Can only see prices rising and quality declining.
Im following prices in US at the moment and im gobsmacked at some of the prices EMs are selling for.. in many cases, more than here. Reason being that there are now so many collectors and games are stored away in private collections and so sourcing a machine gets harder. Woodrails are pretty much non existant.. the top titles are commanding top dollar for lesser games.
What will kill the LATE DMD market is that 90% of the machines will be HUO, so quality will always be good. Will the surface mount boards still be going?? Time will tell.. damn hard to fix a surface mount PCB.
There rea dips in the market ( like now) and there are always those that want too much for a crap quality machine that needs too much done to it... but REAL machines, with REAL patina and all original are always going to be highly sought after. Top end restorations also will command a high dollar but serious attention to originality needs to be adhered to.
3 markets in the future.
Original games in good condition... top dollar( remember these will need restoring one day!)
Top end restores... top dollar
Run of the mill games... sold to budget collections and restorers
Sorry.. make that 4 markets
Playmatic games will be desirable as they are the only ones in good condition and affordable.
Naaaaah... the last one is just toooooooo ludicrous!
