Lady: So, Gary, these things are investments?

Gary: Uh, yeah, uh, I saw a pinball machine once....made by our old competitors...uh, Monster Bash, uh, sell for around $10,000

What a tool!
He should be backing his own product (LOTR, SM, TSPP, FG) all great titles, that he made, and are holding their values!
So? Investment?...maybe, if its a limited edition pin like SMB, or the new LOTR.
A savings account that you can play pinball with?...indubitably!  

WOW!!!!

Someone who's family owns a game room furniture and game supply store thinks pinball is an investment!!!

Crap.

I guess pinballs DO go up in value... IF you buy them when nobody wants them lol.... and wait a long time....

I Highly doubt a NIB Wheel or monopoly is going to appreciate fast.  Its the same argument i hear about guitars... You buy a $3000 guitar... it may go up in value... in 20 or 30 years.  But not necessarily appreciating over inflation.

Call it an investment in "an american institution" at least its closer to the truth.

She's hot.... Were they talking about pinball?

Hmm... I cannot see the video from here, but associating "pinball" and "investment" always makes me cringe.

Yes, some titles will raise in value or go for more than their original price when new... but we are talking about an infinitely small percentage of pins out there. In these cases, they are either very rare or prototypes, or extremely sought after, or both.

Then there are lots of pins with stable values. If their condition does not deteriorate, they usually sell for the same value as when you bought it used, provided that the initial depreciation has passed. For example, if you pay 2500$ for a nice STTNG, chances are 5 years later you will sell it for the same value, not taking into account inflation. If you look at the price guide, 90% of pins do not significantly increase or decrease in value.

The ones that do decrease in value are usually recent titles that are not so sought after, such as Monopoly as mentioned previously. Although a good pin, it's value will drop and eventually stabilize in the 1500-2000$ range like most B-list DMD pins. So if you buy a new Stern pin, chances are you will take a hit. Buy it after a few years, and chances are you won't lose much.

I guess this is where the investment factor comes in... if you DO buy a pin and decide to route it, but keep a close eye on it and maintain it well (and luckily have it where it doesn't get beat up too bad), since the value of a b-list pin is stable, the money it rakes in is a return on your expense, minus the maintenance costs of course. And THAT is why we still see LOTS of Gottlieb System 3 pins out there on route...

1- they are inexpensive to buy
2- they no longer depreciate all that much as their value is stable
3- they are cheap to maintain and have solid electronics
4- parts are still readily available (PBR has TONS of GTB stuff)

But pinball as an investment? Even if you bought a gold-limited-whatever-edition LOTR, never take it out of it's box and store it in a climate-controlled area, you MIGHT make your money back, but your carrying costs (just the cost of storing it) might never be recovered.