.....Star Wars will be huge if Ritchie pulls off another ACDC.

He said that super ultra high end bubble pins could see a 20-40% drop. 'Regular' titles, 10-20% drop.

In a decade or so.

So Medieval madness from $10K to $4-6K. Metallica from $7K to $6,200.

Last time the economy/market tanked, pin prices went up. That's the thing - even though pinball may be an. "Investment" to some people - it's not usually viewed as a traditional financial investment. It's a physical item that is collectible due to the finite amount that exist. No one liquidated their collections for cash during the recession. They were immune to what happened. There was no "pinball bank" that said "Today that $5000 game is now only worth $1000". I've said it before - the only thing that causes prices to "plummet" is a simultaneous mass sell-off. There's almost no scenario where that happens....where 100's of the same titles all of the sudden flood back on the market.

I think that scenario exists in some kind of feedback loop.
As the prices keep climbing, some people who put x money in a collection that is now worth let's say 5 times as much start cracking and selling off, market gets flooded and prices drop a certain amount.
Now it's not like there's a clear threshold at which that happens and everybody sells at the same time, which probably means some correction in the future is likelier than a plummet.
Again, if this was a pure fad with no intrinsic value the plummet scenario would be very likely, but although rather trendy pinball has a pretty great an staying inherent value and I think it's much better protected from high volatility.

I think a good majority of existing pinball collectors bought their games pre-bonkers prices. I certainly did. Almost all my games are worth way more what I paid...but, I don't feel like cashing out for the sake of cashing out. I like my games. I'll prob sell a bunch in the future, but due to personal life stuff vs. any relationship to the economy.

Man I really have to ask myself how long most of the people here have been collecting???????
I'll try to explain this for all the people that haven't been in the hobby since the big crash of 1999/2000. Yes pinball did crash, prices plummeted once. Back then pinballs were an operator's game. (Yeah there were some collectors but not like it is today) They were not considered collectables to the public. There were very few pins in the wild. There prices were rock bottom and to many considered junk.
There were only a few places to buy parts and they were expensive.
Pinball slowly started becoming a collectable thing over the years. Many aftermarket companies started making parts and supplies. The last time the economy tanked it had no effect on prices because it was a growing trend. The prices had no place to go but UP. Since then then the market has changed to home collectors, barcades opening up around the country and every Tom, Dick and Harry owning a game. I don't consider prices as being inflated but have adjusted to the market. However prices are now at an all time high. We've probably hit the ceiling on high dollar games. If the economy tanked again you better believe some of the first things to go will be all these high dollar toys. And no it doesn't take 100's of the same title to cause prices to tank. It just takes a few games that can't sell when you need the money. Not that I think it will happen anytime soon but it has happened before and will happen again.

And antique floor standing radios crashed when tv's were released.

Everything crashes BEFORE its collectible.

We're talking about the crash of an item thats already a collectible.

You might not, and people who do might not want to "cash out" and sell everything, but as prices go up so does the pressure to sell some machines which may or may not cause some flooding of the market and act as a feedback loop to the price inflation.

You mean like everything else that WAS collectible and is not now. Or everything else that was a hip fad at onetime and is not now.

We've already seen prices go up without a mass sell off. To me, that shows the power of pinball! Collectors value the fun and coolness of their games vs. DA CASH.

Yes.

My hula hoop, garbage pail kid cards and skinny jean collection have dropped terribly in pricing lately.

Wake me up when when pinball prices plummet so I can gobble them up. Until then...White noise.

So are we only talking about premium, LE's, and boutiques?

If I buy a pro for $5200, and 5 to 10 years from now I sell for $3200, I'd say I got pretty good value out of it.

If there is a big correction in demand or prices due to economy (most likely cause over the next 5 years) then...

1. Some of the pinball companies will go out of business which will re-balance supply/demand and pricing may stay relatively stable.

2. I won't be making big luxury purchases (in case MY business goes south) so I won't be able to take advantage of price drops that do occur.

Conclusion: Lose-lose.

There would likely be fewer new pin choices, prices might not actually drop that much, and I would probably decide that I'm preserving my emergency cash.

Prices went up during the recovery, not during the recession.

If unemployment doubles, people will go into foreclosure, sell assets, etc. -- more pins would on the market at a time of less demand. The biggest hit to prices would probably be to used games.

If an EMP bomb goes off and all the electricity is gone, pinball will be worthless. Except for Magic Girl.

True. Because even without power, Magic Girl would still play the same.

I sure hope not.

Just the beginning

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We get it, Radrog. You have a nice collection. You can stop posting the same 3 pictures in multiple topics.

He's just learning how to internets.

Replace that AFM with LOTR and you have a perfect collection IMO.