I'm with ya. It's no longer a question about fun, all modern Stern's are fun, but rather value for customers hard earned money. With each price increase the value of a game is diminished in my opinion. This recent Stern price increase is the largest in years and will lead to more people being priced out of the market and or simply refusing to pay the new prices. Could I afford a $9k premium? Yes. Do I want to spend $9k on a premium? Hell no, it's not worth it no matter how fun the game is. Same goes for pro's and LE's.

Neither are worth $9200 or $10,500 to begin with, that's the problem. Also, Stern for most part prices all of their games the same regardless of the amount of features, and code. It's also important for us to keep in my mind that some licenses, especially music licenses where multiple tracks are involved, can cost more then others. I wouldn't be surprised if the LZ license + tracks is more then a bunch of classic Godzilla films.

$1500 is a small price increase for a pinball machine? LOL. Why not charge $12k, hell maybe $15k for an LE. Let's get extra crazy at this point.

Components are up that much to justify a $1k - $1,500 price increase? I don't see it.

Customers are going to become more selective due to the price increases. Instead of buying multiple games per year maybe it's 1 every few years and only when it's a dream theme. Godzilla Premium and LE look loaded and at $7500 I would consider one. At $9k though for a premium? Hell no, not even if the street price is $8700, that's just insane from what were already insane prices to begin with for a pinball machine of all things. I just paid $9,500 for a NIB GNR LE, paying $500 less for a Stern premium is crazy.

Pinsiders have been saying for years "Well, if you can afford a $7k pin then you can afford an $8k pin for years" type comments. When does that stop working? For many of us it's here. It's not a question of if a game is fun or not but what you are getting for your money and the value simply isn't there at these outrageous prices in my opinion.

Also, people keep saying "Everything is up, goods are up 15%" as a way to justify the price increases. Well for many middle class families wages are not up. If a family made $100k a year in 2019 they are likely only making a bit more in 2021. Where's the 15% increase in wages for the middle class if everything else went up by the same amount? There isn't one. That family that may have once bought a NIB pin every so often is now paying 15% more for everything else and as a result a $7k - $10.5k pinball machine may now be one of the last things on their minds to buy.

Yes, and I wouldn't have bought a NIB GNR LE at $10,500 either. I started buying NIB pins when they were around $6k for a premium and the old "Well, you can afford $1k more" mindset has long worn off. Yes I could afford it but I'm not paying these insane prices for a pinball machine of all things. At some point enough is enough when it comes to price increases.

A JJP LE is not a Stern premium, no way, not even close. Compare a JJP LE to a Stern LE, that's the more fair comparison and now it's more accurate the ever considering the prices of each are nearly identical. Either way prices are insane from both companies.

JJP Standard - Stern Premium
JJP LE - Stern LE
JJP CE - Stern SLE (super limited and signature editions)

The real comparison there is Wonka LE and GNR LE versus Godzilla LE, those are the comparable models due to the extra LE features from both companies.

Godzilla LE and GNR LE are now about the same price. I would say Stern with Godzilla LE has matched GNR LE in terms of features on the playfield. However, will Godzilla have the same animation, lighting, more choreography, and sound quality as JJP games? No, not in my opinion. The bigger question is will Stern now offer Godzilla premium / LE like amount of features in all games moving forward? At these insane prices I hope so but maybe not, look at Ghostbusters premium / LE and some of the more empty games that followed despite being the same price.

Why do all Stern's cost the same when some clearly have more features then others? If Godzilla Premium is $9k then LZ Premium should remain at $7700 due to one game clearly having more in it then the other. There's no reason for all Stern's to be priced the same when some are far more loaded then others.

Who cares about how it plays when the games cost these ridiculous prices? Why don't you go pay $100 for a pizza just because it tastes good or $100k for a Mustang GT just because it's fun to drive?

Fun factor isn't what people are complaining about here, it's the insane prices and I'm sorry but a lot of us here care about value for our hard earned money.

Also, if you don't care about more choreography then damn are your expectations low for code, animation, and sound all being put together to create unique layered modes.

Blah blah blah. I just bought a NIB TMNT literally 3 months ago so stop with your crap that I can't stand Stern. I've repeatedly said that all modern Sterns are fun and that the issue being debated here isn't fun but rather value for some. I enjoy both Stern and JJP games in my collection but it is you who has a clear hate against one company.

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I could care less about Stern dominating the industry and if by that you mean selling the most games. Selling the most pinball machines doesn't automatically mean Stern is the best. I suppose Little Cesar's and Dominoes make the best pizzas as they sell the most right? It doesn't work that way.

I've noticed you making jabs at certain collectors (one being me) saying that they are not good at pinball and only care about flash. That couldn't be further from the truth. There are a lot of collectors out there that don't care about tournaments, they don't care that you scored 10 billion points on a game and yet at the same time they are good players. These collectors buy games for their home because they have fun with them. I personally want games that are loaded considering today's asking price and come with modes featuring great mode choreography. There's no reason to insult people for wanting that in a game. Really what you are doing is are unfairly singling out people who own and enjoy JJP pins.

I couldn't care less lol.

Yeah, pinball machines don't cost $250k - $500k+...but maybe soon at this rate!

Stern is taking people for a ride at these new insane prices. Regardless of whether or not people think Stern is better then JJP or vice versa it's clear which company has the greater cost per game and it's JJP. A Stern LE and JJP LE are now basically the same price. The JJP LE comes with significantly more hardware in it from the old Bally / Williams style lock down bar mech, the traditional head lock, and especially far more hardware in the head of the cabinet compared to a Stern. Open the backbox of a Stern and you will see a couple small boards, open a JJP backbox and you will 5x the amount of hardware. There's other items as well including the metal leg protectors, the entire head being made out of wood, boards being full RGB, etc. I won't even touch the coding aspect which I think is higher at JJP compared to Stern.

Again none of what I said means one companies games are better or more fun then the other but it's clear which company is making more profit per game at these latest prices. Did Stern raise prices because material cost are up? Sure, a bit but the real reason for such a large price increase is that they believe there's enough people to continue buying games at the higher price point.

Perhaps JJP will now raise prices from $10,500 to $11,500 after seeing what Stern did, then Stern will do the same in a year. The price increase madness will likely continue.

Gary's reaction seeing people defend the price increases.

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That's an opinion, not a fact. I have Sterns that I enjoy playing more then some JJP's and JJP's I enjoy playing more then Sterns. Happy to have both in my collection. Just tired of the "All JJP's suck", "None of them are fun" type comments.

Depends on the day for me. Some days I like TMNT and GB over any of my JJP pins and then the opposite another day lol, just enjoy them all. Stern is making some damn fun games, as is JJP, it's just a shame the prices have become so ridiculously high.

Fair points, those are likely contributors as well. Stern is also implementing the new Insider Connect system which adds an additional cost in hardware, development, and support.

I'll probably buy another new Stern but its going to be very selective from this point going forward. Hoping BTTF is next as will definitely order one of those.

Keep being angry and only favoring one pinball company, I'll be enjoying my Stern and JJP pins in the meantime

After reading some of these comments I'm waiting for the "Thank you Stern for raising prices" thread.

I'm going to have to disagree with your statement and offer a counterpoint.

Lol just joking.

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Today's price in metro Detroit.

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Spot on. These new pins by Stern and JJP are all fun but they are just not worth the latest prices for many of us. Over the years I've said "Look at how much more value you get with a JJP pin" but I can't even say that now with their new crazy town prices. $10,500 for a limited edition pinball machine from both Stern and JJP? Pass. $7k for a pro and $9k for a premium from Stern? Pass. I just can't wrap my head around paying these new ridiculous prices for a pinball machine of all things.

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When you now hear the prices of new Stern pinball machines (apply to JJP as well).

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JJP just raised GNR LE prices to $11k! Insane but I'm sure they believe their products are worth more then a Stern LE at $10,500. These recent prices increases are insane but hey if you bought at the lower price points you just made thousands! lol.

Yup, reported by Kaneda.

These new prices are nuts. I wouldn't want either at the price, both are insane at $10,500 and $11k lol. I feel like I got a deal a couple months back with a NIB July build GNR LE for $9,500 which at the time seemed like an insane amount of money to spend on a pin.

Lol yeah. Thankfully pretty much all GNR playfield issues stopped with the late June and going forward builds, something is working. It's still BS that the issue happened in the first place after Wonka and Pirates had the issue. Free playfields should have been sent out to GNR customers with messed up playfields.

You act as if you are hoping for all JJP owners to have playfield issues, that's sad. We get it, you don't like JJP.

We should all be thankful to pay Stern these new prices. Back when Batman 66 SLE's were announced anyone interested had to send in a video stating why they were worthy enough to give Stern $15k to purchase an SLE. Well that has all changed, now anyone can give Stern nearly $9k for a premium and over $10k for an LE, that's about a $5k discount compared to Batman SLE and no video application required!

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?

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.