I still don’t get the “I don’t have a ton of money, but owned pinball games I bought years ago at lower prices, but since prices went up on new games I wanted, but I can’t or don’t want to spend up for them, I sold all my games for more then I paid for them and quit pinball”. They made a decision to sell and get out and that’s there choice and it’s totally fine. BUT! Where the money from the pinball sales went to next is unknown. Perhaps they found something as enjoyable as pinball that is lower priced than it was years ago. Curious to hear what that is. Maybe they now enjoy boating, RV, PSA graded sports Cards or a classic car they bought with the pinball sale money, since pinball prices are insanely crazy now!! Juke boxes? No idea, but would love to hear.

I also don’t understand the “I haven’t bought NIB games in 5 years so that makes me smarter than all of you who did!” Well apparently not since over the last 5 years they missed out on a lot of great titles at a lot lower prices than now - ELWIN! Just because you owned 1, 5 or 20 games five years ago many others didn’t. It’s good for you if that was you for sure, but zoom out and realize others didn’t.

Also believe it or not there are new folks getting into pinball daily. They have no choice but to pay current prices and actually if you ask them they are fine with it. Telling them you got a IJ for $4000 or “loaded tank of a game” LOTR NIB for $3800 or how stupid prices and low quality games are now isn’t helpful. What are they going to do go back in time? They just shrug and go buy a $9000 Godzilla and enjoy it. On the other side - Can you imagine if someone got in 5 years ago and listened to these people’s “don’t buy!” advice? They would still be game less. Maybe next year those “make a stand” folks will be right and games will be more loaded, better quality at lower prices? Maybe the BW greats will go down in price? $3800 LOTR NIB and $4000 IJ’s - Maybe next year. If they didn’t buy that is fine, but I wouldn’t brag about it like they are smarter than most.

“Buy a game at a price you can afford that’s within your comfort zone, don’t get stuck mentally to prices in the past, buy what you enjoy, play and have fun and importantly adjust to what is going on around you along the way and if you like it buy another one later” is the advice I have always told friends throughout the years.

Pinball is having a bit of “yield competition” for consumer’s dollars. One can get 5% on their money now in a MMA or they could withdraw the money to buy a pinball machine. For the last decade the Yield for dollars has been 1%ish. This 5% stuff we haven’t seen in 20 plus years.

The choice of where your money goes is up to you. You just get paid 5% now to not spend, so……

Pricing has caught up and leveled. Supply is about there but not really as folks “wait for their games”. But Demand is still rapidly growing and with pinball being a “small pond” meaning it doesn’t take many new folks to grow rapidly.

Best “real time” indicator of “is pinball growing?” is right here. Click Community to find how many new Pinsiders joined the last 24 hours. It’s been 1 person plus per hour for years. Scroll down on the link below to get the daily numbers, “for fun”

https://pinside.com/pinball/community

We are just back to the boring times of “you open a new in box and it instantly goes down $500 plus now”. This is the way it was before 2020. That’s actually an awesome holding of value. If you have one or 10 on location there you go! There will be some folks not buying anymore if they lose $500 plus. Most will adjust, shrug and move on and buy anyway.

If you think pinball will keep dropping in price on a “downward trend” for what ever reason, Covid, recession, stern makes Ikea games, etc that is ok but you will be up against
1. A ton of new folks coming into pinball
2. A ton of money coming into “the system” from Govt spending, COLA’s due to “previous years” inflation which is slowing down and paying high 5% yields to “folks with money” giving them more money for the future, like “kindling” for the fire. Folks with money “tend” to buy pinaball machines and stocks RE nice cars travel and stuff.
3. But this 5% yield is unsustainable. Wait until that 5% yield drops to 4%,3%,2%…… Where will “folks with money” then put their money? Probably cool stuff like pinball and other stuff listed above.

No bubble IMO.