Congrats to Stern! But from a broader, longer term view, I am confounded by the fact that relatively mobile, nationally based companies that rely on shipping of limited production products would ever consider maintaining their manufacturing operations in such tax-heavy states like Illinois or New Jersey. Only the big companies can secure preferential tax treatment in Illinois. It really isn't that difficult to move your key personnel to either Texas or Florida. Profit margins can be totally consumed by high real estate and corporate taxes. I do not claim to truly understand the elasticity of the NIB pinball market, but I suspect if Stern or JJP sold their products for significantly less! they would sell a lot more product and probably benefit their bottom line. Ultimately, the most efficient model would be to build one platform with easily interchangeable play fields and software and build them in a third world company. I love to buy American, but it seems foolish to build something as technologically basic as a pinball machine in some of the highest cost manufacturing locales in the world. If you did it right, Ironman Vault Edition could be done for $1999, WOZ and TH for $2999, and private collectors could each own a stable of pinball machines. Besides pinball machines, what other electronics product goes up in price over time? Have you checked out the price of a lap top lately? It is time for the Stern's of the world to rethink their strategy.