T2 7/10 condition bought in 1998 - $950
TZ HUO bought in 2000 - $2250
2 AFM thrashed bought in 2001 - $1600 each
Monster Bash 6/10 condition. bought in 2003 - $2450
Indiana Jones 7/10 condition. Bought in 2003 - $2500
Adams Family 6/10 condition. Bought in 2004 - $2250
STTNG 7/10 condition. Bought in 2003 - $2500
MM 6/10 condition. Bought in 2005 - $6000

Still have T2, TZ, 1 AFM, MB, IJ. All restored to mint condition. Sold the rest.

Haven't bought a pin since because of crazy prices.

Yes, games, like everything else except for Zip drives, have gone up in price over past 20 years.

I’d you want a REAL shocker, you should delve into a “bubble burst” thread and see what the near future holds!

I was a rebel and went with the SyQuest ezflyer 230MB.

Lmao we used syquest at my college newspaper. One and only time I ever heard of it. I used to drive it at 4 am to the printing press.

I wonder how prices are on those.

From what I've seen, most electronics and computer technology have gone down in price. Flat screens, computers, gps, mixers, dvd payers, cell phones, etc...
This is most likely the result of newer technology allowing devices (like pinball machines) to be made cheaper. Seems like pinball manufacturers are taking advantage of peoples' addictions? Or is a pinball machine an exception?

I got into this hobby 10 years ago with the budget of $1700 USD. Back then I still had a lot options of buying B graded games. Fast forward to now I just paid $8700 USD on a 20+ years old pinball machine. My point is I also contributed this price increase as well. This Lockdown even push the pinball price even higher. Anyway playing pinball machine is fun. Replacing incandescent bulbs to LEDs is also fun as well.

Bought my WH20 with perfect topper (machine was filthy but in otherwise good shape), for $950 in late 1996.

I could probably get almost that much for just the topper these days.

Collecting and restoring pinball machines has not always been as popular as
it is now. As an example, for many years, no one wanted series 1 or 80
Gottliebs or any early SS pins. Why? No one could fix them. The hot collectable
pins were mostly EM's. This was 32 years or so ago when I first jumped into
the madness that is this hobby.

Good to hear from ya!!

I would be happy to go back 10 years ago...prices have gone crazy.

There are too many people who would jump all over a reasonably priced game now. That is why prices go up. It isn't manufacturers, it is us. If I advertised all my games for what I paid for them, most of them would be gone by the end of the weekend. I don't know any other hobby that is like that.

So yeah, prices have gone up and availability has gone down. Some slices of the market (classic Stern games like Stargazer or Quicksilver) have gone crazy. And that won't change.

Around 1989, I bought a Black Knight that was not working for about $300 as I recall.
I repaired it and resold it around 1990 for about $400 with some new minor issues.
Yes, prices have gone up since then, but I was not trying to make any money.
And I wish I still had that machine, but I played it a lot when I had it.
It had the magna save buttons in the correct locations.

In '97 I traded a food fight cocktail for an IJ. In 2000 I traded a blue superchexx for a FH. Same year I bought a NIB RFM from Betson for 2800 and thought that was expensive.

I've been in the hobby for 20+ years. And can't believe how much prices have changed. Nib Stern's Actually almost doubled in the last 7 years. Due to cdn dollar and Stern's new pricing.
Used pins have multiplied in price 8x + for some.
Stern ST pro was $5000 cdn after tax in 2013. Now a pro is $8050 cdn after tax.

Betw 2000 and 2010 or so........ I still have all but 2 of these games (plus several other stragglers,,,,,)

T2 $800 9/10
MB $3400 HUO (OUTRAGEOUS at the time)
AFM $2800 9/10 (sold just before remakes for $7200)
SS $2600 9/10
ToTAN $2400 7/10
CFTBL $1800 8/10
ToM $3000 9.5/10
TZ $2500 9/10
TSPP $2500 9/10
KISS $800 8/10
SI $400 7/10
IJ $2300 8/10
Dr Who $925 8/10
DE SW $1600 8/10
Medusa $1500 9/10
BSD $600 8/10

i was a stock broker from '97-'01 during the climb and the height of the internet stock bubble. saw it burst first hand. wasn't pretty. the chief difference with pins is that even if prices decline or tank, you still own something tangible. they're still fun, and even more so, profitable if you operate them. however, if your stock drops from $125/share to $.025/share, all you have is a piece of paper to wipe your ass with.

Pins from the 90’s adjusted for inflation are not too far off where we are today.

What wasn’t?

I got in around 2006 and I remember picking up working games for under a grand all day long, good ones too. Even killer games were only a couple grand. MM was “expensive” because it was like $4k - $5k and I wouldn’t buy one cause I’d rather have a Judge Dredd, a Johnny Mnemonic and a Who Dunnit for the same price, lol.

Calculate for inflation for a more accurate sense.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/price-of-nib-pins-back-in-the-day