I understand exactly what Mitch is saying. He is not alone in his thinking. I'd like to add my thoughts.
Pinball as an investment - Now I know there was an infamous diatribe written years ago where pinball was "drying up" and a "mercy dash to Italy" was organized to find the last bastion of pinball. It was BS. Same article describes pinball as an investment. It is not. It is an asset. Buying a NIB is not an investment. as soon as you set it up it has lost 15% of its value. The ONLY way I would look at pinball as an investment is if a business or hobbyist bought NIB machines PURELY to sell in 10 years time - as a NIB. Any pinball that has been set up to play is not an investment. I hear of people losing money after selling games - but that's no loss of their investment - because they most likely bought it for too much. Like buying a second hand car - you don't buy them as investments, you buy them to drive them.
Dealers and importers. Years ago, a collector I knew was buying "A" grade titles at market value. Was HAPPY to pay the prices AT THAT TIME from a Dealer. Built up a collection and everything's looking great. This collector dabbles in importing, and finds out how much these games were purchased for overseas and he completely changes his mind and now claims "I was robbed. I was ripped off. I was charged way over the buy price". Now that changes perspective completely. The market price was FINE until he found out the real purchase price. But do you think this person's price drops on his machines when he sells them ? No - INCREASES the price even further !! Money and greed changes people..
Importers have been springing up everywhere. Motivation is the key here. Do they import because they want to make a quick return ? Or because they are passionate about pinball ? Even seasoned dealers fall into the same trap - They have little product knowledge. They are blinded by the profits. So what happens is the competition increases, prices drop and we all think the big winner is the buyer. Well that is not exactly true. The last 6 months has really opened my eyes - and I thought I'd seen just about everything ! The importers and dealers are dropping prices, but at the same time they are cutting corners - spending LESS time "reconditioning" machines as they want to keep their profit. so when you see a cheaper game on eBay - I can almost guarantee in has corners cut everywhere. What I'm seeing in collectors homes, and some of the game that have been "repaired" by so called "professionals" - is the lowest standard for many years. This is all driven by competition - drop the price, but protect the profit at the customer's expense.
Newbies are the target of eBay machines. Education is the only way to be fully prepared. By way of forums or other outlets - newbies need to understand what they are paying for, and identify what has deliberately been missed. The biggest issue with pinball imports is it is not regulated. At the end of the day one dealer's "fully overhauled" is another dealers "High End Restoration". It is a huge task to import machines. A lot of work and a lot of fun. The success of an importer is their motivation and their product knowledge.
"Good Guys" as mentioned earlier - Well they keep some repairers very busy
Some of my friends call me a "dealer" as I'm in the industry. That's fair enough, I've been lucky to be in the industry with the family business since I was born. By no means am I trying to promote my business, as I don't need to. But some of the machines I've seen over the last years have been appalling, and in some way, I feel like I'm always apologizing to new owners as they have been fleeced on so many occasions.
But without the importers taking risks importing games, the hobby would be dead. There just is not enough machines to go around. So if it was not for the importers, then demand would be massive and prices would go up accordingly. Prices are high because dealers want to protect their profits. That's Business for ya !
