Quoted from ALJO

Not if you count your time.....

Yea but I don't, my time is my time for me to do what I want with it, this isn't a business for me, it keeps me sane and keeps me busy and I enjoy it.  

Well then there's the difference.. I barely have any free time these days, so I need to put a value to my time or I can't prioritize properly.  

(so far I make about $2.75 per hour  )

I suppose also it depends on the titles you're working on.. so far my limited experiences have been with classic Sterns  !

Quoted from Vengeance

" it keeps me sane .  

oh marginally at best .... opps this should probably be in the other thread ... my bad

Quoted from SquidVicious

oh marginally at best .... opps this should probably be in the other thread ... my bad

No just think how insane I'd be if I didn't have this as an outlet

Quoted from Vengeance

No just think how insane I'd be if I didn't have this as an outlet

  Touche my friend touche

Quoted from Vengeance

Yea but I don't, my time is my time for me to do what I want with it, this isn't a business for me, it keeps me sane and keeps me busy and I enjoy it.  

I think just like you Adam.
But I've always lost money on pins (except for 1 Joust), even after restoring a  few (And I don't count my time either).

Quoted from Mrhide

I bought games from you and you were fair, I sell games and I think I'm just beeing fair too.

It was mostly a joke. What motivates me to buy and sell is usually the desire for a game and living with limited space. As far as money comes in I guess it's down to what's fair.

Let's put it this way. If I won the lottery I would even care less about what I was spending and paying $12,000 for a NIB BBB would be just fine. Not that I think the game merits the money when compared to other games in a relative sense, but simply that would be the path of least resistance to get a nice one sent to your door. If you had all the money in the world and the space that could provide me, things would be different for sure.

Quoted from Vengeance

No just think how insane I'd be if I didn't have this as an outlet

Is it even humanly possible?

There's few kind of buyers
1- Buyer who want any pin in working condition and make a deal.
2- Buyer who want a particular pin because he really want this title.
3- Buyer who want any project pin
4- Buyer who want a particular project pin
and more ....

I prefer to sell to the buyer who want a particular pin he really want. Don't want to sell a nice classic the same price to any particular pin with no ''classic'' value.

For example buyer 1 want a Xenon for 1000$ and buyer 2 will buy for more.

From my limited experience I find that if I know from seeing and playing  or the recommendations from others that know better (when I was just starting out in the hobby), I am willing to pay a bit more for a machine then the so called book value. Case in point everybody told me that Getaway is a keeper in a decent collection so when  I found one that was decent I paid a bit more than it was probably worth in its condition. I am sure the seller was flipping it for a profit. Then I went ahead and bought a brand new DMD for it as there was an obvious line out in the old one. I also refitted it 100% in LED's.

I am sure there are ones out there that cost less and probably ones in a bit better condition, but I plan to keep this one and will more than get the value from it in the entertainment value. If I ever go to sell it if it ends up going for a bit less than it cost then the difference paid for the enjoyment I got.

People that really inflate the value of machines that they might eventually sell might be looking to take a profit or protect their investment. I guess if you have enough of your cash sunk into machines they must be looked at as investments as well, otherwise just buy mutual funds with the cash.  That's their perogative but since I don't like grinding down people when buying they ultimately might make that machine out of reach for me. I don't want to buy a game I know I will lose significantly on if I want to sell.

I invest in equities, as this is not even a side line business for me. My machines are hopefully my recreational budget that hopefully isnt money pissed away.