I saw that on FB, but wasn't sure what to make of it.

https://video-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t42.1790-2/21211647_1120370348095467_176599425894842368_n.mp4?efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InN2ZV9zZCJ9&oh=6b5c082a812b99fdd28fecf3fc5c3994&oe=59A5FFEB

He DID say it! Not announced yet!

I'm sorry, but the only thing I see in Gary's eyes are $$$$$$$$$

I think that's great news! Spreading the love of pinball down south.

The thing I found more interesting in the speech is 15 people pooled together to buy an Aerosmith LE. Which brings two things in mind a) great collaboration b)pinball machines are getting too expensive

Not sure that's what Stern is thinking when they begin production in Brazil.

So what's wrong with that?

If the headline was - US manufacturer expands global market by opening factory in Brazil - would you be so negative?

It is a good sign for pinball, at least until they start importing them here.

Doesn't Brazil have crazy tariffs on stuff like this?

Why did they move to a larger factory if they are going to farm out building some to other countries?

Well obviously. But yeah, bottom line is that the product will be cheaper down there for OPs thus spreading pinball down south. They just built that new facility in Chicago so I assume we wont see anything being imported from Brazil.

Setting up a factory in Europe would make more sense. ...

I've seen a lot of people bash Stern for this. How much was a new pin in 1990. According to my rough calculations $3500 in 1990 would be about $6500 now, and $4500 in 1990 would be about $8500 now. I agree, pinballs are very expensive, but was wondering if there has been a huge price increase, or is most of this inflation?

I suspect they are going for cheaper labor costs.

From reading comments from Pinsiders in South America, taxes on some imported goods is as high as 100% and as low as 50%. If the product is assembled in Brazil it would avoid the higher import tax.

How huge?

I believe back in the 70's and 80's pins were produced by Taito in Brazil just for the Brazilian market. Most of them were essentially Bally/Williams games (see Black Knight for example) with similar artwork but produced with the Taito name.

I would guess this was done because the tariff's were so high but the people wanted pinballs, so the market was born for Taito. Taito made some of their own unique games too.

Maybe Stern producing them there directly will result in lower prices (and therefore increased sales) for the Brazilian market, and none of them will be exported out of the country (also due to the tariff's).

Just speculation of course.

Inflation calculations only work if you maintain similar quality. They've obviously cheapened the product and process along with raising costs.

So they finally ran out of the "Made In The USA" stickers for the glass?

You can't bring new completed pinball machines into Brazil (so says a friend of mine who is from Brazil but now lives in Rockford, IL). So Stern can't sell games there. If they build them in Brazil, then they can sell them in Brazil.

Will take years to build up a new factory in Brazil that is up to the standard of their existing one. Once they do, the existing big factory gets used for warehousing and management. Maybe the old factory is used solely for making LE's and boutique small run games, and for sampling/prototyping, and the new one is used for pros/the pin etc. This exact path has been followed by Western European manufacturers over the past 10-20 years. What used to be large state of the art manufacturing facilities are now just state of the art logistics, admin and sampling/prototype production - all the actual production is in eastern Europe, Africa or Asia.

Is the market currently so big in Brazil to justify its own production?

I kind of like that concept. The pinball club owns all the games and chips in together for new equipment.

Not sure what happens when someone moves away. Do they buy that person out?

I wonder if it's open to the public for coin drop play, or if it's just a private warehouse.

it's hard to get anything in and out of brazil without paying a fortune. Maybe this will open the door for us and we can start importing from brazil for reasonable. I like the sound of that. For obscure game collectors like me, this is good news as there is a lot of goodies there, i'm trying to get here.

Pinball Sales in South America can not be huge numbers? 50 units a year? 100 units? What would be a fair guess?

some, but mainly euro stuff that you guys seem to have a lot of.

Maybe it's a local partnership/license agreement?

It was not uncommon in coin-op past to set up "final assembly" plants in other countries to avoid paying super high import taxes. In the video era, logic boards and art packages were sent over and cabinets were built locally and things like control panels, Coin Doors and Monitors and power supplies were sourced elsewhere for import.

Remember, there was once an Atari Factory in Ireland.

While the local consumption of Pinball in Brazil may not justify production, there may be other export advantages to build in Brazil and export to other nearby countries.

Playfields will more than likely be assembled in the US and then exported to the final build factory location.

Rumor has it that they intend to go into casino gaming after the current pinball boom winds down.

That's where all the money is. New slots are $25k+.

Real rumour? Wouldn't surprise me. Seems to be the natural path of devolution for pinball manufacturers.

Heard it from a very reliable source when they first announced the move. I've mentioned it here a few times.

yes, but with the massive profit margin they are making, they should not be moving manufacturing out of the USA. Unless they are building them there, for there only.

Would be nice if they did some manufactoring closer to Australia too

What are the economic Ratios from Brazil?

Would it result in Grey Market Imports, or used containers in the Future?

A good thing for them, as likely a Major Commercial Market to tap.

That was the plan from day one with the new factory

What the numbers on $3200 in 2000? That's what I paid for my NIB RFM from Betson

Edit

Inflat (resized).png

In the 70s, Gottlieb shipped unassembled game components to Manaus, Brazil because it was a Tax Free Zone and assembly was finished there by Fipermatic, a Brazilian import and export firm. These components were:

Backglass
Playfield
Lightbox insert
Lower cabinet insert (aka motor board)

Gottlieb did not ship the playfield glass or the cabinet. Those components would have to be procured (locally) by the recipient.

The "Old Stern" did the same in 1978-1980, shipping "knock-down games" to Australia, where the cabinet and playfield glass (among other components, like maybe the speaker, IIRC) were procured locally for final assembly by Leisure & Allied Industries, Inc. I've been working intensively for over a year now with a few very helpful collectors in Australia to pictorially document these LAI games on the IPDB and still am not done. One game, Cosmic Princess, was sold only in Australia as Stern did not sell it in the USA.

Ah. Good to know. Not trying to defend, just understand. I guess, as long as people are paying, the price will keep going up. Just glad that pinball has returned from the dead and now new companies are getting in. Competition is good for consumers.

Bingo.

No panic people ... this is what will be happening.

Stern will ship components to a plant in Brazil for final assembly ... all to skirt around the Brazilian import taxes.

You might find that they will ship fully completed playfield assemblies ... maybe cabinets in knock down form, or maybe the local guys will make the cabinets locally. Anyone can make a pinball cabinet and slap some stickers on it.

This is what happened with arcade games in New Zealand in the 70s/80s. We had horrendous import taxes to protect the local manufacturers. So the gaming companies imported only the game boards and controls from the manufacturer, and the cabinets and TV components were made here. Yes, NZ used to make its own TVs....

In the 70s, Stern Pinball used to ship components to LAI in Australia for the same reason. LAI assembled all the parts locally to avoid the taxes.

rd

Edit: IPDB posted the same stuff at the same time.

Great article here when Atari opened a manufacturing plant in Ireland

https://arcadeblogger.com/2017/08/25/atari-ireland/

I bought a Bally Playboy NIB from Mountain Coin in Denver in February 1979 for $1695.00 plus tax. The CPI calculator puts this dollar amount at $6004.52 for July 2017.