The combo is in there floor and has been played plenty in the year it's been sitting there. Definitely needs a shop job. I live real close and stop in once and awhile. Would never buy there tho.

I know 2 people in the past year who purchased an advertised "Brand New in Box" Stern pinball machine from Automated Services and it ended up being a floor model that was reboxed. So take it's for what it's worth. Clearly they have plenty of NIB machines since they are one the largest Stern distributors, but any distributor that pulls that kind of bait and switch is out in my book.

The cost for distributors on the Designers was $5600 (might be even less for Automated due to their volume). So even at $5995 they are still making $395 per machine. So it's not like they are dumping these at a loss. I am sure they have had plenty of newbies and rich people who don't know any better pay out the ass for some NIB TF LE's that they will make plenty of profit in the end.

The combo is in there floor and has been played plenty in the year it's been sitting there. Definitely needs a shop job. I live real close and stop in once and awhile. Would never buy there tho.

I'm all for it. I hope distributors dump them for as cheap as they can. That way the people that want the pin and can't afford it can and will also help take some of the risk away from giving it a shot if you can't find one on location.

Then and only then do I feel this pin will get the respect it deserves. Not the greatest ever but far from the dumping ground it's been at. I paid $5800 shipped for my combo and still feel it's the best $$$ I've spent in a long while. Could have saved more by buying used but wanted the NIB feeling from a good vendor.

As a TF owner I don't care since I do not buy machines as investments. I have been in the hobby long enough to know that most NIB machines will depreciate, however people are spoiled because they recently started buying NIB machines and a few of them blew up in price so now they think that is in the norm.

I wonder though, and maybe soon enough we'll see the difference, would a *slightly* more feature packed Pro with an LE trim that doesn't change the gameplay much if at all (see: Spider-Man LE, LOTR LE, WOZ LE) do the same thing, without alienating sales of the Pro to people that can't afford the higher price point?

With the exception of X-Men LE, I have not considered a Premium / LE model from Stern because I really can't afford it. I have considered "Pros" in the past when there wasn't an Premium / LE, but for games where there is a model that has considerably more features, I don't give the Pros a second thought. Tron is the only exception because the non-bling changes were extremely minor.

All of the SM LEs sold quickly and are worth considerably more than a standard SM. For a game with NO playfield differences, I don't understand why they don't utilize that model sometimes.

Waiting with bated breath.

So I just got off the phone with Mike. He told me he has 150 TFLE in stock NIB! The ebay listing is going to be changed +$150. The store price (not going through ebay) is $5295 cash no tax. He also told me I can pick any box i want at that price. I then got some more prices from Mike, and he gave me better pricing then any of the guys here on pinside. This made me a bit upset that my pinside guys were not giving me the best prices. I can drive to get NIB's from Mike, hes only a few hours from me. He was very nice on the phone and I have never done any biz with them but may in the near future. I don’t care how nice some guys are and I understand we all have to eat but the price difference was a good amount. Avengers LE blue price was an unreal amount less than any price I was quoted by "the pinsiders guys". He has only sold Hulk's and I did not get that price. I know good service goes along way and I get that. But not $700 more on a NIB. Its a shame IMO. The prices are high and adding a bunch of money on top is just not right. My eyes are now open.

As with all things, shop around and purchase based on price, experience, and customer supportability. If you're only getting a quote from one person, you're doing it wrong.

TAV LE at $700 less hes loosing money.. TFLE at 5295 hes loosing money.. We really don't make much on these machines guys. Makes me wonder whats going on over at Automated.

Quick, see if he'll do original pricing on his last Spidey NIB. I've only dealt with them once and it was my TSPP. Great all around service and they did a layaway with no fees.

Before purchasing, bear in mind that this is the last post from Automated's super sneaky salesman:

8 tilts and 37 thumbs down can't be wrong...

Could be he is tired of sitting on inventory. Distros cannot be happy about this.

I got quotes for 3 or 4 pinsiders and a few other distributors (which were higher). They were all around the same give or take 100 or 2. Maybe they just dont like me bc im from NY.

No. Mike told me that at 5295 he is not loosing money. He just wants to get rid of them to free up his money. Im sure he is not making much if anything.

No again. He told me that he has not even sold 1 TAV LE (blue). All Hulk's. After he gave me the price he told me he is not making much on them.

Sounds to me like bc of the volume he is doing he is getting better prices from Stern. That would only make sense.

Sure would be news to me, I buy more machines then they did last year from Stern. But i'm looking at the numbers and trust me.. hes loosing money.

Combos where 5100 i thought dealer cost. That was at ELITE bracket.

I can see plain as day what is going on at Automated. They are squirming because you and Trent are getting all the new sales

maybe they only screw the locals....seems like everyone on the east coast has a tale to tell.

If Automated has 150 TF Combos NIB for low prices, that makes me think that they got a deal from Stern to buy the remaining TF LE Combos that had never been actually made.

nope.. Wish they were that cheap.

I heard they pay for there inventory before they even get it. no floor plan could explain better prices??

Do you guys think that these TFLE's are going to be the next Playdium deal like the WOF's? I did one of those deals a couple of years ago and thought it was a good price at around $2850 delivered. They also had WPT's for the same price. There was a favorable Canadian exchange rate in there as well.

No Such thing as Stern Floor Plan..

Maybe Stern did to TFLE what they did to WOF and WPT in 2008...send them to a big Stern dealer at ridiculously low price to close them out. If that's the case I highly doubt there will be a TF code update

Funny!

I drove up to Starburst and bought a couple of those...just over $2300 after exchange and no tax to us US people

Wouldn't you suspect that if you heard that someone has 150 NIB TF LE pre-paid that they may be in a position for bankruptcy? That is a lot of dough, even for a large distributor, to be tied up in one game that is well past its prime selling season.

Yeah, I really am quite stunned at that 150 number and really wonder if that is accurate.

150 nib machines is a hell of a lot of coin, i would imagine a dealer that spends close to $700,000 or more gets better pricing than a guy that spends $200,000

was the TFLE Combo Limit 500 or was it total of 500 between all 3 models?

why? maybe they have a ton of money, and can get MUCH better pricing. If you had 4 million dollars, and called up stern and placed an order for that much, you think your going to getter better pricing. stern would have to be nuts not too!

125- autobot..125- Decepticon.. 500 combos

Who is going to buy them at this point?

i am not using actual numbers, just for the sake that strength in numbers gives you.In almost any field i deal with the more you spend, the better discount you get. i dont know automated, i never bought anything from them, i have friends that did, or do.I would just think if they have the pocket book to own the inventory they do, i dont think they are hurting.

That is the question. If there are truly 150 of them at one dealer, imagine the number of pro editions at others. I smell another Playdium deal coming just like before. Mountain Coin was another dealer that was blowing out Stern games at ridiculous prices around 5 years ago. Its happened before.

There is no rule saying that more Pro games are made then LEs.

If these get blown out at a ridiculous price, then who knows - for $4k, even though I haven't played one, I would be interested

When Mike said they have 150 TFLE's, I would assume that this is a mix of all 3 LE's. The majority being combos of course. Once he gets it down to a normal stock im sure the price will start to rise a bit. Supply and demand and right now the supply is huge.

Totaly agree with you on this. The more you buy upfront the better price you get. Im sure Mike did not just keep ordering 20 here and there when he was not selling much of them. He prob purchased Stern's "sitting stock" for dirt cheep in a nice size bulk buy. Thats just my guess.

There is no other way to look at this other then NIB's going for 5295. This will dictate what a HUO will sell for. Just look at the one that Hwawonyu just sold with Mirror blades for 4700. That was a good deal and the quick sale reflected his good price. So thats like a MINT HUO TFLE selling for 4500 without the blades. What would you pay for a TFLE that is HUO but not MINT? or a light routed one? For me for 4500 i would pick one up (or 4700 with blades installed, wish you were closer to me Hwawonyu) If it was Mint. Anything other then that im going NIB for the price.

You are correct on the number of pro games. I am just making an assumption.

I think they would need to go lower than 4k to "blow" them out over a four month period. If I remember right, Playdium started the sale in around Christmas of 2008 and they were gone by April of 2009. I got my WOF for $2550 in late March of 2009. Probably one of the last ones. They were advertised at $2700. I had my choice between WOF and/or WPT. There would have been a bigger discount if I would have bought both.

I think the price for a TF Pro would need to be right around $3000-$3500 to get rid of a surplus (if it exists).

No way in hell Dadonna has 150 combos. At 5 grand a pop thats 750,000 seems a little far fetched no?

He told me he has close to 75 TF's total. He has some designer series as well. He may have meant he has 150 sterns total.

I don't know, if I was someone with a route, and I found out that I could get a game with a popular theme that I knew was going to continue to have additional movie releases in the future, and I could get the limited edition version of that game significantly cheaper than I could get a Pro model, why wouldn't I entertain that?

Remember, WOF and WPT were both games that didn't have the strongest themes. The people that watch WOF aren't usually the guys who sit in bars or go to movie theaters and play pinball. WPT while a great game had an open playfield that didn't look overly interesting, and from what I understand it wasn't earning very well on route.

TF is a much better theme, and it would be almost as big of a discount *on an LE compared to a normal Pro* that you would get then when WOF and WPT were out. Those could both be had before the blowout around $3600.

When he told me that he did not specify combo's. He just said TF's. So I would guess its between all the LE's and pro's he has.

Who knows? He just said he had a total of about 75 TFs. Was gonna sell 25 at the current price and then go from there.

We will see what happens over the next few months. Nobody wants stock sitting around not selling.

I think I'll buy TF "The Pin" for $2499 from Costco. At least it has a spinning cube!

I'm sorry for this question but I've confused myself. I've played a Combo and Decepticon. I know there was a pro version, so are the combo's all "le" models. If so where does the premium fit in?

There is no premium. Combos are LEs.