BB can't go out of business. That is the best store in the world.

Maybe they will get a couple 100 sales? good for them keep building more
I see the IM Classic is a lot like that SM sold a few years ago at Costco ?

"This machine does not feature a coin mechanism and can not be operated "$3,799
good or bad? I guess it depends how you look at it

BB isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The same people who are talking down about them now are the same people who were singing their praises two years ago. That's not to say they don't need to change how they do things. They've kind of lost their way recently, but if they get back to basics they will be fine for the foreseeable future.

As for BB selling Stern games? I think it is a pretty cool idea. Gives pinball more exposure which is never a bad thing. Sad to see they are still selling the craptastic IM Classic though. That will put a sour taste in people's mouths if it is their first pinball experience.

That is great news!!! It will make it much easier and more accessible without shipping charges. Thanks for sharing this article tk. I hope more and more pins are distributed through super stores like this it will help keep a select few distributors from buying all the product and driving the prices higher than they need to be.

Sounds good to me. Anything that raises more awareness for pinball is good.

This IS great news! Being able to knock off a $350-400 shipping charge is sweeet! er, is Avatar wort getting??

Doesn't look like any kind of deal do me, same price as other online stores
, plus I get hit with tax

Avatar:

Product Total:$4,799.99.
Delivery Estimate:$199.00.
Estimated Sales Tax:$256.20.
Subtotal:$5,255.19

Looks like I can order one from online for 4650 free shipping, no tax

Im getting $199 shipping charge, not available in stores, special order only?

Is it really bad? Aside from the door,d you know what other kinds of things did they skimped on?

They should have them for inshore pick up. The prices are not very good.

Rascal, they also removed the magnets, the war machine kickback, and the whiplash figure (maybe the war machine figure too). I think the cabinet is not commercial grade as well.

Oof... that is pretty craptastic. Won't be getting one of those. Thanks.

Another sign Stern is feeling the new competition. It's a good thing maybe but not for places (Pinball Distributors) who might now have to compete for sales to the uninformed public.

After setting foot in Fry's Electronics, Best Buy is dead to me....

It's good for Stern, but I would rather buy a Stern from a pinball distributor than at Best Buy.

Don't forget Best Buys' financing. Many things have a monthly/same as cash deal. Usually 18 months.

(Running up your credit bills for pinball is a bad idea btw)

Its been wandering around in my heads for months why Stern
doesn't distributed to customers more directly and bam we get this!
Excellent!

- Can you imagine the geek squad at BB trying to get into a pinball machine never mind trying to fix it when a customer brings it back a month latter ?
"you have to cut the glass boys to get in - I'll show you how"

for an extra $100 will give you a 18 month no questions asked service contract
- OK

I guarantee that the Geek Squad barely knows anything on how to fix/repair Stern machines.

the exposure is good for the hobby, just hope bb and stern don't muck it up for new enthusiasts.

with jjp and stern competing for dollars i have a really good feeling pinball might start to make inroads going forward and actually grow.

how cool is that in a stagnant economy, and even made in america!

i will never buy a foreign pin, never

I hope they do not make many cuts to quality.

Expensive.

BB here in the Cincinnati area has inflated pricing, Costco or Sams are by far the better option. Add to that BB's reputation for horrible customer service and I don't think it will last long here.

I'm not sure this is a good thing. I doubt there will be much of a price advantage buying via BB, remember most of us would have to pay sales taxes for a local retail purchase - though no shipping I suppose, then again, a number of online distributors have free/lower cost shipping for NIB's. Maybe that's a wash.

But more importantly, I think most people buying via BB wouldn't know how temperamental pins can be to keep running and is BB really going to be set-up to support them? Maybe they planned for that, but I doubt it. While it's good exposure for pinball I don't think BB will be selling pins for very long, IMO

Question - when you buy a NIB pin do you also get hit for shipping charges? like add to the price?

Are they planning on having playable games on display in the stores?

Anyone ever see a pin in person at BB?

I did. Seem to recall seeing a Batman Dark Knight at BJ's or Sam's Club at one point too.

Can't find them. I searched pinball and stern pinball on Bestbuy.com and tried to follow the link. Are you guys still able to find them?

I haven't seen them online at the BB site in about a year, which is about when the last activity was on this thread before someone bumped it back to the top a couple hours ago.

Sears had them listed on their website a year or two ago as well but doesn't anymore.

Probably couldn't compete with Amazon and their free shipping and lack of sales tax.

Having worked at BBY, I can attest that they wouldn't know what to do with pinball machines.

A while ago, it was cool, employees were encouraged to learn all they could about their dept.'s products. There were full timers in each department and they made sure people knew their stuff.

That focus is dead. The only FT people are managers and sups. Those are the ones you see standing in a group in the back corner ignoring you. Those are the ones when you ask, Where are the memory cards, they say "let me find someone to help you with that." It's a f-in memory card, just point the way! Part timers have had their hours cut so much they barely have time to do their job, much less learn their products.

You really want to buy something as fragile as a pin and pay for the plan too, and have some guy that diagnoses computers fix your pin? You trust them to stock that in their warehouse correctly?

For the sake of the part timers, learn the managers names at the stores. When you have a bad experience, do the survey and use the managers name. When you have a good experience, do the survey and use the line level person's name. They get scored on how often they get mentioned in a good way.

I don't miss it the way it is now. I miss it the way it used to be. BTW - BBY price matches amazon.

Yep, I just realized this thread is a year old That would probably explain why they are no longer there.
Thanks

There are quite a few best buy people who know their way around a pinball machine quite well, you would be surprised. (I know for a fact one of the people high up the food chain makes his own coils)

It's been a while since I've heard from tk375. Last time I saw him was about six months ago.