Yet at the same time, the toy aisle is full of random Star Wars junk that is as interactive as that topper for 1/10th the price.

I guess it could be the scale of production to amortize that cost. But I'm leaning towards they charge as high as they think they can.

That Peck guy ... I dunno.

What companies are doing now is using FOMO and social media very effectively to ratchet up the prices.

You see it all the time - most often in the States where you have 350,000,000 people who are all rabid consumers.

A few years ago Stern employed a guy who used to work in the collectable baseball cards racket. You could tell then that the “limited availability” route was the way they were going to be going.

And I would be doing exactly the same thing. Why not! It’s clearly a winner!!

rd

The difference between "collectible cards" and pins are big RD! I do remember that guy though.

With high grade "LE" cards, and you have to know what you are doing, prices/values have gone through the roof. No enjoyment other than collecting a set on a sport you love (but making $$) versus losing money on a hobby you love to play!

This Wilt Chamberlain card in PSA 8 grade was trading in the $8k range back in 2018. Now they are $22k plus lately. And it's across the board in vintage high grade stuff.

Incidentally, it's the last card i need to complete the set! No i'm not dropping $30k plus for this one yet.

ebay.com link: 1961 Fleer Basketball 8 Wilt Chamberlain RC HOF PSA 8 PERFECTLY CENTERED

Complaining about $1k toppers? Don't wanna hear it

It's really hard to see, but this was the best I could get from DeadFlip's stream. You can see it really lights up. Will be interesting to see how it works. I'd assume they'll make the announcement in October.

ElviraTopper_DeadFlip (resized).jpg

I'd be surprised if the higher cost of EHOH was due mainly to the license. If you start looking at the sheer number of mechanics in the game, multiple motors, tons of optos, elaborate house, etc I think it just costs more to make the game compared to their usual pro model.

Thanks very much for doing that, appreciate it. We also know that the crypt opens. Lets see what else it does. Price is not set yet either, distros are just calling for place holders at this stage.

I hope it works better than R2D2 did.
1k confirmed.

C6F39EE3-75BD-42EE-A248-BFD883C02897 (resized).jpeg

Thanks for confirming the price. We had our Munsters Topper apart many times.. I feel your pain!

At this point, I might try to get creative and make my own version of the topper. We're getting close to halloween, so hopefully I can pick up some foam gargoyles for cheap.

For $1K I'm thinking this should be some sort of robotic attachment to the coin door area. Instead of getting f***ed by Stern, you get s***ed by Stern, or a robotic head that maybe kinda looks sorta like Elvira. It doesn't even need to talk, but if it could say "Mmm.." and make a brief gagging sound every now and then, that would be cool.

Ha! Well it took 6 pages but finally we went to the "For that price it should have sex with me!" well.

Congrats! You win nothing. Also wanting to have sex with your pinball machine is extremely deviant behavior and you should keep those thoughts to yourself.

Spirit Halloween has a three piece plastic set that lights up for 29.99, they looked great and decent size as well. They look better in person.

https://www.spirithalloween.com/product/light-up-led-gargoyle-pathway-markers/217243.uts

Well, this got pretty weird fast...
106D5B65-950C-41AD-BFC3-9BC530502120.gif

I didn't say I wanted to. I'm just saying for $1K it should do more...

But we dont even know what it really does yet.

Hopefully the new code drops soon and deadflip will reveal all.

Who cares? Do you think it costs rolex 10k to make a watch?

How come people who don't have an ehoh care about the topper cost? If you don't want or like, don't buy. Prob all sold out already, glad I have one being held upon their release

Pretty funny, actually

Or sad , if youre that person

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Garth Brooks. My wife and I saw him a few years ago in KC for $50 a ticket. When he announces a stop he will keep adding days until everyone has a ticket. I think he was here for 10 concerts and he did a couple of double headers on the weekend. It was a great concert!!

I do. But I also have an idea what the real "tooling costs" are.
What I don't know about this POS stern is hocking ... is what it's final features are.
Based on a quick scan; this looks like a foam statue which is probably dirt cheap to manufacture... and tooling is probably cheap too.
Again; I'm guessing the bom is more like 200... worst case.
Now; maybe it has some super secret feature that drives the cost up... but I'm not seeing in then OP screen grab.

Ya. You're right. Its probably a piece of foam. Spray painted gray primer. Has incandescent lights, and a rope tied to your foot to open the crypt. Ill let ya know for sure when mine arrives

lol, there's absolutely no effing way the BOM is anywhere close to $200.

It's special Corinthian Styrofoam. Very expensive!

I got notice today I can upgrade the foot rope to gold painted chain for only $250, so i did

Are you talking about that special Corinthian Styrofoam used in the Chrysler LeBaron?

That was the finest, luxurious, Corinthian Styrofoam. Harvested sustainably from the vast herds of Corinths.

I see the frustration of some people, we love our pins and want to collect all the bits and bobs. Stern upping the price of their toppers feels like a direct shot at all of our pocketbooks, since it only signifies a trend we are likely to see continue throughout the hobby.

At the same time, I also am pragmatic. There are those that want to spend their $1000 on an EHOH topper, I'm happy for them. For those that feel like they are missing out, I totally understand. I suppose that's one purpose of pricing the topper at $1000 to create a sense of exclusivity. For that exclusivity to exist some people have to be excluded. Sucks, but it's the reality of the pinball market we're in now.

There might be a bright side, if producing $1000 toppers lets Stern keep making playable, interesting Pro models, then I'm all for the price increase. I haven't had a chance to try out all of the limited/premium versions of newer Stern pins, but some say they don't play better than the Pro versions. I don't know if it's rationalization, but some even seem to prefer the Pro versions of some games.

Personally, I won't be spending $1000 on any topper; I would rather spend my pinball budget elsewhere. But hopefully, $1000 toppers is a sign of a healthy pinball marketplace. The alternative, that it's the result of declining sales pushing a manufacturer into gouging some customers to keep the lights on, would be pretty depressing.

Some pros do play better in my opinion, I like met and aerosmith pros much better, but maiden is better as a premium. My opinion only. I like all pins, have never disliked one like some posters here seem to.

Not everyone.. I could care less about mods and topper and all that shit. I just like to play them.

Craziest mod I ever added was a shaker motor... ooooooh

I think all that stuff is a waste of money.

Makes it hard when I want to buy something because Im not paying up for 2k worth of added crap I could care less about.

Excuse me if I don't shed any tears for the LE buyers dropping $9000+ on pins who have to have all the bits and bobs. The LE trend is already everywhere in the hobby. People love those stupid plaques with numbers on them.

This is not uncommon... someone selling a game worth $4500 but asking 6k because of all the crap on it.

Those are a hard pass for me unless they want to pull the mods.

You think the Elvira topper price is bad?

Check out the Avengers topper ...

https://gameexchange.biz/pinball-parts?cat=165&mc_cid=eefc707ce8&mc_eid=57efd35ee5

Yeah but you get the machine free with each topper purchase

Hahaha

I can’t wait till Stern’s toppers cost more than their games.

until mod-makers make comparable toppers, Stern will keep marking up the price of toppers.

Whatever happened to those 2 Chinese neon guys? I think they have a business opportunity here.

Stern never stops amazing me. I'm a haunted house guy okay in our industry this would sell for about $75.00 its just not that cool. Forget the price the topper just isn't cool. I could mold that in about an hour and make you one for $50 in materials if you just wanted the topper itself. I see it raises up and I'm guessing flashing LED (about $5.00 worth) and you hear a scream or something another $10 part. Cost for materials after the $250 dollar sculpt probably around $75 dollars maybe. You pay someone to wire it up maybe another $100 dollars... overall what I mean is this is a rip off.

This is a clear cut take advantage of people who have the money and screw everyone else. End of story. There are simply people out there with so much money it doesn't matter but they piss off everyone else.

Here is the upside... haunted house props are cheap you could put a better topper on Elvira for virtually nothing. Good luck.

Buying lots of plastics and electronics from china, i would be very suprised if total production cost is over 70$ for each topper.

I'm officially giving the new topper a name... in keeping with the Halloween theme I'm officially naming this topper.

ELVIRA RIP TOPPER!

No not 'rest in peace' but RIP OFF!!! I heard my buddy Zach has already been defending the price. I wonder why because he buys them all hoarding them, trying to make a buck. Wow.

I'm DEAD serious this topper is probably the WORST looking Topper I've ever seen. In your local Halloween store this is a $35 dollar toy.

With all that being said YO ZACH CAN I BUY ONE FROM YOU??? If you say its worth $1000 it must be!

Question a seriously one what would you rather have... the brand new XBOX in one room and the new Playstation in another and a couple dollars left over or the Eliva RIP topper? Both the new Xbox and Playstation come out this Fall.

Jeez, soon you will put the pinball machine on top of the topper!

Now that is funny!!!

There is a lot of games out there you can get under a G ... that $35 dollar toy topper is worth more. What is the pinball World coming to?

Stern needs to release the Supreme topper. Then the Elvira topper will seem like a bargain.

I’m mostly an LE buyer and I honestly couldn’t give a sh*t if it was Limited. I just want the nicest version of the game with factory “whatever”. I would prefer if there was just one version of the game but with all the “whatever’s”. That would make the LE significantly cheaper and the pro a little dearer. But Stern decided that’s not how it is going to be.

So don’t shoot me. Shoot Stern.

anybody remember what a $400 topper looked like?
Glass box, lights, molded heads
I assume by current stern prices, this would be $1500?
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Proof of how much this hobby has changed in such a short time. Funny thing is for some reason our local distributor in Australia ended up with too many of these toppers when they came out and he sold them all for approx $Usd 250. I was lucky enough to pick one up back then. Recently they’ve been changing hands for over $1000.

That's just it. You could buy a premium and save a bunch of money but you have to have the "nicest" version. This is the "nicest" topper you can get for your pin. Everyone complains about these expensive toppers but they always sell out.