What's new
By:
Pinball info

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Has the Bottom fallen out of the Pinball Market?

R

RichS

Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2022
Messages
79
Location
Bexhill on Sea
Looking at the Pins currently for sale and in some cases the still silly prices people expect to get, I see many have no bids or simply do not reach their reserve.
Clearly the current economic climate is depressing all markets and for understandable reasons people are selling assets. On eSh1te some are obviously selling part/ all of their collections but seem to attracting little of no interest.
I see currently there is a "basket case" Gottlieb Spin Out in need of total restoration that the guy wants a starting bid of £695. Really? Maybe at the height of the last boom but now I reckon he will be lucky to get half the starting price.
I wonder, (hope), some common sense is coming back to the market, although I am sure some owners who paid silly prices will hold on hoping asking prices will recover. Sadly based on current evidence if it is keeping my Pins or paying the Mortgage on my home, that is currently reducing in value, I know what I will do.
 
It's only the undesirable titles that aren't being sold. Anything good will be hoovered up quickly, only once that support has gone will the prices decrease.
 
'Bottom falling out' would suggest a massive decline in prices which I don't think is true. A cooling of the market is probably a better assessment.

I think the Godzilla Pro for sale on here would have been snapped up fairly quickly a few months ago but is still for sale, or maybe it's because everyone who wants one already has one.
 
I hope people are right about prices only slowing down / cooling off and of course desirable machines will always be snapped up but as an example there is a Hurricane currently available. The guy want £2750 for it but bids are much less than £1700. OK Hurricane is not desirable but it is a DMD and a couple of years ago would be worth around £2k then went up to around £3k but now there seems to be little / no interest in it. I wonder what my Mint MM with colour DMD is currently worth?
 
There’s always been a ton of expensive pins on ebay that don’t sell.

I expect more reasonable priced pins over the coming months as people feel the pinch of inflation and interest rates.

GZ are available NIB for £8595, unlikely somebody is going to pay £7.9k for a used one, when for a few £100s more you get a new one and a 2yr warranty.
 
Pick Holder said:
But @Crewey
Pinball Heaven charge VAT
They have premises.
They pay TAX.
They give a warranty.
They have a great name.
It will be A1 quality.

This is why you pay top money.

RIchS's machine will not be worth the same.
Click to expand...
True dat, I did say fair idea
 
No bottom falling out, but less of a panic and frenzy about the trading, which can only be a good thing. Prices will cool for the less desirable games as @Arv says, which, whilst no good for those selling, may remove the super high barrier to entry to the hobby that's been here since COVID.
 
True, these threads come about from time to time, but anyone with a mortgage coming up for renewal will be paying nearly double what they were, that has to have some impact?

Even those who have a long fixed term will be looking at saving to pay some off and if they ain't they sure should be.

I know there are some very wealthy people in the hobby, so like highly desirable older games and NIB may be staying high, but are the people with £100k games collections really be intrested in tatty B/C list games?
 
kev a said:
True, these threads come about from time to time, but anyone with a mortgage coming up for renewal will be paying nearly double what they were, that has to have some impact?

Even those who have a long fixed term will be looking at saving to pay some off and if they ain't they sure should be.

I know there are some very wealthy people in the hobby, so like highly desirable older games and NIB may be staying high, but are the people with £100k games collections really be intrested in tatty B/C list games?
Click to expand...
Priorities have shifted as you say, or should be shifting. Energy bills, mortgage, but overall it's a bump in the road, it'll level off.
 
Ashbo said:
Priorities have shifted as you say, or should be shifting. Energy bills, mortgage, but overall it's a bump in the road, it'll level off.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think we will see a dip, but perhaps that will just be a leveling off from the covid peak.

IMO of course.....

Working but worn games should be around 1-2k

Mid range older Sterns and WPC 2-4k

A listers around 6k would seem about the right level to me.

More than that and I just don't see value for money.
 
AlanJ said:
GZ are available NIB for £8595, unlikely somebody is going to pay £7.9k for a used one, when for a few £100s more you get a new one and a 2yr warranty.
Click to expand...
Save £700 and get a few nice extras, price seems pretty fair to me if I was after one. Plus you know it hasn't been dropped on its **** and you can own it fairly quickly.
 
Dip in the middle. Also a market for cheap and cheerful and quality sells at the top end where the buyers tend to be less affected / bothered by the "cost of living crisis "
 
What metric are you using to track this ‘dip’ or ‘decline’? Are you tracking prices over the last couple years? Where are you looking? eBay?

Things on here have been moving relatively quickly and as said above, now is not a great time. However, even in January a number of machines have sold, myself included.

I wouldn’t want to speak for everyone, but it’s unlikely most pinball collectors are going to need to sell machines to pay their mortgage, so I would think the recession will have little impact at the minute.
 
Last edited:
I would say it seems to be more on ebay than anything, seems like the frenzied bidding has slowed, decent well priced games still seem to be moving here.

I doubt we will be seeing people selling pins to keep the bailiffs away but for buyers incresing bills all eat into that disposable pin money.
 
For multiple reasons I suspect we’ll see a drop off in the casual buyers covid boom. Those same buyers may be looking to offload their purchases …. bored now or rather have the cash. This may impact EBay sales/prices more than on here / collectors circle.
 
Normal Jan lull but behind the scenes lots of buying and selling that never make it to ads. I know of or have been involved in at least 6 sales in the last month.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom