This might change for some classic pricing with PPS and Medieval Frankegame - and quite topical given the AFM discussion here and the prices being sought given this will most likely be the next or one after that game. I suspect $15K AFMs will disappear then too.
There is definitely some instability in the US market at the moment due to the remake, of that I will agree. A lot of buyers are essentially taking a "wait and see" approach and prices of the high end stuff have taken a hit (but at 17-18k for a high end restoration it is a fairly limited buyer pool even in the US).
I still see good condition cleaned up and shopped MM's (not major restores) sell for 8500-9000US quite easily in the US market (when a brand new remake is priced at 8000 over there.)
Australia's biggest handicap at the moment regarding US pricing is our rapidly declining dollar. The distributor in Australia who made the pronouncement that MM remakes will be $10k landed here has now made none too subtle hints that that figure is no longer set in stone and is subject to the fluctuations of our currency market. Since just about every market indicator points to our dollar declining even further against the greenback in the immediate future and since new pinball manufacturers typically go well over the scheduled completion date (2nd quarter 2014), it will be interesting to see exactly where the final AU rrp ends up for this "Frankenpin."
The MM remake also differs from the originals in a number of ways from the patently obvious to the subtly inferior.
1. Bally branded MM on the cabinet, not Williams.
2. NO DCS sound.
3. Main driver board located on the underside of the playfield - essentially molded around the troll bumper assemblies. Time will tell as to the efficacy of this decision and the possible vibration damage to the board.
4. No possibility of a ColorDMD upgrade.
Lastly, any possible AFM remake will once again need to have the proposed MM remake board layouts redesigned and relocated again as the current remake boards have the power driver board equivalent located dead centre on the underside of the playfield. Anyone who has seen the underside of an AFM playfield will know that entire space is taken up by the controlled inserts circuit board. So I guess we will be looking at Son of Frankenpin.
