Because Stern. They need to stay in business (who can blame them for that right?) But they just keep lowering the bar... it's the LEs I don't get. Big $$ and you Get The same Crap parts.

The frustrating thing is the games are Quite good, but the build quality sucks so bad I can't wait to get them out of my house. The games They Were building in the early 2000s were the pinnacle

I’m wondering if there’s just something we are missing as far as their business plan. They are cranking out TONS of games, and it seems to me maybe even more per year recently (that may be me just paying more attention). Maybe they’re betting on volume and NIB buyers trading the games out after a short window, then on to the next one. That would seem kinda risky to me - but who knows, maybe the numbers add up.

Does this work for wireforms? I have one broken weld on a return form that is obscured from player view, so it's not worth sending out to be spot welded, but I wouldn't mind trying out a MIG weld. Right now I've got it tied off with a low profile hard wire wrap - which is working perfectly, but I'd rather have it done right

As an occasional Stern owner, the thing I am most concerned with it the availability of parts. There are tons of B/W parts on 10 different sites, with Major inventories - all because there are TONS of games out there still running, all using roughly the same parts. Stern has much lower production runs, and it would seem to me (I have no info on this one way or the other) that there would be less parts available as a result.

Add to that the dramatic changes in design from Whitestar to SAM to Spike and Spike 2, and the quantities are even lower for
Those specific boards. B/W had different sets of boards too, but fewer major changes between runs, and again the higher inventory.

This isn’t really Stern’s fault - they are running what the market demands, and their changes have reasonable business sense behind them, but as an owner, this is what always comes to mind first.