Yup.
I wish I had ordered then.

Absolute insanity....

This is not a pinball bubble. Games will continue to increase in value; especially well maintained games that you can no longer buy. As the tech gets better( Thank you JJP), so will the popularity of the hobby. There is a finite amount of machines that are no longer in production, and those games are in high demand. They will only become more scarce as the hobby grows. You will never see a nice condition IJ sell for anything less than 7k; unless the seller does not know what he is doing, or he is doing someone a favor. Lets be real. If you could short the value of pinball machines you would surely lose a lot of money. If there were 1000 IJ machines out there for 4k, they would sell out in hours . There simply is not enough inventory to go around and feed the demand. I am selling machines faster than I can buy and shop them ... My only problem is that sellers do not understand that shopped and error free games are worth more than player quality machines that have not been shopped in 30 years ....

What a shit show! Everywhere!!

Increasing $200-$300 every other year or so like it has is enflation. $1000 and a monthly subscription fee is robbery.

Yup. And I asked to be robbed so there’s that.

Don't forget keys...

It is what it is.

Lucky a few months ago I was able to sneak in under the wire with a JP premium (no tax or shipping) $7700 with shaker.

I'm paying $3400 more for my Godzilla LE

Don’t feel too bad paying extra. Sounds like no NIBs will be available until 2022 with the price increase, which will probably be mid 6kish. You paid a bit extra, but none of us are getting the $5.6k pro NIB it seems. Have fun and enjoy it!

Hahah I feel this. I am in Canada and I recently bought 2 premiums that ran me about 11k a piece.

I don’t have them in all games, but when I do use them they provide much needed relief form the major contrast issues in some games. Especially ones that use all the lights at once to go on and off. It’s impossible for me to track the balls. Additional lighting that is always on, helps me be able to track the balls during those crazy light shows.

I understand this is not how 99.99% of Pinstadium fans use the product. Haha

Agreed. I have it on my Alien and ACNC..Both are super dark games. They look fantastic now.

You know what they say "spare the plunger rod and spoil the child"

But your healthcare is free.

Played a bunch of DP pro today on location. Sucks to pay the extra, but its a bad ass pin. Eff it.

Nothing is “free”.

At least a “buck o’ five”.

Freedom isn't free. It cost a hefty fuckin' fee...

It's looking like my orders are being delayed long enough for the price increase. Bad optics stern. Bad.

Or it’s just taking that long to make them. Either way. Your call.

It's not. It's funded by insanely high taxes.

Either way stinks for the game buyer.

Same here.

If you can find a NIB Stern Turtles premium or Avengers premium would they still be $7500 - $7700 at this time but then be around $9k starting in January?

Yes, that is my understanding, are you looking for a TMNT premium? Cointaker has one in stock
https://cointaker.com/products/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-premium-pinball-by-stern

Shouldn't be an issue... any orders under current pricing should be honored.

Stern has said that if the game leaves the factory after Dec 31st it's going to be at the increased price. Doesn't matter when it was ordered. Matters when it leaves the factory. January 1 every single game will be at the pricing levels similar to Godzilla. Dealers do have the option to cancel pending orders though for customers who have been waiting on other titles previously ordered.Otherwise if the game makes it out before Jan 1st the game will only have an upcharge for the interconnect at $300 if memory serves correctly.

Unfortunately it does. If your game is built and shipped before 1/1/2022, you get just the $300 bump in price. If built and shipped after that, you get the new pricing. Doesn’t matter when you’re paid.

I know. I was saying what stern "should" be doing... not what they are doing.

and what does local laws have to say about that?
In some cases they may be forced to sell it at the lower price.

Unless you have a contract then it’s just a quote which can legally change. It is in bad form imo.

Commonly held misconception on both sides of the border. On average Canadians probably pay slightly more in taxes than the US (depends on income level, deductions, etc.), but I would hardly call it insane. The Canadian government just spends the money differently, mainly the Canadian defense budget is a joke and we pump a lot of money into healthcare.

https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0411/do-canadians-really-pay-more-taxes-than-americans.aspx

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/07/canadians-may-pay-more-taxes-than-americans-but-theres-a-catch.html

Thanks! I bought a TMNT Premium a few months back, was just curious how the new pricing structure effects existing games. It's going to be one huge price jump next year for current titles.

What’s the contract say?

LOL, stop trying to make EM's a thing. Today's buyer/player gets bored quickly with DEEP games...EM's will hold people's attention for half a game.

Is a signed invoice noting a specific paid deposit amount and balance due at delivery not a contract? Apparently not.

Stern is using most of their production capacity making a new game with the price increase already baked in, and delaying most everything else until after the start of the year. Maybe some Mando premiums get built and shipped in December, but I wouldn't bet on it. I might do the same if I were them, but only if I thought it was worth the bad PR, and that there would only be a relatively small amount of backorder cancellations so they come out ahead.

What they are doing now makes it a lot less likely that I will ever buy another NIB Stern.

I was thinking the same thing. I'm in my fifties and the nostalgia is nice, but the few I have had didn't stick around long. I have friends only a little younger that roll their eyes and complain how SLOW they are. EMs will be the first half of the pinball hobby to go extincf.

True, but it certainly goes a long way to explain why games cost more in Canada. Canadians always seem to manage to forget all they get for their taxes when they make mention of the high cost of games in their country.

Maybe because they are stuffing around with homepins now!
It's the ca$h grab I tell ya, It's the Ca$h grab!

Sigh. No, it doesn’t. Games don’t cost so much more in Canada because of taxes. Again, the tax situation in Canada vs US is not all that different.

Yes, we do have a federal sales tax, and some provinces have an additional sales tax. Here in Alberta we only pay the federal sales tax, which is 5%. Some provinces pay as high as 13%. Most of the states in the US have sales tax too, although it is lower by a few points.

The cost difference is primarily the exchange rate which has to do with the differences in our economies, political factors, etc.

From 2011 to 2012 I was paying the same or even less than Americans were for my pins. Because the exchange rate was much more favourable.

I'm 42 and I'll be right there to grab up all the cheap awesome EMs. I used to feel the same about them (slow/boring), but as I've played a bunch more, I've grown to love a lot of them. I like to have a diverse collection, so I've got a few EMs, some SS, some DMD, some modern LCD.

The new Wonka (LE) release jumped from $9,500 to $11,000.

Did I read it sold out already?

Where’d you read that? Really? Wtf??

We just got an email from a Stern Distributer in Australia today, about the price increases of new Stern Pinball machines.
I have pre-ordered my first NIB Stern machine a Mando Prem, back in June 2021, but wont arrive until early next year 2022.
The distributer also mentioned that the price increases also includes back ordered (or pre-ordered) games.
Is that even fair?
Can they do that?
I am interested to know, is this what other Stern Distributers do worldwide? Is this the norm?

At least JJP honoured the pre-ordered price even after they announced a price increase for their GnR SE/LE.

If the game goes out of the factory Jan 1st or later price increase applies no matter when ordered per Stern. But back orders can be cancelled by your dealer if the price increase is unacceptable to you.

Yes - they can do that
You should have the option to cancel your order and receive back 100% of any deposits