Prices dropped pretty hard on X-Men LEs a few months ago because of major software issues. Long story short, the software was buggy, many disliked it, and an update didn't come soon enough for some people. This, along with the normal cycle of early NIB purchasers selling once something new and shiny (Avengers) came out, led to alot of them being on the market at the same time. Prices dropped pretty hard, but I can't say that I saw more than 1 or 2 ever get as low as the $5250 you mention.

Since then, a good software update came out which fixed most of the early concerns, and more goodies are rumored to be in the pipeline. This, combined with the fact that many of those that were on the market found their way into new longer term homes, is causing the prices to head back up towards "normal".

If you can still find one for $5250, I would say that's a really good deal at this point. I would expect them to settle around $6k in the near future, if not a bit more (especially if there is one more update that really kicks butt). I can't imagine they would go down any further, so I would be shocked if you lost much if any money down the road. It is a fantastic game...many who have given it an honest chance since the update consider it to be among the best Stern machines made.

No problem. In my opinion, $5,250 delivered including shaker is a complete steal. You should stop thinking and go do it before someone else does! I honestly believe at this point that they could be asking $1k more than that and it would still be a decent deal (with delivery and shaker).

I got my Wolverine by trading 6 games that I had spent 5+ years collecting, including some real favorites. It was hard getting rid of some of them, but I honestly haven't regretted it since, and that includes when the "bad" software was out. Sure, I miss a few of them and will have a couple back some day I'm sure, but X-Men is just so damn good that I don't regret it.

Best of luck in your decision!

It's a smoking good value TODAY. No one knows what tomorrow will bring, but I believe it has a better chance of going up (possibly approaching Tron LE levels if the next update is a homerun (OK...maybe optimistic...LOL)) than it does of going down to the $4k range. The pros are going to stay around $4k...the LEs will almost surely not drop to there. And even on the off hand chance that it does drop, so what? You will easily get $1k of amusement out of it in the next year!

Good decision! I really don't think you can do wrong at this price.

As for being hated...that's not so much the case anymore. It was initially pretty well loved with reservations about the software (and many people had some hardware issues early on which seem to be solved now). Then the software seemed to keep getting worse instead of better. The bulk of the "hatred" came from the "power pack" update that came out at Christmas and was full of bugs and bad rule decisions. Since the latest rev, people are mostly loving it again. Once a couple more things are added and smoothed out, it could very easily shoot straight to the top of many people's favorites lists.

WTF? Now I look like I'm talking to myself...LOL!