I got screwed over on my first game buying from a distributor (my first two, I bought direct from the manufactures or their partner PPS).

Bought a game that just went into production. Just assumed all distributors sold at relatively the same price. Bought a GOT LE for 900
(showroom unit) more than MSRP, no I'm not including tax. I put him on my list and haven't looked back. Also no it wasn't his last one. Not sure if anyone remembers but GOT LE remained unsold from 99% of distributors for at least 3 years.

I understand if a game/item isn't being made anymore but a brand new game... WTF.
He even gave me something called the "good guy discount".
Seems it's better practice to just sell at MSRP, yeah you loose a couple hundred but you gain repeat business.

with toppers I'm a little more forgiving, but it all seems shady. I'd prolly steer clear of those vendors given a choice. It'd be like walmart selling a PS5 for 1k or something, leave that for the scalpers. Or if your are gonna do it, do it on a personal account.

pinball sales are hot right not. the biggest problem vendors have is not being able to get enough to sale.

This is why you see this type of behavior more often with smaller dealers. Most don't have money to sit on 50 pins for 5+ years. Everything will sell eventually... but it takes time. WWE, Kiss LE's and Hobbit's all lived in dealers warehouses, but all those are gone now. They made room for beatles platinum and primus.

Either you sell less at higher prices or sell more at lower. Seems the more successful one choose the latter. There isn't anything wrong with dealers taking advantage of a hot market. All I'm saying is it feels shady, and people like the OP and me will try to avoid dealers who do that. Like I wrote before, I wouldn't have an issue buying it from the dealer if he/she sold it personally and not through their store front.

My first dealer took advantage and made 900 extra dollars on the sale. Since then I've purchased 24 NIB pin, he could of had some/all of those sales if he wasn't shady.

You probably had that kiss topper for a while before you raised pricing, the topper was out of production at least a month if not years. Fair market value on something like that makes sense. Some dealers do it within days (or they know its selling out so they raise pricing on the final batch they receive). OR Like with my previous post the game was still in production (but being new I didn't realize this).

I think its more on a case by case basis. That window for having supply isn't what it used to be. Especially now since manufactures are having a tough time keeping up.