Quoted from Skeets:

I purchased a few things from Bearcave back in the day and it always took weeks and multiple e-mails to get your item. One thing in paticular I remember was a NOS EATPM translite, must have taken at least 2 months. Reading here that they would take orders, then head over to Gene to find the parts, it makes sense why it always took so damn long, I never knew that. I eventually stopped ordering from them even if they had something I wanted, simply because it became such a pain in the ass.
This thread is funny because the newer Pinside crowd has no clue how nutty this hobby was during the 2000's. Lots of crazy personalities and parts drama, nothing like it is today.

Quoted from KevinCPR:

Somebody more intimate with the BBB game-specific parts could sit down and rough-up a crude BOM.
I remember doing it back during that period for myself... and I couldn't get over $2500 to make one. Keep in mind, you have to know wholesale costs based on *quantity* manufacture. For instance, pop bumpers wouldn't cost what you see at Marco to buy ONE or THREE... you'd have them molded fresh, in quantities of 1000, in Chicago, for like $1 each. Bulb sockets by the 5000. Dimes each. And so on.
The BBB playfields were "free" ... Gene didn't pay a cent for them. So put those on the BOM as $0.00. I know this for a fact. I'll elaborate a bit below. I think somebody earlier in the thread explained the backstory too.
In fact, Chicago Gaming (CGC) was so pissed at Gene during that era, that it almost ruined CPR's ability to work with the Duba's.
Back in 2007 or so, we had really wanted to switch from the initial baltic birch plywood stock we started CPR with, to the "real deal" playfield gameboard stock. We had found the ACTUAL mill that was still doing gameboard stock (the last place doing it). They were producing it exclusively for CGC, who were making Stern's playfields. They were called American Hardwoods (formerly Weber Inc.) and were located in Wisconsin. They wouldn't let us order any gameboard stock, a 'secret recipe' they had been doing for decades, treating it like Kentucky Fried Chicken's 11 herbs & spices. Not unless we had permission from CGC.
So this is where we had to reach out and meet Roger Duba... thee patriarch of Chicago Gaming Corp.
Roger was quite the character. Old and tough. But sweet as pie once you broke through, got comfortable with you, and lowered his defences. His main beef with me was that I MUST NOT be working with (or for) Gene Cunningham... and that not one penny of CPR playfields went to Gene's pocket (LOL). There could be not one stitch of involvement between IPB and CPR ... or Roger wasn't going to help us at all.
Roger loved to talk on the phone once he got comfortable. And we got comfortable! That is when he told me the entire BBB playfield story, and clarified why he had to vet us for IPB involvement. Yes, it is true that Gene 'held them over a barrel' to force their hand to make the BBB playfields, to cover a made-up "fee" that Gene wanted, for use of some kind of a patent CGC was allegedly breaching - and Gene threatened to sue. So under this duress, they grit their teeth, caved and made the BBB playfields. Gene had said that's all he needed to make everything square. So they did them... but man, Roger simply *seethed* in hatred for Gene. It was palpable. (On a side note, Gene had essentially already revealed this story in 2005 when we visited [see my BBB playfield photos earlier]. Standing right there, at the racks of BBB playfields, Gene told us "You know what, I didn't even pay anything for these - Chicago Gaming had owed me, so I had them pay me in playfields" or something to that effect)
So I assured Roger that we had recently completely cut ties with Gene, and were working with Wayne Gillard Mr. Pinball Australia instead. In fact, under that arrangement, we were actually COMPETITION to Gene. At least in Gene's eyes. Roger loved that ! I expressed my desire to make the best repro playfields, using his exclusive real-deal wood, and thus way better playfields than Gene (or his partners) could ever produce. So Roger Duba agreed to allow us access to the American Hardwoods runs of gameboard stock (which they ran once or twice a year for Roger). We were so happy. Roger personally called the president of the mill and instructed them to do any business with CPR that we wanted, and the rest is history.
We had a few good years with American Hardwoods, until their parent company closed and liquidated that mill to pay off a bankruptcy somewhere else in the country. But the president there, in his last days before they locked the place, passed the gameboard 'secret recipe' over to another nearby competitor - and referred us to them to carry on the legacy of that wood. Even set up a conference call to make introductions between us. We've been getting our wood from that mill ever since, trucking it up from Wisconsin USA to Nova Scotia Canada. Years later we even tweaked the original recipe, turning the dark brown cores (usually sweet gum) to white ash, and tripling the thickness of the face veneers. Roger and CGC never came along on that mill switchover (he didn't like that mill or something) and they decided to source their wood elsewhere. I don't know how that turned out for them. It's probably been a decade since we've talked to CGC. Does anybody know if ol' Roger is still with us ?