The music alone is worth that much, if you like that sort of thing IMHO

I can see what your saying. Can be any machine such as TNA (as an example) either buy it for xyz price or don’t.

If somebody wanted Beatles (or TNA) and they have the money they will buy it.

Anything really, do I want to spend $1200 on an iPhone or do I not? Nothing is forcing me to buy whatever if it’s priced too high for my perception of what it should be.

I bought a Beatles Gold because I am a hard core The Beatles fan and the wife and I wanted it. We are both retired and have no regrets. Would have probably paid a little more if necessary. We have owned over a dozen NIB pins over the years and this might be our favorite.

I understand, TNA for me you can say it’s not all that complicated a bit more money than a Stern pro looks like a poor value. But I love TNA and if nobody had supported it or said it’s not worth that much, we would not have close to 500 of them in the wild and in private collections.

There are less Fathoms currently on the earth than Beatles.

And to the average Joe, $4,000 seems like a poor value for an unrestored specimen.

And to some, even a restored Fathom might seem like a poor value for $8,000 .

Yet people keep buying them.

-

Like your grandfather always said: "Quit worrying about how other people spend their money...."

Your grandfather was a wise man.

QSS

Your Grandfather didn't complain about much either did he? Just a guess.

How do you figure this, Vid? 3500 were produced. When we get to bantering about how many particular classic Sterns are still around, you like to say that there way more out there then we are guessing. You are saying 45% of the Fathoms are no longer around. 3500 x .56 = 1960. THat is all that is out there? Less than 2000?

Yes, way less than 2000.

Obviously, no one knows the number exactly, but just look around at the shows and peoples houses.

They made fewer AFM (bally) than Fathom, yet 900 pinsiders own a real AFM, and only 250 own a Fathom.

Good point. interesting observation.

UnFathomable. Sorry, had too!

I played it once or twice at FGW, and had a great first ball. (perhaps too easy of a game, and all the lanes were wide open, and rubbers off)
About a 12 minute game...
I think they did a great job with the layout on this one.
They really made a better newer Seawitch 2 with some cool bells and whistles. (magnets, spinning disk, optos, extra spinner, using free space behind drop mechs -- all positives as far as I can see)
They game is still *immediate* and visually makes sense like Seawitch.
MSRP/colors/music are not in my comfort zone -- but I can still appreciate the effort.
The programming/video integration/callouts/sound quality/build-quality/rules I have no idea about -- it was just a quick hi and bye in a loud place...
-mof

I own this one and I believe it is actually harder with the outlane rubbers in place than with them off. That may be why the game is sent without the rubbers on, but the rubbers are provided in the goody bag.

Well, as we are all aware, commercial pinball machines primary purpose was/is to pick your pockets clean. As has been mentioned on these pages, Beatles is primarily designed for the home market. With that in mind, Stern could play a little looser and make a pin that does not require a graduate degree in pinball in order to have a good time.

The reality is this right now you can still get one NIB and hopefully at a good price. But they ARE drying up. Once they’re gone From distributors, it’s secondary market and to be honest with y’all the people I’m selling to aren’t Your normal pinball people (or: home buyers - their first pinball or Beatles fans).I think a year or so from now people will remember when they could have got one for under $8k and it was a deal.

Only time will tell.
Thats my perspective as a distributor and I’m not trying to drum up sales. We bought a 10 pack and I can finally say we’re down to the last two and I don’t see them around past TPF.

Honestly I hope that’s the case for everyone that did buy one when the naysayers said it wasn’t $7/8k fun.

My .02 take it with a tiny grain of salt

If you are not selling to normal pin people, and you are not selling to home buyers, and you are not selling to first pin buyers, and you are not selling to Beatles fans, who are you selling to? Or am I not reading what you are saying?

I have owned over a dozen NIB pins over the last 13/14 years. I have always waited several months after they come out for Stern to fix the bugs (which usually occurs in new pins). Not this time. As a hard core The Beatles fan (and it is "The Beatles" not "Beatles") I wanted one as soon as it came out - mine arrived in early December. As for the wife, it is her all time favorite pin. We love it. A beautiful machine. I like that the playfield is not cluttered with all of the usual "bells and whistles". I'll probably react the same way if Stern ever makes a Led Zeppelin Pin!

The man has a point here, who is buying these stripped down $8k pins?

It was written strangely, but I read the original post to mean “not normal pinball people, but home buyers of 1st pin or Beatles fans.”

Maybe hassellcastle will clarify.

Yes that would make more sense..

I was not speaking pejoratively and do not consider it a stripped down pin. I am in the camp that a lot of the DMD pins suffer from TMSOTPF--WNPB.

I hope I get the chance to play one. Someday. I am out of room and money or I would be giving it a go.

But yeah, who is buying?

BTW: You will never figure out my acronym. Here it is. Too Much Shit On the Play Field---With No Pop Bumpers.

Sooooo any discounted golds for sale huo or at distributors yet?

Yepper. That’s what I meant.

If only the price reflected this sentiment. Charging the same, or more for a Beatles pin over any # of recent Stern releases is just a blatant cash grab. Good for Stern for those bought. I have no problem with that, we all end up voting with our wallet anyway. Stern is smarter than us.

I'd be interested to know how many gold editions out of the ten packs they had to buy are still sitting in distributor warehouses, that would be the most telling # as to whether it has been successful or not. For that matter, has Stern even started making the second run of golds, would seem unlikely if distributors are still sitting on inventory.

I really like the game, I think it's the best game Stern has put out in the last couple of years with the exception of Iron Maiden, but I stand by my opinion that it is outrageously over priced.

If the price on them drops to a reasonable level, I will strongly consider buying one, if I'm wrong and they don't, oh well, lots of other pins to play!!

It's arguably not "outrageously over priced".

Here is a photo of IMDN Premium $7,599 (MSRP), Beatles Gold $7,999 (MSRP), and Munsters Pro $5,999 (MSRP) "under the hood".

These photos show Beatles is outfitted much like a Premium, *not* a Pro. Beatles is priced $400 more than IMDN Premium and you get gorgeous power-coated legs/armor/apron, side-art blades, "Vox" speaker trim, sweet emblem on the apron (much nicer than the cheap-o emblem on the backbox). Oh yeah, you also get lots of Beatles footage/assets from the time period...

IMG_1311 (resized).jpeg

Oh no. Here we go again counting coils. I'll take the code and gameplay in Iron Maiden 100x over Beatles.

First, you picked a pro that is missing a lower playfield so it looks like it has missing features. Second, who cares what the bottom of the playfield looks like? Should we just start posting pictures of 90s BW to show that there’s pins with more stuff on the bottom for three grand?

Whether it’s worth 8 grand is really just a matter of personal preference. Whether it’s a good value at 8 grand is not.

You both have valid points. From a bill of materials Beatles definitely is up there with a normal Stern Premium. With respect to gameplay Beatles, while a lot of fun, is definitely not deep in terms of code and rules compared to an IM (Premium or Pro).

That being said Beatles overall has been a pleasant surprise, a good back to basics pinball that is enjoyable from beginner to advanced player.

Exactly. "Coil count" is one measure of what's in the Bill-Of-Materials (the guide by which Stern bases it's Pro/Premium pricing). Gameplay is highly subjective and has little impact on how Stern prices it' games. For example, it they were charging "by the rule", Munsters would be priced much less than IMDN.

The Munsters rule set is "meh" (to be polite). I'm sure it will improve, but the game as it stands isn't nearly as fun as either Beatles or IMDN. In terms of a multi-player game, Beatles is more desirable. I had 3 heavy hitters over for some pinball recently and 1 game of IMDN took ~1 hour. The Beatles 4 player games were closer to 15 minutes (as a result, we played 2-3 games IIRC). Despite Munsters being the new kid on the block, rules didn't inspire any of us. Munsters shoots great/smooth, but the game is very basic...great for an arcade, not-so-great for home use (unless you absolutely love the license and artwork).

Good point. I forgot about second run of golds. Can’t imagine that’s happening anytime soon. Sea witch/Beatles retheme next year? Lol

I'll go ahead and start a rumor now: Beatles rethemed to RUSH 2112!!! Replace the "1964" with "2112", "FOUR" with "RUSH", and FAB with 3 Starman Icons. Appropriate Music, Video, and callouts changed. Modes: Overture, Temples, Priests, Oracle, Soliloquoy, Finale. Y'all can take it from here......I'd buy one in a HEARTBEAT!!!

I'd take the theme of The Beatles 100x over Iron Maiden.

You have your chance! Boring AF, or fun, deep rules, for the same price.

Are you assuming all future pros are going to be as barren as Munsters? I hope it's not true! Compare beatlewitch to any other pro and you'd see something completely different.

Ignore Munsters if the comparison irks you...focus on IMDN Premium. Beatles Gold has the BOM of a Premium...

Word.

Once we start counting coils or measuring BOMs I think it's thread lock time.

It really is our "Hitler."

I thought carguments were our Hitler.

We have a lot of Hitlers.

As I understand it, the original plus 94 backups (The Boys from Brazil was a documentary, right?)

Hitler was BOMed.

Musters is the only pro that looks like that. Put it up against any other pro, and it will look similar. Premium features aren't just under the hood as well... Beatlewitch is a pro at best, but if you love it, who cares?

What "Premium Features" are you referring to? (other than "ramps")

I actually liked this game quite a bit. Was very surprised. The streams and videos don't do it justice. Not really a Beatles fan and wouldn't buy it, but will play it whenever its available. And for the record, Beatles>Iron Maiden as far as the pin goes. IM is the most overatted boring Pin ive ever played. On the other hand though, Iron Maiden Music>Beatles Music - just sayin

Suck it

Sales cant be that bad. Still waiting for any distributor to pm me with one for sale under 6k and I'll come get it and bring it back to canada. I wont even tell anyone what I payed.

Great point and great picture.

To each his own. I happen to love TNA which some would say is overpriced (what isn’t ?).

Point is $6/7/8k is a heck of a lot of money and imo the Munsters pro is seriously bare (but so might be TWD pro which I love).

It’s not about how much a pin weighs or how many miles of wire but rather how fun it is.

I don’t like Beatles and the gold costs as much as STLE ($7700 nib).

But ‘whatever’ love it or hate it some on both sides of the Beatles argument. But at least people are talking about it.

I can't quite put my finger on why but all of the Beatles threads have been much more pleasant lately.