Today we have a big deep dive into the pinball machine market.
As an owner and a longtime player involved in many pinball groups, I have a very good understanding of where the best opportunities are in this particular hobby.
Like any collectible, the key to finding value in the pinball market is research. I’ve done the research, and am happy to share it with you today.
In the first half, I’ll cover the history of pinball, its evolution through technological eras, and the factors influencing value.
The second half gives you pricing data, highlights specific models with the best ROI potential, and shows you how to invest.
This issue also includes pics from the Australian Pinball Museum, which Stefan had the opportunity to visit this week.
Note: The first half of this issue is free. But you’ll need the All-Access Pass to read the full thing.
Let’s roll 👇
Jeffrey Briskin is a veteran Boston-area financial writer and marketing consultant. His past work with Alts include deep dives on Life Time Fitness, Sensate, and Geoship. Jeffrey is also the author of the best-selling Biblical crime novel, Bethlehem Boys.
Table of Contents
Why pinball?
“Can’t see no lights a’flashing
Can’t hear no buzzers and bells
That deaf, dumb and blind boy
Sure plays a mean pinball”– Pinball Wizard
If the words of The Who’s 1969 hit single from Tommy make you tingle inside, this article is for you. Because I’m going to spend some time discussing pinball. Its history and evolution. And its potential return on investment as an expensive collectible.
For gamers who have never “played the silver ball” in person, give it a try the next time you see one.
If you get hooked, it’s never been easier to own one. And, if you make the right choice, you could make some money if you sell it.
This last part is key. Because there are unique characteristics of the pinball market that make it different from other supply-driven collectibles.
Pinball machines haven’t changed much over time
One interesting thing about pinball machines is how relatively little they have changed over the past 75 years.
The basic architecture and features of nearly every pinball machine ever made are strikingly similar.
With a few exceptions, every game has:
- A cabinet, covered by a sheet of glass
- This houses the playfield, where all the action occurs
- A backbox on the far end that houses the mechanisms and computer chips that generate sounds, scores and other info
- A backglass, a slide-in graphic image on the backbox that advertises the name and manufacturer of the game
- Two or more flippers, which allow players to save pinballs from draining and smack them to different parts of the playfield to run up scores and keep them in play.
- The spring-loaded plunger or button that launches the ball into the playfield.
But what makes a pin of the 50s or 60s completely different from one manufactured today are the innovations made possible by advances in technology.
Take a look at two machines: Big Casino from 1961:
…and Godzilla from 2021:
Which would you rather play?
I thought so. That’s one reason why, as we’ll see, “vintage” and “value” aren’t synonymous in the pinball market.
A brief history of pinball
While pinball’s primitive ancestors date back to the 1930s, these games were purely luck-based. You’d launch the ball into the playfield and hope it would take a few lucky bounces to run up a score before draining.
The real history of modern pinball began in 1947. That’s when Humpty Dumpty became the first pinball game to feature flippers.
This key development turned pinball into a real game, where players’ skills could directly influence the outcome.
Over most of its history, pins have been located mainly in bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, pool halls and arcades.
Not surprisingly, most players were and still are men, which is why, until the 1990s, most games featured themes like gambling, gunslingers, hot rods, sports, superheroes, sci-fi, and monster movies.
And nearly all prominently featured illustrations of buxom, scantily clad women.
How big is the pinball market today?
While there’s always been demand for used machines among hobbyists who want to play their favorite games at home, this market didn’t really take off until the early 2000s, when the Internet made it easier to learn about different games and find them for sale online.
Today, it’s estimated that hobbyists purchase at least half of all used and new pins (referred from hereon in as “new in box” or “NIB”).
The other 50% are bought by operators (owners who place ’em in bars, restaurants and arcades and earn a share of their revenue).
Ted “Doc” Finlay, a nationally known researcher of US pinball valuation trends and owner of pinballballprices.com, estimated that the used pinball market was $143 million in 2023. Over 26,000 machines changed hands that year.
It’s fairly easy for potential owners to find most of the models they’re looking for.
Why? Because many collectors buy a new pin, play it until they get bored, and then sell it.
Or, operators sell pins whose revenue no longer exceeds their maintenance costs.
Today, you can buy many used pins for anywhere from 20% to 70% lower than their original NIB prices
Which makes these games a good deal for those who have the muscle (and cargo space) to move their new 300-pound toy from someone’s basement to their own.
Pinball machines are fun to play and own. But like many collectibles, you have to find the right models at the right price to make a profit.
Vintage doesn’t always mean value
Unlike many high-end collectibles markets, age and rarity don’t matter.
The value of a given pinball machine isn’t driven by its age or the number of machines still available in the market. Many vintage pins with production runs of well under a thousand can be found for a song.
As Ted Finlay points out, few pins have value as historical artifacts, either.
“Take Humpty Dumpty, for example. You’d think a historical machine like this would command a high price, especially since it’s hard to locate one in good shape. Yet, when you do find them for sale, they go for around $1,200 maximum and often for a lot less.”
So where are the opportunities?
It all depends on the era.
The Electromechanical Era (1947-1977)
This is the term for the first generation of games from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. These are the pins that made Tommy the “Bally Table King.”
With a few top-rated exceptions, like Nags (2024 average Pinside price: $4,100) or Fireball ($3,000), there’s little demand for these games.
For one thing, the Gen Xers and Yers and millennials who now comprise the majority of purchasers don’t find them much fun to play.
And, when things break, replacement parts may be difficult to find.
That’s why prices for electromechanicals generally run from $500 to $1,500 and values rarely appreciate.
The Solid-State Era (1977-1990)
Hot Tip, rolled out in 1977, began the solid-state era of pinball.
These games integrated computer technology into their builds, giving the hobby new life.
In their first generation of solid-staters:
- Alphanumeric LED screens replaced mechanized “falling digit counters”
- Synthesized voices and music provided a more immersive audio experience
- Integrated software allowed for more complex rules and greater flexibility in playfield design
Most of these machines allowed up to four people to play at the same time, enhancing bartime entertainment, and giving these pins far greater replay value.
But fun as they are, first-generation solid-staters aren’t particularly desirable as collectibles, either.
Most can be found selling in the $1,500-$4,000 range and don’t significantly increase in value. Even the first solid-stater, Hot Tips averages about $1,300.
(Psst: There is one exception — a game that’s fun to play, and has held its value very well. Unlock the full issue to see what it is.)
The Dot Matrix Display Era (1991-2016)
In 1991, Checkpoint (average price $2,300) inaugurated the second-generation of solid state pins. It was the first game to feature a monochrome dot matrix display (DMD) that could show fully animated images and text along with the score.
Other manufacturers soon began jumping on the DMD bandwagon. But none of these early games set the world on fire.
That would happen in 1992, with the introduction of The Addams Family, a groundbreaking game based on the 1991 movie starring Raul Julia and Angelica Huston.
Designed by Funhouse creator Pat Lawlor, Addams was unlike any game that had come before it.
Incorporating the latest advances in gaming technology, Addams’ innovative playfield featured numerous toys that moved when hit.
- Shooting a ball into a sinkhole activated one of the many modes where the player needed to hit certain targets or combinations of targets to complete it.
- Completing all of the modes, achievable only by highly skilled players, started a special “wizard mode” that unlocked special scoring opportunities unavailable in regular play.
The Addams Family was the first game to fully exploit the capabilities of its DMD display, which featured a wide variety of text messages, lively cartoon animations and visual effects. Addams also featured fully orchestrated music and sound clips from the movie.
With more than 20,000 units produced, The Addams Family became the best-selling pinball machine of all time.
After Addams, there was no turning back.
Pinball design reached its peak during this era, with beautiful backglasses and artwork and increasingly elaborate playfields loaded with an endless variety of stationary and dancing targets, ramps, towers, gates and other gadgets.
For example, Star Trek: The Next Generation featured two on-playfield “phasers” that allowed a player to “shoot” a captured ball at various targets.
Upper-level interactive playfields, such as the paddle-based Battlefield in The Shadow, became a popular feature on many games.
Rulesets became so complex that it could take an hour or more to complete every objective that would launch the wizard mode (some games had several).
This enhanced the replay value of these games, and increased their attractiveness for consumers who didn’t have the time to complete a game at their local watering hole.
The LCD era (2013 – Present)
From 2000 to 2012, Stern was the sole survivor of the original generation of pinball manufacturers, feeding the market a steady stream of DMD games.
This changed in 2013, when a new challenger, Jersey Jack Pinball, upended the solid state market with its introduction of The Wizard of Oz.
While this gorgeous machine offered an amazingly beautiful playfield and toy set and one of the most complicated rulesets of all time, what ultimately made it a game-changer was its incorporation of a large, full-color LCD video display.
This screen simultaneously displayed scoring, the status of multiple modes, messages, and original footage and audio and music from the 1939 MGM movie classic
The Wizard of Oz also established a new price point for new games. While the basic versions of Stern’s games during this era retailed anywhere from $4,500 to $7,000, the price for a NIB standard Wizard of Oz started at $9,000.
For several years, Jersey Jack owned the LCD market, while Stern continued to manufacture only DMD pins.
That changed in 2016, when Stern rolled out its first LCD game, Batman 66. Since then, both Stern and Jersey Jack now only manufacture LCD games, most of them based on tried-and-true TV series and movie franchises:
…and rock bands:
But over the past decade, a number of pinball startups have entered the market…
How to invest like a pinball wizard
Read the rest of the issue with an All-Access Pass.
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The value of the pass will go up, and so will the price. Now is your chance to unlock the rest of this issue, and lock in the current prices before they rise.
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Upgrade now to find out:
- 🗝 New pinball startups to know about
- 🗝 Where most of the secondary market action is today
- 🗝 The biggest factor influencing pinball machine value and appreciation (it’s not age or rarity)
- 🗝 Are we seeing “pinflation?” Where are we in the pinball cycle?
- 🗝 Which ultra-rare games are collectors willing to break the bank for?
- 🗝 Which specific games have the best ROI potential?
- 🗝 What’s the best place to go if you want to invest?
