Morning folks. had a decent sleep after my travel home from holidays yesterday and now in the cold light of day I've had another look at the promo video.
I've been a big fan of The Beatles since i was a teenager, first becoming aware of them in 1975. I have got quite a collection of Beatles Memorabilia and music. A a collector of Beatles 'stuff': This is just another example of overpriced merchandise that has been consistently available for sale since their heyday. Most of the merchandise has no real collectability value, but will always have a value to fans, however, usually much below retail price. There have been many attempts to skin fans over the years with all sorts of 'exclusive' , 'limited edition', 'numbered edition' etc. merchandise, records, CD's etc. All of this rarely makes a solid investment. Again much of these are usually available for sale on the second hand market (often in mint condition) for prices less than originally retailed. Some fans and collectors and dealers think that buying something for £100, then selling it 20 years later for £200 is a great return. Sad fact is they have probably been beaten by inflation!
As we all know the 'base' value of a pinball machine such as this will be a good few £k - £5k maybe - it's a modern Stern Machine, but a pretty simple play-field and game rule-set by sterns current standards. So, what I think will happen is Beatles fans will buy em, then be shocked when they try to sell em. Of course the Beatles theme WILL for sure add a premium of a £k or 2, but I can see a lot of people losing a lot of money in the long run, especially when they try sell a machine with issues - other collectors may then stay well clear.
On the other hand - 1964 units, whilst perhaps a big run of machines, is nothing compared to the many tens of thousands of Beatles fans, many with deep pockets...........