If they outsource to China, they'll have clones of their pins being sold all over the world at a fraction of the cost within a year. While that'd be great for us, it wouldn't be all that great for Stern . Moreover, they'll have a tough time getting them unloaded from ships for the foreseeable future. It sucks that China doesn't seem to give a damn about IP rights ... it'd be a solid way to take care of the Australian market right now.

I'd look into manufacturing in Northern Ireland like Atari used to do ... seems like it'd be easier for them to take care of the European market building there. Shipping costs would be cut drastically and I believe there wouldn't be any threats of tariffs since the machines would be manufactured in Europe. Eastern Europe is another possibility.

This shortage of pins is more than likely due to the semiconductor shortage. I know for a fact that the CPU they're using is tough to get right now. Memory was a problem for a while there. The 5V regulators used on their node boards are starting to dry up (just had one blow up on a Star Wars that I'll be repairing). It's a mess out there if you design electronics. I can't get a single frigging FPGA unless its on a development board!!!! Companies don't even want to hear from you unless you're buying large quantities (Stern wouldn't be a "large quantity" customer if they used FPGAs ... some of the companies I work with are pretty large and they're getting the "sorry, not sorry" treatment!!!).

Finally, distributors have every right to mark their pins up. They're taking on all of the risk in that these pins need to be transported from Chicago to points all over the planet. If the pin is damaged from Chicago, the distributor, not Stern, is on the hook when it comes to rectifying the situation. Those that flip the pins are basically using distributors to hold the games for the most part before they find a home for it at the inflated price. I'd be pretty pissed off about that personally and don't blame them for jacking up the price.