No, any good company looks at money and not feelings as an indicator.

Buy the friggin games and stop whining.
Geez, these machines kick ass. Prices went up, they’ll go up next year too. I’ve had to downsize just like everyone else. Shit, it is what it is, pinball has been discovered bitches.

In the great words of our beloved Sgt. Hulka
“Lighten up “Francis”.

No one in this hobby is on the street or going broke or poor. Right????????

Bunch of whining asses …

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Pre Stern Connect as they require no additional cost…

Curious on what price everyone is paying on pros???

Is it the full 6700?? Or cheaper??

What are pros? We're all ballers here. LE and CE's only. And we pay $2k over MSRP because if you can afford 5k you can afford 12k or you shouldn't be buying pinballs.

Curious about this too...Like before all this insider crap and price increase MSRP was $6199 but advertised prices were as low as $5999. Where $5999 was the max you should be paying but sometimes pay less. So what is it now? When I went to buy my Mando pre price increase one distro told me they were sold out but when they got more (insider installed) they could do $6599 or $6499 via wire transfer. I don't remember who it was because I messaged every distro around trying to find one with Mando Pro in stock. So based on this I wouldn't pay any more than $6600.

12k? What are you, on welfare?!!

Spend 15k for a minty Data East Batman like a true baller!

I have a solid Gold Wings that I’m going to list for 15k shortly. See you all in the comments!

yeah... they sold out of 1,000 Godzilla LE's before anybody could play it .. what kind of tipping point is that?

Yea they’ll probably make 1985 BTTF LEs.

What's the hold up? Forced demand? Because it can't be the chip shortage excuse for Rolex.

I really wanted this theme and title. Gotta go premium, way over priced.

Really no big deal with that. All this LE bullshit.

Curious to see all these recent past titles that are built after 1/1/22 with new pricing that will sit unsold.

If they are sold before they are even made, how are they going to sit?
Any kind if dip in sales will just allow Stern to get caught up some on the backorders, I think they will still be sold out on everything they make, at least to distros.

Yes, GZ is a hit so it should sell well, the comment was about the overall market saturation, does it feel like it's getting a little crowded? Now throw in higher prices you might have a speedbump. Anyways, someone made a point about used games going up in unison, that's not 100 percent true either, used Pro and premium won't necessarily keep up with price increases...also what are the titles Munsters or Stranger Things? Not the same! Besides used game prices have to be compelling for someone to pull the trigger on it, rather than buy the hot new title. So again not a solid argument.
Lastly, as someone pointed out sold out....yes, sold to distros, that's not the same as end users in the overall market. The distro may have to slow down buying till inventories clear. But again in the overall scheme of things, GnR, Mando, LZ, Halloween and now GZ....the money for these toys is not unlimited, not to mention the space. We'll see what happens when CC comes out, followed by AP and then supposedly Toy Story. I think pinball peak is finally here.

This argument has been made hundreds of times over the years. There's no indication you are correct this time beyond "a feeling," so I'm gonna go with: no. It doesn't feel like it's getting a little crowded. It's a tiny niche hobby with a TON of room for growth, and new people continue to enter it every day. I wonder how many people read the massive national press about the Banning auction and thought "Gee, may be cool to buy a pinball machine;" I know I personally got a bunch of inquiries (noticeably more than usual) in the immediate aftermath of that.

In case you need a refresher, here is a small sampling of the times that the "bubble is bursting" argument has been made over the past 20 years, and in 2021...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f-you-stern-and-your-price-increases/page/4#post-6498563

I hope some of them do so I have a chance at an EHOH at msrp later. I'm broke after pre-ordering Halloween and Godzilla

I have EHOH on order since Feb 21. Late HW CE build prob get first at this rate.

lol...good one. love it.

I'm not talking back orders. Have a Stern on back order since Feb. Clearly GZ will just change a lot of peoples minds moving to this title from other Sterns or orders elsewhere. Whenever the catch up maybe with Stern just think games will be available from peoples move to GZ instead. Theres going to be plenty of Pros of anything next year.

I don’t think sales of LEs or premiums will go down regardless of price when the game looks as good as Godzilla does. Where they will see less sales is the pros from people like me. As a public school teacher I was never going to be a premium or LE buyer, but was hoping to be able to get a new pro every two years. Honestly if I had the money I’d still buy a pro. The only sales they will likely lose is from people that were already on the edge of being able to afford them. I have heard that they make a lot more profit on the premium / LEs anyway so I doubt they care, their profits will probably be more than ever with a larger percentage of people going premium / LE.

What did folks see that would make them think new pinball machines wouldn’t rise significantly in price?

Truck owner-operator here. I work close to 6 days a week. There is no driver shortage what is really happening is there is a lack of drivers willing to run cheap underpaid freight and waste all day sitting at ports.

Historically we’ve seen $100-200 increases, and we accepted them. I think the $800 increases were just a shock to the system. A BIG shock, in the example of the OP getting hit up for another $2400 after he’d already ordered the games.

prices on Stern website have been updated, there is no indication nor comment that the prices are going to go up to $6800 by next year o the pro, and all of these titles have not been produced yet.
You can buy the game now from Stern's site at the posted prices which most likely are going to be produced next year and therefore impacted by new insiders thing.
The price increase today is $300 with the insiders thingy, which seems to be also optional?

In other words, why would Stern mislead their customers with this information, to order a game now that will increase in price next year?

All that to say, maybe the price increase is just for Godzilla due to it being a Japanese franchise/license and it costs more...??

I might be entirely wrong but, might it be possible that it is just all an speculation and the prices are only increasing by $300 for all models as already stated in Stern's site?

The price increase isn't speculation anymore, it's an official announcement from Stern.

where is the announcement? I have not seen it.

Please post it

It was communicated in the stern army and distributor webinars. You’re not allowed to take pictures or save the slides.

ah gotcha, I thought it was something that had been shared and I had missed.

Well it is misleading then that they have only partially updated their pricing online. Literally, ALL games except Godzilla, have the old pricing still.

F U gas station, it cost me $50 to fill up (used to be $40). I’m done with gas stations.

No need to change it until it’s guaranteed all games will not ship until after 1/1/2022. And distributors should be the ones you go to pricing anyway since most charge different.

what's the alternative ?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-insider-connected/page/15#post-6498277

Car washes too!
Lol

Ugh. Our car wash went up 20% this month. Old options were $5-10, now they are $6-12. I always got the premium for $8, but scaled back to the quick wash for $6 when I saw the increase. I'm not paying $10 for a car wash when there is rain in the forecast 2 days later.

Please tell me this is a joke.

I can’t tolerate a Cargumant, but I can get behind a Carwashgument!

I’m just pissed off at everybody and everything these days.

F U World!!!

U R crushing my dreams daily!!!!!!

too funny , this car wash talk is too much ! lol I actually own a car wash , self serve and touchless .

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Not that far from the truth

Use your feet.

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You're part of the problem!

Pfft..carwashes. Who can afford that luxury?? but I'd let my kids go hungry before I'd not buy another pinball machine.

Back to basics. What was the new price on your DP?

That’s great!

I have two pins on order at the old price BM66 and DP premium. I’m actually not sure what my price will be, my dealer wasn’t sure yet. Hopefully just the $200 connect increase. They was just a $600 increase like a year ago.