The Global financial crisis has never effected people who already have their money in a bank. The rich STILL have money to spend on Pinballs. It's the battlers who have really suffered, and the "luxury items" like pinball are now off the shopping list - furthermore - if times do get tough, luxury items are the first to go. So many machines are hitting ebay and privately changing hands.
Collectors still want good quality machines. They now expect machines to be better than "dealer quality", and dealers are having trouble competing with "backyarders", private importers and other dealers. It has been a "buyer's market" for almost 2 years. If you want to buy machines - now is the time to strike deals.
Container pins - Generally speaking, the quality is declining - that's because there is a delusion that container pins can make a lot of money for private importers, so they are paying (what they think) cheap prices for cheap pins and then ending up with lemons that simply won't sell. There are HEAPS of machines overseas. Prices have dropped (Eueo VS AUS$) and so has the quality.
It almost sounds like your talking about pinball entering the black market With your quotes of "dealers struggling" and "backyarders" and "Private Importers" 
All the dealers will tell you the same story - it is VERY tight out in the marketplace. Not because people have no money, but because of the massive amount of choice buyers have right now.
"Backyarders" - is one of my favorite terms. I actually am a "frontyarder". because my garage is out the front of the house !
