They did the monster man. It was a graveyard smash. It caught on in a flash. They did the monster man. Welcome everybody to Canada's Pinball Podcast. It's the first of the month. Hopefully you enjoyed your Halloween and your kids went trick-or-treating. We've got a great episode of Canada's Pinball Podcast that I now have to record again. I know sometimes this happens. I'm like recording a show and I'm looking at some stuff. I'm looking at the internet. I'm looking at Pinside and then I look down and after I've been speaking for like 30 minutes, it didn't record everything. It stopped at like the three minute mark. So this is going to be take two of Canada's Pinball Podcast, but it'll be better now because I'll be more concise in all of my statements because I felt like I was rambling a little bit at five o'clock in the morning. So here's what we're going to talk about on this episode of Canada's Pinball Podcast. We're going to talk about some Jaws rumors. We've been hearing some new stuff. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about new code for Halloween and for Elvira that dropped on Halloween. We're going to talk about multi-morphic production. It's now 10 games a month and they're not going to make new games until they fix the old problems. We're going to talk about Guns N' Roses LEs are now 8,500 new in box. We're going to talk about why that is. And what that means for this company trying to sell Elton John machines now for $12,000 to $15,000. Jersey Jack, you really need to hit timeout. We're going to talk about barrels of fun and when people are going to get their games and how many games we think they're going to be making a week. And I also want to talk about, and this will be the theme of this podcast, is what I think is the sweet spot for what makes a game limited in the pinball world. because now we're at a point now where everyone's just wondering, why does nothing feel truly limited? And we're making so many of each of these games now. And what is that doing to both the collectability of pinball, the secondhand market in pinball, and just the overall vibe within the pinball community? I think for most of us, we've been having a lot of fun in this hobby for a lot of years. And I would say if you did a survey, people do not feel like buying pinball machines is more fun now. They don't feel like pin side and the community conversation around pinball is more fun than it's ever been. I think a lot changed in pinball during COVID. And I think for some reason, this hobby is reluctant to going back to where it should be in some aspects of the industry itself. Some things are never going to change, right? That's just life. Like some things are just always going to become more expensive. It's not just about the price. It's about like, are we oversaturating the hobby itself and what that's doing to pinball? And then I'm going to do, and I haven't done this in a while, I'm going to do Canada's Collector's Corner. And I'm going to pull up some games that are for sale for a ridiculously high price. And let's ask ourselves, is this something worth collecting? What do we think about the price? And what would I do? What would Canada do? You know, the man with never-ending opinions about pinball collectability. What would I do if I was looking at a machine like this for sale? Would I think about pulling the trigger or would I head for the exit? All right, let's talk about Jaws Pinball. So this is probably the worst kept rumor in all of pinball. We know that Keith Elwin's Jaws is right around the corner. And I am hearing that the artwork on the game is not that great. I'm hearing two rumors. I'm hearing that the artist is going to be the artist from Rush. And then I'm hearing that it's Randy Martinez. Now, I think it's probably going to be Randy Martinez on artwork. And here's the hard part about artists and pinball. It's very subjective. We all have our favorites. Some people love Franchi and Zombie Eddie. Some people don't. We've been spoiled, I would say, over the last five years or so. Pinball art has been the best it's ever been. And we have so much beautiful pinball art that now the problem becomes so much of it is starting to blend in and look similar because we're going to the same artist time and time again. And that's a little bit of a good problem to have. It's much better than the old days in which machines were just Photoshopped, dragged, and dropped artwork. So here's what I'm hearing. Randy Martinez on Jaws. Now, if you go look at my Patreon page, I put up a couple examples of what Randy Martinez Jaws could look like. And I know that his specialty was Star Wars and Mandalorian. And Mandalorian didn't look that bad at all. It looked pretty cool, right? Because it's like his style of Star Wars like comic book kind of artwork. But that's not the style that you should use for Jaws. And as I look at these Jaws images, they're just flat. There's just something about them that don't look right if you're trying to capture that Jaws theme in artistic form. And the other thing I'm hearing is that Chrissy Watkins, who's the character in the Jaws movie who's swimming, she becomes Jaws' first victim. I'm hearing that the Ellie Cadnet artwork is a big image of Chrissy swimming in the ocean. And I don't know, like people who have seen it have said, Kaneda, it's really not going to blow people away. It looks kind of weird. So we shall see what's going to happen with this game. You know, look, if Jaws has artwork that's not great and Jaws doesn't have many assets in it, does that mean that Keith Elwin is going to have a game that's not going to be received tremendously well? My money will always be on Keith Elwin because the other game that came out with no assets and had terrible artwork was a game called Jurassic Park. And that game did just fine. And one of the reasons why Jurassic Park did just fine, it had one of the coolest mechanisms ever in the history of Stern in that T-Rex that ate the ball. Like once we saw that, it was like awesome. Stern has finally engineered a mechanism. It finally made something that interacts with the ball. And I think Jaws is going to be loaded with cool mechanical stuff that will win us over regardless of how the art works and regardless if the game doesn't have all the assets or movie clips. He just knows how to do it. Keith Elwin just knows how to do it. And until he fails, I am never going to predict a Keith Elwin failure. If I predicted a Keith Elwin failure, I think I would lose like half of my subscribers. So that is Jaws Pinball. We will hopefully see this game in December. It seems like it's going to be more like early January because nobody was really expecting a Blood Kiss edition and another run of Stranger Things. And now that we have both of those happening over at Stern Pinball, they might slide Jaws into Q1 2024. All right, what else is happening in the pinball world? Let's talk about Halloween and Elvira had code updates on Halloween. That was super awesome. What a super nice treat for owners of both of those games. It was funny seeing how there's like the Blood Kiss edition of the code for Elvira. The only problem is nobody owns the Blood Kiss edition of the game, But it was really awesome that Stern is going back to this game. They've added more animated gargoyles. I love the fact that if you own like a 40th or a Blood Kiss Edition, the game is going to speak to you and recognize that you own that version of the game. That was the one thing I never understood with Batman SLE, how they never got like Batman or Robin when you turn the game on to be like, holy super limited edition Batman. Why couldn't they do that? Why couldn't they do that? And those little touches, I'm telling you right now, those little touches of adding personalized code to each variation of the game is always going to make people want to hold on to the game more. It's going to make a game feel more special when you own it. All right, so a good Halloween for everybody over there. A terrible Halloween for everybody with a Guns N' Roses. Not only will Jersey Jack never revisit this game, it seems, and improve it, which is a huge issue. And really destroying people's feelings about Jersey Jack Pinball. Their lack of desire to not stop until they make a game perfect. But we keep beating that dead horse on Canada's Pinball Podcast. But think about it for a minute. What does it mean now that you can go get a Guns N' Roses new in box from a distributor for $8,500? And that game is way more popular than Elton John will ever be. You know, it's a cooler band. It's a much more popular theme than Elton John. And so a distributor's got an $8,500 brand new in-box Jersey Jack game. And how is that distributor going to sell you a $12,000 Elton John or a $15,000 Elton John? And what this means for Jersey Jack is terrible. It's horrible timing because now that we're seeing all of these pinball prices getting reduced on older models, the scary part about pinball is nothing is really an older model. like things just fall out of demand. You know you can go get a new in box. Toy Story 4, new in box, CE, a collector's edition that if you bought it on day one, you spent $15,000 on the machine. For those who bought direct from Jersey Jack with taxes, you're at like $16,500 for the machine. You can go get that game new in box from a distributor in 2023 for $10,000 now. And so this is it. Like everybody is just watching these Jersey Jack games plummet in price. And now it's happening so quickly. And the amount people are losing is tremendous. It's getting to the point now where it's feeling like people who buy Jersey Jack games, they're going to start to be like the people who bought into crypto at the wrong time. You're never going to hear from them again, right? They're just going to slowly take their losses and leave the hobby or they're going to be less engaging with the hobby. They're not going to want to interact with people because it's bumming people out. And when they try to get rid of these games, they're just going to take such a huge financial loss. It's hard not to think about what they could have got with that money because they didn't get the pinball experience they wanted or they wouldn't be trying to sell the game. And I think with Jersey Jack and these prices going down and now with the rumor that they're going to have the Matrix and they have the license for the Matrix, and I bet they do have the Matrix license and that's what Mark Sadan is working on. I'm going to suggest something crazy. This company is run by a billionaire. When you become a billionaire, can't you make bold moves? Can't you make bold, unexpected moves that nobody saw coming? I think Jersey Jack Pinball should walk into a conference room and say, hey, look, we need to do something. We're going to do something crazy that nobody would expect. I think they need to come out and say, hey, look, we're going to keep working on Elton John. We're going to add a few more things to the game that excite us. in the meantime we going to bring another game out in front of that game and I would try to get Matrix on the line in front of Elton John I would And it doesn even matter if you made people wait six months I just think running Elton John right now, after Godfather and Toy Story 4, it's just dead on arrival. And there's no sadder place to see that it's dead on arrival than in Pinside. And I'm not talking about the height thread, where it's just Iceman and Panzer Freak circle jerking each other, and neither of them ordered the game. I'm talking about the Elton John pre-order thread in which the thread is set up for people who pre-ordered the game to talk about it. And nobody's in that thread. Nobody wants to admit they pre-ordered the game. It's really bad, people. I haven't seen a game come out in a really long time. We're on day one and week one. The enthusiasm is this low for the game. So I think they need to make a bold move. I think they need to address Guns N' Roses code. I think there's a lot that needs to happen over at Jersey Jack Pinball. and it's really starting to feel like a company that doesn't have a strategic vision. They don't really know what they're doing and the community is pushing back and they are in a PR crisis mode. I mean it, they are in a crisis mode. This is not working for them. The pricing isn't working for them. A thousand CEs are not working for them. Their brand is taking such a hit and they seemingly have no answers. It's not gonna work spamming people on Facebook that you now have Elton John available. Hey, we know it's available. We know if you buy it right now, we're gonna lose a ton of money on it. People are not that foolish. They need to rethink everything they're doing over there, everything they're doing. From the beginning when Jack has a terrible idea for a theme to making 1,000 CEs at $15,000 a pop, it's just not working. So let's talk about that for a minute. Let's talk about what I think is the ideal number that you should make if you want to make something limited in the world of pinball. And for those of you out there who are like, this whole thing is stupid, like limited versions of games, just make one version of the game. Look, it's never going to be that way. Pinball is always going to have a collectible side of the community. It's always going to have buyers that want to have the creme de la creme version of a game or a nicer version of the game because that's just what people want. And the FOMO around LEs has been what's been driving this market for many, many years. I think it's each end of the spectrum that really drives pinball. You've got the pros for the operators, and you've got the LEs for the collector, and for everybody else in between, you get the premium. I mean, it's a model that works. But lately, hasn't it been feeling like nothing is really limited? Thousand LEs. There's just something about that number that just doesn't work. And pinball was much more fun when there was more of a FOMO and a frenzy to get your hands on one of 500 LEs. To me, that is the ideal number of a machine when you want to create some sort of limited nature around the machine. 500. No more, no less. Well, you could definitely have less, but no more than 500. When you make more than 500, there's just something about it that just doesn't feel like this thing is really rare. because remember, pinball is a very, very small niche hobby. Very, very small. It's smaller than people think. Let's ask a question. How many people out in the world do you think are actual new in box pinball buyers? How many people do you think are actually in the market to buy a pinball machine when a pinball machine is revealed that have the money ready to go who are also diehards and into this hobby? I would say the total number of like, again, a day one reveal person that is ready to go is somewhere south of 5,000 people. Somewhere south of 5,000 people. 5,000 people that actually on that day are really ready to go and pull the trigger on a pinball machine. Now, out of those 5,000 people, the theme's not going to be for everybody. Out of those 5,000 people, the price is not going to be right for everybody. Now, look, when the theme is popular enough, you get everybody excited or it's from a designer people love, you're going to activate a good number of those people. And remember, these are the diehards. These are the people on a daily basis actively engaged in pinball. You know, these are the people that are joining pinball podcasts on a weekly basis. They're on Pinside. They're on Facebook. They talk to their friends on a weekly basis about pinball. I would say it's about 5,000 strong. In other industries, it can climb into the millions of people waiting for the next video game. Way more people into the auto industry. Way more people that are collecting watches. You know, way more people into fashion. It's just the way it goes. So it's a small niche hobby. And for so many years, this small niche hobby had a model and a system that really worked really well. You made 500 LE games. You kind of had to have some sort of relationship with the distributor to get your hands on one early. And there was a race to get one. But I remember those days. It wasn't impossible to get one if you were one of those like diehard people following the hobby. And the system sort of worked because the more you engaged with your distributor friend, the more likely you were to get one of the games. It was just like you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back. And then we also had that BS lie from Stern Pinball that half of the games were going to go overseas. So there was like that built-in FOMO that I'm going to have one of 250 of these games in America, right? And that's like, oh, wow, that's only five per state. And I'm going to own one of them. And so it drove a lot of frenzy every time a new game came out. Even to the point where people were just buying every single LE, even if they didn't want it, because they knew that the game would have some secondhand value and they could flip it for a few thousand dollars and everybody won, right? Because we didn't flip machines back then, people, for twice the price of a game. We flipped machines for like two to three thousand more, and that's what the market tolerated. It didn't see what's happening right now. Now, the sad part now is with 1,000 LEs, nothing feels special. 1,000 LEs. So you take a great game like Foo Fighters and it comes out and you make 1,000 at $13,000 a pop. Remember, that game came out this year. It's most likely going to win Game of the Year. It's a terrific game. And now you can go get one new in box, same year it came out, for $10,500. and then you've got these delusional people selling their used Foo Fighters that are opened for like $12,000 when there's a new in box sitting there unsold for $10,500. Now if they only made 500 Foo Fighter LEs, what happens? I don't think John Youssi as many for sale. I don't think the price goes down as fast. You know, and I think people just feel better about owning one of 500 because what's happening now and you can't blame people is like because they know there's so many out, even if you get a game and you're enjoying it in the back of your mind you're thinking well when do I need to move this on because there's so many and I got to get in front of it when all of us who own it might start to get a little bored or there might be a new game coming out and then everyone's trying to free up space immediately and so what are you going to sell am I going to sell this thing that I just paid $13,000 for and try to get some of that back if I wait too long I could lose three, four, $5,000 on machines. And yes, I do believe that people, if Stern keeps making a thousand LEs of all of these games and the art packages aren't radically different, and they're really not giving you a ton in the LE packages, you're going to start to see these LEs like lose a ton of value. And all I'm saying is this, I know I talk a lot about prices and limited editions, and we don't talk as much about gameplay, right? And the reason why is this is what pinball has become. There's so many games, you know, and I would argue like, you know, most of them don't really have like the mechanical wow or magic that we want in pinball. It's become more about artwork and code and gameplay. You know, I'm more into like the toys. I like the interactive things. I like pinball moments of wow. That's really what excites me. And it's a combination of all of it, it's like the right theme with the right pinball moment with the right mechanical magic with everything happening like an orchestra where you just feel so good. And when you have a game like that, you don't want to sell it. That's the thing about pinball. All of these companies should be aiming to make products you never want to sell. And for all of us out there, we should be buying things that we don't want to sell. Like I regret selling Batman 66. I love that game so much. I love when you walk up to that game, how it puts you into the world of Batman immediately, like just another day in Gotham City. And in that moment, you're into it. I love the fact that it's so easy to understand how to play Batman. You're Batman and Robin trying to jail the villains. The storyline is perfect. It has so many assets. I think it has more assets in Batman than any Stern machine of all time. And the way you can play the game, I could teach Brenda how to play it in two minutes and she can immediately know what she's doing. Try to do that with some other games in pinball these days. Try to explain to somebody how to get into the game. And the game itself doesn't pull you in. Like when you start some of these games like Venom, it doesn't pull you in. Immediately you crash into this like character select screen and you're confused about what's going on. You got to read each character. I mean, imagine when you started Batman and it's like, do you want to be Batman or Robin? It's like, well, why do I have to decide? You know, it's like all these things. I think a lot of modern pinball has become way too confusing, way too complex. And I think Batman 66 for me is one of the perfect games ever made from a code standpoint. It's one of the most immersive games ever made. And for those of you who own it and love it, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you that get lost on the clunky layout, I agree with you. I understand why you don't like the layout. But other than the layout, everything else in that game is damn perfect. So back to my point, like Batman 66 Super Limited Edition. My game gets picked up this Saturday. I'm super nervous about shipping this game from where it's at to Cointaker. But I've got the right guy for the job, Mr. Derek Musket. Derek, I love you, brother. make sure you drive slow put your white gloves on when you pick up the game but take the white gloves off when you are driving your honda to get this game to coin taker it is precious cargo and if anything happens i can never replace anything in the game so make sure she arrives perfect but back to my point is we just want games we don't want to sell and i think that's where a lot of us are going to get to especially at these high prices it's easy to just look at your collections and be like, hey, these games really make me happy, and I would probably regret selling any of these. When I see these guys, like games coming in, games coming out, and they're constantly losing money I don understand like how do you enjoy this stuff And when we go to Knative Collector Corner you going to see like a lot of these games nobody plays them What is the point of spending money on a pinball machine you not going to play Everybody we all going to die We are all going to die. We put up a really nice shrine yesterday for Day of the Dead with everybody we've lost in our family and our friends and our loved ones and our pets. And you know, look, when you really start to stare death in the face and realize that our life on this planet is so short, it is so limited, why would you buy a pinball machine that is absolutely amazing, where there was so much passion put into that machine and you're gonna play it 50 times over five years and then just try to sell it for a profit. Like that is the saddest way to live in my honest opinion. And I feel that way about everything, the same way like people who buy an expensive Rolex and they won't wear it because they're afraid that it might get stolen or scratched. That's the saddest thing ever. You know this in the watch collecting world is people don't wanna wear their watches because they're afraid they're going to scratch it. So they just own a Rolex, they put it in a drawer and they stare at it and then they show people it on their wrist on Facebook and then they never wear it out. People who buy cars and don't drive them. The saddest thing is like these Dodge Demon owners. Oh, I owned a Dodge Demon for five years. I'm selling it with 120 miles on the car. They didn't even break the car in and then they want to boast about how like, oh yeah, I've made $50,000. So if you took $100,000 and instead of buying a Demon five years ago, you put it in the S&P 500, you'd have way more than $150,000. So my point is this, buy stuff to keep it forever, buy stuff to enjoy it, buy stuff because you know you love it. And that is the one silver lining. For me, I like limited edition versions of pinball machines. And I'll say this, I am torn on Elton John because look, I'm not opposed to owning an Elton John pinball machine one day. I absolutely love his music. Now, I'm opposed to spending $12,000 to $15,000 on one. And here's the real killer. What I would want with Elton John is the Franchi art package as a collector's edition. And then, yes, I would pick one up one day for like $11,000. But here's the thing is I don't want to own an Ellie of anything Jersey Jack. I always want to have the best version. And now the best version, in my honest opinion, is the Franchi version of the game. and I think they've absolutely destroyed so many different marketing decisions around this game and I think they need to switch it. Is it really too late to switch? Like why didn't they bring in a focus group and say, hey, which one looks nicer? And this is why I'll probably never own an Elton John because I want the Franchi game. I just love it. I don't like the way the John Yowsey version looks. And so now, you know, I don't want it. I don't want it. I absolutely don't want it. And you shouldn't feel that way. The limited version, the collector's edition, should always be the nicest version of the game. And it's not just me saying that. Everybody is saying that the franchise version blows away the collector's edition as an appearance package. That's just my feeling with all these companies. We need to get back down to 500 being the number of LEs. And if you're Jersey Jack, you might as well go back to 250 collector's editions. You're not going to win keeping parity with Stern at 1,000 units. Just nothing feels special. All right, we're good. Let's go to Canada's collector's corner. And let's look at some games for sale at a high price and ask ourselves, is this worth it? Is this a game worth collecting? All of this is subjective, but I just want to give you my opinions. If I saw this game pop up, would I feel like, oh man, that's actually something I would consider? Or, oh man, this is crazy. All right, the first one is kind of crazy. So for sale, a multi-morphic P3 system with every game, Final Resistance, Heist, Weird Al, Cosmic Kart Racing, and Lexi Lightspeed. All right, you ready for this? If you want to buy every multi-morphic game, this game is being listed for $22,000. I mean, this is the problem with the platform, Jerry. $22,000. I mean, come on. Nobody's buying this. It's just easy, easy pass at that much money. All right, here's one. Wizard of Oz, Yellow Brick Road, number nine for $14,500. I'm going to say this right now. I would rather own a Wizard of Oz, Yellow Brick Road than an Elton John for $15,000. I'll tell you why. Even though Elton John shoots better, even though Elton John is probably more fun from a gameplay standpoint, Wizard of Oz to me is still the pinnacle of Jersey Jack pinball. Because it's like the game they made where they really wanted to make a statement and they put everything in it. Now look, the Yellow Brick Road Edition does not have the flying monkey, but they made a lot of improvements to that version of the game. And so that version of the game is going to hold up the best. And this is another game where this game came out years ago and it has 271 games played on it. What's wrong with these collectors? 271 games. When I bought a new pinball machine, I've put that many plays on in a week. Like, what is the point? Like, why? Like, tell me, please. To you rich gentlemen out there who have OCD, who can't play your machines, What is it about pinball that makes you not want to play it? I don't think there's anything more inviting than a pinball machine. And if you want to keep your game looking good, just put an $80 playfield protector into the game and play it 5,000 times. Like, enjoy your stuff, people. Now, look, Yellow Brick Road at $14,500. I think that price is a little high, but I do think we're going to start to see more and more people. If Jersey Jack games keep going down this barren road where there's not a lot in it, I think we're going to see a lot of price stability on some of the earlier Jersey Jack games. I mean, it is absolutely bonkers. The game I would buy easily right now, if I were buying any Jersey Jack game, I would go buy a dialed in for like $7,500 to $8,000. A dialed in Ellie to me is like the greatest bang for the buck in pinball. I mean, it's crazy to me that Dialed In can be had for like $2,000 to $3,000 less than Labyrinth. Dialed In. I mean, look at the game. It's got so much in it. Yes, I get the theme is terrible, but at $7,500, it's not terrible. Now, all of a sudden, it's almost the price of a Stern Pro, and it's the best bang for buck in pinball. Here's a game that I think is, again, going to keep holding value, Attack from Mars Remake LE. Here's the thing with all these CGC games. This one is being listed for $14,500. But here's another sad thing. This one's coming from Saratoga Springs. This one has 175 plays on it. 175 plays. Again, what is with these people? They don't play their games. Anyway, being that CGC is a disaster and being that CGC can't make anything, I think that the older CGC games, I saw them all in a lineup the other day. Someone had like every CGC LE lined up in a row with the toppers and the lights. And it was gorgeous. And I think what's going to happen is people are going to realize that these Bally Williams games were magical. They still are magical. They've aged very well. And nobody built them better than CGC. I think they're going to hold their value as more and more people get into this hobby. Finding an LE of a CGC machine of these remakes is not going to be easy because people are not going to let them go. There's a reason why they remade them is that the games are just amazing and they're classics. So a 14.5 Attack from Mars LE I don't think is out of the realm of possibility. And again, I'd rather own this game than an Elton John collector's edition. I'd rather offer a little bit more on a game like this than spend $13,000 on a Venom LE. Here's probably the best thing listed on the Pinside Marketplace. A professional flight simulator for $38,000. I just want to buy this and fly back to the time when pinball prices were normal. I mean, it is absolutely mind-boggling how many games come up now when you look for $14,000 or more. There are so many machines for sale, and it's just bonkers. I also want to fly back to a time when people weren't delusional, like this next person. This person is selling an Elvira Premium with a topper and airbrushed features for $15,000. Okay, so think about that for a minute. You have a premium machine of Elvira that is unlimited and you're going to ask for $15,000 and the new black and white only 500 being made for $13,000 just came out and looks far superior than anyone's customized premium. This is the delusion that's crazy and pinball. Nobody is buying this. Nobody. Unless this person's mama wants to buy it to make him feel special, it's never happening. Okay, so why are these people so delusional? Why do they think their baby is worth so much more than the brand new baby that's just put in a box that's the nicest version of Elvira ever? We're starting to see more Pirates of the Caribbean. This one, okay, you want to laugh at this one? A Pirates of the Caribbean in Charlotte, North Carolina for $34,900 firm. Remember, this game new in box was $12,500. Now, here's the best part about it. Pirates of the Caribbean has been out now for about like six or seven years. this game is being listed for sale with 20 total plays 20 plays okay so think about that for a minute wow wow what was the point what was the point of buying this game and never playing it man the more i read this stuff the more i'm like man being a pinball collector is kind of lame it's kind of lame being a pinball collector that doesn't play your games here's my beautiful wife We're getting divorced. I slept with her twice. Like what? Why? Why? Why not more? You know, why not more? It's just so weird to me. It's so weird to me that there's so much OCD-ness in this hobby. Like really. And if you're going to be OCD about something, then collect artwork. All right. Collect artwork. Think about it. When you collect a painting and you put it on the wall and you go to sell it, you don't have to embarrassingly say, I only looked at it 20 times. I mean, that's like the artistic equivalent. if I only walked into this room 20 times and enjoyed it. I mean, seriously, please, gang, if you're gonna sell a game with 20 plays on it, be a man, be a man and put another 200 plays on it before you sell it. Just be like, look, you know, I decided to throw back some whiskeys and realize I'm gonna die like the rest of us and I just wanted to enjoy this thing before I let it go. But to sell it without enjoying it before you let it go is only telegraphing one thing, that you only care about the money. But these people don't need money these people selling $35,000 machines That's not gonna do anything for you If you made a twenty thousand dollar profit on a Pirates of the Caribbean, but never played it I still think the person that played it for six years and enjoyed every single game had a more rich life than you do You know let me repeat that People who play their games and enjoy them are living a much better life than people who are afraid to play their pinball machines. It's like such an emasculating thing. You know, I've got it. I'm just not going to jump on it. I'm, you know, cause what about the resale value of the same things with guys who own cars? I mean, I'm not going to put any miles on it. I'm going to save my wife for the next guy. just so sad trust me people i wear my gucci clothing every day because what's the point it's like the same thing it's like you have a nice outfit wear it all the time okay so a pirate ce for 34.9 would i buy it no i wouldn't i think for me the most i would ever spend on this game is like maybe the high 20s sorry derrick sorry my boy derrick's got one i'm like you should have sold it you should have sold it at the height of covet because to me 35 for a pirates is covet pricing It's not going to happen right now. Here's one that's interesting. A Ghostbusters LE in excellent condition for $17,500. Doesn't have the topper. You know, I would consider Ghostbusters, I don't like the way the game plays, but it's Ghostbusters and there's only $500. So that's not a crazy price for this game. Now, look, it says or best offer. I would offer like $15,000 for a Ghostbusters. Again, I'd rather have a Ghostbusters for $15,000 than a Venom for $13,000 or an Elton John. Here's another Pirates of the Caribbean CE for $33,000. A Ghostbusters with the topper for $20,000 or best offer. Guys, these toppers are now worth like $5,000. It's crazy. It's hard to price a Ghostbusters topper. You know, how do you even price a Ghostbusters topper? It's the cheapest topper Stern has ever made, but it has so much value because of its scarcity. To me, Ghostbusters LE is around the $15,000 range. It just is. It's still a DMD game. It's a horrible shooter, but it's beautiful, right? It is beautiful. And I would buy one and I would play it every single day, but I wouldn't spend more than $15,000 on a Ghostbusters LE and I would want the topper on it for $15,000. Here's a Metallica road case edition signed by the band. Wow. from Great American Pinball for $19,995. Get out of here. They know, like I know, that Metallica Anniversary Edition is coming. So I would go nowhere near a $20,000 Metallica. Here's a funny one. In Burlington, North Carolina, there seems to be a gentleman who likes to keep his games in boxes. And that's the other thing, right? I love these guys who have no intent on opening up the game, okay? So he's got a Deadpool LE number 007 and a Guardians LE, number 007. The Deadpool is $17,900 and the Guardians is $18,900. So basically he's asking about $9,000 to $10,000 over what these games were because they are in a box. So now you're paying a lot for that cardboard box because both of these games are selling for much less money opened up. And then you get number 007, which is also strange to me. Is that some weird flex? Like you're James Bond playing Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool. Why would anyone want game number 007 unless it was James Bond? Really weird idea here. These games are not going to sell. I wouldn't go anywhere near them for that price. I don't like buying old, new in box. The only time I like buying old, new in box stuff is when the price is cheaper than it was new in box or I'm not spending a tremendous premium on the box itself. You know what I'm saying? because once you open the box, why do you want to take a huge hit? And again, because John Youssi like these guys don't play their games. Like these collectors don't play their games. Like six years and I put 20 plays on Pirates. Here's an Elvira House of Horrors 40th anniversary edition for $20,000 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That is not going to sell now that the Blood Kiss edition is $7,000 cheaper new in box. Another Pirate CE. There are three Pirate CEs for sale right now. Under 300 plays, everybody. Under 300. Well, how many is under? Like one or 299? This person wants the 32,000 or best offer. He's not going to get it. COVID prices. Here's the saddest one. James Bond 60th in Megwan, Wisconsin. Okay. Remember when this game was $20,000? Remember when there were podcasters out there who also are distributors told you that Stern priced it accordingly? Remember those days? This person now is selling a $20,000 James Bond 60th in less than a year for $14,300. It's been on pin side for 20 days. It's not sold. Just funny to me. It's funny to me. This game was the worst investment in the history of pinball. Nothing's gone down this much in value in a single year. There's been no game that has lost this much value in a single year. Like not even Thunderbirds lost this much value. And gang, there's a ton of them for sale. Like it's not even like, oh yeah, this is just one of one. No, there are a lot for sale right now. All right, the final item here is actually one of the most interesting items I've seen for sale on Pinside ever. So think about it. This is a for sale in Australia, a Pirates of the Caribbean prototype that has the original software and the original triple spinning discs in the game. My first question was, how do they even have this? It is listed for the very affordable price of $48,000. $48,000 if you want to have the original prototype game that has the working treasure trunk and also has the triple spinning discs with the software that utilized those triple spinning discs. They're fully functional. This is one of those that are like, wow, like how do you really put a price on a game like this, right? There's been no other prototype sales of Pirates. The problem with this kind of game like this, it's a unicorn. It's absolutely a unicorn. Like there's no other one out there. There might be two prototypes in existence that they brought to the shows. The problem with it is the code wasn't completed. So there's that. Like you're not going to get the final code of the game and the most polished version of the game. The problem is like Pirates is just like weird game is like owning this version of the game. The game was a failure. Like the game was a total failure. People didn't want it and they only wanted it when they couldn't have it. And now you've got this like one of one rare unicorn version of the game. And it really is only going to have value to someone who maybe this is their favorite game of all time. I mean, that's really the market for something at 48,000. You're speaking to someone who like wants to have the one of one thing and just will make them sleep better at night knowing they own Eric Minier's original version of the game, right? His original vision for this game. And then the question is like, does that person even exist, right? And I don't know, right? I don't know. Would I buy it at this price? Absolutely not. Could I see why someone would want this game? Sure, I could absolutely see it. At this price, that's a lot of money. I mean, that's a lot of money, $48,000. And you're still just going to roughly have the same game everybody else has. And I would say like the triple spinning disc isn't enough, right? It's not enough of a difference or a major difference to absolutely warrant this kind of premium over the other games. But yeah, just an interesting game for sale. It's something that like I'm not sure. Like I'm not sure if that one person exists that would want to buy it at this price. Everybody, thank you for being a member of Canada's Pinball Podcast. I know this episode went a little longer. If it felt longer for you, it was longer for me because I had to record the show all over again. Yeah, so I'm going to go hit the gym now. remember, take care of yourselves more than your pinball machines. Take care of your families and play your games and don't worry about all these like high priced, limited, flexing pinball machines. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, the person having the most fun in this hobby only owns one machine. That person saved up to get it. They've got one machine in their home and they play it every day and they love it. That is the person who's winning in pinball. It's not the person with 15 games who doesn't want to play them. It's not the person who has a $30,000 Pirates and is boasting about 20 plays only. We have such a short time on this planet. You should only buy something that you never want to sell. You should marry a woman you never want to divorce. You know, you should have kids because you want them. You should live in an area of the world because you love it. You know, people give me grief all the time. They're like, oh, why don't you move out of your shoebox? Why don't you move out of New York City? I am looking, but you want to know the truth? The reason I don't move out of New York City is I love it. I love what this city has. I love the fact that I can walk to work. I can walk to a Michelin star restaurant. I can walk to Gucci. I could walk to go play pinball. I can move. It keeps me active. There's an energy to this city that is absolutely amazing. And for those of you who don't live in New York City and you read about New York City in the media, of course you're going to hate New York City. But I'll tell you, when I go anywhere else, yeah, it's cleaner. Yeah, it's this. Yeah, it's that. It doesn't have the energy. It doesn't have the vibe. It doesn't wake me up the way New York City does, which is ironic because right now, I'm just trying to be put to sleep more in New York City and get some rest. But that's my final thing, people. Enjoy your games and you know you don't need more. And this is the thing that's really funny about the hobby right now. At these high prices, none of you need another game unless it's a dream game that you never wanna get rid of. And that's my only advice is wait and see. Wait until that game comes out. We're going to get back to the future. We're going to get Matrix. You know, of course, we're going to get shiny boxes of lights like Elton John put in front of us. But if you don't really want it, it's an easy pass. If you don't really like Labyrinth, you don't have to get one. If you're a grown adult who hasn't watched Scooby-Doo in 40 years, yeah, you don't have to have one. You can go enjoy one on location. Everybody, thank you for being a member of Canada's Pinball Podcast. The only show that talks to you like this is like everybody else, just shill, shill, shill. Oh, it's getting boring. Later. Then you can Monster Mash. The Monster Mash. And do my graveyard smash. Then you can Mash. You'll catch on in a flash. Then you can Mash. Then you can Monster Mash. Mash good. Is he good? You impassioned unknowing. Mash good. Monster Mash. Monster Mash. Monster Mash. Monster Mash. Monster Man Talk Monster Man Talk