Quoted from TOK:Pre-orders are enabling an endless chain of half-baked machines. Eventually one of the upstarts is going to sink and take your cash with them. In all the hobbies I've been involved with, I've never seen such a screwball mentality of throwing money in a rush to the next great unknown.
Let them earn your money.
Well said, I do not want anyone to loose money but it is a small hobby and we will find the right amount of manufactures. The best will survive and we will have better machines in the end. Even JJP is finding out how hard code can be. They did take on a lot of extra code work with the display.
I used to say $5 was all I would spend on pinball until I was able to pay in small amounts with WOZ and it was a gift for my retirement. It convinced me to preorder and spend more. I am not spending that much on this hobby again. Still not sure if I am keeping WOZ and I hate to sell stuff. Basically I am not preordering another pin until they cost less than $5k and then I will just wait until it is out and pay cash. There have been far to many games that I loved the theme and hate the game. I hated WWF but love my WWF pin.
No preorders and cost has priced me out. I refuse to spend more on my pins than I do for three airplanes.