Price Guide

[sc1101]

Well I guess your right Eric. This sums it up.

[Kilroy]

Don't forget American Restorations

[mygoose101]

The other guy who was supposed to do a book was Dan Quate.

I wouldn't touch anything that has to do with Rick. (except his money when he did buy a machine from me but it was through Paypal so technically I didn't touch it.)

He's a hack. I have seen enough if his machines to know.

His book is fitting though. He writes books the same was he restores machine, half ass with no thought or effort then charges a arm and a leg because his name is attached to it. Please.....

[pinballdude]

I still think we need an "online" price guide. They ain't printing price guides anymore, I think. Petretti's last was 2008 and BJ Summers publisher isn't publishing books anymore. Anyway we can make a SMC guide that everyone can contribute? Just an idea.

[MoonDawg]

       SMC online price guide does exist thanks to a very generous member.

        http://soda-machines.com/discussions/index.php/topic,15417.msg119974.html#msg119974

       Rarer machines could even be added with actual values determined through an SMC survey, rather than Walters best guesswork.
       

[sc1101]

I think we could do this as a group. Have one person in charge that's knowledgeable like Kaleid or another member do a weekly poll on 10 machines. That would be the first option. The second option is if Kaleid or other member are not interested I am willing to list the machines and compile and adjusting price ranges. I just don't have enough knowledge of putting a starting value on all the machines. Once the member in charge posts the weekly 10 machines everyone can then copy and add their own values and re post. Then once several members have posted their values we open up discusion to adjust values. Then the numbers are looked over and averaged then finalized. After several weeks we will have covered most of the machines. Once the weeks have passed the finalized values will get put all together as a price guide in a separate post.
I think this will give a representation of all regions of value and personal opinion. We all want this and talk about it all the time so lets finally do it. Anyone on board?? 

[Eric]

When someone does a poll and and members vote and at then end of the poll the average is shown ... could a price guide be set that way?
seems prices are all over the place.. some pay top, top dollar for a machine or cooler while someone may get a steal on a machine or cooler.
Some don't mind telling what they have in their collection or what they paid while other are more private about telling what they have and spent...
just thinking if there was one of those polls set up members could post what they paid for what machine and could be kept private.
Can those polls be set up to last a full year and at end of your year that would be the price guide?
Anyway just my 2 cents.

[MaineT]

When someone does a poll and and members vote and at then end of the poll the average is shown ... could a price guide be set that way?
seems prices are all over the place.. some pay top, top dollar for a machine or cooler while someone may get a steal on a machine or cooler.

I agree with you, but a "steal" is only a steal because it is so much below value. A price guide needs to be realistic prices on a retail level. Restored and Originals at retail... And like cars that #5 parts/needs restoration car category.

The easiest place to get prices is to go to the restorers and ask how much to provide the machine and deliver it restored. That is the ACTUAL value of a restored piece. There should be a disclaimer on most machines that the resale price is typically much less then cost of restoration especially when not fresh off restoration.

For original machines, there are 2 different values. 1) Needs to be restored. 2) nice original working and complete. Restorers should NOT be asked for values of original pieces as they do not have the perspective needed for original machines.  With some exception, they want the cheapest machines to restore and its like selling your jewelry to a gold scrapper. To them, it truly has no more value as a mint original as a decent original because they are going to blast it with sand and start over anyhow. I was told by several that my rare original machine had little value, then I sold one to a collector for almost 10 times the value they said. (then it was sold again for 25 % more!) Collectors and retail sellers set the real value of originals. 

A Poll for values? That is a bad idea to get value. First, this place is was too small for a statistically relevant sample to get a price who has bought and sold every machine in the last 12 months. You will get a lot of guesses from those who have never even seen one and do not have a way of retail sales. It is also a group of passionate collectors that are willing to wait for the steals and deals. They pass on machines that sell every day because they know they can wait 18 months and save $400 but that machine still sold for the price they wouldn't pay. So is the value the real amount it sold for or the price you wouldn't pay? I bet the votes are what you wanted to pay, not what it sold for and you wouldn't pay to get the flip.

The SMC price guide started in 2012 is a good start, but it is already missing one important category.... the nice mint original. He has
Low end - not working/missing parts and
High end - working, solid, all parts there, possible candidate for restoration.
The nice mint originals to a collector has collector value not gameroom value like a restored machine, once its restored it looses most of its collectors value and market.

All that being said, a guide is just a guide and they are obsolete and off as soon as they are printed. Pick any one, Petretti's, guns, signs, baseball cards, knives, marbles, coins, military...... the prices always seem high to the average person, are geared to the retail priced collector and people expect to pay short of that. You can't put out a guide with prices below wholesale for people that can't afford or wont spend the money on the top half of the market.

[MoonDawg]

      Oh gosh, let's keep this simple folks. 

      Even if someone were to buy an 81 for $500.00, it's current value will still average out to $2K to $3K.

      The more important data to be saved is concerning the rare machines, lets use the Lyon 500 as example.

      The current price guide shows a very nice picture of this machine but no trading price available, just "Rare"
     
      I doubted this 500 even existed until just a few years ago, then two of them surfaced and sold on E-bay.................

[sc1101]

The prices will average out. For example I bought a cav 96 for 200.00 and sold it for 1000.00. Now lets say another person bought one for 800.00 and sold it for 1500.00. The median price range of the two would be 350.00-1250.00. Now this is not a accurate range because its only two people but once you average several peoples prices you will have a accurate median range. The more people we average in the gap between 350-1250 will begin to get closer to accurate range. I do agree with Tim in the sense we may have more wholesale buyers on this forum so it may represent the values on the lower side. Now with that said if the price range ended up falling in the 800-1300 range for a cav 96 that doesn't mean that nobody has ever purchased one at 200.00 or never sold one at 2000.00 it just means the average price is 800-1300. If we use our own personal sales data and knowledge of what these are selling for we should come up with a accurate price guide.  Glenn I do think the more rare machines like the Lyon 500 will need more discusion to establish a price. I think we have everyone find as much sales data as they can on the particular rare item and post it. Then we discuss and average them out and come up with a realistic value. This may not be the best way of doing this but it's going to be much better then a guide from 1999. My wife always says to me "keep it stupid simple" or did she say "keep it simple stupid". Hmmm