I read sooooo many negative things about Stern on Pinside, mainly about their quality control issues and their prices. I have only bought one NIB machine, a Star Trek Pro, and I guess I just got lucky (knock on wood). The only thing that was wrong with it was a playfield light that was loose. And now a year later, I've put 3,500 games on it and all I've done is clean the playfield every week or two. I couldn't be happier. That being said, with all of the problems that I've read about, I don't know if I'd buy another one.

So I'm curious, would everyone rather just see Stern close up its doors and go away, rather than working through the quality control issues and the price increases? I know there are other companies that are making very nice machines, but it doesn't look like they have the infrastructure in place to produce nearly enough machines to keep up with the current demand, which in turn would only lead to even higher prices.

Do you think pinball would be better off without Stern, given the current climate and feelings towards the company?

I agree with you. However, with all of the negativity towards the company, everyone that is going to 'speak with their wallets' and not buy any more pins from them, it makes you wonder how the community really feels about the company.

If you don't like them, then don't read them.

Metallica came out in 2013. We're within a couple of weeks of 2017. What in this world costs the same now as it did in 2017? Employees expect raises. It costs more to run a business now than it did four years ago. Please explain how on earth they could sell games for the same price four years later and stay in business?

I get it that people are pissed that Stern has made it more difficult for people that flip games to make any money, by jacking up the prices on the LE's, etc. That's actually smart on their part. Someone there obviously noticed what was going on. I wonder how everyone would feel if they decided to open a division where they sold parts and toys, and decided to model that division after Amazon. Inexpensive parts, inexpensive toys, free shipping, and they run all of the smaller parts/toys businesses out of business. Amazon proved that price is king and there is very little loyalty when it comes to money.

'Pick two' as the saying goes.

But who can stop with just one machine? And if I didn't keep up with reading Pinside, I would never have known about all of the issues everyone was having with the bad playfields, etc. So while I'm happy with the ST Pro that I bought, I don't know that I'd be so willing to buy another NIB game. Seems risky right now, wouldn't you agree?

So if you were Stern, and you noticed there was quite a market for people to flip a NIB purchase, wouldn't you try to go after a piece of that? Other companies have certainly done that. eBay and Amazon both come to mind. I have no doubt they knew they would piss some people off in the process, and maybe lose a few customers along the way. But I'm also sure they balanced that against what their net gain would be. And if they get more pushback than what they planned for, they can drop the price back a hundred or two and the majority of the complaints will quickly subside.

I see you've lost weight since the last time I saw you. Way to go!