So I just sold a Weird AL. I was on the fence buying one when it was announced based on playing it at shows. But I thought "Oh but look at that theme, they've finally picked a good theme!".. I figured worse case scenario it should hold its value because they're only making so many. I placed my pre-order probably a few months before I moved across the country, then it was ready about a year later. I paid $10,200 for the game, plus $700 tax, plus $700 for shipping (and that's with picking it up from a fedex freight center). So I'm in at $11,600. I play it maybe 50 times over the past 3-ish years, realize I don't play it anymore, and also realize the resale value is crap (I lost almost $5k, that's about a thousand shy of a brand new stern). Keep in mind this is a HUO game, it was never routed and barely played.
Here's a bunch of reasons you won't have people knocking down your door to buy one too. It's heavy, REALLY heavy... it might be the heaviest pinball ever made (and I've owned a jersey jack game). it SUCKS to move it. Oh also, because it's a taller cabinet (it's 28" in the back, not the standard 24"), with the backbox folded down it is NOT going to fit in any SUV (you must own or rent a truck to pick it up). The playfield layout is always a compromise, if you'd like to argue with me I can prove it. Sure, compare it to like a batman66 I'll lose that argument, but compare it to a Stern King kong or foo fighters, you could never have that layout on a multimorphic playfield.
If Gerry doesn't think the poor resale value is going to affect future sales, he's wrong. People that have been buying JJP games for $12k (plus tax and shipping) and realize they're only worth $7-8k are getting hesitant about buying NIB. The modules themselves aren't holding value either. I saw an ad of someone selling a multimorphic machine with like 4 modules (including weird al, heist) for $10k? I really imagined I would just be buying modules and updating my game. I really loved the concept of swapping out playfields, but in practice I just don't want to deal with swapping games, cabinet art, and storing those playfields somewhere. I think there's been maybe 600-800 cabinets, and I think that's about the saturation point. you're going to stop having new buyers, and if you're just selling modules is that still a viable business?
