Reality is that Beatles does not appear to be selling to the masses (non-pinheads). Talk with distributors willing to share and they are all saying the same thing which matches what we are seeing on pinside. The Diamond editions have been deemed as "collectibles" for the non-pinhead hardcore Beatles fans out there and they bought them up at 25k. The platinums to a lesser extent. The golds are flat out not selling in any quantity worth note. When they are selling it is to pinheads that have the money and are buying for the pinball side of it.

At this point it is obvious Stern was pushing the limits to see what people would pay and they seem to have found it. Pinheads are unwilling to pay 8k for a non-limited/ non-collectible run of 1614 games at the base model.

They have steadily pushed PRO pricing up over a grand the past 3 years and figured with Beatles they could tack on an additional 2500 for the theme. It has not worked. These appear to not even be a blip on the radar of Beatles fan forums and 8k for something "not collectible" and "cost too much" ain't happening to the general public.

It was an interesting experiment and nobody can blame a company for trying to push the line, but it does not seem to have worked out in any fashion.

that is a VERY small number in total, with the majority being operators that are going for the "I have a unique game" idea which can work for some locations for sure.

Reality is that Pinside numbers show Beatles is doing similar to what distributors have said.

The other main data point is the delay of Munsters official announcement to try and give Beatles more time.

no you hype beast Stern lover...

they are saying it is fun but not 8k of fun, because they are not willing to pay 8k for this stripped back money grab based on an antiquated music license with 50% of a handful of songs. I am not sure why you are so damn dense to understand that the game is selling poorly for a reason. They priced it TOO high!

this is a PRO model. They will sell for what PRO models do of all other games in the secondary market.
Sorry, but that is just the reality of this over inflated "limited" gold on a hype license.

I was told they are obligated to make all 1614 of the gold editions so anyone thinking that these are ever going to be limited is mistaken.
Those are likely the same people that still believe 50% of every title goes overseas.

lol

nope, BM was offered as ONLY a premium and LE model.

Beatles was offered in pro, prem, and LE editions.

you seem to really be struggling with understanding this???

BM66 is actually different models...

Beatles is this >>>

only 14 plus 2 mag cores to bring it up to the standard PRO BOM model which seems to be 16 +/- 1

stripped down in this case means a mode based game with pretty basic code (lacking any depth on a mode based game is not great for many) with few callouts (besides the gobbly goock stuff you can barely understand) and pretty minimal flash or immersion.

This is also a reskinned game with a few very small adjustments to the game and they slapped on some art for the licence (not that they really were given the ability to change much anyway)

If any other modern game shipped with this "code complete" level of depth, people would call it stripped back also (with or without ramps)

Some will tell you it is. Based on everything I see and observe 2000 is about average for a total run (Pro, Prem, LE) of every Stern title that sells well.

Really good ones will sell more over the course of 3+ years and vaults but that is the outlier with probably 3000 total (again that is PRO, Prem, and LEs).

Despite people liking to say Pinside is not indicative of the larger pinball world, the map feature here is a pretty solid indicator of sales. People like to track games (personal and on location) and even if you take a lower guesstimate that only 33% of all games are tallied here, that will give you some semblance of a logic guess at total number (I personally think closer to 50% of modern made games are tracked here and probably 85% of all modern route games).

Cross reference with other pinball map tracking sites and you can get an idea of the accuracy and quality of the data (pretty consistent).
Also toss in your feeling of how well games are received (watch the real hype, owners threads, general level of participation on topics with each new game) and things tend to match up well with guesstimates.

Did you buy one D?

They typically do, but it the case of Beattles they really crapped the bed. The clipped too short songs and limited number of songs is REALLY BAD. It is obvious they skimped on the licensing and went for just good enough rather than really trying to hit it on the head.

I agree, fun to shoot on route, but also telling that you did not get one.

I will say I am even amazed at how bad sales appear.
It makes me wonder what happens down the road with so many distributors sitting on stock?

Will Stern allow them to drop prices? What can current owners expect from their distributors, if anything, if they drop well below current MSRP to get overstock sold?

I guess we saw something similar with WWE, but I get the impression there are way more Beatles in over stock than WWE even built.

Yes, it is no secret that JT was on this game and it was his dream theme. He spoke in depth about some of his design to sme people. It would have been a dramatically different game.

The announcement of two distinct runs appears to have been another failed attempt of "better hurry up".

They wanted people to really have the sense that they better jump in quick to ensure they were able to get from the first thousand. Same thing with having all the distributors on here the first week talking about 50% going overseas and these are super rare and...

All seems to have been marketing.

I unders

The announcement of two distinct runs appears to have been another failed attempt of "better hurry up".

They wanted people to really have the sense that they better jump in quick to ensure they were able to get from the first thousand. Same thing with having all the distributors on here the first week talking about 50% going overseas and these are super rare and...

All seems to have been marketing.

I undertand the concern over resale and thought that if they don't d the second run it could help your resale, but I think the hard reality is that if they are not selling at 8000 now, that you are not going to be selling them for 8000 later. If they made 800 golds and distributors are sitting on 400 pf them already unsold, then that is a ton of stock.

The price up front is really the whole thing holding this game back and the seconday market will likely reflect that. 6000 seems to be where most people that buy NIB would be interested in grabbing one.
Just based on comments here and talking with local collectors that have said that is their magic number.

I personally would likely buy at 6500 and be confortable selling for 5500 a year later.

Sorry for cut post, pinside kept erroring

Both games sold at a discount.
The gold for 100 under
The diamond for thousands less than what they sell on primary.

That is the entire rationale, the demand is super low at 8k. It is not going to be better on a used game and nobody is only going to take one for a fewhundred less when they could go buy one of the many still NIB.

I agree, at this point I don't think the secnd run gets made. At least not in Jan or Feb like they originally said. I could see them running more later in the year if distibutors are allowed to drop prices. there is incentive to get them all made even if it means dropping the price. All the costs are done at this point, better off to sell them all for less profit, sp when they need a line filler. I could also see this being the new reskin like WNBJM since they will have lots of parts left over. This of course also undermines any collectability snce there is bound to be other themes that will appeal to others, or better art, or hell they may even do a yellow sub verion, or white album. You just never onow with Stern and they will eventually erode all faith in coll ctability since they will rerun anything.

Sure they will. Space matters more than money. Just like 8k is a dropn the bucket to many, a 2k loss on a resale after you owned a game for a year is nothing for many also.