(Topic ID: 225496)

Stern Electronics Club (1977-1984).

By Mitch

5 years ago


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Topic index (key posts)

11 key posts have been marked in this topic, showing the first 10 items.

Display key post list sorted by: Post date | Keypost summary | User name

Post #227 Various gate tips. Posted by cottonm4 (5 years ago)

Post #269 Hi quality thoughts from Cotton about inlanes. Posted by cottonm4 (5 years ago)

Post #279 Playfield touch up tips. Posted by klr650 (5 years ago)

Post #309 Stern inserts suggestions. Posted by cottonm4 (5 years ago)

Post #310 Seawitch gate flap solution. Posted by frunch (5 years ago)

Post #1033 Bally drop targets on the classic stern, even mix and match. Posted by cottonm4 (5 years ago)

Post #1958 Star Gazer podcast episode link. Posted by DRDAVE (4 years ago)

Post #2587 Link to 3D printed parts available from HHaase. Posted by HHaase (4 years ago)

Post #2590 Link to 3D printed parts by Swinks, available at Shapeways. Posted by swinks (4 years ago)


Topic indices are generated from key posts and maintained by Pinside Editors. For more information, or to become an editor yourself read this post!

There are 10,651 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 214.
#1 5 years ago

Opening this up into a classic stern club. Share your stories and pricing about these great games.

11
#2 5 years ago

Too damn much

-1
#3 5 years ago
Quoted from Mitch:

Dont see these come up too often. What's the going price for these titles.
Quicksilver, stargazer, seawitch

interested also.

I have watched Stargazer but not the others. Saw a very nice example sell for $4500 about 1 year ago.

#4 5 years ago

Depends on if they are projects, generally working but needing shopping out, restored, high end restored.

Lots of variables.

I do know a Quicksilver in Maine with blown out playfield, not working and needing lots of love went for $3k for reference.

Quicksilver and Stargazer command slightly more than a Seawitch as they made less of them and they both are slightly better players than Seawitch.

Quoted from Mitch:

Dont see these come up too often. What's the going price for these titles.
Quicksilver, stargazer, seawitch

#5 5 years ago

Seawitch is the only one that's fairly cheap and easy to find, I'd guess $1000-2000 oughta get you one if you look hard enough.

The others are extremely rare. $3000-5000 these days? They are great games and super rare so people just don't want to sell them.

#6 5 years ago
Quoted from DRDAVE:

Depends on if they are projects, generally working but needing shopping out, restored, high end restored.

The OP needs to pick one so people can quote on that. Otherwise you'll get people shouting out numbers all over the board.

#7 5 years ago
Quoted from brenna98:

The OP needs to pick one so people can quote on that. Otherwise you'll get people shouting out numbers all over the board.

It's not rocket science do you really want me starting a bunch more threads for no reason?

Just specify a quicksilver in __________ condition normally goes for ____________.

Ect

#8 5 years ago
Quoted from CrazyLevi:

Seawitch is the only one that's fairly cheap and easy to find, I'd guess $1000-2000 oughta get you one if you look hard enough.
The others are extremely rare. $3000-5000 these days? They are great games and super rare so people just don't want to sell them.

Thank you this is what I'm looking for.

#9 5 years ago

OP....Stern Meteor is a great game and is more available than the 3 (great also) titles you've listed. That may be worth hunting. They made a lot of them which keeps the price lower.

#10 5 years ago
Quoted from DrJoe:

OP....Stern Meteor is a great game and is more available than the 3 (great also) titles you've listed. That may be worth hunting. They made a lot of them which keeps the price lower.

Well yeah, same with Stars.

Problem is, this doesn't help you if you want a Seawitch, Stargazer, or Quicksilver.

#11 5 years ago

I wouldn't mind a stars or meteor either but I know what those are worth.

#12 5 years ago

I love these threads, I makes me go look up games I am not that familiar with.

#13 5 years ago
Quoted from Mitch:

I wouldn't mind a stars or meteor either but I know what those are worth.

I got to be honest. I think Star Gazer is the only one worth picking up. Great to play and art work is great!

I think 9-ball is the best player of the bunch. I would probably take meteor over QS and seawitch; would def take Stars over all of them.

#14 5 years ago

The top 5 players for me anyway are:

Quicksilver
Star Gazer
Stars
Nineball
Seawitch

Quoted from Whysnow:

I got to be honest. I think Star Gazer is the only one worth picking up. Great to play and art work is great!
I think 9-ball is the best player of the bunch. I would probably take meteor over QS and seawitch; would def take Stars over all of them.

10
#15 5 years ago

And the best bonus countdown EVER goes to Quicksilver!

-1
#16 5 years ago
Quoted from DRDAVE:

The top 5 players for me anyway are:
Quicksilver
Star Gazer
Stars
Nineball
Seawitch

Nah, the only 2 mentioned thus far worth owning are Nine Ball and Stars.

I agree that Seawitch is the cheaper of these three asked about but that game is poorly designed, just like Star Gazer.

Some not mentioned that play better than all of these are Catacomb, Big Game, Dracula and Ali.

For the bargain hunters, you pretty much have nothing better than Meteor or Stars for less than 1K. Possibly Flight 2K for around 1K.

To track down any classic Stern machines worth keeping, you are looking at 1K and WAY up these days. I would buy a Quicksilver but would probably have it sold on Pinside in an hour for top dollar since 50+ people on here are looking for one.

#17 5 years ago

I'd say a ballpark estimate ranging from decent player condition to restored status might be as follows based on current trends, especially here in the PNW.

QS 1800-3500
SG - 3000-6000
SW - 2500-5500

Quoted from Mitch:

Dont see these come up too often. What's the going price for these titles.
Quicksilver, stargazer, seawitch

#18 5 years ago

I've seen 2 working sea witches on CL in michigan listed for 2500-3000. They did not last long. I saw this witch project last year: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/northeast-us-for-sale-thread/page/170#post-3926789

Not sure on the others.

#19 5 years ago

SG plus well but I don't think it's anywhere near worth the monies. They've been going for over 3 for quite awHile, the first high priced Stern from what I Remeber. (and by 3k I mean 4)
My guess would be Seawitch for 2k+ easy...and I never see them up. But I guess we know you don't see many of these come up.

#20 5 years ago

major projects needing playfield work, plastics, backglass, board work, and some cabinet work.
Seawitch $1000
Quicksilver $1500
Stargazer $2500

Quoted from Mitch:

Just specify a quicksilver in _________ condition normally goes for ___________.

Problem is, these aren't "normally" sold, or they are sold between collectors and numbers aren't documented.

#21 5 years ago
Quoted from Whysnow:

I got to be honest. I think Star Gazer is the only one worth picking up.

Quoted from snyper2099:

Nah, the only 2 mentioned thus far worth owning are Nine Ball and Stars.

Negative.

All are great games worth owning, but assuming all games are set up properly, QS is the best classic Stern experience. Period.

The new rules on SG really make it a top contender though.

Meteor is another one that when set up right is a killer game. A lot of people poo poo it for being too easy. Play one that's set up properly and you won't say that again. I've never found a great playing Meteor in the wild.

#22 5 years ago

Maybe if we create enough of these threads we can convince Stern to remake Star Gazer, etc.

#aguycandreamcanthe
#$$$

#23 5 years ago

Meteor is 10000% worth picking up. It's not as pricey as the others, but I have one and it's def not moving. Lots of drops, sweet spinner.

#24 5 years ago
Quoted from dothedoo:

The new rules on SG really

new rules???

#25 5 years ago

Not to derail your price thread, but I too believe meteor is an amazing game when set up correct. Mine plays absolutely fast and brutal.

#27 5 years ago

Meteor is the best classic Stern by far. Complete perfection.

#28 5 years ago

I just sold two Stern Magic's last week and I likely gave them away considering you just don't see that title for sale often. It is kind of amazing where prices have gone on most Classic Bally & Stern machines these days. Even something as common as Silverball Mania is bringing over $1000 in decent condition. 5 or 6 years ago a lot of these titles could be found cheap - not now!

#29 5 years ago

I don;t think anyone is arguing Meteor is a great game, just that it isn't the point of the OPs thread.

#30 5 years ago
Quoted from doublestack:

Mine plays absolutely fast and brutal.

You can make ANY classic Stern/Bally/Williams/Gottlieb/etc.. play this way (SS or EM) if you really take the time to shop everything properly, crank the levelers up, omit a few posts and wax it up to a mirror finish.

Even the supposed “pedestrian” Galaxy can become an unrollable tourney killer if the above is done.

This is why the classics are called “classics”, and why owners of said classics (in this case Stern) are reluctant to sell.
Pure Pinball bliss.

#31 5 years ago

RESIST!

These new ROMS always suck ass and serve mostly to provide Gizmonic with home field advantage at his tournaments!

#32 5 years ago

I'm ok with any classic stern price discussion. I'd love to have any of the above mentioned

#33 5 years ago

I think a big part of why drop target heavy games like meteor can vary so much in play are the quality of the drops. Semi clean mechs with the original drops move fast and add to the speed of the game.

I love sweeping the two bank on mine!

Some of the repro drops on games are brick city with nasty airballs.

#34 5 years ago

Every time I pick up a classic Stern, it really pulls me in and I'm shocked how much I prefer them in the era. I just resurrected a mouse house Big Game and am shocked how quick that game plays. It had a few wear spots and plenty of damage in the bingo card area so I went real heavy on the wax to protect what is there and it flies. Those inlanes having metal instead of rubber just keeps everything moooovin!

Sorry - back on topic, agree with what everyone else was saying. If it's those three specifically, Seawitch is the easiest to find but all of these are painful on the pocket. I'd argue for Quicksilver as my favorite of the three, but I've only been able to play stargazer a few times. $ is my area is similar to the above quoted - I'd say always keep an eye out for a deal but these titles just don't pop up. Seawitch is the only one I've seen pop up in and around a decent radius.

#35 5 years ago
Quoted from CrazyLevi:

RESIST!
These new ROMS always suck ass and serve mostly to provide Gizmonic with home field advantage at his tournaments!

That may be true, but considering I don't play in any of his tournaments it doesn't affect me.

No this code makes the game more balanced. SG is WAY too easy in stock form. Okaegi's code made it much better by requiring you to shoot the entire table. However, his code actually made it too difficult to complete all of the zodiacs. Fine for tournaments, but frustrating for home play.

The new rules enable the scoop rollovers ONLY when you complete the center DT bank. Even then, a rollover doesn't guarantee spotting a zodiac, but it does give you a better chance of getting that pesky one you can't seem to hit. The left and right DTs light the spinners so you don't lose that feature when the rollovers are disabled.

#36 5 years ago

There are several Seawitches in the pinside markeplace archived ads that sold for above $2000.00

This nicely restored example in Florida sold for $4100.00.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/archive/53668

#37 5 years ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

There are several Seawitches in the pinside markeplace archived ads that sold for above $2000.00
This nicely restored example in Florida sold for $4100.00.
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/archive/53668

Well, since Pinside will not let me edit my earlier post, I 'll just quote it.

There are several Seawitches in the pinside markeplace archived ads that sold for above $2000.00

This nicely restored example in Florida sold for $4100.00.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/archive/53668

#38 5 years ago

Seawitch in decent shape went for $2800 on eBay last week over on the east coast. Star Gazers seem cheaper to build than to buy nowadays. Quicksilvers...they just don't come up. I passed on buying just a complete playfield a few years ago for like $900ish and regret it, another pinsider did get it though and I believe was able to get a working game out of it.

#39 5 years ago

Personally 9 ball is the best player of all mentioned imo. Now I want to know what 9 ball goes for. lol

#40 5 years ago

Local posted a Facebook pic of a folded up Nine Ball he had just picked, had multiple offers for 2500ish just off that.

Personally I'd like a Catacomb
Edit: it hadn't been cleaned in years but was in good condition

#41 5 years ago

Someone sold a working nine ball with terrible playfield touch up here for around $1100 recently.

#42 5 years ago

My friend picked up a project Seawitch for $900 this spring and we both thought that was a good deal. I think it booted and played, but backglass was flaking badly and playfield had typical wear.

#43 5 years ago

Stargazer is a $500 game. And just to prove it, I will buy every copy offered to me at $500

Stargazer is still a game I wish I had run across. A well tuned copy is just a joy to play. Unfortunately, it just has never happened. Yes, I realize it will cost me a lot of money once I do fine one. But it is such a fun game.

#44 5 years ago
Quoted from DaveH:

Stargazer is a $500 game. And just to prove it, I will buy every copy offered to me at $500
Stargazer is still a game I wish I had run across. A well tuned copy is just a joy to play. Unfortunately, it just has never happened. Yes, I realize it will cost me a lot of money once I do fine one. But it is such a fun game.

It's a lot of fun to play. I guess I don't understand the rules enough to think it's "too easy" and needs a cheesy ROM re-write.

I have to wonder if this could eventually get on the Stern vault radar given the high prices and the success of TNA. It could just be too much trouble and expense - Stern doesn't make cabinets like that anymore and new cabs on old games look and feel stupid - see the Kind of Diamonds remake. And Stern is selling enough new product that a remake disrupting the line and sales might not seem a tasty proposition.

#45 5 years ago
Quoted from CrazyLevi:

I have to wonder if this could eventually get on the Stern vault radar. It could just be too much trouble and expense - Stern doesn't make cabinets like that anymore and new cabs on old games look and feel stupid - see the Kind of Diamonds remake.

If Stern can make Nellie/PBR and charge what they did for those......they could easily start doing some Stern Classic remakes for $1K below Stern Pro prices if they really wanted to!

#46 5 years ago
Quoted from AUKraut:

If Stern can make Nellie/PBR and charge what they did for those......they could easily start doing some Stern Classic remakes for $1K below Stern Pro prices if they really wanted to!

Nobody made any money on Whoa Nellie.

#47 5 years ago
Quoted from AUKraut:

...start doing some Stern Classic remakes for $1K below Stern Pro prices if they really wanted to!

Charge less monies....hmmm....no I don't see that happening

#48 5 years ago
Quoted from CrazyLevi:

Nobody made any money on Whoa Nellie.

That's because game play stunk......some of the classic Sterns have awesome gameplay!!

#49 5 years ago
Quoted from TheLaw:

Charge less monies....hmmm....no I don't see that happening

....you got a point!

#50 5 years ago

I would pay 5300 for a NIb stern remake of Stargazer

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