It is kind of tough to get a gauge on this one since only about 200 Pinsiders have this game listed as owned and I am sure a good portion of those don't post much. Hopefully this is not one of the games that will have much problem with ghosting.

Haven't seen to many issue with the PF's (seen a couple pictures with minor ghosting) but with AS the cabinet is more the concern. If they've fixed that (haven't been following that anymore) then your chances of getting a good one are better.

Edit - Found one of the pics so I figured I'd add it for you. ***Walk insert.

eada131b0589c6e6b82af72fea5b88aaaa42a6e6 (resized).png

I've had no ghosting or cabinet issues on my pro (knock on wood)

I have an AS LE, had it since the beginning. We play it routinely, but not a lot every day (have several pins, and two kids that keep us busy). My playfield still looks perfect and my cabinet is fine. I actually just put on cliffy's and a few mods over the weekend so really looked it over close.

My GB Premium from last year also looks perfect.

As for the cabinets, I've either been fine, they are a small percentage, or we nudge nicely (not a lot of death saves).

Of the 2 Aerosmiths I've played, Neither of them had any ghosting, but one did have considerable chipping in the drain and the lock saucer. Didn't take pictures of the damage at the time, but can the next time i go see the game.

Own an LE, play field looks great!

We have had our ASLE for 2 months. It is the best looking Stern we have ever purchased. PF and cabinet look beautiful. The cabinet issues have been around since 2014. The first thing we did before we played the machine is inspect the cabinet corners (tops). You can see if the corners are not glued properly straight away. You can push on the corner and the edge moves with the decal holding it all together. We found the centre rib not glued in and the left hand side front top not glued. We applied a small amount of glue and cabinet is solid and our decals are perfect. Having said all that we are fussy. The cabinet corner that we glued is underneath the lock bar and is so small most people will never notice it.

We fitted cliffys to the shooter lane before we plunged a ball. On AS you cannot adjust the trough eject power so we put them on first. We have around 600 games on the machine and PF is perfect. No ghosting anywhere. Beautiful machine and the game grows on you the more you play it.

Great choice!

No PF probs on my Prem. Had for 6 weeks now, play nearly everyday day. Not sure on #of games but would be over 300. I have 3 sterns with no PF issues other than dimpling "would prefer they didn't" but I can live with it!

Friend has a pro, I have not noticed any ghosting but I haven't been looking for it will have a look this week if I get chance.

What I have noticed is how good the playfield looks which is why SW having issues is a surprise.

After 200 plays, my Pro playfield still looks superb.

Ditto on my ASLE, best pf I've ever had so far.

Which is why SW is so crazy. My BM66 is great too. My GBLE, not so much but still ok.

Near 500 plays on mine and it's as smooth as a piece of glass, barely any dimples even. The playfield is by far my best looking Stern game. It looks like it's wet it's so nice and smooth......not even kidding.

P.S. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it's a kick ass game as well? Most fun you will ever have with your clothes on!

Curly, sit on the sidelines. Because no matter what anyone says here, you can't know it will be good until you open the box. And even then, maybe it starts ghosting after 100 plays, or 1000 plays. Maybe you get a playfield made the way the other AS games, maybe they switched over to ones made by whoever made Ghostbusters.

AS is a fun game. They are starting to come onto the secondary market now, so get one you can see with your own eyes first. That way you can be 100% sure what you're getting.

POTW

Good call.

I can smell BS everywhere on Pinside at the moment. Who ever has clicked they have ghosted inserts on AS, post photos in this thread with a piece of paper in the photo with your name and date on it. Lets see how many responses we get. AS has ghosting on the prototype. SW is the same. one photo that keeps going around and around. AFMr same photo that keeps going around and around. DI has a few photos going around. It is all BS. There is nothing wrong with these machines.

People are listening to a few whiners and complainers and not getting to enjoy our much loved pastime of pinball.

Happy Flipping I say! I am not letting a few cranky old pricks that want their old pieces of junk to be worth more money affect me. One good thing is that I am slowly "ignore user" all the complainers. I must say, there are not many.

IMG_4157.GIF

The Aerosmith I play on route has no issues with ghosting. The only ghosting I have ever heard of on an AS so far is from the Stern video. A picture from that video was posted earlier in this thread. I believe some have suggested that the ghosting in Stern's video was from their prototype playfield that was probably made sometime last year (since AS was supposed to be released before BM66) at the tail end of the whole GB ghosting fiasco. No idea, though... just pure speculation.

Anyway, I plan on purchasing a premium in the next few weeks.

Edit: The lock shot is also not chipping yet on the AS I play on route.

Don't try to confuse Stern's issues on playfields with the hobby. Our much loved pastime of pinball is larger than this. It's nice that you want to stick up for them, but this is really their own doing. The costs of needing to replace playfields was caused by Stern, and it is their problem.

AS had really good playfields. The best we had seen in a while. But it is 100% impossible to know how many playfields were in the original run. There is no public information to know if the next AS that comes off the line has one of those playfields, or one made elsewhere. A distributor will say they have not heard of any issues, but again, you can't actually know that. The only way to know is to spend a lot of money and see what happens. I've had one playfield replaced (GOT). The one on my AC/DC Vault is pretty substandard.

Then you can add me to your "ignore user" list. If my AC/DC VE had come in with a quality playfield like I had seen on AS, I'd be shouting loudly that they had fixed their issues. My above post would have been "Hell yeah, buy". But they are still messing around playfields. And that's the real problem.

Ghosting is no longer an "issue". It is now a "feature".

+1 well said. I have 6 newer sterns (and had a ghostbusters prem, that I just couldn't get into) and have not had a single issue with playfield, cabinet, ghosting, chipping, legs, decals or any of the other 9 million issues that others seem to have. I consider myself to be pretty OCD when it comes to my toys. not saying others don't have these issues, but I have not.

Do you have a marketing degree

Agree with everyone else... I think you're making the right choice!

This reminds me of 6 to 9 months ago when I wanted to get a Metallica but new ones were having issues and couldn't find one used. I ended up doing the same thing you're doing, which is sit on the sidelines. If I was going to go new now I'd go AFMr or MMr instead of Stern at this point.

My LE has no issues. It's a stunning game and in my opinion is sterns best release since Metallica. I have not seen any AS with playfield issues yet so the 8 votes saying they have issues are likely just BS.

If you want one just order from one o the big dealers that still have original stock in the warehouse. Automated likely still have several of each version available.

Same here, very OCD, no issues with my last few nib stern games, sw, met and twd. Very happy with all of them.

Too funny!

Original code guaranteed not to change for the first 4 years will soon be the next feature.

Here's the problem with variable quality... everyone's experiences are all over the map! Look at the dude in Germany that was shipped a new build game with one of the misspelled GB playfields with ghosting! Seriously ridiculous.

I've bought 3 NIB Sterns... two were fine and the third had a backbox build issue (out of the box). One eventually needed a SMD chip replaced (audio stopped working) which was a PIA to get taken care of... backbox issue was resolved (but dealing with Stern was endlessly frustrating... poor to no communication, took forever, and once they did ship the side panel, they affixed the wrong decal).

At this point, everyone should be aware: you're really taking a stab in the dark. You might get lucky, you might not. If you have a quality issue, you might get relief, you might not. It's a $5K plus gamble. Ultimately, it depends if the game is worth the gamble. If you love the game and desperately want it in your collection, it might be worth the chance. If you're just guessing and have no idea if you'll enjoy it, then (IMO) you should hold off.

Just inspected my AS Pro this morning with about 2,200 plays on it so far. No ghosting, no cabinet separation. The game is solid. It's unfortunately the lowest earner in a 10 pin line-up.... but I'm pleased to report that it is, absolutely, problem free.

I just bought my AS pro last weekend. I have 100 games or higher on it now. It's early in the game, but I just inspected every insert and the whole playfield. Everything is 100% mint. To me it appears that this playfield has a higher quality to it.

Just for the record. brand new things can always have issues unfortunately. It still doesn't make it acceptable.
I bought a brand new Ford GT Mustang last year, I looked it over at dealer, but when I was home waxing it I noticed the trunk was off center rubbing paint off qtr panel top edge, drivers side door was off being too high, hood was slightly off too low. Ford gave me a 45000 premium maintenance plan for free for my troubles and fixed the car. When a company steps up to resolve issues, they are awesome in my book.

Let's hope Stern steps up to resolve what I am hearing here. Makes me nervous as I was going to buy GB pro in November this year. I may go with Attack from Mars remake. Played it at showroom, was solid. But my AS pro is sweet so far, fingers crossed.

Exactly like I said. Please post the same photos with your name on a piece of piece of paper with todays date on it. My GBLE playfield was worse than that but it has been replaced. I still smell plenty of BS. You asked for AS ghosting. Why are you posting GB photos? These photos could be from anywhere on the internet.

Dave, I will not be adding you to my "ignore list" You are a NIB buyer. Be as vocal as you like. I stick up for all manufacturers and everything pinball. I love this hobby (sickness) and genuinely wish for it to be around for a long time. I am in manufacturing. To fix an issue, first you need to deal with fact. From 4000 sales we average 99 quality complaints. Of the 99 quality complaints that we receive less than 1 are genuine. I am the one that has to sort out what is true and what is not. If I can see an issue, I will do whatever it takes to resolve it. How do I make the time to look after the one genuine one, when I have 99 BS ones that constantly harass me for free shit? Of all the complaints that I have let go to court, I have had a decision in my company s favour every time. I feel the same thing is happening to Stern. There are too many BS photos and claims. Lets get the real ones out there and see if they have been resolved or not.

Thanks

Con

I do not I have had one Aerosmith with ghosting issues out of all that I have sold. And that game has gotten to be SUPER hot recently

What?

I don't have a photo to support it, but one of the SW Pros we played at the Launch Party here had some serious ghosting already on one of the large "hot dog" inserts....no BS. Believe what you want, but Stern has an issue with this, and they are playing a game of CYA to save their bottom line instead of fixing the production issues they have.

Bad part is I liked the way it played, and I'm still thinking hard on getting a SW Premium early next year, however I'm not putting over $7500 in a machine if I'm having serious second thoughts about a manufacturer who is doing CYA instead of taking ownership of the issue...

Just paid for my AS pro in full and it ships tomorrow. After talking with JJ, I'm not worried about it. I've played about 20 games on an AFMr that's on location fairly close to me and it was awesome.

I am not saying that Stern has no issues. What I am saying is that the few issues Stern have are being blown well out of proportions. The CYA from Stern is not aimed at you and I. It is aimed at the person who buys that second hand machine from us, plays the hell out of it and then demands a new playfield from Stern due to quality issues so they can sell their machine for more than they paid for it. Some NIB buyers want to do the same thing.

The sad state of affairs is that Stern feels the need to CYA. JJP and Spooky seem able to make games today that don't ghost and chip. Stern made games before 2015 that didn't chip and ghost nearly at the rates their post 2015 games do.

Something changed in their process that is causing this. Stern chose to resolve the situation by claiming delaminating and chipping is normal.

Maybe AS playfields sat and cured linger since BM66 was pushed ahead of it.

Our ASLE is beautiful. AFMr is a freaking awesome choice as well. We have decided that until any manufacturer stops looking after us we will continue to buy from all if we like the pinny. Our run of buying NIB is coming to an end so now that we have the chance I want to buy what we like. I do not want to base any of our buying decisions on BS and fiction. There are some ghosting and chipping photos on a AFMr on a pinside thread as well. Same BS. one or two protypes that have some ghosting and chipping. It is no big deal. We are in the states this Oct on holidays. When we get to middle finger (play one) a AFMr if we like it, when we get home to Aus we will order one. I refuse to do my head in over this shit.

I believe there are threads here on pinside about Dialed In chipping around the drone magnet and cell phone scoop.