Here is that thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/diy-playfield-post-repair-and-chip-proofing-how-to-all-brands

Yeah optimism bias or perhaps stockholm syndrome

‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.' .. "but its JAWS *swipes credit card*"

I want to get a JP Prem, but will not order a NIB. I'll have to wait to find one locally that I can see before I buy.

Sorry if you've seen it. Every time the playfield iron comes up, I watch this again.

https://captiongenerator.com/1498452/Hitler-Buys-a-Stern-Jurassic-Park

Not best photo, but zoom in, see the bubble of clear pooled up.

7F75F918-5EDD-472E-B6E8-58BB6F1537F5 (resized).jpeg

Most of the early buyers of new machines don't care (much) about the playfield quality.
It's going to arcades and pinball addicts (like me).
I just want to play a new machine asap and that's it.
For me it's not some holy grail to cherish my whole life.
As long as the problems don't affect the game play, there is no problem.
If you 're not like that, don't buy NIB, wait till someone sells theirs and go check the machine (and rub that precious shooter lane).

Dimpling is really not a problem. you can't stop that. I just took of the factory mylar from my A13. Looks great but you can find dimplings all over the playfield.

The pooling and chipping issues on the other hand are not ok.

JP2's with bad playfields are going for $4900-$5200 from what I have seen. JP2's with good playfields are going for $4900-$5200 from what I have seen.

I used to buy NIB here and there. Personally, I haven't bought a NIB Stern since Ghostbusters because these types of issues keep popping up (and to a lesser extent because of concerns about the Spike system). It's a shame because there have been some games that interest me in recent years, but I'm not falling for it again. It's just not an acceptable risk for me. I know some people don't care, and that's fine... I mean, someone has to buy the defective games on the second hand market, right?

I don't know if Mylar on top of art/ink that's not bonded to the plywood is so good. Someone will have to take the Mylar of in the future and the art will come of aswell.......

Here’s a tune for ya about this being my last nib.

I would let Stern know of the pooling just to establish the date I would not make a fuss over pooling if it is like 5908 best of luck and keep a level head

Actually no even with the zoom in and the circling the spot I do not see pooling

It does work. Not fun that you need to do it but after doing it on dozens of games I have moved on to just play and the issue hasn’t returned.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/diy-playfield-post-repair-and-chip-proofing-how-to-all-brands

That you're literally blind to Stern's playfield issues is a surprise to no one in this thread.

well, having a "moon surface" on a A13 playfield is something more than logical !? is it ?

For sure. I just remember people being upset (I don't blame them for the price) and the quality has only gotten worse since I've been away.

It's got to be curing time surely? I know a few businesses that constantly rush things when they need to wait at least 48hrs for an unrelated product and they never listen...
I

Over 2 months on a boat to Aus or NZ . Plenty of time to Cure. My playfields were fine until 500+ games.
My Pooling seems to be at high impact posts.

I bet I could use the iron and flatten it out. But shouldnt my clear coat be cured by now after 18 months.

They might end up permanently banning me from every thread I ever started, but I get the feeling they will never close that thread down regardless.

Just as people will keep buying and complaining, no matter how bad quality goes down the shitter on these new games.

Thanks Yelobird for putting that link back up there. I am going to have to do this fix on my Munsters and IMDN before it's too late.

Thanks very much for the info, I appreciate it. I think we are getting the best games of all time right now and want to enjoy the hobby. This solution may work for us too. I will check the thread out.

Did you get a Rick and Morty too? Otherwise, I'm just not seeing it.

We missed out on a BS but I am sure we will.pick one up down the road. I was asleep at release!

I just had to be part of the lifestyle brand. I feel like I am in like Flynn now.

I was asleep too, but ended up with someone else's spot.

Talk about theme integration, this one is second to none. The different than most everything else layout and tight shots, and must use upper flipper, along with how everything about this game is so well thought out, along with the humor that is certainly missing from most recent games, makes it to me, the only one of recent worth having.

I think we already covered the quality of the playfield and cabinet earlier, so I guess it doesn't really have much place in this thread.

We are keen for one, we are just being patient at the moment. Living in Australia makes it a bit harder to get one, we just missed out on the only container coming to OZ with a few aussies bailing out of their orders due to finances.

A lot is going to happen in the world over the next 12 months. I am confident we will end up with one.

Yes, with the denial of the pandemic situation starting to dissipate as the free money winds down, and the eviction notices start to fly, there will certainly be some interesting times ahead, that might make these protests look more like schoolyard play.

I agree totally. Luckily in Australia we do not have that protesting shit going on. We have the protests, but there is very minimal violence and no looting.

Look after your self and your family. Tough times coming.

Not at all I passed on Aerosmith because of the cabinet issues and passed on Iron Maiden because of chipping but post 5955 is a non-issue

It makes a difference to those choosing to not buy. That’s long term. Pumping out crappy pf’s anyway? Short term.

I refuse to believe the Lemmings outnumber the realists.

Believe it.

And the realists give into the hype all the time too. Not to mention they pale in comparison to the lemmings in number.

If anybody says they've fixed the Stern playfields, I believe them.

Of course I rarely look that close at them. In fact, whenever possible, I try not to look at them at all.

There is no hype about Stern playfields being shitty these days because they are shitty.

Only realists hype shitty playfields.

Stern lost me as a customer. That’s real. I hadn’t bought any nib games since Iron Maiden pro when it came out. I watched all the issues people were having with several new releases. I sat on the sidelines. Then I was hearing that things were looking better and they pulled art back and this and that. Then I decided to gamble after being locked down for months and bought JP Premium latest run. This week I discovered not much has changed. I am just glad I found this shit before my tmnt came even if it had no problems.

Stern playfields are shitty. Yes you might get lucky and be ok. I am not throwing thousands of dollars out there to be lucky again. Lesson learned the hard way.

I bet when you called and had your distributor return your $5800 dollar check that he had for TMNT that he thought that was real didn't he? One thing i have noticed is the people who tend to blow this off as not being a big deal, they all have one thing in common and thats that they have lots of disposable income so therefore they don’t care as much. Some people can piss away 8-10K like its nothing and that’s great I'm happy for them, but 8-10K to others is a massive amount of money that they have to work long and hard for. I happen to be one of those people and i want a good quality product when i am buying something as expensive as a pinball machine.

I need this for a couple of reasons, #1 i take great pride in my games because i do have to work and save so hard to be able to buy them but lets just suppose that I wanted to sell a game and mix things up in my small lineup. Its kinda hard to put in your for sale add “this is a great game, has some pooling and chipping on the playfield but don't worry about it, thats no big deal at all”.....BOOM sale lost!

Or any potential buyer is gonna use that as a major bargaining chip* to beat you down on price, so money lost at a minimum.

*See what I did there?

Yes that is very true! They will use it to their advantage and offer me $4500 for a game that i just paid 7 or 8K for.

When they do Who-Dey, you call me. I'll give you $200 more. You're within easy driving distance of me.

I have a JP Premium on order, supposed to be in on the first week of August! This will be my first real pinball (bought a judge dredd too, hopefully it gets delivered tomorrow). Purchased a cliffy set, mainly for the shooter lane, and if I have play field issues, i'll deal with it. Its like anything else mass manufactured, cars etc. Very rarely is anything ever "perfect" in this world, but what makes or breaks a deal for me is if the manufacturer stands behind their product, and or enough aftermarket support to fix the issue.

If they don't, at least I have the Iron trick to try. Either way i'm extremely excited for my first machine at home, introduce my friends and family to the hobby, and try to make some new friends along the way! Needless to say i'm excited! I'll post play field pics once i get my machine!

Other than a cliffy set, and code upgrade, anything else recommended for a JP Premium?

I think it is more the fact few people inspect a playfield to the point they will see a blemish like 2955 even 2908 most imperfections will never be seen by most people as they do not do an inch by inch inspection of the game

Yep which is another reason why it’s impossible to know how bad these issues really are.

RUM-Z you're my buddy and I appreciate that. I will let you know when I'm ready to sell.

I see your point, but theres no denying Stern play fields are clearly the worst in the industry (by a large margin)..

The problem here is that they don't stand behind their products and there is no aftermarket support for these issues.

I hope for your sake that if you have issues (and I hope you don't), that it's just a little pooling and not something more serious. I'm missing chunks out of my playfield and the chunks took the artwork with them. There is no ironing them back on.

Did your play field start with pooling, and then turned into chunks? Or did it arrive with chunks out of the play field? I'm getting mine delivered/setup, if it shows up with chunks out of the play field, its going back, or they aren't getting paid. Or if I play a few games, and a large chunk comes out of the play field, then i'll have some issues. Even if there is some minor pooling, i'll try the iron trick, seems simple enough and a pretty reliable fix (better than chips in the play field)

I'm picky about things, but i'm not taking a magnifying glass to the thing either, but i expect it to be NIB, as $7600 is a large purchase for me as well. I played several sterns on location last week, and didn't notice a single quality issue with any of the play fields, and these machines were heavily routed. However, i wasn't picking them apart either, I was just there to enjoy the games, and plan to do the same at home.

Technically there is aftermarket, constantly call stern and request a new play field, and send it off to a third party to be clear coated. I saw it runs about $600 for just the clear coat. Is this acceptable for a new toy that cost this much? Nope, but it is an option if it really bothers you, and you plan to keep it forever.

If you special ordered a car and it was delivered with bad paint/scratched/bubbling or dirt in it, would you accept it? I mean, it doesn't affect the performance of the car.

And don't give me the price excuse, we are talking about the principle of the matter.

But it's not just $600 for clearcoating...

First, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get a new (unpopulated) playfield - which Stern may or may not actually provide (and even if they do, it may take a year or more).

Then, you have to send the new playfield out to someone who can do the clearcoat (and will hopefully do a good job) - this assumes, of course, that the new playfield doesn't also have it's own issues.

Finally, you need to swap the actual playfields. You say this will be your first machine - so I suspect you don't realize how difficult (not to mention time-consuming) a playfield swap can be.

If you think you can solve the problem of a bad playfield by throwing an extra $600 at it, you will be very unpleasantly surprised.

No pooling, nothing. Play field looked great. About 90 days in I noticed something on the play field while I was playing. It was a chunk of the play field.

There is definitely no magnifying glass needed to see the missing chunks.

I hope you don't run into any issues, but I can tell you one thing, if you do, you're in for a kick in the nuts.

Did your play field chip near a post, or was it a random spot? Just curious if a cliffy carbon fiber washer could at least cover it up for you.

As far as the play field swap, that is the last thing in the world I would want, even though i'm also in the market for a project pin! I've built wide body cabinets from scratch before, but that's because i'm coming from the virtual world ). I have a good amount of learning to do regarding the mechanical side, but not looking for my first NIB stern to be a project, so I absolutely agree that i would be bitter, its not acceptable ect, but, life is full of this kind of stuff. Make the best of it, enjoy some pinball, and move on.

You can abandon every modern manufacturer and stick with the classics, as it seems to impact them all regarding play field issues, but pinball is in a resurgence, and it would be a shame to miss out! Just my early opinion, as most hobbies, i'm sure it will change as I progress through this one! Looking forward to the ride!