I'm just curious, do you go through life like this with everyone around you?

"Bob just bought a boat, oof, best day of his life will be when he sells it".

"Haha, you actually bought the heated seat option? I saved $1500 on my car skipping that, it's ain't that cold out!"

"Lady in front of me just supersized her fries, for a buck, doesn't she know that's like 20 cents worth of potatoes?"

Just let people enjoy their hobby without being passive aggressive about it.

Haha fair.

I'm not trying to bust the OP balls too hard, but it just feels like people being mad about prices has turned into getting a little ugly towards people who buy stuff. You want to knock Stern for their prices? Hey cool, everyone gets to have an opinion. Companies shouldn't be immune to criticism. Just seems like I'm also seeing a lot of "you're an idiot if you buy this stuff" comments too.

If I want to spend the money I work hard for on something that makes me happy I honestly don't give a fuck what you think about it, but it does kinda ruin the vibe to have to wade past that. We could stand to be nicer to each other.

I mean, why not?

I invested in a new Stern Premium's worth of tools for tinkering in my garage. Have a laser cutter and a CNC now to go with my 3D printer, and they bring me a lot of joy. More than any game would have for that money tbh. Was a real investment in myself.

I sold some $600 hammers I made with them. It's not a cheap mod, I know that. But I enjoy making them, and the handful of people who dig on a ridiculous hand-made mod like that get pleasure out of it too. And it's helped pay for the tools, and that's rad. I appreciate the people who support my projects.

My perspective as someone who's been doing pinball mods for however many years now is you just go with what makes sense. I could have sold more of those hammers at half the price. The materials aren't crazy expensive. But they're just way too much work to design and build for that to make any kind of sense. I'd end up burning out and unhappy instead.

This is why I when I see Stern charging these high prices I'm not as mad as some. Sure, maybe they're padding things a bit too, everything inflated now. But I also am keenly aware of how much work it is to create this stuff when you got beyond something simple.