As a industry person, I'm amused at the dealer prices. Recently, I restored and Addams Family and valued the game at $9500. Without a doubt, it is one of the best Addams Family machines in the country. Now begs the question - "Is an Addams Family worth $9500 ?" In this case - Most definitely ;
Clearcoated playfield
Re decalled cabinet
New genuine Ramp, plastics set, LEDs
Boards refurbished
Spent 100 hours easily.
Now if the customer paid $6500, $1500 for the additional NOS playfield that was recleared and my time + parts = $9,500 EASILY. This point is - there is $9500 worth of value in that example.
So the "news" gets around that APR "sold an Addams for $9,500" - which is crap - I restored a customer's game and VALUED it at $9500. BUT - Dealers decided "that afternoon" that Addams Family are now "market value of $9500".
This creates an issue for newbies and customers that don't do their research - They are now TOLD by dealers "We sell Addams Family pinballs for $9500 every day of the week". So the illusion is created with the additional "APR are the same price but they take 6 months and we can have yours ready in a week". So the poor customer buys an Addams worth $6500 for $9,500 believing that is the market value.
The moral of the story is not to believe the hype. Don't buy the over priced games.
The other issue which is well documented and comes directly from the source (suppliers overseas). We have the typical dealer shopping games with the minimal work - and I've seen games were the pop bumpers are original - filthy, faded and broken ("fully stripped"
), crap ramps, crusty plastics and tumbled old flipper parts that are supposed to be new. An example was a Twilight Zone that sat on eBay at $9500 for MONTHS - no one is stupid enough to pay for this game, but the overseas supplier checked eBay Australia and find their overpriced games "fully shopped" by local dealers for 4 times what they sold them for (to the dealer). Overnight, TZ were almost DOUBLE the price from the supplier ! Yet local sellers blame private importers !
Local dealers that overprice their pins and now take MORE shortcuts due to their own stupidity complain the overseas supplier have increased their price so the local sellers pass on the price hike to the home buyer. It IS madness.
Regardless of the prices increasing - just don't pay those prices UNLESS you are getting the true value.
