When you get the “gathering parts” email you don’t pay anything. They ask for your options and to confirm shipping address. That is all. You dont get the final invoice until your game is getting close to shipping and its pretty quick from there. You could say in that time (between final payment and shipping notification) your game was assembled but its not like you are waiting long. We’re talking a couple weeks.

Scott has said quite a few times that it bugs him when people talk about how cheap they think TNA must be to build because it actually has a pretty high BOM.

In a Dead Flip stream 5 years ago where Scott and Charlie played the whitewood TNA with Jack, and the Spooky/TNA thing had either not been announced yet or decided yet, the chat kept saying, "Spooky should build this game!" And Charlie went on this whole tangent about player perceptions of supposed cheapness of single level games. He said it wouldn't be any cheaper building TNA over a normal modern game with ramps, and wondered if people would even go for it if they did build it.

I haven't counted things up on any other games, but there are 14 playfield mechs on TNA, maybe more if I missed any, plus a spinner. There are 6 alphanumeric displays plus an LCD. Maybe the P-ROC costs a bunch more than what Stern runs their games on, idk. I can't speak to the cost of RGB lighting from top to bottom, but it's something. It's got a real back glass too, not a translite. There's a built in subwoofer and enclosure. None of these things seem terribly bank-breaking, but there's a lot of them.

How many mechs are on a Godzilla pro? I'm surely missing some, because I don't really know the game. 3 flippers, 2 slings, a pop bumper, a scoop, the magnet thingy, so that's 8 or so, plus 3 spinners - what else did I miss? I'm definitely not trying to dump on Stern. If a Stern pro is a game you enjoy more than TNA, great! But that doesn't make TNA any cheaper to build.

(lol in advance at me if I get schooled on a dozen Godzilla pro mechs I forgot)

Mine took 40 days to ship after full payment was completed.
Why would it take that long to ship if it takes a just week to build, I mean something don't add up, yes I did get excuses when I asked, parts missing.

The point is they charged me for the full game without it being complete or even being able to complete it quickly. That's actually illegal in some jurisdictions.

Then don’t buy. Don’t complain…just don’t buy.

Don't forget the emergency Beacon topper mech!

What about your friend’s in the other thread?

What are you talking about? I'm allowed to buy and complain if the service is bad. You really think for 10K I am not allowed a few complaints?
Come on man, it's not all roses and this is the place these things should be discussed. There's actually a lot of others who feel the same way.

I'm just telling the truth. My game was paid for completely before it was finished and shipped, about 40 days. I honestly did not know if I would get it after 30 days passed. I thought I was out the 10K

That's just honesty man. I do business and pay deposits weekly, my partners never ask for final payment until items are done and packed up ready to ship. There's a reason for it to be that way.

I bought 3 NIB Spooky games,....it averaged out to 3 weeks from final payment to Delivery in O.C. California.
And they were all well packaged and arrived safe.

Thank you Spooky.
It's been a pleasure to be a part of a growing Family run company.

That's what I mean, trucking takes a week coast to coast.

There is a way to do constructive criticism and a way to do confrontational criticism…bringing up “it’s illegal” is confrontational. You need to educate yourself on the company before taking it to that level…or expect push back. Got a problem, Spooky will bend over backwards to help…hell, ask me, I’m not Spooky, but I’ll do my best to help. DM me.

Man whatever you do don't order a PB Alien.

Just put in a ticket for it, isn’t that the PB alien slogan

Thank you for your support over the years! Really does mean alot to us

I actually went over this in our latest Saturday morning Spooktacular on Facebook! You can also call tomorrow and ask for me if you would like I would be happy to explain our billing and shipping process as well as answer any other questions or concerns you may have!

I'm glad you had a better experience, I'm just stating my experience.

I would not do it again like that. It's very risky to pay in full to any company who does not have a finished product ready for you. Anything can happen including bankruptcy and you can lose it all, it happens all of the time to great companies large and small. Google PHARMAPACKS news, now I'm not saying that is the case here but it happens.

Lets hope it ends well for everybody, now it looks like a lot of orders are canceling and the value of HW is dropping, I guess those units will never be made. This is not good for cash flow. Perhaps they can roll all of those extra parts into a new game to get a few people excited again.

Except. You are.

Spooky is not going bankrupt and a re=run of TNA is something people have been clamboring for.

You don't want one, don;t buy one. But your disposition is definitely not sensible or warranted.

Wishing Spooky all the success, but we cannot bury our heads in the sand as to their pricing debacle. Sure inflation is happening, but their meager offering BOMs can’t be that much, if you start listing each component of a Spooky build. Plain and simply, there is not that much material costs in most any of their games. Certainly no nicely engineered mechs, so their pricing should be no greater or even less than a Stern pro. More in the Stern home pin category for pricing. That is the Spooky niche, the $4k to $6k realm. If they priced their product in $4k plus range, there would be fewer complaints about their product. Put a Spooky pin along side of Jack Dangers Jurassic Park and most people with take JP Home Pin over most any Spooky offering. JPHP actually has working engineered mechs in the game.

Nonsense. From start to finish.

I did not say they were going bankrupt.
I'm just saying after what happened with the Halloween debacle, not refunding customers, flooding of resales online, etc, and in this economy, I would be more cautious about handing over so much cash.

Also, a rerun of TNA seems desperate. Does that not devalue the original owners trying to sell their used machines for 9k?

Good luck.

It does require repeating that comparing Stern to Spooky does still suffer from scale of cost. Stern has numbers usually = lower cost for aquiring parts as well as spreading the cost out across more games.

You did. No less than 3 times you cited Bankruptcy as a concern.

As for Halloween / Ultraman, there was no crisis for anyone but those who thought they could maybe make a few bucks by getting in line.

Desperate? I dunno. As a business, why leave money on the table? If you can make a product that people want to buy, that just seems like common sense. It remains to be seen if Spooky's gambit on the price will pay off or backfire. Also, a company does not owe the end user investment guarantees. We are not shareholders and pinball machines are not sold as investments (even though they residually can be). [EDIT: Unless they specifically said there would be no more TNAs ever after the first run. I don't know this.]

I did not, I specified that is a risk for any company, you should re-read it if it interests you so much.

I have no knowledge of their finances, I only heard here they are taking cash and not returning it to customers in some instances when the customer declines said purchase, but I guess this is a policy of this company and all as you say. You can read those customers comments yourself.

FYI, Tesla will hold your deposit for 3-5 years and release the entire amount if you decline purchase. Not all companies have to or need to keep such high deposits.

Non-refundable deposits do not equal not refunding customers. Resales and people selling pre-order spots at a loss doesn’t financially hurt their company just like people flipping preorder spots for a profit doesn’t help a company… and I wouldn’t call Halloween/UM a debacle, plenty of people (myself included) like them. Not your taste… fine. The only debacle was in people preordering without knowing anything about them before-hand aside from theme (in a lot of cases, then selling still without playing one). I think their commitment to continue adding to code for a very long time means they will only get better. I think you figure out what your own risk tolerance is in pinball, the first time I took 14k to buy a pin from someone off craigslist I worried I’d lost my mind. Same sending money wire transfer to an out of state pinsider to buy two pins… there’s risk in a lot of our transactions here, we’re all grownups . If you’re worried about stuff like that, wait. I’m glad they’re running more TNA, I’d really like one but I’m still deciding if I’ll pull the trigger tomorrow since there are a few machines I’d like in that price range and I’m almost out of space (filling up the dining room now). At least with this one people know exactly what it is and have probably played it before so I wouldn’t expect the panic flipping so many games have when people start trashing them online.

What's Dodge's policy ???

Who would buy a Doge?

$9k newer TNA 2.0 version absolutely devalues current TNA 1.0 machines. No one will want the old version any longer and now that people know that Spooky will make unlimited numbers of TNA, the used old version HUO TNA price is going to plummet. Spooky’s own words, they will make many more as needed. There is no FOMO, as you may wait for years and still they will make more. Saying 250 for this run is an absolute joke. The ol let’s take care of the family business lovefest is gone. Spooky is now as greedy as any other boutique company and even greedier, they just cut out the important distributors that helped them get where they’re at. Smart buyers will just wait a year and there will be a glut of bored TNA owners selling at a big loss, just like is happening on HWN/UM now.

I love Non refundable deposits. It weeds out some of the scalper scum who have no interest in a title other than profit. At the very least it makes it a gamble for them. F the scalpers!

If you are uncertain about a machine wait until it’s available to play in person and purchase in person from a distributor if/when they have inventory in their warehouse. There is no risk at all.

“ all of us who bought into the FOMO are suffering”
Absolutely hilarious!

I love my Halloween, RZ and AMH machines!

Lots of crybabies here who need to not preorder machines and purchase used or from inventory at the Distro warehouse.

Of course you’ll claim this, as you don’t want your value of HWN to plummet further. It’s not hilarious at all that all HWN/UM owners have lost out of the gate $3k or more. Highly doubtful any buyers can ever be found at even a $3k to $4k loss on HWN/UM. Yes, that’s suffering!

This is a completely false narrative created by Spooky apologists, continually pumping us all full of BS, that it was only the scalpers that are suffering. I call BS, as all of us that bought into the HWN/UM FOMO are suffering from very subpar code, super poor shooting and a mechless machine. Values have tanked and its obvious in less than a year, they did not make all 1750 games and now using TNA as a fill in till they’re ready for the next game to be made. Spooky announced it would take them over a year and a half to produce that many and now all of a sudden their done, 6 or 7 months early. Quit blaming scalpers for Spooky’s ineptness.

Got it out of your system ? Tantrum over ??

Tesla deposits are not refundable. I don't know where you are getting your information.

You conveniently ignored the “ all of us who bought into the FOMO are suffering”. Also the statement “don’t preorder until you’ve played the game and/or can pay cash and drive away with it from a Distros warehouse.”

If you preorder anything it’s a gamble. Wait until the code is complete or take your loss and move on. Stern code takes months or years to get polished/ finished.

I’m a long term collector (almost 30 years now). I could care less what resale value is. I’m not a flipper or flavor of the month collector.
If I’m not sure I’ll like a game I don’t buy it until I play it.

If someone is concerned about future value wait and buy used.

Gambling and losing sucks. Next time don’t gamble. Life is full of lessons. Hopefully you learned from what you feel is a mistake.

Don’t poke holes in his cargument!

Yep. Like you, I'm a long term collector (20+years), not a flipper. I sold my UMCE at a loss because I didn't like the game. Big f-ing deal...you win some, you lose some. Unless you go out of your way to buy stupid, you've made money in this hobby over the past 2-3 decades. This idea that every game needs to be awesome and skyrocket in value isn't reality.

You bought an UM? Congrats on getting your first pinball machine!

I'm sorry to hear you aren't enjoying it.

You sound sane.

Just kidding.

Do you talk this much sh*t IRL?

Were you guys not at the Spooky apologists meeting? We strategized and stuff. There were donuts.

I got my apologist member ID card and script ready

These whiny b****** are the outliers and not the norm! I freaking love my Halloween and she ain’t going nowhere so……I couldn’t care less about the flippers losing money!

It’s got a ways to go to become flawless but I’ve met the Spooky crew, there good guys are will not let us down.

See yourselves out crybabies

I'll never understand why the basis of fault against HW/UM seems to always be "look how much the value has fallen!!!11"

If you bought the game, and only care about the ROI potential, maybe you're in it for the wrong reason? I don't GAF one bit about 'resale value' blah blah. Why are so many folks focused so much on how much money they can get out of something they bought as an amusement device?

I don’t get all the Spooky hate either. I love this company. I bought my ACNC second hand, called Spooky when I had trouble connecting the limited edition factory topper. Even though I didn’t buy direct from them they were very patient with me and walked me through it, even sending me some connector parts free of charge. Plus I LOVE this pin. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy from Spooky again. They have incredible customer service and great products.

Try doing that with a second hand Stern pin.

People love Stern but they don't know what real customer service is like.

Absolutely. I’ve been saying the same thing.

My guess would be it’s a bunch of guys who justify 10k toy purchases to their wife and friends that they are “great investments.”

I worked my ass off to buy things I enjoy plain and simple. I love the theme and love the gameplay, my kids can worry about what the dang things worth when I’m dead.

I also know good, hardworking and creative people when I meet them and Spooky is just that

Stern service has deteriorated over the past couple decades. Pat and Chas use to provide great customer service. Now Stern hides behind their distributors. Expecting distributors to "earn their money" and provide service isn't an awful idea, but it just doesn't translate to quick turnaround time on parts/issues.

I only have one Spooky game (R&M) and they have always given me great service.

This is like way to many good posts in a row, someone needs to come in and shit on Spooky now..lol