personally Extraball, i am with you.
I reckon 99% of these so called Brand New In Box pins are a sham.
Great way to make great money in a sagging US economy, and theres a sucker born everyday.
It would take alot of persuasion for me to hand over double or tripple the amount i can pick up a local pin for.
Both my Star Trek Next Gens are minty, one cost me 3500 and the other 4 grand.
Why would i pay $11 grand USA (say $13,000 aussie),for only one pin, It doesnt make sense in my book.
To be honest, I think it goes alot deeper than that. Have you purchased nib before? Its an awesome feeling and there is certainly no minty pin that is anywhere as nice as a nib. the fact that nothing has ever been touched.. its really something else. Further to that, a huge attraction is the fact that most people have only dreamt of nib Williams\Bally, to pull a game out of the box that you love so much, that you have memories of playing, that nostalga value.. well thats kinda the ultimate if you ask me.
If I earned enough I would most certainly not feel like a sucker by buying one of these games, particularily if it was one of my favourite games. It all comes down to passion and bucks I guess.
Also, in regards to the batteries, who is really going to worry about having to pay $3-400 for a new cpu board in the scheme of things?