There should be a 'wishful thinking' section so we can correctly file these threads.

Op, please keep us posted in the future....
3 years from now and then another 3 years after that.
We will see what happens!!!

my point is sure almost anyone can afford $1k firepower or high speed but that's not what im talking about, im talking about plunking down $10K for a new in the box machine. i dont understand where the money is coming from for the high end stuff. i make $16 per hour which for this area is better then most, my wife works full time and she makes $14.50. right now what's killing me is all of this constant rain we just got. i drive a tender truck, that is i go to the farmer's field and support the guy spraying the fields. constant rain, no work. what really stinks is the job im working is seasonal, when the agriculture season is over im out of work for the winter. by that time i will have about a year of CDL experience and its my hope that someone will hire me for the winter.

i worked for a mega carrier when i first got my CDL. i drove over the road for a little while and decided that lifestyle stinks big time (literally you dont even get a shower daily). i was gone once 8 weeks and that was the last straw, i was lucky to get hired for a local job given my limited experience driving. i got my CDL after i lost my $19 hour job and i realized how bad the average pay is. i WILL NOT work for $10-12, sorry i wont even punch a time clock for those peanuts. my name is not dumbo and i dont work for peanuts.

my only hope is to get the experience and get a higher paying, full time, year round driving job. truck drivers can do fairly well if you get the right job.

Eh, maybe. Under $6k, and definitely.

There are no barcades in my area, unfortunately. There is one supposedly opening later this summer, though. There's no over-saturation here.

Beat me to it, exactly what I was thinking. It's funny that the 'more experienced' pinsiders who say the pinball market will remain healthy because there will always be more people joining are the same ones who thrash the new people posting on here because they are just getting started and don't have the same amount of knowledge.

Now, purge...purge...purge...purge...

Prices will continue to go up, until it doesn't.

Well, you either can afford a new machine or you can't. Then if you still want a pinball machine, you look for a used one or a project. This is just like if you wanted to buy a car. If you can't afford a new one, you get a used one. If you have the skills to do repairs, then you can buy a cheap one to fix up.

My magic number was 5500. I would have jumped on that faster than <insert cliche>

I am spoiled living in Pittsburgh, we have location pin everywhere so to me it feels very much like the sports bar over saturation a few years back.

At least MM went down in price.

For a while, they were fetching $15,000+

It was meant to illustrate a point without so many words. Sorry if you're offended but it's a risk when you post a controversial opinion.

I don't think we're at that point yet. Maybe in Pittsburgh but in southern IN it's still a close to two hour drive to find a barcade. Louisville or Indy are the options.

Don't let the haters get you down, this happens to all newbies who post on here. I've taken my lumps and will continue to do so.

Kind of morbid that you might find yourself lucky that another person dies so that you can reap the benefits of a mourning family selling the deceased persons games for a cheap price.

If someone I knew passed who had a TZ, AFM and MM my first thought is 'Damn, I'm sorry to hear that', and my second thought is 'I wonder what's going to happen to those pins'.

I'll have to disagree. NIB games are still selling, just not everyone is buying them. Just like not everyone is buying brand new cars.

NIB prices have been going up, not down. There is enough demand to sustain the rising prices so far. When there isn't, then prices will start to decline in order to remain competative. What we probably won't see anytime soon is a sudden crash, which is what you seem to think, based on the title of the thread: "Why I feel Pinball Prices Are Going To Plummet"

I bet a lot of pinsiders started by buying used machines and working up to buying a NIB, especially during the time pinball was basically dead and prices were supposedly good.

See OP, there's another usage for the LOL emoji.

Damn you, beelzeboob

No one is saying you don't have a right to an opinion. They are simply noticing your level of involvement and time in the hobby and in turn questioning your logic and motives. And I think you know this but prefer to play the victim with your false indignation. Not fooling me.

ForceFlow - You bought a SS machine for $100? I've never seen one go for that price. If you don't mind me asking what game was it? I've only ever seen Bingo's go for that price. I'd love to buy a machine for $100 hahaha.

I went to a garage sale in my neighborhood of a guy I had always hated, and had suddenly died.

His wife was selling all his $$$$ astronomy eyepieces for $5 each.

"He said they were $10 each new, so I figured they were worth $5 used - since I'm throwing in the case..."

That logic made sense to me, I took them all.

(never lie to your wife what something costs, or she'll sell everything for half of that if you die)

case (resized).jpg

Well said.

Hey there's no restored Sinbad for me in here...
be59b40704a300124436b0f981bd32ed (resized).jpg

it should also be noted that the average condition of a game for sale now is significantly nicer than the heavily routed examples that generally made up the market 15 years ago. a much larger percentage of the games for sale today have spent a long time in private collections being fixed up if not genuinely restored. i know you alluded to that point, i just want to explicitly point out that even comparing prices of machines isn't exactly apples to apples -- 15 years ago you could find a beater MM for $4k. but nowadays good luck finding any "beater" MM at all -- they've almost all been restored into very nice games.

One of the Atari pins. I've obtained various other games in the $100-$300 range before, you just need to keep your eyes and ears open and be ready to pounce quickly.

I'll again preface by saying that I don't intend to offend you. You aren't grasping what I'm getting at though...

The money for those NIB machines is coming from people who both make more money than you do, and aren't doing seasonal work. Rather than looking at the hourly wage, look at what you are bringing home annually. Where you live has its good points and bad points-- on the plus side, housing is cheap. On the negative side, wages are highly depressed.

You said you're in your mid-30s. What have you been doing for the last 15 years? Your 20s and early 30s are when you should be gaining all of that education and experience that gets you ahead further in life. This place (https://www.mclaneco.com/content/mclaneco/en/home.html) advertises on local radio in the Albany area that they are paying $75,000 a year to start with experienced CDL drivers. Maybe you should check them out...

Shoot...I wish prices would plummet...I'd add even more to my collection!

You're dead. What do you care what she sells it for.

I already told you I'm not selling.

To the OP... the subject itself (will prices go down significantly/soon) isn't one I'd take on because as many people have already said in the thread--it depends on a lot of variables. Maybe the moon will collide with the Earth. Maybe certain global leaders will have an oopsie with a red button. Maybe people will find something they like better than pinball.

For me the subject isn't that interesting because whether or not prices rise or fall doesn't impact pinball enjoyment for me... and beyond that, I wouldn't feel like I have enough information to pull up a prediction in a crystal ball about where prices are going.

So you'll have to forgive some people's suspicions about a person's motives when posting such a thread because it looks like a duck is a duck. If nothing else I just pointed out the humor of the situation and--to be fair--pointed out the other extreme too.

Maybe I'm just in a d_ck mood today Sorry. Hope things go better for you the rest of the week.

Really! I wouldn't even care if she humped Yfzguy.

On second thought...

You sound like a really great guy

A duck mood?

Yeah.

I really wish you would have said hi at Allentown. Then I would have got to meet your wife.

I've bought two of my personal games for less than $100. Not bingos, though.

I see this type of talk all the time - but bingos are not generally so cheap unless there's something wrong (person needs the space or doesn't know what they have or have no interest in repair or it has an active infestation of some kind). It's the same with all kinds of games, yes, including solid state. I should also say that price depends on the title, heavily.

Flipper != pinball.

Bingos are endlessly challenging, fun (yes, I said it) to repair, and for the most part, have great artwork and coin flash animation - not to mention the mechanical backbox animation or playfield animation...

Looks like you might be local - perhaps you'd like to come give them a shot sometime so you can see what a working bingo pinball machine is all about? Shoot me a PM if so.

She was too busy drinking with Yfzguy, Schlockdoc, and Skypilot. She drinks to forget she ever met them.

Does Gonzo drive a Hellcat?

Jk Kman . Although he could be just F ing with you guys

I dare to enter this thread.....

As a person that grew up in the 80's and early 90's playing Ataris and NES, I am drawn more to DMD era and above titles. Maybe it's because I'm drawn to pins that feel more like video games than the older style SS and EM games that feel more like plinko to me when playing. Like similar people of my "generation" (30's), we're starting to get to the point of having some extra disposable income for fun and entertainment, and with a family of my own now, I'm wanting a home that I can have the kids' friends come over and be entertained and not nose down in their phones. They want to continue to play video games, but most titles while being multiplayer, still require multiple consoles because it's one player per console. Boy do I miss GoldenEye! But pins in the house make a more social atmosphere, once the kids get over the "pins are for old people" stigma. Most people I talk to that aren't in the pin hobby have no idea that pins are still being made!

As part of the noobie buyer label, I think that prices for some of the older feeling games of EM and SS era may creep lower, but DMD era pins, where the theme can resonate with the buyer, will remain steady if not continue to rise.

Just my 2 pennies

Hmmm, she told me she drank to forget who her husband was

What are they really worth?

It's going to cost A LOT to get me out of Purgatory.....

Used, a few hundred bucks each.