If your building a collection as I am, enjoy playing them & don't really care if there in "absolute top condition", then in my eyes buying overseas is the go.
I don't mind a project as long as its fixable !
Spot on mate, and good luck in taking the plunge.
If your primary motivation is adding to your collection and not for onselling to the general public (which will add yet another slice to the end price) then why not. It is the fastest and most practical way to acquire a handful of pins limited only by your discretionary income.
As for top prices, again one of the golden rule comes into play - a machine whether wholesale or retail is always worth what someone else is willing to pay. If it sells at that price there is a new benchmark, if it doesn't and their warehouse begins filling up with new stock, as Strangeways said the price will inevitably drop and become far more flexible than at first in order to shift the older inventory.
I know most of us would like to hope that the days of 1800AU IJ's and 5800AU CC's were still around or will return in the immediate future, but they are long gone and the inflated market like it or not, is what it is.
I can't see the bubble ending (and yes it is a bubble I will acknowledge that) in the immediate foreseeable future as new buyers continually entering the market are going to repeatedly turn to the machines which they have the strongest sentimental attachment to and for a majority that is B/W '90s machines. Being able to acquire the so called high end A list titles from that segment like the aforementioned is the icing on the cake for a lot of them.
Even with a remake or the threat of such, there will always be a portion of the market who will prefer an original and pay a premium to get one.
