What would be the most you would pay or have paid to play a New pin and classic pin?
Hercules is set to six tokens. It’s a novelty and a terrible pin and I rarely see it played. New LE games start at five tokens but often drop back to three plays for eight tokens, probably because that’s the default when the code is updated. JJP games are five tokens and avoided by league players. Houdini is four tokens but I don’t think the match feature is on. EMs and classic SS games are generally two tokens, newer SS games are three, modern games are four and three games for eight tokens.
The location runs a special, token prices are sometimes cheaper than four per dollar. 88 for $20 was available at one time, not sure if that’s still in effect or not.
Where we play there are some 3 ball EM’s for .25. Most SS games are .50. Most modern games are 1.00. The only game they ever had set for 1.25 was BM66 when it first came out, but has since been changed to 1.00.
Lowest I ever paid? When I was like 10 years old in the 70’s, prices were 2 games for .25 or 5 games for .50.
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Lowest regular price was a dime for EMs back in the early 1970’s. Two for 25 cents came shortly thereafter. Highest was one Euro [at the time $1.35, now more like $1.20].
Cheapest current price for new pins has been 50 cents. This excludes “up front” deals where there’s a cover charge and a small [Nickelrama] or no per-game fee. Current location price range: 25 cents at PHoF for many EMs, more as they get more modern; 50 cents at some current locations for all games; highest 1 dollar or 1 Euro.
Many locations have left the pricing intact from the games’ original price where it was at least 25 cents; others have raised all games to a minimum 50 cents or in some cases a dollar.
There was one arcade that ran on electronic swipe cards where the cost for brand-new Sterns might have been more than a buck, but I don’t recall the details.
Completely dependent on location, condition, and game.
As sometime that’s played a lot of pinball, I’m more likely to drop a dollar in a random game that I don’t see often that looks well taken care of than Aerosmith again.
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My Outer Space was .25/2 plays while I had it out. Most of the punters put in .50 without looking so it was almost always free to play for those clever enough to pay attention to the credit reel.
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Always amazed at VUK in Bethesda MD. Their lineup is mainly every new title and all are .50, plus a couple solid state and EM for a quarter.
Typically I see $1 for new titles and .50 for 2000s and 90s titles, but some charge $1 for 90s titles which is in the high side.
I think the most I ever paid was at Dave and Busters when they had pins - I can’t be sure because they forced you to use their ridiculous card system, but I am guessing single games were over $1.50.
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Wonder what Tilt Studio charges? Probably around $1.50
Default pricing from Stern has been $1/play (and the 3 for $2 bonus) for at least the last 9 or 10 titles. My first NIB was the most recent run of Iron Man, and it came out of the box with that pricing.
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During the 70’s, the Long Beach Pike had an arcade with a row of Bingo Machines set to one cent. This means that you can technically play a game for one cent, but in reality the cost was more like 20 to 25 cents by the time you decided to shoot the first ball. I do seem to recall a Gigi set to 5 cents per play at the Balboa Boardwalk in Newport Beach.
The most I have ever paid is one dollar per play for a modern game (recently).
On location in the Kansas City area, it depends a bit on the particular location.
A couple locations always have a $0.25/play game, usually something pre-alpha numeric (generally not an EM, but Surf Champ has shown up before; have seen System 11 fill this slot also, however). Those same locations have most games at $0.50/play, with newer releases usually at $0.75/play. Some of the higher-end stuff (like one of the Chicago Gaming remakes) has been $1/play.
Other major location is generally $0.50/play for anything pre-DMD, $0.75/play for most of the other games, with $1/play temporarily on anything brand new (seems to drop to $0.75/play after the first month or two).
So the most I’ve ever paid is $1/play. The least $0.25/play.
Ours are…
Premium locations
$1.25 LCD
$1.00 DMD
.75 Pre DMD
Value locations
.60 LCD
.40 Pre LCD
Value locations have few to no pins
And no ball saver
No bonuses as changers vend bonuses