I just ordered one a few days ago and didn't see anything about a sale. I don't think it happens very often (if at all).

usually they'll do buy 3 get free shipping. that's a lot of coin.

Yeah that's about the only deal you will get from color dmd

I recall one time there was a free shipping promo if you bought 3. They're pretty stingy with the sales. Here in CA we get bent over for another 10% in sales tax since Color DMD is also in CA. I like them but rarely buy them.

Get a group order together for 10, and I believe you can get the shipped price down to $360. That's the best I've gotten a new one for when someone did it out here.

Their is usually a free shipping code during the texas pinball festival and Pintastic New England shows. Shipping code can be found in each shows program guide.

Free software

I don't think they really have sales, because they don't need to - they consistently sell out at their current price.

Also, I want to give a plug here for Randy at ColorDMD - I've twice emailed him a question after 8 PM, and both times he's responded within 15 minutes or so. Their service is fantastic, as is their product. Big fan.

But clearly whoever is currently manufacturing these for them is too expensive. I would love to know their cost (and profit) on these but I'm guessing it's not nearly as good as it should be. They could probably sell 5X as many as they are currently selling if they got the price much further down. When you can buy a 32-inch Samsung 1080P television for $240 these days (just a quick example) there is no reason these should cost $400.

DUP

Economies of scale. Small hobby business versus mass market electronics.

Nobody works for Free. A lot of time and effort and programming goes into these. We should all consider ourselves lucky they don't cost more.

The unit is their only revenue... the margin on that piece has to float the entire business... staff... R&D... and all expenses.

They cost so much because they know the market will bear the price and because the margin allows them to function as a customer focused business.. and not some bargain bin place.

The idea they still let you load whatever software you want, swap between games, etc is a huge tip in the customer's favor... a move they really don't have to do...

I don't know. A regular DMD costs what - around $175-200? I definitely wish the ColorDMDs were $300, but is $400 unreasonable? The fact that you can move them from one game to another for free is a huge benefit as well.

Do not forget over the years they have also had to keep up with many changes. The supplies of LCDs themselves and be happy with the firmware control of them to keep as consistent looking a possible. Now the development of LCD hardware support. Then the games they are adapting them to work with have to be tested as the go forward to new games. They are not just writing software to control the hardware but must keep up with developer tools to support the different platforms. The fact that there have not been any price bumps actually surprises me. Most companies would use that as the first choice to cover those kinds of expresses.

Ridic. After their success the past few years, you think they could not afford to order 1000 of these from an Asian supplier for dirt cheap?

I own zero, not one. If they even cost just $300 I would probably have at least a half dozen by now. You're right, they are selling, but I'm arguing they could be selling significantly more and they could be ordering these from a supplier giving much better discounts (simultaneously maintaining or even increasing their margin while also increasing their sales numbers significantly.)

How many people are on here who have balked at buying even one due to the steep price tag?

Actually, there are several volunteers out there making the color animations for these. There are people who are passionate about this hobby willing to work for free (or next to nothing). A great thing!

They know that the day they have a sale is the day Pinsiders stop buying until the next sale. Also the reason Stern distributers cant advertise sales with pricing.

For better or worse Pinsiders travel in packs.

There is no point in selling twice as many of something to make half as much on each unit. We don't know what their costs are but say they are $200 a unit, and we think they will sell more at a price of $300 as they do for $400, how many more? Twice as many? At that point it isn't worth it, I wouldn't do twice as much work for the same profit, that doesn't make any sense. You've taken more risk by doubling your inventory and worked twice as hard to ship everything to only come home with the same amount of money. They would need to sell more than 2x at that point to make it worth it and with the added inventory risk I'm not sure it would be worth it at all.

Dam really? Wish i wld of known that.....

Solid point, gotta keep in mind, many pinball companies are hand making/custom making each item themselves. discount just means you have to build more/work more hours to provide the same income to your family.

Mass producers, places like Kohls have created the "what's my discount" mentality. They purchase a shirt for $8, say it's worth $39.95 and offer it to the customer for $24.95.... wow what a deal! Reality is they just inflate the price so they can offer a discount. Society doesn't like paying "full price". If the offered it up for $24.95 right out of the gate costumers would be like...what's my discount....got any coupons?

Color DMD $499, $100 off xmas this week only! Then no one buys until the next sale, so New Years sale $100 off, then Easter sale, and xmas in July....etc. I wish he would just charge $399 all the time.......oh wait

Newsflash... you don't define the market... nor do you define what margins they need. So your datapoint on holding the line.. means basically zero... because when we look at the market beyond you.. they have had great success.

An argument based on zero actual references on their costs, their supply chain, or their margins.. An argument based solely on your logic that you don't like the price point.

Perfectly fine opinion... but your opinion doesn't equate to facts about their business, their costs, their net or gross margins.

In markets like these... true material COGs do not really define the target sales price. Your margin and how much you need at a forecasted volume to run the business is the far bigger piece.

I guessing if they did cost $300, you would say that you wouldn't buy any unless they cost $200. They are selling, and they sell out of product runs all the time. I had some reserves on the first one I purchased as I do with any new type of product, but it is a awesome product and the support behind the product is top notch. If I own a game that can use color it has it. I have these on my route games and they are holding up nice on route being on 10+ hours a day.

dup

Newsflash, I better never see you express the slightest disgust with Stern pricing or anyone else's much less express your opinion for what you think their sweet spot should be.

Companies overcharge when they feel they have a monopoly. The fact that they're probably correct doesn't make it ethical, just greedy. Some think greed is great while others would say it's unethical. You're free to your own opinion.

One of my friends who visited asked "How much do those go for? $600? $700?" He was referring to my new Stern pins. Lol. On one hand I thought "How can he be off by so much?" On the other hand I just got a 55" Sharp LED TV with Roku for only $250 on Black Friday. So, maybe it wasn't that stupid of a question. Everything pinball is stupid expensive.

Anyway, I'd also like to give a good guy shout out to Randy at Color DMD. One of my Color DMDs recently stopped working, which may have been my fault, and Randy was able to repair it for me gratis. Can't beat that.

This has come up before but may be worth addressing again...

ColorDMD's are expensive because they are expensive to produce, sell to a limited addressable market, and require constant reinvestment. Because we understand they're expensive, we pack as much value into the product as we can, including a record of customer service and delivering free software and feature upgrades after-the-sale.

You may not realize but ColorDMD has held prices constant since product introduction in 2012, despite heavy demand and supply chain limitations. In the last five years, new and used game prices have risen around 50% but we haven't changed our price. In fact, our LED products were offered in 2016 at an even LOWER price point.

On costs... At current volumes, we have very little leverage with suppliers. To work directly with LCD manufacturers, our volumes would need to grow by about two orders of magnitude. Most small companies purchase screens in secondary markets where costs are higher. Leverage is hard to come by as resellers purchase at auction and sell at thin margins. Availability is also limited and we often have trouble sourcing enough screens to meet demand.

In addition, we manufacture custom boards, custom brackets, custom wire harnesses, and custom shipping solutions that all sell to an extremely limited market. This all adds to cost of goods sold. Then there are additional costs to develop new products and titles, run the business, support customers, and cover taxes, shipping, and losses, etc.

I'd love to have 1/1000th the purchasing power and manufacturing capability of a $239 billion company like Samsung. It's just not realistic.

You forgot great customer service. Which you do very well even to us internationals.
Keep up the great work and the great quality product.

Landed here in Australia is around $700 now with our weak dollar but I find it hard now to play a game without one.
I have one in my STLE @Dmod......just sayin all ready to go when you are Randy.

*picks mic off the ground and hands it to Randy*

Randy, don't know if you know this, but you dropped your mic back there.

I think these aspects are very underappreciated, taxes can take a lot, plus there is also the cost of labor. Time is very valuable.

For those mentioning the cost of TVs, those are assembled by people making pennies per hour and by companies who buy parts in massive volumes. Color dmd is a small business in the US!

Separately, these DMDs hold value, you can generally get most of your money back when you sell your game either by removing it and selling separately (or transferring to another game for free) or having the sale price of your game reflect it. Most people will pay up for a game with a color dmd.

Shows how little you know. Building one of the other lcd or led solutions is about half the cost of a color dmd. Except the other solutions don't colorize the dots. (Unless it is a newer stern, but even then its limited)

Not a fan of the software patent colordmd holds, but price wise they are justified in what they do. 200 + to build a similar setup minus the software and it requires fabrication on your part. That gets you no warranty. They offer a drop in solution with pre made parts and offer a warranty. Plus they continue to improve their software and incentivize the colorization of titles by giving out a free unit to those that do the work.

So true...
Thanks Randy for explaining the difficulties to design, manufacture, stock, communicate, support this kind of product for a niche market.

A regular dmd sets you back around $200, right? Coloring code work has to be worth something so $400 is pretty fair when you look at it that way. Not sure if it is just a local thing but you can get a discount for bringing a pin to a show and getting a colordmd installed.

Have you contacted ColorDMD and offered to buy at least 6 at $3XX? Maybe if you were to buy 10, they would give you a some money off per unit... How about 15? Don't know how many games you have... Worst they can say is no.

If you don't like their pricing structure and they're not willing to work with you on price, how about creating a competing product at a lower price point?! You've got the benchmark you need! Sitting at your keyboard arguing in a forum gets you nowhere!

Full disclosure - I have one game with a ColorDMD in it. Makes a tremendous difference to me. Luckily, I don't have any other games so I currently don't have to buy any new ColorDMD's. Can guarantee I would buy more if I had more games!