There's a small portion of the population that is buying all the new games. An even smaller number buying them without at least playing them first. Piss off your standard customer addict base enough times, you are going to run out of customers. People are wrong when they say Stern doesn't owe us anything. They owe us respect. Without the customers buying these sight unseen, there is no Stern. If you are going to set a number, once money changes hands that number should not change. Sure people like the idea of more of a game out in the wild, but most of the pre-order LE buyers only keep their game up to a year. If they cannot get a reasonable re-sale price out of the game to fund the next game, they will cease to buy them. Regardless of how the apologists want to spin it, LE in the terms Stern is using means a limited number. There is a standard perception of what that means. It does NOT mean arbitrarily upping that number whenever you feel like it.

Yes that's a generalization, there's always the super rich money is no object crowd that will buy anything without a second thought, but they are still a smaller portion of the picture. It's basically a debate in integrity between the rich and super rich. People with some morals realize that shady marketing practices should not be encouraged, which in our case the only option is to speak with the wallet. Unfortunately some peoples addictions and keeping up with the jone's mentality work against them.

The more there are, the more it will impact the secondary market. How much? It won't be known until people have them in hand and have spent some time with them. Are they keepers or not, etc. It won't truly have an impact until they move on to their next machine....and even then, they could come out with another premium or more releases years down the road (like AC/DC).

Has anyone set up a pinball Go Fund Me account yet?

A thread dedicated to the discussion and people come in here to basically tell people to 'shut up their opinion doesn't matter'. If you actually read any of the responses and took them in, and maybe, I dunno, considered someone other than yourself, it might make sense to you that your post sounds like you completely missed the point. Are they right or wrong? Too early to tell. It doesn't change the fact -- and to use Franklin Mint as your example. If FM came out and said get this super rare gold plate - hurry only 10,000 made! And then a week later - hurry only 15,000 made! People would have an issue with that as well. Where it falls apart is, if FM doesn't say how many of their super rare gold plates they are actually making (which I think in many cases they don't). It's a very fine distinction. If stern never gave a number (and let's be honest with ourselves here - they give that number to create a false sense of rarity - it's marketing 101) then people wouldn't be having an issue.

I do agree that if people are complaining, and they legit had orders in, and they don't cancel them..well it's just hot air. Is it the end of the world? No.

No matter how people spin it, Stern stating LE and numbers is a marketing strategy to increase perceived value. When you state a specific number that is intent. Is there a difference? Some. Is there THAT much difference with a 100? Questionable. With anything 'collectable' it really depends on demand. There is certainly way more value with a lesser number for something that is in demand. Stern are not saying "hey we'll make more, so we'll lower the price". Thus it comes off as disingenuous and a money grab. The ones saying it makes no difference don't care now, but you can bet if they ever go to sell and can't get what they want out of the game, they will complain then. The pinball resale world is strong right now, but it won't always be. Basically, I see both sides of this, and we're all just going to have to wait and see how it actually impacts things if at all. People who really want the game are going to buy it either way.

The number will always be 'limited' by demand. I think Addams Family is a very good example. That has the highest run, yet look at the prices still to this day. It is because of the high demand.

Then you have the very rare games that are high priced simply because there's only a handful of them. The problem is MOST people haven't even played those games to know if they want it or if they are even fun. It is a completely different collectability mindset.

That is why the jury is still out on Munsters.

There are always caveats to any statement. That being said, he's not far off. I doubt the 85% are buying NiB pins on any regular basis.