Why is the market soft right now?

I've been out of a job since October. Dark days ahead.
depends on your field of work..

My 2 nephews 1 is a lawyer that does estate, transfers and such. my other nephew is in med school working to be a doctor. Guess which one I worry about finding a job.. my lawyer nephew lost his job when interest rates went up and refinancing and exchanges dried up. the other is is working whenever he wants and going to school.
 
depends on your field of work..

My 2 nephews 1 is a lawyer that does estate, transfers and such. my other nephew is in med school working to be a doctor. Guess which one I worry about finding a job.. my lawyer nephew lost his job when interest rates went up and refinancing and exchanges dried up. the other is is working whenever he wants and going to school.
Should have taken a minor in pinball and arcade repairs....Laughs.

Hopes your nephew finds a job..
 
Should have taken a minor in pinball and arcade repairs....Laughs.

Hopes your nephew finds a job..
he moved back from portland to pelataluma. He has a line on something working with the city. but he got a severance package. Lucky for him he got his law degree for free from indiana. so not a lot of debt(we paid off all their student loans this year). he did very well at his undergrad at the university of oregon and did really well at indiana. he is smart and and I am sure he will be fine.

they enjoyed my arcade games. My brother has a pic of him when he was like 2 years old crawling ontop of my space duel cocktail watching the action on the screen. they used to go cax all the time. I got armageddon magic the gathering, trog, primal rage, and vaport trx for them since they like those games. they liked my rush 2049's and rampart, But I got those for me!!

they also really liked the linked grids at cax.. I had to keep an eye on them as they would not give other a chance to play. back then when they were 8 and 10, people let them do what they wanted maybe because they had exhibitor badges. Bought I taught them to give others a chance.
 
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I have not bought as much in the past few years. Not because I dont have the money, but because I can't justofy the prices. I started in this hobby because it was cheap. I bought, sold, and traded a LOT because boards and parts were mostly under $100. When boards run 3-400 and most are not even serviced, I have a hard time paying that. Add to that the collector market seeping in and pushing up prices (come on, Rastan for $200 plus? RASTAN!?!?) and I am content to sit out a while.

One thing is true. There is a peak when a hobby plateau and the amount of interested parties start to decline. Some folks will be reluctant to sell for less, despite a diminishing base of buyers. That's how we end up with collectors who die and their families just trash their collection. I think we are past the peak. I could be wrong. But I have already lost friends here and hoarding shit isn't my thing. I want to restore and repair and for that, I hope things cool a bit to make that possible.
 
I have not bought as much in the past few years. Not because I dont have the money, but because I can't justofy the prices. I started in this hobby because it was cheap.
With you 100% here.

Like any hobby, people will always ask "man, what is this all worth?!" when they see my garage. The truth is, it's not worth shit unless someone is wanting to buy any of it, and even then, its only worth what they're willing to pay.

So many for sale threads just get bumped over and over and over and over with no interest because people aren't willing to pay asking prices and the folks selling continue with the "I know what this is worth" attitude.

Enjoy hanging on to that valuable stuff.
 
Now in Mid-June and i still see the same $1200 pacs and $500 project (missing PCB/Monitor) cabs sitting around. For sure market is slow. For a while i've been keeping rebuilt chassis on hand to sell, but the price has come down to "not worthwhile" areas. I'll do repairs for people on demand, but i'm focused on my own projects for the time being.
 
1. People are getting let go from their jobs and can't find another
2. People here in the US on Visas are getting the boot
3. Some sellers don't want to work with buyer offers even in a slow market
 
They just need to make a 'Pixels' sequel.

That's really what jumpstarted the whole retro arcade craze again, ten years ago. It's persisted since, with people like Arcade1Up and the new 'Atari' jumping on the bandwagon. But it's finally starting to trail off, now that the economy is slowing, and people don't have excess money to burn.
 
I had no idea this was crashing the American arcade collecting market

I dont know if it's "crashing" the market, I'm just saying that ppl who might have wanted things they couldn't get "back home" are now not buying anything either.

My wife and I have gone to house clean out sales where you could see ppl left amazing expensive stuff behind because they had to go back and couldn't take the items with them.
 
I dont know if it's "crashing" the market, I'm just saying that ppl who might have wanted things they couldn't get "back home" are now not buying anything either.

My wife and I have gone to house clean out sales where you could see ppl left amazing expensive stuff behind because they had to go back and couldn't take the items with them.

So they have deported so many people with Visas in Delaware, that it is hurting the arcade collecting market? That is so interesting. I had no idea they were deporting so many people with visas, from Delaware, that it was affecting anything much in the economy.

Has it caused housing prices to crash? I mean the prices must be dropping like a ROCK on housing with that many people just vanished...

And are they leaving their cars, so the car prices go down? Or are they driving the cars back to where they're being deported to (with their Visas)
 
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