This is your perspective, there is a whole new "golden" era for pinball right now 20-30 year old kids are just now finding these 70's & 90's great titles and appreciating and experiencing them for the 1st time. It's not like the housing market lol

I'm a new player (38) and my opinion is that I just wont pay 15K for a 3K pin its ridiculous, I'm either going to find a basketcase and restore it or live with appreciating my Party Zone and wishing it were a Big Bang Bar lol Face it in the end its flippers, glass, buttons and a silver ball!

every pin I've owned yet I've found off craigslist for a deal

I've seen too many killer deals in the past few years on clist, I'm just always too late to the phone over you retired flippers lol

I would never buy a new game just cant financially justify it, I'd rather have a bunch of routed jems that I can work on it's more fun.

I think your problem is with inflation in general, prices are going up and up and people are making less and less these days.

There's no reason a Black Spiderman is 8k when just 15 years ago a Austin Powers was 5K and 10 years prior a Black Rose was 3K that's bullshit, Stern is pardoning to your gen with the big bucks!

Stern sets the standards to this new era, JJP just follows suit in my opinion. Pro, Le ect. really 3K more for vinyl decals, shaker motors and powdercoat bull! And all that stuff is probably made in China for pennies too, sure assembled in USA but outsourced to the cheapest supplier. If anything I would think new pins cost less to produce these days as opposed to 15 years ago when prices seemed more reasonable.

My fellow Virginian...

https://www.facebook.com/coinopwarehouse/

In the late 30's Automatic Industries has about 30 employees and cranked out 20K pins in the 2-3 years they were in business, In the 60's assembly lines looked like this...and now Stern looks like this all day laborers probably making close to same wages to what guys on the line in the 60's made, yet you can see the pure volume of pins Stern is cranking out. Then you have us collectors thinking that if a Metalica sells new for 9K then Monster Bash clearly a better game must be worth more...Meanwhile every interview of Gary Stern looks like hes making more and more doah livin' it up riding this wave and slowly getting more tan, Christ he already looks like a burnt chicken lol.

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Dude I don't believe that those guys are probably making like $8-12 an hour there contract labor, and none of those employees would work there with no real job security or benefits Stern has the wool pulled over your eyes sir!

And talk about a nose dive the resale value of a retentively new 9K stern is like 4-5K that's bs dude in my opinion. There killing the market, just as the toy industry did with bringing back GI Joe and Transformers there essentially flooding the market and pandering to title collectors and new enthusiasts.

Main thing is that you enjoy what you bought.
If it's worth the price you paid, knowing that you might not get your money back, then that is a good purchase!

You hit the nail right on the head there...too many people are gambling playing the pin market its all about the fun of it not the money. And I think it's safe to say at this point anybody who extensively works on these behemoths knows you'll never get your blood sweat and tears back it's a miracle if you actually break even in the end selling it lol

Well at least there are many financial levels in this hobby if your playing a cheep Fonzie Colleco pin or a 15K TBL were all having fun and were all free playing...so were all saving money...if anything is in danger its the minting of new quarters lol

That's how i felt about mine i was lucky enough to watch a papa video with the guy singing it's praises prior to buying my 1st pin and pulling the trigger on a sweet Paragon! But as I progress threw the hobby I am constantly looking to upgrade and better my pin experience i guess it's just human nature.

I'd say age 12-17 is the sweet spot, I barely remember playing pins in the 90's it was all crusin', street fighter and mortal combat at our arcade.

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...and the greatest game of all time After Burner! lol

I think he makes a valid point people younger than say 35 right now wouldn't have typically seen pins on location they were pretty much dead at that point, if you were born after '82 in 1994 you would have only been 12 years old? My arcade was relatively small in the mall and I cant remember them even having 1 pin...I'm 38.

...and Tyson's Corner Mall was and still is a major mall in Northern Virginia DC Maryland beltway area.

you know its all perspective i guess...obviously my local arcade sucked lol