I remember that old chestnut. Always brings a smile to my face. An even funnier gem was from another Melbourne dealer. Upon the news that I was going to follow in my Father's footsteps and import machines, I was told "Containers are extremely expensive and many fall off ships these days. If you have the container sent to my factory, it would be much safer"..

And no doubt when you went to collect, the security seals on the container would be conveniently missing. "Must have fallen off during the heavy seas".  

Yep fair enough Nino  :) but prices for older games are crazy-do sellers say "hey people are paying 12k for a new Stern/JJP so let's put prices up on old games"?

Perception of value does play some part.

If Stern can get away with putting out a 75% complete machine from what was intended with the design with an $8000+ price tag attached to it, then in the newbie customer's mind even a 20 year old Data East which is complete must be worth at least $5000.

Unscrupulous second hand dealers will simply take advantage of that.