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Poll Time: Do pinball's really go up in value?

Which is mostly true for you? When selling your pins:

  • They mostly sold for more than I paid

  • I mostly broke even

  • I usually make a loss

Results are only viewable after voting.
Depends what you think the value of WOZ is;) For me I'd say it's currently a 5k game max, so it's already lost value

Surely most machines depreciate as soon as you take them out of the box. The newer the machine the more the depreciation. Then they hit a steady-ish 2nd hand price. For example a 2nd hand AC/DC is now sub 5k. I'd expect this to slip further over the next 12 months.

With WOZ the unknown is will it ever go back up in price? ie will it depreciate to say £3.5k in a couple of years time and then become more sort after and go back up? There are way too many variables to predict about this, not least the amount of other new machines coming onto the market. There seems to have been an increase in supply of new games in the last 18 months which has hopefully knocked the top end of the market. Titles like SM have lost a bit together with lots of the newer Sterns.

There's still some weirdness though. DESW seems to have shot up in price despite not being a great game.
 
I think woz is holding it value very well you don't see many on the second hand market and a huo one seems to go for around £5000 to £5500 not see an ex operated one come up yet but I would think between 4-5k
 
My feeling is the top level stuff has levelled off, it's the lower priced games which are coming up due to more people getting into pinball, supply and demand etc.
 
That one at EAG was for sale for £5040 inc VAT. Guessing it was ex-op.
 
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Playing Devils Advocate. How many WOZs are in the hands of Ops in the UK? Anyone every seen one in the wild? Also, why would they be moving them on so quickly? I would have thought they would have been a good earner with the LCD. Do any OPs selling machines within 12 months unless they just totally fail to bring in the cash.

40.media.tumblr.com_2da97c1053a9ca3cd2836d8685b693e6_tumblr_mv6sqlF4yM1r3yxp8o1_500.jpg
 
The only one i know out in the wild is in the Majestic at Great Yarmouth...played the hell out of it last summer :)
 
johnwhitfield said:
There's still some weirdness though. DESW seems to have shot up in price despite not being a great game.
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I have to disagree with that, I thinks it's a brilliant game! Fun fun fun all the way and it now has more balanced rules with the new v1.04 rom.

Also with game themes being a current, umm, theme of debate, you can't get much more rock solid than the Star Wars license!
 
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only ever sold one, but did make a profit on it (and buyer flipped it within 2 days, so I was still not charging enough!)

I keep making room to fit the extra ones in ....
 
johnwhitfield said:
Playing Devils Advocate. How many WOZs are in the hands of Ops in the UK? Anyone every seen one in the wild? Also, why would they be moving them on so quickly? I would have thought they would have been a good earner with the LCD. Do any OPs selling machines within 12 months unless they just totally fail to bring in the cash.
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There was one sited in a rock bar in Aberdeen. It lasted around 6 months there IIRC, and was out of order for around 2 months of that (not sure what the fault was). It has now been replaced with a Walking Dead.
 
There is (or Woz..) still of weekend before last. However it still appears to be awaiting the replacement board that will allow the bottom half of the playfield light to actually illuminate (which I'd mentioned to the owner last time I was there back at the beginning of the summer).

Didn't bother putting any of my 'hard earned cash' into it, but did pay the other 3 machines.

At least they've got 4 machines available!
 
Nickbs said:
There is (or Woz..) still of weekend before last. However it still appears to be awaiting the replacement board that will allow the bottom half of the playfield light to actually illuminate (which I'd mentioned to the owner last time I was there back at the beginning of the summer).

Didn't bother putting any of my 'hard earned cash' into it, but did pay the other 3 machines.

At least they've got 4 machines available!
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What other Pins do they have at the moment Nick? I'm thinking about paying a visit sometime in the next couple of weeks.
 
You could pop down on a Friday then swing by Special When Lit on the way home... :thumbs: Just saying like....! :cool:
 
I think woz will increase as there are so few about, and having seen how pinballs shoot up when someone starts bigging them up its only a matter of time before it has its day. Price wise I bought my EMCLE for £5150 and sold it for exactly the same, however I think if I wanted one back an LE that is I would have to pay more now, which is a shame as I miss woz more than any game I have ever sold

( que hovis theme please ) having been about for a while this is what happens as I see it, Someone plays a slightly rare or scarce game, for example NGG now that is one ugly dull ass piece of satan turd , but because there is not so nanny about it gets talked about and then a few people start scrambling to find one.... Until the next game comes around , now so far this can be seen with a few games .

The shadow ( in my view one of the best games ever ) a couple of years ago there was
loads of then people buying them everywhere then suddenly loads for sale.

Johnny n .... Fook me there was a feeding frenzy for this one , and hailed as the second coming in pinball, then again people couldn't shift them as overpaid for it and realised Gomez games generally suck.

Iron man ..., don't get he started on that ,.i know it's all down to personal taste but i just don't get it? Why is this gane so liked why??? I have had ravs for months and i just don't get it?? So much so a vault edition is made WTF!!!!!! Give me mick on a stick any day. Miss you mick :(

So it looks like all games have there day however the best piece of advice is don't ever buy NIB as you have to treat it like buying a new car and loose **** loads when you open it. And the value of a game can be directly linked to who is talking about and if it's having a bit of a moment again, like an old band from the 90's doing a comeback, it all gets talked about and then forgotten again as the next 90's band reforms

Peace bitches
Will
 
BigIan said:
There a Woz in arcade in Newcastle (Co Down)

Doubt it will be for sale any time soon though
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Pinball Heaven sited one in Southport late last year - seemed to be quite popular. It has since been swapped. I wish it would return tbh.
 
Games like DESW can always get the Star Wars effect.

Star Wars has an absolutely enormous fan base. New films coming out will always prompt even more interest in old memorabilia. People pay thousands for the little action figures

http://actionfigures.about.com/od/historyofactionfigures/tp/top_5_starwars.htm

I doubt that he recent games (post pinball 2000) will ever be that valuable as I don't think that they have had the development spend that the wpc games had. Should stern or jersey jack start shifting real volumes (10,000 plus ?) they will be able to have decent development budgets.

I love the music and concept of ac dc. A superb choice of band for a pinball. but some of the plastics are so low rent. The moving band plastic is plain tacky as is the cannon. Just compare the ac dc cannon to that on Sttng and you see how the recent games compare. Similarly the murky lower playfield where the Perspex is frosted by use of the wrong lacquer.
 
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The problem with pins is you forget what you spend on them. Yep I remember what I paid , but the stuff you buy doing them up or modding, you forget about , flipper rebuild here , rubber kit there , plastic set here , new lockdown bar , etc etc. The poll made me think as having got in the hobby 11 years ago, there been about 12 machines come and go. My view was overall I had made money but then I looked at the yearly pinball centre spend , the Pinball Heaven spend as all the orderes are on there , the ebay buys and other stuff , add all that up. when I looked at it , at best I am EVEN.

Actually at EVEN I am well happy , that means for 11 years I have been playing for free. Dont know any other hobbies can say about that.
 
I think that the classic car analogy is the correct one here. You can get lucky, buy the car, have minimal maintenance, sell it. If overall prices have gone up you might make something.

Or you can be driving it down the road, the timing chain snaps, pistons smack valves, full engine rebuild ...... and you are well in the red

I do think that there are more spares about now than in recent times, and that has made a positive difference to values. When Williams stopped making games, and the NOS parts dried up I found it much harder to buy bits in the 2004-2006 type period. Now with CPR, digital printing, 3d printing, altek boards, new dmd and alphanumeric displays, low cost Chinese manufacture ....... running these maintenance intensive things is less risky, as the chance of terminal fault/ dead, irreplaceable MPU/ unavailable broken critical plastic .... much lower
 
Regarding pinball values, I've found some have sold for more, but more recently it is less - or broke even. I think the period of big price increases has passed, which I think is mostly due to the good quality of the new machines being produced - which makes people less inclined to spend on a 90's machine. However, selling new pins will often involve a loss, in the same way you get depreciation on cars.

I always try and buy at a price I think I can sell at, as like most people, I need to sell a pin to fund the next one!

Cheers, Mark
 
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