6/21/2005
High Scores For Pinball Wizards
22jun05
PINBALL fanatics of the 1970s and 1980s are transforming their grown-up homes into games parlours and making a mint out of silverball nostalgia.With the numbers of new pinball machines available worldwide dwindling to around 10,000 a year after the closure of all but one manufacturer, Australians reminiscing about their youthful days spent playing the pinnies in milk bars are also sitting on tidy nest-eggs.
The lack of new machines making their way to Australia had contributed to the growing value of existing machines.
Especially so when sought out by cashed-up men in their 30s and 40s on a nostalgia trip, the manager of Melbourne-based importer and distributor Bumper Action Amusement, Del Reiss, said.
His customer base had changed from being solely commercial buyers to 97 per cent private collectors, with some now owning as many as 30 pinball machines.
And the machines are not just something gathering dust in the spare room, with a game based on the ghoulish television series The Addams Family increasing in value by $5500 during the past five years.
A Star Wars original release bought for $700 in 1999 now fetched $4500, with an Indiana Jones game increasing from $1000 to $5500.
"The industry almost stopped because of the advent of the internet, Nintendo and X-box," Mr Reiss said.
"These machines that were commercially very popular had effectively died in the marketplace, and suddenly there was an incredible piece of technology readily available for a very cheap price.
"People who started (buying machines) two years ago now have doubled their money."
Chicago-based Stern Pinball is the only firm still manufacturing new machines, at around 10,000 per year, a dramatic decrease from the more than 100,000 produced annually in the early 1990s, according to journal Business Week.
The magazine said the machines still were manufactured by hand, using 3500 pieces and taking more than three days to put together.
While the majority of Mr Reiss' customers came from Victoria, an average of one machine each week made its way to Queensland and two a week to Sydney.
Beside reliving your schooldays, the attraction of the games was man being pitted against machine.
"There are pinball games you can get on your computer but it's not like having a 130kg machine," Mr Reiss said.
"It's a personal thing to play against the machine, to get a replay. It's total escapism."
More than 200 people are expected at a collectors' auction in Melbourne on Sunday.
PINBALL fanatics of the 1970s and 1980s are transforming their grown-up homes into games parlours and making a mint out of silverball nostalgia.With the numbers of new pinball machines available worldwide dwindling to around 10,000 a year after the closure of all but one manufacturer, Australians reminiscing about their youthful days spent playing the pinnies in milk bars are also sitting on tidy nest-eggs.
The lack of new machines making their way to Australia had contributed to the growing value of existing machines.
Especially so when sought out by cashed-up men in their 30s and 40s on a nostalgia trip, the manager of Melbourne-based importer and distributor Bumper Action Amusement, Del Reiss, said.
His customer base had changed from being solely commercial buyers to 97 per cent private collectors, with some now owning as many as 30 pinball machines.
And the machines are not just something gathering dust in the spare room, with a game based on the ghoulish television series The Addams Family increasing in value by $5500 during the past five years.
A Star Wars original release bought for $700 in 1999 now fetched $4500, with an Indiana Jones game increasing from $1000 to $5500.
"The industry almost stopped because of the advent of the internet, Nintendo and X-box," Mr Reiss said.
"These machines that were commercially very popular had effectively died in the marketplace, and suddenly there was an incredible piece of technology readily available for a very cheap price.
"People who started (buying machines) two years ago now have doubled their money."
Chicago-based Stern Pinball is the only firm still manufacturing new machines, at around 10,000 per year, a dramatic decrease from the more than 100,000 produced annually in the early 1990s, according to journal Business Week.
The magazine said the machines still were manufactured by hand, using 3500 pieces and taking more than three days to put together.
While the majority of Mr Reiss' customers came from Victoria, an average of one machine each week made its way to Queensland and two a week to Sydney.
Beside reliving your schooldays, the attraction of the games was man being pitted against machine.
"There are pinball games you can get on your computer but it's not like having a 130kg machine," Mr Reiss said.
"It's a personal thing to play against the machine, to get a replay. It's total escapism."
More than 200 people are expected at a collectors' auction in Melbourne on Sunday.
