I was under the assumption this was already happening with past titles. I called a local Distributer on getting a Stranger Things LE when those got released and he said he only had 2 and would sell it to me for $10.5k. I laughed and said no. No surprise that LE sat in his show room for about 9 months before he sold it for below 9K to a local guy here. I wasn't mad about it at all. They need to make a buck and with only having 2 LEs to sell might as well make that buck. However, he lost me as a customer and I went with another dealer for an LE Turtles in which I was not rung up on the price. Dealers play the game as well. They can sell for whatever they want with the risk of alienating past customers and selling their inventory for below MSRP. That's the fun of the gamble.

My distributor/dealer offered me a GNR CE for 12,500 on monday and on thursday I said ok ,He said sorry they are 16k now and I passed.Boy did I show Him.

"Give me your best offer"? That's when I tell them $0 and go to someone else.

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Lots of dirt bags in this business and auto sales.
Sorry for bringing up cars, Levi.

If he created it, then Kaneda is the most powerful person in the pinball industry.

I want to chime in here on Joe’s behalf even though his excellent reputation in this community speaks for itself.
Even IF PinballSTAR was a Stern Distributor I can tell you (as so many here can) that Joe would NEVER do something like this, he is of the most honest and highest integrity people I have ever had the privilege of dealing with in this hobby!
I want to tell you a little story about Joe, he found out I was laying in a hospital bed at Christmas time battling with a Brain brain tumor for the second time. My spirits couldn’t of been any lower as I sat there with my family, Joe coordinated with another very special person (you know who you are Charlie) I won’t tell you exactly what they did for me on that day but I will tell you that it took my mind off of what was happening to me on that day and that distraction was an amazing gift. I will never be able to repay Joe for what he did for me, he is an amazing human being! Again I know I probably don’t need tell you all what kind of person Joe is because most of you already know, but in light of this thread I just felt I needed to speak up.

YOU sir are one of the many reasons I still enjoy this hobby. With all you and your family have gone through and sacrificed you Still forge ahead with fight and a clear perspective of life. Pinball is a simply a hobby. LIFE is what you make of it. Spending countless hours looking for things to complain about or fight is just not worth it. The People of pinball and relationships I have encountered are the True focus of enjoyment for me. You are one of those people. When a hobby brings you to missions of madness it is no longer fun. This hobby will be around Long after we are gone good or bad but the relationships and friends we gather along the way are priceless. On topic, not all distributors are created equal nor are buyers/sellers. Find one that manages your expectations or move on to another. For the peanuts they make on these transactions I personally appreciate what they do for me. Sean, you stay awesome and Gods speed to you and your family!!!!

Hell yeah, let’s turn this thread into a Joe appreciation thread.

THIS…
Sean is an incredible inspiration.
Positive people - positive stuff - positive life

Therein lies the issue. when you come to and announce a conclusion based on something you yourself didn't verify or have evidence of, it's irresponsible and makes you unreliable. when you then tie someone's name to that misinformation, it makes you a slanderer. just take the extra time and energy it requires to do the littlest bit of due diligence, before you jeopardize people's livelihoods. especially when it's all over you not being able to get your toy. and if you don't want to do the research first, then just keep it to yourself.

All Im getting from this thread is that I should talk to Joe if I want a JJP Toy Story?

This is truth!
Joe is a huge asset and does business right! I still can't stand this social media shit where key board commandos just can type anything which can hurt a business that's taken decades to build. Oh and then say "my mistake". Damage has sometimes been done and all because they don't give two shits to even bother to check themselves before putting out to the world. This truly pisses me off no matter what business it may be and Joe, sorry you had this exact thing happen to you! I have never bought anything from you but I know of you and we have chatted and you sir are truly one of the good guys!

Prices are unchanged compared to the last release.

Total noob thread.

May as well have started one about the time ozzy told an audience to kill a puppy, or his best friend’s distant cousin woke up in a bathtub without a kidney.

Glad that my distributor has always treated me well and had my back since my 1st NIB purchase of an IM vault. It had a bad DMD and back then you could get "hassle" compensation for faulty parts. I still have the signed translite on my wall. I don't buy a lot of NIBs but know where to go if i want one.

Lame move on your distributor. Shows that so many people can't keep their word. F him......or her, or it. How should I address a distributor these days?

One distributor sold their alllotment of mandalorian LE’s for 13,000 each yesterday. Started selling at 1pm. Sold out by 5.

Not that I’m for it, but doesn’t MSRP stand for manufacturer suggested retail price? Which means a distributor can sell a machine for more or less MSRP. Right? I know that stern has rules on the minimum advertised price as well. At least I think I read that at some point.

But it’s up to us as consumers if we decide to support a distributor or not and continue to support them through our patronage...

But I do agree it stinks that we may have to pay more for the better titles.

Can you show me where STERN posted that please. Not whats been said in another thread by someones neighbor. Thanks.

That is why it's wise to have good working relationship with a distributor.

A good distributor will help before, during, and after a sale. And not price gouge. A good customer will buy a game, not shop all over to hell and back looking for the best price, not back out on a deal.

LTG : )

distros were told pricing is unchanged. Call your distro and ask if you need confirmation.

Simple math. Gouge someone once for $3500 and never sell to them again or treat them right and have a lifetime customer who will never go anywhere else.

So now where is the real problem?

A shit ton of dealers do this, especially on high end in demand limited cars (hellcats, shelbys, etc...) It is nothing new and I am honestly surprised it took pinball this long to do.

People buying pins before they're announced *are* the scalpers/flippers/speculators....especially that last word there.

And here I was hoping things might change after Craig took it over. Oh well. Good to know, I guess. Too bad a large chunk of our local collectors is literally the "rich white guy" meme. He'll get extra money regardless of what anyone else thinks, as he's buddy-buddy with all those guys, they're loyal to FUN, and they've all got F-you money. Bet you 20 bucks they're not the ones getting gouged though.

I agree with all you’ve stated.
What does a good distributor do when the manufacturer won’t help out with a chipping play field after 3 weeks of ownership?

Assuming the intention of this thread was to Help others vs create assumed fires why is it nobody is actually Naming the distributor to actually help? Seems people can make up their own mind to buy or not why not actually help by noting those Not selling as MSRP to save them time and money? I know the distributors I deal with are Not marking up so why not call out the ones that are to support those that are doing the right thing? It's not like calling them out will get you a Better price later.

Yes lame move I was angry for about a week .In his defense he sold me a MMroyal for 12500 and LZ LE for 9800 taxes and delivery included.He did warn me to get in on the CE and I did drag my feet.

I've got my downvote button ready to go! Lol

Which distributor?

They kind of do anyway, they take all the warranty and tech calls and sell accessories direct. JJP sells direct and has no problems. Really would not be that difficult for them to sell direct. If JJP can I am sure Stern can.

“All” the warranty and tech calls?...

Distributors need to make a living too, and I don't want them to close shop, so more to them.

This is why I only use one distributor. There are others I’d use, but I’m loyal when I’m treated well. I’ve had a playfield replacement. I’ve had a game shipped with just a phone call, where I actually sent the check after I already had the game. If I could get the game a bit cheaper from someone else, I wouldn’t bother.

Yep

It's very silly. There's a very good chance that a 2nd-hand Mando LE will come up for sale for much less than $13k within a couple months. Are there any modern (LCD) Stern LEs that sell for that much? Seems very silly to me to pay that much over MSRP for a game you haven't even seen. But some people have waaay more money than sense. Maybe being the first owner is important to them for some reason? And hey, if they're happy to get ripped off, then more power to them.

Still, I'll chuckle to myself and enjoy my Premium every bit as much as they enjoy their LE.

How many of those buying an LE blindly would also be trying to sell their NIB LE for $15K to $20K in a few months? This argument feels a bit like scalpers pissed that they cant scalp because the distributors are making some money.

I’m not sure it’s a good business move long term, but I’m not sure it isn’t either.

There are already more people who want to pay an absurd price for a machine we haven’t seen a single picture of. Why not keep going and see how much these crazy people will pay for them? The money is there, why is it wrong for a distributor to try to get it? No one is forcing people to buy these things. I guess you could argue it’s taking advantage of people who may be mentally unstable, but that’s the best argument you have. Just don’t buy it. It’s simple.

And to the long term business point, unless other distributors can really and start taking their business, they can probably get away with it. For some reason unseen games are like crack and people have to have them. I don’t think I have a problem with the distributors milking them. Something has to make the bubble burst right?

Pinball is riding an all time high at the moment. Those distributors that are selling using the silent auction will be sorry when things are not so good. I think people here have long memories.

Lesson here is support the ethical distros and forget the rest.

Distro has to make a buck , however it's the people throwing money at an unseen unplayed game that's driving this behavior... hope it's a flop and put perspective back in line ... would be nice to see the ones gouging sit on their stock

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they have been screwing people for years. they cater to the filthy rich. brett hull, curt warner and albert pujols don't really care to pay the difference though.

Who cares at this point. Let’s see the game. It better be loaded with toys and unique or it will bomb like LZ!

Been up since 3am with a 1 year old who doesn't want to sleep, so take this with a sleep deprived grain of salt......if I'm an LE buyer, wouldn't the only thing I care about be whether or not I can get a game? Stern sets the "suggested" price, doesn't mean that's the actual price. I'd rather my extra money go to someone working their butt off like ZMeny than his "good buddy" Joe Fox who flips every NIB LE for 1-2k more than sticker.

At the end of the day, there will be 750 happy people and that's all that should really matter.

A few thoughts here.

Stern has an MSRP that they list to the public. They also have some version of an MAP (minimum advertised price) that they do not list to the public, but they require of the distributors. In addition, they occasionally (Beatles and possibly others) require distributors to purchase a minimum volume of games in order to obtain the limited edition games.

These all impact a distributors ability to make profit. If I understand correctly, they leave the high end open for distributors to make profit as the market allows. Prices are driven by things like services provided by distributors, geography, supply, demand etc.

Correct me if you know differently. No one called me to explain the policy. I just paid attention and have made a few guesses here. The bottom line is that I, like many others, want a good price. I also appreciate that the distributors need to make a living.

Distributors are not fat cats riding home in the back of a limousine. These are working men and women running a business. They are human just like the rest of us. Good ones float to the top. Pick the one that works best for you.

I realize this is oversimplifying here: but if i owned a store and watched as people bought my inventory... then proceeded to turn around soon after and make several thousand dollars more for those very same items...i would seriously question if I'm pricing my stock correctly.

Maybe I should say MOSTLY. You are the rare exception to the rule. I have bought from distributors that you know very well who told me to call JJP or Stern myself instead of helping me. That is BS and left a pretty bad taste in my mouth with Distributors.

Then yeah I hear ya there absolutely.

"In his defense"? He totally gouged you on that royal.

Not sure it is appropriate to talk about it in a public forum. If you are a customer of theirs, you would have gotten the email.

I was thinking the same. He added an additional 25% to the MSRP.