It doesn't look like a chip. More like lifting. I noticed a little in the same area and put some mylar over it to hopefully prevent more damage. Its the only place it has happened on mine, and ya can't see it unless you are really looking down there, thankfully.

This is standard on most sterns, my met, tron and mmr all have it.

Sadly this isn't the case on older Stern games like POTC, LOTR and T3. Something changed...

My Metallica has the same issue. It has not gotten worse but it's still like yours.

My first run metallica doesn't have it. Neither does my mustang, sopranos, or sst.

Doesn't seem normal to me. My Metallica an ACDC are both fine.

Maybe it is just me but it seems like people are letting things slide too much. I get blown away that people are putting mylar down on shooter lanes on NIB home use games to protect it. Maybe I am naive but I don't think this should be needed.

Good luck!

There is an arcade in town that has about 10 recent Sterns from the past few years. I turned on my iPhone's flashlight and examined this area in detail. Every game had this, although the extent was variable. On the most involved game it actually was so bad a small piece of the nearby artwork which extended into this area was missing. Of course these pins are in a very busy arcade (probably the busiest in the entire DFW Metroplex) and are being constantly played. There are times when all 10 machines are occupied. I'm not sure they wax and change out the balls frequently, and no Mylar was placed there on any of the machines.

Nickelrama? LOL... you're lucky if the flippers are aligned and the game isn't on a 3 degree tilt to one side or the other..

They don't mylar. They don't install plastic protectors, or cliffys, or ANYTHING preventative. They just let the games get beat to sh!t until the next one comes out that they can swap for. Gonna be interesting to see how long Hobbit remains playable in that environment, ugh. Flippers were already feeling a bit weak to me two days ago. Remember when they had Spider-Man? The ramps were so busted up that they just put a bunch of duct tape on the sides at the end. The arcade on Tron was literally BLOWN TO PIECES by airballs and never fixed or glued back together. You're definitely right that these games are brutalized way way more than they should be. I really wish Ray would protect his investments more, but alas... I don't have time to volunteer to help him out.

I have a few doing that

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-your-stern-ghosting-grazing-insert-lifting-other?tq&tu=Chrizg