You guys kill me. Especially the "tree fiddy".
Quoted from DrScoops:If Stern makes money hand over fist, others will take notice and enter the market. That increased competition is excellent for all of us. More competition means better machines at lower prices. As someone who has yet to buy my first machine, that sounds great to me.
Sure does to me too.
Too bad when competition entered the playing field, prices WENT UP anyways.
Explain that one to me.
Quoted from NPO:Sure does to me too.
Too bad when competition entered the playing field, prices WENT UP anyways.
Explain that one to me.
It takes a lot of capital to start up in pinball manufacturing. Stern sees the startup companies and their prices and feels the market can handle a bump up in price. This will work up to a certain point, then people won't be able to afford new games.
I may buy Sterns next offering NIB.(my third in 3 years) I don't see being able to do that for quite a while though after this purchase.
You have to get new buyers interested to keep Sterns model rolling IMHO....what do I know though.
Does it matter? In 1999 the world of pinball looked like blockbuster now and thankfully a company took a chance and kept the hobby alive. Hopefully they make enough to keep growing and more people/companies take the plunge into our pinball world.
Quoted from Gryszzz:Screw that, I'm not hangin out with a bunch of members......I'm headed to RGP. But I heard they're Data East funded.....so no fancy pictures or clever emoticons.
If everyone is a member , then no one is a member .
Quoted from Gryszzz:Willie sweeping up Stern floors made more last year than Stern made on WWE.
He made more than their facebook guy did seliing $12,000 Kiss or illicit sandwiches.
Quoted from gawcol:financial reports of big companies are not public in us?
Big company isn't always a public company.
Quoted from gawcol:financial reports of big companies are not public in us?
Stern is not big by corporate standards.
Any publicly traded (think anyone can buy stock) companies must publish their financial information publicly.
Private companies (think owned by Gary Stern) do not need to disclose financial information.
On the LE's and premiums they're making a lot. On the pro's, probably not so good but enough to keep making them. The LE/premium has to be almost all profit, from a cost perspective there's very little additional material to justify the $2k or more markup over the pro. People aren't buying them like they used to though, at least on pinside...Stern sales on the last four titles are way down compared to the Star Trek/ACDC/Metallica era. KISS isn't looking real great from a collector ownership standpoint currently, I think the software issues/quality/high prices have started to erode their hardcore customer base.
With the number of hours to build a game along with increased healthcare and min wage less then you think
From Gary Stern.
He says he lives in a Condominium with very little room for a pinball machine. In the KISS make up photos, he is driving either a Mercedes Benz or Audi convertible. No lake side mansion with huge lawns, no Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, or Lamborghini.
However he could be the type of person, that just does not flaunt his wealth.
I guess it would be like most product companies that manufacture here. 25-40% on the actual product and 15-25% on laborers.
Quoted from Darcy:From Gary Stern.
He says he lives in a Condominium with very little room for a pinball machine.
I've picked up on this as well. At his age, this is his time to "live it up", and instead he lives in a condo and spends half his year on planes and in hotels. I know he is still working because this is his passion, but obviously he isn't rolling around on a mattress covered in $100 bills.
I have no issue with Stern making millions upon millions of dollars.
However, if you are going to charge upwards of $5k-$8k for your games then don't keep stripping features out, don't put plastic pegs as supports in a $5k pro game, create real mirrored backglasses for LE's, invest more time into code development, don't reduce the size of support rails in premiums and LEs to save $2 a game and make a better effort ensure your games arrive at customers homes without decal and playfield issues.
Simply put... take more pride in the games you create and the work that goes into building each one of them.
If I had to guess. Pure profit after labor,marketing,r&d,bom, utils,rent, accounting, etc.
pro $300
Prem $600
Le $900
Quoted from PanzerFreak:Simply put... take more pride in the games you create and the work that goes into building each one of them.
A free market economy means if the Stern pros were complete overpriced rip offs, then a competitor would come along and do it cheaper, or do it better for the same price.
The fact that no one has done this tells me it isn't easily done.
Quoted from centerflank:Why would anyone bash Stern?
I think a lot of the code complaints are legitimate.
Quoted from PanzerFreak:I have no issue with Stern making millions upon millions of dollars.
However, if you are going to charge upwards of $5k-$8k for your games then don't keep stripping features out, don't put plastic pegs as supports in a $5k pro game, create real mirrored backglasses for LE's, invest more time into code development, don't reduce the size of support rails in premiums and LEs to save $2 a game and make a better effort ensure your games arrive at customers homes without decal and playfield issues.
Simply put... take more pride in the games you create and the work that goes into building each one of them.
Ship a game when payed not two years later works for me
Quoted from LTG:2+3=8,
3+7=27,
4+5=32,
5+8=60,
6+7=72,
7+8=??
I was going over how you did it and I think you made a mistake. $2.48 exactly.
LTG : )™
98
Quoted from Trekkie1978:Aren't the KISS LEs just about sold out except for whats on the KISS website?
Yes, but it's not pinsiders buying them (which is what I was referring to in previous post). Pinsiders are no longer buying Stern games like they were in 2012/2013. High Prices/cheapening materials/immature software have degraded their hold on the average pinsider. Go check the 'owners' page, you can see the lowering of ownership for their last 4 titles.
Quoted from Darcy:However he could be the type of person, that just does not flaunt his wealth.
He didn't make money for about a decade either.
I hope after all that, and keeping pinball alive, that he has some wealth.
LTG : )™
Quoted from LTG:He didn't make money for about a decade either.
I hope after all that, and keeping pinball alive, that he has some wealth.
LTG : )™
Yes I would agree with you.
Most likely there is no Stern Pinball Inc. Learjet.
Quoted from asay:I think a lot of the code complaints are legitimate.
A few are, but in general I'd rather have a machine In hand to play with virgin code than no pin at all
If you really want to know more about Stern's economic status just pull a D&B report. Business credit is allowed to be pulled without the end users permission. Just march on over and spend the cash to pull one and be sure to get a comprehensive report. You can also see who they are paying and not paying as far as vendors.
Quoted from taylor34:Yes, but it's not pinsiders buying them (which is what I was referring to in previous post). Pinsiders are no longer buying Stern games like they were in 2012/2013. High Prices/cheapening materials/immature software have degraded their hold on the average pinsider. Go check the 'owners' page, you can see the lowering of ownership for their last 4 titles.
Very true. I wonder if Kiss numbers will catch up with Metallica and AC/DC after the code is refined. Part of that decline is that end of the pre-order LE frenzy (generally ending with STLE and MOPLE).
Quoted from frolic:Uh oh, someone just checked Gary's cat litter box.
catmoney.jpg
Mystery solved.
Spending all his money on pussy
I knew it
By running rough calculations based on things we know and taking educated guesses on other things. Throw in a couple of wild ass guesses. Around 11-12 million a year in profit. Although with mustang and especially wwe that might have dipped
I'm guessing around $10-$12 million in profit.
Enough to make it worthwhile for them (Stern), but not enough for Williams to justify keeping it.
As for the code issues, I'm probably in the minority. After seeing how the Star Trek code turned out, I honestly don't mind waiting now. Feedback helped turn that game into a classic. For full disclosure, at the time the game came out, I found the code to be rather lacking. But the wait was well worth it.
Quoted from OLDPINGUY:Sales are north of 100 million annual. Perhaps 125 Million is my guess with 25,000 units a year production estimates for new
factory. +/- 15% or so.
When I first read this I thought this was high, but after researching it looks like a very reasonable estimate.
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