I'm not convinced the BOM & R&D cost for pinball machines has ever been remotely close to the retail price.

Obviously there's quite a few companies blaming price rises on chip shortages and the like, but it could just as easily be that they are testing the market's amenability to these price rises. If they sell enough units to enough willing customers, then why should Stern or indeed any profit-seeking entity care that they are losing one "loyal" customer, if that customer is being replaced by someone else anyway?

There will be people priced out of the hobby, in terms fo purchasing NIB, but thems the breaks I'm afraid. It's the same with everything else that goes up in price. It's a bit twee to imagine that these companies owe their fans anything beyond whatever the warranty demands. It always surprises me that people seem to think that a repeat buyer is somehow deserving of some kind of special treatment, or a discount, when another buyer is out there who will buy at the new price.

As hard as it might be to grasp but the only thing that is going to put pressure on Stern and other profit-seeking entities to lower prices is competition and insufficient demand, pure and simple. As with pooling, the only power you have is not to buy the next product, but if someone else will then you've basically got no leverage.