This is my biggest problem with Stern's pricing increases.

STLE was a $7500 machine that clearly had some awesome LE features like the star field laser trick, LED lit armor, stainless speaker/DMD panel, LED flashes for backglass and head, etc etc.

Now they charge thousands more and give you even less then some premium offerings!

At least with something like cars and motorcycles that have gone up in price, you also get more value- better technology, features, safety, warranty, etc. The buyer gets more while also paying more. Yes, the cargument makes sense as people compare automobile pricing to inflation. That seems to be the reasoning for pinball prices going up, right? Because inflation? If it's not because of that, it's just pure greed and that's it.

Not only has Stern jacked the price up, now they are experimenting the direct-to-consumer sales tactic with BM66SLE.

So, here is how 'carguments' are relative and Stern is proud of it:

Ford releases application for 'opportunity' to purchase limited production run of 2017 Ford GT

Stern releases application for 'opportunity' to purchase limited production run of BM66 SLE

Tesla sales direct to customers, eliminating dealer model

Stern now experimenting with direct to consumer sales, potentially eliminating dealer model

I'm sure there are other comparisons. Fact is, there's a significant move being made to inflate the bottom line at Stern in what I think is a way to balloon the valuation before a potential sale at what appears to be "peak-pinball" IMO.

At the end of the day, I truly think Stern has tried to move too fast and too far for their own good, and it may bite them right on the ass in 2017.

I love the McDonalds comparison to Stern!

In fact, last year McDonalds revenue plunged year-over-year due to mediocre food priced way too high:

http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/23/investing/mcdonalds-earnings-sales-down/

This is what can happen to Stern too.. maybe they need to see what happened with McDonald's.. they thought people would keep lining up in the drive thru's paying top dollar for shit food.. then customers went elsewhere, and it reflected on their earnings.

Do you call that the heart attack sandwich?

Here is what my $8K got me with Stern... which some can see why I find it hilarious they are raising prices, yet who knows when I'll get a replacement playfield or if the issues have been fixed. Was playing GB LE last night, and more of my playfield or some piece of the machine broke off again and stopped in the shooter lane that I had to remove the glass to take the piece out. It's becoming a pretty common thing to see pieces of playfield scattered around lol. Notice the bare wood and lack of clear coat in the shooter lane too? Sorry, have to laugh that after this their solution was to jack up prices for their products.

IMG_3028 (resized).JPG

Nope check out this post about Dialed In!

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Interesting!

2016-11-03_1608 (resized).png

Nice billboard dude! I wish you the best with your business.

This PinballAlley guy is a nice dude. Back when I initially had playfield issues with my GBLE and wasn't getting any responses from my dealer or Stern, he PM'd me his personal cell phone number and offered to help assist me and work with Stern to get a new playfield. Keep in mind I've never spent a dollar with him or his business.

I ended up not taking him on that friendly offer as Gary Stern called me and then talked to my dealer and apparently things are still in process.

Sorry if it's a subject change but this guy is a pretty cool cat, just my $0.02

If I was a distributor for Stern right now.. I would be a bit worried that sales may have peaked this year and that 2017 might be a wild ride. At these prices and obvious customer satisfaction concerns, 2017 might be interesting for NIB sales in general. So many people are putting their money in the used market instead of NIB right now it's crazy.

I honestly don't think they will be affected, other then stabilizing them. Most people have a set price in their heads on what they are willing to pay, and it seems pretty tapped out - in my opinion. If used prices sky rocket, it would be very bad for the hobby all around.

The final wizard mode is Battle of the Five Armies right? That seems hard as hell to get to, not even sure what could come after that.. the code is already pretty deep as it is.

I'll tell you what's worse then the pinball code debacle, is the video game industry. It's complete bullshit now. Developers release a pretty half-ass "complete" game for $59.99 and literally 3 weeks later they release a $24.99 "expansion pack" and other downloadable content. Example Forza Horizon 3 on Xbox One... it barely comes with any cars, and they make you buy "car packs" for $4.99 and have more expansion packs ready to go. These bastards literally had all this content programmed at the same time the game was released, but they withhold it to sell it to you later.

The day the pinball industry starts doing this is the day I vow to never buy a new game again. Imagine if Stern released some basic code then charged you for more wizard modes and features? They may actually be experimenting with this with the cross the beams parts originally planned for GB but later decided against it. Don't get me started with the $400 Colorization SOFTWARE upgrade for MMr too. That's total BS.

At the end of the day, all we can hope for is Stern does what's right and continues to finish the games as much as possible. With the current crap code for GB with glitches, bugs, freezes, missing modes etc. you are taking a big risk buying any new release NIB at this point, since Stern's new biz model is to crank out new titles as fast as possible and overwork their current coding staff. I don't care how great they are, if you put too much shit on their plate it will be impossible to keep putting out quality work.

I am thinking it's the Woodbury skillshot bug.. it literally requires no skill.

What you do is keep pressing the right flipper until you pick the exact bonus you want and light the upper rollover lane. The lane will stop there, and then you just cycle through the bonus awards.. then hit the crossbar button and launch the ball, 9/10 times it goes right into the lane and you get whatever award you wanted. It pretty much defeats the entire purpose- what its supposed to do is keep cycling the lights instead of getting stuck at the last rollover lane. Hard to explain, but its definitely a bug.

Yep! Same here.. works perfect now

I am not sure, it just doesn't have any issues since changing the switch on the prison head. Maybe make a video of what you are describing?

Yeah, I guess I can see that then. I just find it pointless to aim for another target when you can just go to the rollover lane, select any award you want, and hit the lockdown bar button and get it pretty much every single time.

Your TWD was defective then! What a piece of shit!

kidding bro

hahaha

TWD is a good one for sure.. just get those training wheel outlane extenders

Awesome man!!

Went on a tour at the Stern factory recently, here's a current pic of their thriving coding department.

IMG_3054 (resized).JPG

..... Has Dialed In been "revealed" or "released" at this point?

Funny, they had a shitload of DI's that were fully playable and won't be released until next year sometime, and BM66 sat there collecting dust when it's supposed to be shipping this month.

Go figure

That was my point. Obviously. Fully playable and only revealed, just like BM66.. except BM66 wasn't playable.......

Maybe we'll get an American History X pinball machine with call outs by Edward Norton.. Curb Stomp multiball would be interesting

Added over 7 years ago: