Still to much for what you get with stern le imo...but still better than before. I think startrek le was still the best and it was 7300

The price difference between Prem and LE gives the LE value if a person wants all of those additional features. In other words, it’s cheaper to buy an LE than to buy a Prem and add all of the LE features.

I definitely like what they are now including, would be nice if they threw in the topper though. If not ready at launch a coupon for the topper when it is released. A man can dream.

Up the game...up the price.

Price is way up with every release the price goes up. After the initial reveal you really need to step back and wait for code to develop. They create such a frenzy. Imo they are pricing a lot of people out of the hobby. You can’t tell me the BOM goes up with every game.

Just an observation from a tour today not an explanation. Comparing this visit to one I did 7 ish years ago before expo at the Old plant. The new facility has to be triple the size of the old one, Hundreds more employees in production, the engineering and other departments were flush with new talent, and a dual assembly line that would impress Mr Ford himself. So yes, I can see how the BOM price would go up after tripling your overhead honestly. Add to that pinball is again on the rise so they are running massive hours to keep our toys flowing. Just a comparison observation from years and prices past.

Business overhead (rent, utilities, insurance, salaries, marketing, etc), cost of production, and BOM are all different expenses, but they all do get factored into the price.

The more products that a business is able to produce and the faster that they are able to produce them, the more profit they can make.

How do they factor the cost of code updates? Considering they release code updates on 2+ year old games. Or do they recoup those costs on the next title?

It's definitely not. Though obviously backglass is unobtainable.

Non reflective glass ($250)
Shaker ($150)
Side art ($100)
Metallic powdercoat ($400)
Mirrored Backglass ($300)
Upgraded speaker kit ($125)
Lit speaker rings ($150)
Deadpool LP ($25)

That’s $1500 without including the signatures, numbered plate, installation/labor, and exclusive art package.

$400 to get your stuff powder coated? If you go to a powder coating place, rather than just do click and select with a pinball provider, you'll likely pay half that.

Are people really paying $250 for Stern's glass? I've seen a sheet, and it's nowhere near as good as Roman's. There was no Invisiglass to compare it to at the place - so can't say better or worse there.

Speakers you could get a similarly good kit for ~$50-60ish.

Art blades cost $80 if you buy at full price.

Shaker is $100.

Depends what you want, but lit speaker rings are typically less than $150.

Also, difference between premium and LE tends to be higher outside the US.

If you don't want to install anything yourself, sure though.

whatever the side armor/legs are painted with it sure doesn’t have the durability of powder coat. looks ok, but definitely not a traditional powdercoat durability

I think it's just a very thin layer. Hence why you can see the imperfections in the metal through it.

The non reflective glass racket strikes me as pinballs biggest scam right now. How does that stuff cost so much, it must be all margin.

Well Roman's stuff is being imported from Europe in small amounts, and it is made in small batches in Germany, to a specific spec ... which is quite costly. But PDI sell it for $295 (as they always have), and Nitro sell it for $225. So one of those two is making a pretty big margin.

AFAIK both Stern and JJP's glass is just standard stuff from presumably large OEMs (whatever is cheapest), made in huge bulk. So they should be making a fortune on it.

There's MUCH cheaper stuff available in Europe ... which in good lighting conditions (few reflections overhead) is even better than Roman's (due to lack of tint), but not quite as good in non-ideal circumstances - in either though, miles better than Stern or JJP's product.

Sorry, but stern's le offerings have always seemed like a big rip off. LOTR LE the brass plating rubs off easily. Their current powdercoat is not exactly screaming quality either. This is ignoring the ongoing cabinet issues, the ghosting playfield issues that are hopefully resolved, the peeling decal issues, node board failure problems, and their general lack of build quality. It was fine when it was a 3500 dollar route machine, not a 9k collector piece.

That said the games have gone from 3500 to 9k in 15 years. In essence stern raises the price of their fully featured machines 1 dollar, every day, for 15 years. Accounting for inflation a game in 2003 dollars would be under 4800 today, yet stern has doubled the price. So, no not going to thank stern one bit.

I just can't justify $3,000 more from Pro to LE. Maybe $1,500 like the Jersey Jack model differences from limited to standard.

Especially when the playing differences seem to be so minor. Games like Star Wars I can understand the jump from Pro to Premium because of the whole extra ramp. When you're talking about a lifting flap and drop targets versus stand up, I just can't justify it

What is the cost of the LE now? $9000? Even with added things it still seems way too expensive imo. Upgrades are mostly cosmetic and don't really add much to the playing experience imo. I would rather save a ton of money and get a pro or get a real premium pin like from JJP.

It still absolutely blows my mind that for 9K they can't include a knocker.

What about shipping costs? Your prices are off a bit.

As an LE buyer I don’t think $9k really is worth it despite the extras

The real test is in the secondary sales and LEs at this price are gonna get crushed if you care about that sort of thing

500 is better but still not close to “limited”

That said I’m buying themes I like.

I’ll say this, the artwork factor upgrade is HUGE imo

The collector is buying a gorgeous piece of art

I think your comparison or math are a bit off? Last I checked (I should say wrote a check) to Jersey Jack the difference from Standard (Pro) to CE (Thats LE in JJ talk) was 8,500 to 12,500. I think that totals up to $4,000 if my math is correct. One companies LE is anothers Premium to keep the comparisons level.

I have both PDI and Invisiglass. Both are great products. With delivery PDI is $40 ($370 versus $330) more so I typically go with Invisiglass. At least in my game room environment the glass makes a big difference.

I'm comparing the standard to the limited edition.

I think he's saying you're cherry picking what you're comparing.
You seem to be comparing the lowest level to the highest on Stern and the lowest to the middle level on JJP. Unless I'm reading your post wrong?

If you're just adding up the cost of the additional items in an LE, I think you're missing some other major benefits. 1) It's a LIMITED edition. 500 of a pinball machine for a popular theme is relatively rare. It's cool to me and other collectors to have something relatively rare. That has value. 2) It's all done and turn-key. My time is valuable and sourcing and installing all the items is expensive to me.

I think the new LEs almost seem to make sense when compared to the big cost jump to get from Pro to the Premiums. You can almost justify the relatively small increase to an LE. Regardless, Stern will hit the ceiling sooner or later--unless they pull another Batman out of the hat and make a $9200 pinball machine seem like a steal, and start another round of price escalation.

As was I only using the correct Jersey Jack model comparison. Easy to simplify. Just call them model A,B,C for both brands and it will make sense.

Show me the value of lotr le vs a standard? Does it pull a little more? Sure, but a lot of people hate gandalf's golden dick backglass. The plating rubs off with use fairly easily. The le's are only worth more *if* the artwork is deemed desirable. Black Spiderman being a great example of this. They are not rare enough that people collect them for the sake of collecting. They are not different from the premiums to justify. The only exception being avatar but a lot of folks dislike the powerball so it is negated.

I can see where it looks like I'm cherry-picking. I just don't think of the collector edition as anything but a dumb money grab that they don't even know what they want to do with yet.
The standard to the limited edition made a little more sense because it did involve many of the same things. Powder coating, invisiglass, numbered and whatever else I'm forgetting. Gameplay from model to model does not change at all unlike the stern games.

In the past a Stern Pro to a premium mostly meant you were getting powder coating at the very least, now it means you're just getting the upgraded gameplay and nothing else.

Oh no argument there.

Prices shouldn't go up every fkn title. Jesus !!
Less stuff/ less wires/coils . prices should still be under 5k on any pro / plain and simple.
7 k for le /
10k by x-mas only about 3 or four titles away from the 10k for a LE.

10k pins last yr for Stern

12k or more this year

Times are good

Some success breeds more success

Especially in the form of hiring more talent

Stern has certainly done that with all their new hires

It’s just a machine with a ton of momentum right now

If you guys remember it was the Metallica LE that accelerated the whole Stern pricing reset

The price they set today is designed to totally extract ALL of the short term flipper profit. Can’t blame them

When GBLE was going for $8k flippers we’re selling them for $9-10k

The end result is there no margin at all on the secondary market for the Nib buyer

So it is what it is

Munsters will hit a new high point for sure!

hmm!

I think you could half all of those prices and you'd still be making money.

I agree with the flipping part - thats a dead business now.

I think you have to be careful with constant price increases and uncertain additional value. Look at the airline industries / car industries, stern are experts at putting the fixed costs to maximum yield, you can see it in the factory (especially when IMDN was on the line). if things slow down...

I look at GB and the pricing then and don't see much difference to DeadPool but its £1000 different in price because here in the UK we're being badly gouged in my view, and no its not because of exchange rate. The prices for the stern games in the UK is now £1000_ more expensive that in Europe with equalisation of fx difference. Not sure if this is Stern or Electrocoin (the distributor here in the UK) but its hurting our limited pinball community hugely. I'm fortunate in that I can afford it but many folks who bought NIB before simply can't afford it now.

Cheers,
Neil.

Most items used to be offered on prem/le before the price increases. How soon you forget.

How soon they always forget. Take shit away & everyone is pissed. Wait till it dies down, raise prices, "add" back in what you took out and you're a hero.

Totally agree.

We in the US complain but you guys are getting crushed. How sustainable is that?

GBLE is a good example. That pin is feature packed for much less, like it or not, and I do

People were still able to flip IMDN early on

I predict Deadpool will see none of that

People always reserve an LE and decide later because distro won’t require pmt until stream or ready to ship

There will be a whole lot more LE dropouts with Deadpool

My distro said deposits are not refundable now, Stern new rules.

No down payment required by my distro

which model will come with a code?

Buy from Nitro ... they do Roman's glass at $225 vs the $295 of PDI. It's exactly the same glass. PDI are just charging an additional $70.

The fuck? How can they dictate to distros as to whether deposits are refundable?

Deadpool looks great but is there anything really new?

No doubt it will be super fun when Deadpool breaks down the wall and taunts in full HD but man, the price rises are starting to sting.

And I just don't think Spike 2 is robust enough to go the long haul.

It's boom time right now so may as well enjoy this time period as it is a great time to enjoy new games.

Spooky has the same policy.

Stern don't sell direct ...

Spooky sells through distributors and direct.
Either way, if you put a deposit down, the distributor might refund your money but they want you to sell your spot.