Buy whatever gizmo it takes to get 120V 60hz power, then buy games though a friend in the US.

They may be pricing themselves out of the US market. I know they have priced them out of mine.

I have to agree. I've had it with the price of new pins. Just too rich for my blood.

Sadly, Count me in on that also.

It doesn't bother me much as they really haven't made anything I would be interested in in quite a while anyway. So it works out just fine.

Here in Australia a few people I know that would have jumped on a GoT LE a year or two ago, were pinning their hopes on the GoT pro as an alternative due to the 30% price rise. Unfortunately because Stern in their wisdom decided to make the pro a very poor, stripped down version of the game, these people now won't be buying any version of GoT at all.

Stern if you are listening you need to stop stripping the Pro of major game features like the upper playfield or you are going to loose your international market all together!!!

Be sure to pick up a hearse while you're here to ship them in.

This is why major exporting countries such as Japan fight to keep their currencies down. This is not just a problem for Stern. It hurts Apple, HP, GM.. any exporter is getting less competitive in international markets. And getting directly from the U.S. is not really going to save much. It might remove the gouging from the monopoly distributor, but the big chunk of difference is still in the currency.

GOT LE here in Canada will be close to 11,500.00 or more depending what province you live in here.
Believe me there are a lot of people not buying here right now

Only until people stop buying...games still sell, then the price will stay.

Wish it weren't so high (seems like it has really jacked up in the last 1.5 yrs), but I don't see a scenario where it will drop.

Yes, it's very easy to look at history and see what will happen here, All market bubbles end the same way. JJP needs prices at 8-9K to stay profitable, Stern just moved to a bigger warehouse (bigger overhead, investors requiring a return) and raised the prices how many times now? All while cutting costs from the games. This trend will sustain itself for a while but soon after the market will get saturated and sales will decline. We have Stern, Spooky, DP, PPS and JJP all competing for that same pie, granted this is a resurgence of pinball but how much will it impact the over all market? 6-8 titles a year....where are all the buyers going to come from at 5-9K a game? The death of pinball came from video games, now this resurgence has to contend with much cooler video games, along with new tech like Oculus and cell phone apps. Making pinball is hard, selling pinballs at these prices is harder.

The biggest part of the equation right now is the US dollar value in relation to foreign currencies. Stern can't do anything about that, or JJP, etc., for that matter. Stern's games have crept up in cost, but the biggest problem is the strong dollar exchange rate right now. The exchange rate might end up being a huge problem for Stern if it stays that way for long. I seem to recall reading previously that a large segment of Stern's historic sales are overseas. Nearly half maybe, but I can't remember for sure? Sales have got to take a hit if that's the case. GOT's popularity could possibly have largely overcome that if it wasn't hit with an ugly stick. I think GOT will still do better than average, but good grief what a massive lost opportunity to make the game look irresistible.

The bubble for NIB pins is going to burst at some point.

Yes. The pricing is out of control. Not much we can do at thisn point. Need more good competition. Lucky I am in the US and can afford it at this time.

Fair to say here as well. Seems we have to deal with two intermediates, one importer and distributors. I was pointing out price differences between LE prices in the US (not MSRP, real prices paid) to prices here, sales tax included (up to... 9890 euros).
Answers on our local forum: "you forget shipping which is very very expensive by boat"
Geez. You know nothing, John Snow...

But... it seems there are suckers at any price, so they may still sell some LE or Premium. But on location? Coin ops are dying here (literally - many are relatively old and won't be replaced) and they simply have stopped buying new games, including Pros.

I have been buying new pros for location, but I am undecided about got due to the stripped down-ness of the pro. One thing I don't understand is spike games have a qtr of the wire and electronics of Sam but cost more ?

AC/DC seems to be the cheapest Stern Pro in Australia at $5950, when the Australian dollar was good. KISS Pro is now $7950. Based on photos for Game of Thrones Pro, $7950 seems far too expensive for what is included on that playfield. There is also an extra courier cost on those prices. Over $8000 for the delivery of a Stern Pro. I thought these prices were high until I saw New Zealand and European pricing! Hopefully Stern offers discounts to these markets in the future, but I really can't see it happening.

I can't see a sustainable future for pinball with continued price rises, three new titles a year and a backlog of code development for all these new games?

im going to start boot legging games to Canada. I will just bribe the border guards with doughnuts and whisky.

paying for the cost of the new plant. buildings cost a lot of money.

When I first got in to pins a few years back NIB prices were high but at a price where i thought a pro would be doable for the right theme, now they are at a price where it's just way to high for me to consider ever buying one.

At 64 cents to our dollar, not economic to do that either.....

That's some genius advice right there.

rd

I would say all nib machines are like that in Canada.

I can't say about places in BC,sask,man, ont and que.

But here in Alberta Canada. Oil and the energy sector is the driving force of our economy and lots of workers from out east were the first to get axed. Then ppl in Alberta lost their jobs or loss wages. But in all honesty. We had it too good for a while.

20 year cycles for pinball. 70's, 90's and now. It can't sustain this for long.
In Australia HUO buyers are getting less and operators are siting less and less. Don't get me wrong I love pinball and hope it lasts but I fear it can't.

That is the saddest part. If I can't afford to own it, will be able to play it on site....not if it costs too much money for the operator though. That is a real problem. The last time I checked, only one sited KISS Pro in Melbourne? When AC/DC was released, they were a dime a dozen.

I mainly agree but acdc is a bad comparison, acdc Is the dream aussie pub pin theme.

I thought competition would reduce prices, but rather Stern thinks it can up them to JJP levels. As Stern machines are far inferior quality and BOM-wise, I won't be buying anymore NIB for a while.

Ultimately market forces will iron this out. If Stern can sell enough machines in the US, they won't care about ex-US. If sales fall dramatically across the board, then so will their prices.

For now, Stern has lost my custom.

On the plus side, this will raise interest in EMs and other machines that don't 'cost a car'.

YES!

First of all the answer is YES!

A GOT LE will be offered in Germany for 9375 € with the current exchange rate - this is about 10.600 $. To be fair a 19% VAT is included.
But nevertheless prices went up extremely. About one and half years ago we had...

Pro 5k ... "grey import inside the EU" 4,5k
Premium 7k ... 6,5k
LE 8,4K ... 7,4k

Roughly... not 100% sure...
Now 9,4k for the LE, 5,8k for the Pro and most probably 8k for the Premium.

I bought several NIBs in the last years, but I am definitely out. If you have some money to spend, there are so many alternatives (not only in pinball) My next machine will be a Star Jet

My next machine is Amazing Spiderman. Arrives this week.

rd

For the first time in a while, the Pro makes sense as a location-only machine... Unless its in a place catering to pinheads, most people that will drop a couple bucks in it will have no idea there is a Premium or LE.

If foreign sales are truly a major part of Stern's business, they should be looking at setting up an assembly factory in Europe and/or Australia, and sourcing parts from low cost countries. I don't like the idea of American jobs going overseas but there aren't many options for a global business that has true competition.

Stern probably isn't at a point yet to take this route, so is focusing instead on scaling up with more pins and a larger factory, and designing a lower cost system like Spike. My guess is that they have a good bit of room to come down in price with these changes but haven't seen sales/profits tip the other way yet despite the currency changes. Maybe they will lower pricing when they have some real competition which doesn't exist today. Sales from the other companies are a drop in the bucket so far.

Labour is not cheaper here, and parts are probably already sourced from low cost countries.

I hope Heighway will kick them hard with their swappable playfield concept because games on location are simply going to vanish here at current Stern prices. Stern seems to be on a "Milk them as much we can while we can" logic.

Well that was a bad business forecast on Sterns part. I'm not paying for their improvements, I'm paying for the best bang for the buck pin designs. GoT is a ( visual) disappointment. I forecast that unless rules are already finished, then this title will be.

I've been hard on Stern because I've experienced hit titles nib, but I'm done giving them the benefit of doubt. They need to release a completed ( at fricken least mostly completed!) title not based on bom.

Strong license doesn't mean strong sales regardless of laziness and greed.

NEXT!

They may be able to save on shipping, duties or labor in eastern EU. I'm responsible for factories in Germany and UK, and you're right that labor certainly isn't cheaper in western EU. Regardless, doubt they are big enough to take on the overheads of a second operation. Better to leverage their existing operation. They are just not scaled up yet within their new factory and apparently have no driver to pass on any cost savings.

The answer for cheaper pins is to manufacture in Asia or South of the US border.

Will you take our $CAD at par?

This is interesting....Gary Stern did visit the Homepin factory in China. Not a silly concept.

IMO the question in the thread title should be in the past tense.

Has Stern priceED itself out of many international markets?

YES.

Considering many jurisdications (heaven forbid) pay taxes on their purchases, add in an unfavorable exchange rate as well as seemingly relentless price increases for increasingly unfinished and cheapened products... honestly I am surprised they are getting many international orders at all outside of the millionaire "gotta have it" class.

Does everyone have an affordable figure in their head? I always say that the $5950 AUD AC/DC Pro was the sweet spot for me.....expensive for a toy, a price I can stomach for a new in box pinball.

Im out, just outrageous ...sadly