Quoted from PinMonk:Did I say distributors? No. Read the thread I linked to from r.g.p that I posted back in 2007 offering the deal. The Spidey Reds were spoken for in hours. A good 1/3 of that thread was also people doing what you're doing who never put a pinball deal together in their lives and apparently didn't know that I made The Shadow Plastic supersets under license from Gene a few years earlier so I wasn't some random r.g.p. joker. They didn't get the deal. Their loss.
But back on topic...this vault edition is sad in too many ways and the price is an insult for a reskin.
Smallest cost I saw in 2007-2008 for NIB SM Red in any sale was $3500 (no shipping included of course).
That was nearly $0 profit margin for any seller, distributor or private resale.
That was REALLY REALLY LOW, and still $200 higher than what was stated.
If this was a "back alley" deal from Stern direct (which still occurred at the time), then congratulations.
Stern has put an end to this practice especially eliminating any "holding" factory stock in significant quality, unless the game is an outright, complete bomb in the future, and distributors make terrible pre-order decisions or there are massive order cancellations, which then black eyes the distributor from Stern.
That is not going to happen again, just like the days of grabbing "B/C title" late 80s (System 11) and early 90s (Pre-WPC and WPC) BLY/WMS DMD pins for $500, unless completely stripped of all boards and blown out playfields, which even then is still questionable.
This includes "container deals", because half is what is shipped is complete garbage now and raises the cost per machine, which turns said machines into part donors.
Most brokers are not taking the risk now with the loss.
There are a couple of potential exceptions, but I could count them on one hand.
I don't wish Stern ill will either way, but I hope collectors can temper their wallets.
This machine should never MSRP at its current price, the rest is fine if they really want a comic SM.
The same went for Whoa Nellie, which is slowly coming down to earth from the moon.