If nobody bought the games at the higher pricing the manufacturers would have to lower the prices to stay in business. Everyone bitches over the huge jumps in cost yet they still buy them because the manufacturers know they can get the money and this trend will continue until the demand drops.
We used to get the bells and whistles with Stern but now the price of a stripped down Pro is more money than what they used to offer (Spiderman, Batman Dark Knight, LOTR, SPP.......) and now they have been charging an extra 2k on top of an already higher price of the Pro for an LE for the bells and whistles.
Do you really think there has been major quality improvements or is it just inflation to justify such cost increases for a Stern Pinball today? JJP is smart enough to know people are willing to pay more for the quality Stern should be giving and unfortunately we have to pay extra for that too.
What was the cost of a Spider-man NIB back in 2007?