You can’t be serious.

Double

I agree it doesn't sound right. But I've heard the exact same thing from a couple of places.

That's why diamond and platinum prices are already all over the place.

Hopefully this is not true.

The announcement from Stern does state each model will have a unique art package. This seems to be the only factual difference between the three so far.

price should be $6/$8/$10K

but AFM or MB remake are a great options at $6-8K

Unless the laws have changed, no manufacturer can tell a distributor or retailer what price they can put on, or have to put on an item for sale. This is why you see the auto makers price sheets say MSRP. Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price. Of course, the factory can make life a little difficult for a retailer who does not want to play ball. Apple plays a tough game, for instance.

Car dealers have been known every once in awhile for jacking the price on a hot selling car and there was not much the factory could do about it, although I believe 10 years ago when GM made its great dealer cut, GM made a concerted effort to dump some of its less than stellar dealers.

For the manufacturer, it is not good when a opportunistic retailer tries to fleece the public. It is also not good when a weak retailer starts discounting the price and cheapen the brand.

Stern CAN set a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) though. Doesn't mean the distributor cannot sell for less...but they may not advertise the goods for less than MAP. This includes email quotes, mailing lists, etc. MAP pricing is why you will see some distributors require a phone call to get a price. Some distributors will throw in free shipping or pay your sales tax as a kickback, so long as they show that the machine sold for the MAP price.

I hope nobody buys the diamond and platinum editions to prevent this from happening again.

Did someone make a "Hitler reacts to the Beatles pinball" yet? If so, could you repost the link?

The Batman SLE last time was $15k priced to buy directly from Stern, not through a distributor. So this seems to be a different model.

I'm guessing most distributors do not buy 10 games at a time (outside of the few biggest names), so they are incentivizing them to buy a bigger block than normal.

Reminded me of this VHS promo for Terminator 2 where video stores had to buy blocks of T2 WITH Drop Dead Fred. lol.

If you haven't seen this video it is both completely awesome and awful at the same time:

I think Stern is doing this to deflect the heat away from them this time...Batman 66 SLE created a lot of negative flak directed at Stern. So Stern is letting the distributors throw themselves under the bus for a short term payday if they choose...or reward some loyal customers if they choose.

forgot to divide by 2.

Will you settle for the laughing man?
https://www.captiongenerator.com/1151792/Stern-Pinball-announces-The-Beatles-pinball?fbclid=IwAR2eSOz1Akv3WpRBxyU2T1UKdTwEkwbS39pROjXPzmd4DyfBPTcJX_xVI00

Well that just made my day! Just laughing my ass off in my office

So is pinside getting more hysterical or just dumber?

Tough to determine, but based upon the response to Tamoore's transparently sarcastic toss off post, I'm gonna go with a little of both.

Hey... Don't lump me in with these guys... I'm just here for the LULZ and hitler videos.....

Ok, that was funny.

I heard the gold edition will only contain one alphanumeric display and no LCD screen, and also won't have plastics over the slingshots!

"FOR $8000?!!? Stern is WORSE THAN HITLER!!!!"

I heard that since everyone always complains about the quality of sterns pinballs that they are no longer included. You have to preorder yours from pinball life before you order the game to make sure you have some. Stern figured why pay for something you are just throwing away.

This is outrageous!!!!

Are there no boundaries to this Beatles scam?!?!?!?!?!?

????

?

Nothing new in coin op. People always wonder how they managed to sell 5,000 Popeyes.

The fact that Williams was forcing distributors to buy it if they also wanted the latest Mortal Kombat had something to do with it.

That's crazy, I had no idea they did that

I dare someone to try and watch this without laughing!!

Serious question: given the order in which companies usually build machines, won't distributors waiting for all 3 versions to be made be waiting a _long_ time?

have we seen a difference in versions besides the plate/plaque? maybe they are all the same besides that??

brilliant!

Considering its reported that all 3 version are identical besides art, they should be able to switch up production easier.

Powder Coating will be different.
I suppose gold for the gold edition, wich could look nice with the speaker decals.

If this is true, I think it's a smart way for Stern to sell out all the games and rake in a quick $13.7 million.

Oh yes. The package deal as a marketing ploy.

It's crazy how quickly the industry re-oriented our thinking to these numbers. Took all of two years. Just wait for 2020... that will be $9K/$11K/$13K! AP has already taken that step by adding $400 to OKFest.

Come on, DeepRoot!

2lbfew (resized).jpg

Sure has.

I was buying Tron and IMVE for $4700 shipped. $6k seems crazy for Beatles pro but here we are wishing it was that cheap. lol.

If I remember correctly, LOTR was about $3800 NIB in 2006. Inflation calculator says that would be worth about $4800 today.

People are happy to pay $6k for TNA. Such is the pinball market.

Maybe the guy from "Billy Peppers and the Pepperpots" ?

Why would you think that. Sounds like only trim level differences and maybe different art. Stern will roll these out with a quickness if they are not already building them.

What is just above the lick, upper right of decal. Looks like carriage bolt.

The VOX amplifier speaker panels are so cool and a great touch!

When a new Stern comes out we really need some way to identify what is fact and what is speculation. Like the first post should be updated with what is actually true. So often people post complete sarcasm and speculation like its fact. At the same time Stern seems to like to do things no one believes is possible true.

The game looks ugly. It's a bad color scheme. It has some great art, but it still looks like a Photoshop nightmare. It's disjointed, too loud, and looks like a bad mix of art ideas. It feels like it was done by 2-3 artists that didn't really agree, so they just all did what they wanted and overlaid it. Maybe that's license restriction, maybe it's time restriction, whatever. It doesn't really change the fact that it looks really bad. There is a lot of fantastic art out there from the Beatles over the decades to draw from. This odd purple and teal mixture just doesn't work.

It's also a major bummer that you're finally going to get this license and then focus on, literally, the least interesting time for the band both musically and aesthetically.

It's really hard not to be disappointed with this, rumored prices aside, even if you're a Beatles fan.

Seawitch is a fantastic game and layout though, so there's that.

Like put out multiple titles a year, on a timely basis, not steal anybody's money, and do all of this consistently while also offering the least expensive commercial-grade pinball machines on the market!!!

I still don't know how they do it.

Levi is the new Kaneda.

They have made that their charter and structure their strategy and tactics to achieve that.

Well... best way is to have that sorted out to you by This week in Pinball.

I still don't know how they keep putting out games with broken shots, dodgy code, questionable build quality, and recycled designs, either. But people keep giving them a pass, so why not?

Iron Maiden was legit great, but everything around it has been average at best or subpar for a while.

That is a laughably low bar for any other business, for some reason in Pinball, that's considered a success.

I will admit, I have thought he may have actually sold his account to his buddy???

Hey, Pinball is hard!

Stern just makes it look easy.

Levi is about a 6x multiplier smarter and 12x bonus more clever than the K guy.