Waitsfield, VT
Quoted from jwilson:I see what you did there.
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2 weeks later
Quoted from LesManley:This is what I was told...
"Stern is showing at Comic-Con later this week a new entry level pinball for the home market and they are launching this line with the Star Wars game.
This is not an Enthusiast type game but an entry level pinball. Full size playfield but cabinet will be 5" shorter. Blank door with no coin-op conversion possible.
MSRP will be $3995 and available not too far down the road."
This makes zero sense to me as you can pickup a used pro for not that much more. With a price point like that why wouldn't you just spend a few extra on the real deal? I know its not for pinsiders, but for entry level folks, and even then 4 grand is a hefty price tag for entry level.
Quoted from cuebert:It's all in the marketing. Pinball is still on the outside of the mainstream and Stern is trying to break down the barriers with home editions when possible. People still associate pinball with arcades/bars so if you can make a "home" offering you immediately make it look more appealing.
Right but price is king. Arcade threads are blowing up right now with 1up arcade mods, and I would strongly argue that price and placement are strong factors in their "success". You wont see a 4 thousand dollar stern home pin at Walmart or target. I agree that the marketing might get someone to consider buying a pin that wouldn't have before, but I don't think the home use pins will be high sellers by any stretch of the imagination. I was introduced to someone recently though a friend because he just bought his first pin and it was a Star Wars pro. Id be willing to bet that he wouldn't have purchased a home pin as he "wanted the real deal". I really hope I'm wrong, and I want stern to be successful but my education and work experience is telling me this will be yet another stern flop.
Quoted from Borygard:As much as I personally despise a "home" version pinball machine, this will be great for the pinball hobby.
Star Wars is the biggest licence in the world, people not into pinball (read-most of the world) will buy because of that.
I see this as a great thing to help bring the masses to pinball.
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Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com
I would argue that Zizzle does a better job at that than the stern home pins. Zizzles are cheap, small in size and don't take up a bunch of room, but fun with a low price point which that allows consumers a taste of pinball.
Quoted from cjchand:Based on that last pic, we are clearly in Zizzle++ territory. Priced accordingly, non-pinheads might just buy them.
On the positive side, no more moving the multiplier arrows
As I previously stated, price is going to be key with this one. Word on the streets of pinside is that they will be $3,995 which I don't think will really fly off the shelves given how close in price it is to a gently used pro... but what do I know, I only do cost analysists and market trend research for a living.
Quoted from pickleric:I agree this pin is not for me either, but there is a group of folks that would buy this at Costco on a whim. They will never change the rubbers, lift the playfield, or open the coin door. This will go in the game room as mostly a decoration, get a few hundred plays in the first few months and then occasionally be turned on when the kids friends come over.
While I will agree with you that they will sell some to the "at whim" customer, but when you get into pricing above a grand customers tend to do research and check outside market places like craigslist or Facebook market place for deals. I want to be as positive as everyone else here and think that somehow these are going to fly off the shelves at basically 4k after taxes and help grow our hobby, but I think some of you are overestimating the American consumer.
Quoted from jwilson:People saying “why not just buy a WMS game” have clearly been living inside the hobby bubble too long.
Regular people HAVE NO IDEA used pinball machines exists or that you can buy commercial arcade games for the home. One of the most common things I get when people visit and see the pins is “Wow, where did you get those?! You can own arcade games?!”
You can’t buy a Pinbot at Walmart. It takes actual effort to buy an old machine. First it needs to even occur to them to think they might want one.
This helps with that. This is the gateway game. And from the looks of it, it’s a huge improvement in home games.
I agree to a some degree. Some people do get into to the hobby by just buying an older game, I mean its not rocket science to type in "pinball machine" into facebook market place but yes some older folk might not think to use markets like this. But, price and distribution will be what ultimately kills this. I'm willing to bet that you won't see this game at Walmart or Target at least not in physical stores and yes it will most likely end up at Costco but think of their target demographic... people who go to Costco go there because they are on a budget hence why they are buying a 12 pack of deodorant or enough frozen chicken to last you a year.... I'm sorry but this isn't going to be the gateway into the hobby that everyone is claiming. I want to see this hobby survive, and I want all current and future pinball manufacturers to be successful, but this was just blatantly not researched properly.
Quoted from Matesamo:People on a budget go to Wal-Mart, not a membership club that requires annual membership fees and paying in bulk for items not needed for months. You go because you can afford to spend $500 a trip to buy items you won't use immediately but will save you money/time down the line. There are not a lot of beater vehicles in the Costco parking lots here, their customer base is well above average in income.
The Motley Fool did a report that found "Costco's entire membership base spends on average about $2,500 a year at its stores. Due to the membership fee, Costco's customers tend to be wealthier than the average American and have an average household income of $100,000." Now I know $100,000 a year is considered on the poorer side for Pinsiders (cough cough) but it seems like a solid target to aim this product at.
Having said that, I figured $3,999 retail would be the absolute top of the pricing chain but if that is distributor cost then I will be very interested to see how this plays out. Stern has done some research into the market for an item like this, lets see if it actually pays off for them.
I agree that people who shop at Costco tend to be wealthier than the average Walmart shopper, but they also tend to be thrifty and or budgetary don't you think? Just because they have more money doesn't mean they aren't going there to save money. I'd also like to see how many Costco stores actually get these, Costco knows their audience and I'm willing to bet that these wont be at every store.
cotton (resized).jpgQuoted from ktownhero:Where are these magic SW Pros sitting unsold? They seem to sell for around 5k almost instantly when they show up.
Most of the ones I've seen tend to sell around 4,700 as long as they haven't been super modded with every model known to exist.
Quoted from thecashier76:I have a bad feeling that this might make used pro’s more expensive. Especially Star Wars pro’s. Why would someone sell their pro for $4500-$4800 when the new PIN is $4500?
used pros will sell for whatever people are willing to pay for them. I don't really see the pin impacting used pro pricing
2 weeks later
Quoted from Sinestro:New to the hobby or what?
Judging by the fact that he's been on pinside for 16 years, my educated guess is that he's not new... not sure but its just a hunch
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