Quoted from sbmania:

So let me see if I got this right. Somebody makes 50k a year at their day job, files their tax return, and pays their federal, state and local taxes. Then they buy a 5k pinball with their after tax money. Low and behold, a year later, the game gets popular and they sell the machine to someone for 6k. So now they owe the Gov taxes on 1k "income"??? What exactly did the gov do to earn this tax revenue?? Did a gov agent offer to help you pick up the machine? Did they help drag it up a flight of stairs? Did they give you a hand waxing and re-rubbering it? Were they there to help when you delivered it? Did they front money to help with the risk of the purchase? So then how exactly did they earn their cut?? Asking for a friend!