That's actually fairly insane. 900 Hobbit LE orders in less than two months, and they still haven't shipped their first game.

Wow.

Hey, I'm proud to be one of them!

Does LE mean limited to however many they can sell or is there a limited run of them?

correct me if I'm wrong but I think the number is 1500

900 chumps. Wow. Seriously, all they've said is "we are making this game. Who is in?".

This number has to include distributors.

I agree. I'll take my seven grand buy some games now then sell them in two years after I've played the heck out of them and buy a three month old hobbit LE at a discounted price; I'll park it right next to the wozle I'll buy next summer at a discounted price.

the way things are going, by the time hobbit comes out, 7-8k is going to buy you a lot less games.

Very Cool! I'm happy that JJP is doing well It's good for pinball!

Almost correct. All they had to do was say "We are making Hobbit. *Keith is programming the game and designing the rules*. Who's in?"

Boom!

Newsflash: You just ordered Waison's first game, and another Lonnie game, with only pics to go by.

If pre-ordering another Keith game, with a phenomenal license, makes us chumps, then I'm a proud chump!

Is Balcer the designer for Hobbit? That is another key variable and they are not using anyone who has designed a bunch of games I enjoy. I know he did TSPP and a lot of people enjoy that game, it's just not my cup of tea. If it was someone like Ritche, Nordman, JPOP, etc paired with Keith then I would be sold. But playing WOZ felt lackluster and left much to be desired. The game is beautiful and has tons of stuff going on, but it's like they just tried to pack it with as much stuff as they could without considering gameplay. TZ has a ton of stuff going on too but it flows very nice considering it's has a lot of stop and go as well.

I figure, hooray for everyone. If you buy WOZ or TH now, good for you. If you wait, good for you.

Those of you that wait and plan to buy later at "used" pinball prices should be thankful there are people willing to buy now so JJP can keep building games. Someone has to get them off the ground.

Competition in the market is good.

cool, as for me i'm gonna wait went it comes out.

will he ask money for the third pin before the hobbit comes out?

great!!

remember these number are how many are ordered by distributors. Has nothing to do with how many are actually selling. They will have problems selling 1500 LE's. I personally don't think there are 1500 people willing to plonk down 8k for a NIB game. Everyone i've talked to, said they dropped out and not getting one, with this new price point Jack is pushing for. Including me. I'm out for good, until things go back to normal, or i'll wait a couple of years when people start dumping them, because of the over produced LE run.

Jack is banking on pinball becoming a money maker for operator as well as the collector. How many movie theaters are there around the world? A lot more than 1500.

LOL, If he was banking on OPS at all, he wouldn't be releasing 1500 LE's. LE's are for collectors only. And OPS can't make money on an 8K game. You think Ops have money pouring out of their ass? How many key locations can pay for a 8k game anymore? Not many. Ops were struggling when NIB was $3500. Many stopped buying pins already because they can't get a good return and the maintenance issues. You think they are going to buy in at 8? No way in hell. Jack is relying completely on the collector market, and it pushing the envelope on price, to see how much he can charge before people say enough. Jack lost my business and many others. I think , he thinks everyone is as loaded as he is and wipes their ass with Benjamin's like he does. Well, did anyway, before he started a pinball company and running out of funds.

what a joke, LCD's SUCK!

Hate to say it...kills me to admit it... But I agree with Neo. I bought a WOZECLE, but due to not even getting THAT yet, I said no to TH.

If nib games are 9k normal, I will have to at least friggen' play any version of it before plunkin' down serious coin.

Rick. "I'm gonna have me some fun." #190

I almost signed up for hobbit but with 1500 les I'm confident I can find one used later on. Plus I was told the regular game is only going to be 6500$ so I want to wait and see the difference before buying.

It's all what money you got. You see how many people are buying old games for 7k+?
Why wouldn't someone charge that much? Stern is also.

The only differences in Jack's LE's and regular games are cosmetics and the plaque. Invisiglass too maybe. No funky pro model. This is one thing I like about Jack's business model. The LCD implementation, not so much....

Has to stop sometime. 7k for NIB is my magic number regardless of title or maker. I know old titles affect it but that is YEARS of being a proven title and collect ability. I also think at this point its not about the cost as much as seeing how much we will pay.

This probably means he should have enough funding to run the company until he asks for the next game's deposit and payments.

Very insane indeed.

Funny how you mention the guy doing the code, but not the actual designer!

totally agree...but they are businesses looking to make money. If they see they can get more they will. I know a lot of people around here liek to thank them and dream all they are doing is "saving pinball" but we all know it's the $$.

They are?!

Holy sh*T!!!

Jack said 500 of those 1500 are designated for Europe. Thats why he is doing the "extra" 500 per Jack on his site when Hobbits started.
I'm out....as previously mentioned $7000 is my own preset limit too for what I will pay for a new game. If I'm out of the market for NIB so be it....this crap has to stop somewhere and I'm drawing my own line in the sand.

Craaaaaazy thought I know...but you know all the "thank yous" that go on around here

Oh, so the fact that they make money on them means people shouldn't thank them?

And dont forget the lease turn in resales...Thats where my Woz will come from if I get one.

Nope. You can play the middle and complain aboot both sides of the coin. That should make you happy

Sure people can see both sides. Prices suck. Still glad they are in business building pins!

I've drawn my line in the sand. I won't pay for games that don't even exist at a conceptual level...and won't be available for years. I might not even like pinball anymore in 2014 lol.

This is great news for the hobby!

I call bullshit on #900. A huge pile of it at that.

My magic price point is $6000 shipped.

I can deal with the thought of effectively sinking what ends up being $500 a month into my hobby. More than that makes me feel stupid. Honestly $5200 would be better as $100 a week is what some spend on cigarettes & tall cans.

I have OCD though, $100 weekly is better than $97 weekly

6k is my price point too. They are still making a hefty profit at 6k, so there is no reason it has to be beyond that.

Remember the 900 sold is to distributers. Out of those 900 you might have 100-200 actually sold to go to a house. Or less. I know of 1 person that actually is paying the price for the game. Out of about 50 that I talk to. Those odds arn't looking good for Jack. Our community is small.

My exact thought. With the pushback from Woz buyers there's no way. Of course a few of the regulars will be astonished that we even question what a salesman said.

I hate to start things up but most of these are being sold to homes. JJP only has 10 - 15 distributors and numbers are tight, thats why they are doing 1500 most hate the WOZ theme but The Hobbit seems to excite pin buyers. I had a hard time securing my numbers to sell for Hobbit LE as many home buyers were waiting on the worst kept secret in pinball so they could buy.

Jack has said maybe only a 100 WOZ were sold to coin op people and I do agree not many in the business will be happy with 7500 or 8000 dollar pins but some will try as ops have to spend money on equipment to keep or get locations and in the past if you didnt the next guy would. Some are lucky enough to make money they have to buy to keep taxes lower.

Most ops are tired of filling ticket games and Key Masters but thats what pays the bills but some do have a passion for pinball.

2014 ??? The way Jack plans completion dates...... Mr. just another 90 days....
I would very easily expect 2015.....
I love the fact that summertime manufacturer vacation delays were used as an excuse and now its christmas time manufacture delays...... Oh nooooo, St Patti's day is coming around.

I know plenty of manufacture employee's that were not aloud to use any of their vacation time around the holidays here in Detroit, a dramatic change from years past.

Oh well, I am officially out on Hobbit, no way am I plunking money down on a JJ game that wont be delivered for years.... When it comes out, and if I like it; I will make the decision to buy then.

Pinball Circus would be a definate exception

Good luck,
Scott
Detroit Pinball

I put in for the hobbit. Looking at WOZ, the quality is unbelievable. I just don't like the theme. But the quality is very high. A lot higher than the stern games. Acdc premium is 7k, hobbit is 7.5k, so I don't see the big difference as far as cost. I think the quality of WOZ is higher than stern le. So why all the uproar? Look at what some of these collector quality machines are selling for. Somebody just listed a TZ mint at high 8's, which is probably a decent deal for collector quality. I just see this as buying a collector quality hobbit......if I had the money, I'd probably buy that TZ.

I just don't get it ...
I could never do this - guess I just don't have that much expendable money.

Call me crazy, but I don't think Jack should have taken payment in full for machines he hasn't delivered at this point. MUCH less, take money for a second machine.

If I had paid him in full, I'd expect a discount for every month he was late on production. People that "preordered" are being treated as investors that get no dividend.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

As far as paying in advance. If I paid in full this early. I'd expect a 3k discount. for him getting my money on a hope and a dream.

All we need to do to get a general idea of how well Hobbit is selling is to start a poll here asking who has ordered one. I seriously doubt the 900 number is customers and feel it is likely including hundreds of distributor purchases that have not yet been sold to customers.

Arizonabuck AC DC premium is not 7k holy crap you are being ripped off. 6200 delivered everywhere. Call JJ.
I will buy was at 6200 as well

i have sold 10 of the hobbits i ordered already. i will leave it up to the buyers to chime in if they want to. 4 of them are not on pinside though. i think more people will get on board as soon as they see the conception.

I don't know who jj is. It was $6995 everywhere I looked