Yep, $800 savings. That one was a good deal. I am not sure many new people are going to come in at 8k at this stage. Perhaps once the game is shipping, which will be soon apparently.

Question: is he the one who is selling your spot or are you the one who needs to find the buyer? I guess what I am asking is if someone new called him does he sell them an entirely new spot or is there a list that Jack is running where he is actively transferring people's spot?

Or, do you not know?

You are not able to say this with full certainty.

Do you have the contract they allegedly breached? One benefit of selling through distributors (for a manufacturer) is the distributor has to deal with angry customers. The distributor (usually) has a level of insulation as well because most distributor purchase agreements with a customer contain clauses saying they are not responsible for delays from the manufacturer (and different jurisdictions look to enforce those clauses in different ways and it is certainly not uniform from state to state).

I don't know the answer to these questions, as I have not seen what anyone signed when they paid their deposit. But getting a deposit back is always messy when paid to third parties who are able to point the finger at someone else.

To piggy back on this good point, the problem is not limited to whether someone has a valid cause of action, but what sort of practical recourse is there to that cause of action?

I can say with a reasonable measure of confidence that no attorney (unless it is a close family member doing you a favor) is going to take a case on a contingent basis with $1,000 in damages regardless of the underlying merit.

Some people will respond to that by saying "I'd just take them to small claims court myself" . . . the answer to that is, what if there is a forum selection clause in the contract that says any dispute is heard (through by arbitration or the courts) in Texas or Delaware or California (or Mexico...).

When you talk about legal recourse, nothing is ever easy, nothing is ever simple, and rarely is $1,000 enough to really fight over (there are always exceptions).

This surprises me. Jack is not new to the world or retail and he does have attorneys he works with regularly. One would think he would not take money in without a formal contract of some kind; I guess the matter was rushed together so perhaps some mistakes were made . . .

Best post of the day in any thread.

That certainly would free up a lot of options for someone looking to get a recovery. While it doesn't entirely end forum/venue issue I identified (for discussion purposes only) as venue is always an issue it would address the concern of stipulating to some unknown or unreasonable venue at the time the contract was signed.

You needed a Jay Leno drum roll on that joke . . .

Just my personal suggestion: you should ask them the question as I posed it. If the burden is on you to find a buyer you need to know. If it is on him then you should ask what number you are in his list and how long does he project this to take based on the number of games he has sold the last three months.

So, this is a great question. I think had MM been delayed a year we would have continued to see it inflate in value so the 8k number would have still been perceived as a bargain causing wild pre-orders.

There were over a dozen Pinsiders destroying Congos and NBAs for nothing more than boards and the cabinet. The MM craze was insane as it was viewed as the ultimate gotta have collector piece. Another year might have seen rout beaters over 15k and HEPs at 25...heck, we were almost there anyway. I'm not sure TBL or anything else would have stopped the buzz of MMr.

Just think if the announcement for MMr had the full prototypes ready...it would have been an insane craze of orders.

You missed it. He is attempting to victory lap on page one of this very thread.

This thread really isn't a PPS issue frankly. More of an issue with a distributor. I'm not sure if Stern, a competitor of both JJP and PPS (granted, one in business with PPS) has an opinion that would be relevant to the subject matter.

Which is part of the reason the buzz on MMr is now down. Just think if 13 months ago someone told you in a year you could get a NIB MM shipped to your door for under 8k and you won't want it anymore. You'd laugh at that person...I know I would have.

Anyway, I'm pumped still for MMr to be released. I'm not in on one at this time (I suffer to badly from preorder anxiety) but I'm sure I will have one eventually.

This could not be more spot on. Unless you are a stand up comedian there really is no reason ever to curse when presenting to a large group of people, it just doesn't come off professionally. Act like you have been there before . . .

This part of your post was awesome. I don't see how this point could be challenged reasonably.

This part of your post was not awesome. There has been innovation (granted, I think RFM was more advanced than any game produced by Stern) over the past fifteen years. Color changing LED's is big, deeper code and rule sets is big (compare the rules on BSD or DW to LOTRs or WOZ...), there are other improvements we have all seen especially the last couple of years.