Are Pinball Machines the New Picassos?

HonorTravel2025-08-087410

Ricky Jordan's three-year-old son loves Disney. Even Jordan, 42, is a self-described “Disney head.” So, this year, he decided to snag a Toy Story-branded game for their house. It cost a tad more than a Buzz Lightyear figurine.

While rinky-dink arcade games typically sell for the price of a used tablet, Jordan’s pinball machine set him back nearly $10,000. He has zero regrets about splurging on the ritzy game, which now sits in his entryway. “It definitely will hold its value,” Jordan predicts. “It's a pretty machine.”

Jordan’s confidence stems, in part, from the machine’s provenance. Since 2011, Jack Guarnieri has slung pinball machines to art collectors and pinball enthusiasts alike. His company, Jersey Jack, employs scores of people who manufacture these thousand-dollar contraptions. So amongst the one-percent, is pinball as ubiquitous as an Hermès throw blanket? "We sell everything nobody needs,” jokes the 67-year-old Jerseyite.

Jack Guarnieri’s home game room includes pinball machines inspired by Harry Potter and The Godfather. Courtesy Jack Guarnieri

His decades-old tie-up with pinball began by repairing machines in the 1970s, around the time a 30-year-old ban on the game in New York City ended. Guarnieri soon bought machines and placed them inside pizzerias and laundromats via revenue-sharing deals. Over time, the Brooklyn-born businessman spotted an opportunity: his grown-up customers wanted pinball machines in their homes. So rather than scan Yellow Pages for mom-and-pops, Guarnieri attracted homeowners willing to spend Rolex-money on steel boxes.

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But the brand Jersey Jack meant jack. Guarnieri needed credibility. Despite having zero Tinseltown connections, he sought out blockbuster movie titles to adapt into pinball games. He trekked a few thousand miles to trade shows in Las Vegas and hounded studio executives online. “The license gives you a story, gives you recognizable assets, and it gives you popularity around the world,” he says.

That gumption worked. Wizard of Oz, the 1939 Judy Garland film, became Jersey Jack’s first game. He followed it up with a Godfather game via Paramount and Pirates of the Caribbean with Disney. He devised one original title—Dialed In—but it didn’t move as many machines as high-wattage movies. More recently, he crystallized “pinball wizard” Elton John and Harry Potter into four-foot-long rectangular boxes. “We don't have any bad titles,” he remarks.

Jack Guarnieri with pinball enthusiast Jason Sudeikis, who’s said to own multiple games. Courtesy Jack Guarnieri

Nor does he have cheap ones. Guarnieri estimates his average machine sells for around $12,000. A collector's edition of his new Potter machine sells for $15,000 (the arcade edition of that game costs a mere $10,000). Fans of Jersey Jack include Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis, who owns multiple machines. Guarnieri said CEOs from Fortune 100 companies are also in his customer registry, but he declined to name specific bigwigs. Those steep prices can keep some customers away. For a long time, Jordan avoided Jersey Jack machines. “I try to stretch my dollar where I can,” he says.

But in Guarnieri’s eyes, his 350-pound machines are more “playable artwork” than a toy that harkens teenage memories. Similar to Damien Hirst’s and Jeff Koons’s fabrication styles, Jersey Jack is a soup-to-nuts factory operation. The company has three designers, with a staff of electrical and mechanical engineers working under each person. It costs around $2 million to develop a game, since no DNA is shared between, say, their Avatar game and their Willy Wonka game.

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Guarnieri no longer collects nickels, but pinball makes him plenty of dough. Jersey Jack sold over five thousand units of a Guns N’ Roses machine, which features details like a miniature Slash top hat, interactive drumsticks and cymbals, and lighting synchronized with the band's thumping music. Potter, meanwhile, has been the most popular “collector’s edition’”drop for the company. It took Guarnieri a decade to obtain a brand license, which is notoriously difficult to score for a muggle.

His success has been buoyed by a resurgence in pinball activity. After video games ate away at pinball's adolescent fandom, interest in the game has boomed over the last 15 years. But Jersey Jack clients avoid dimmed, decrepit arcade rooms. Instead, tony locales like the Hamptons or Westchester are hotbeds for his machines. Also on that list? Minnesota. "A lot of the cold-weather states, people are inside a lot of the time and they're doing little activities,” he said.

If more people take-up pinball because of Jersey Jack, Guarnieri would be pleased. That fandom might even extend to Generation Alpha. In sunny Southern California, Jordan has passed down his love for pinball to his toddler. “His skill has gone up insanely by playing it,” he said.