Why would you muddy the waters with a ton of individual investors, when you can just have the bank give you all the money you need in one shot? Is the bank charging a much higher interest rate?

I don't think it was very smart to basically reveal Stern's wholesale pricing to the world on the K podcast. Nothing like biting the hand that feeds you! I honestly think when the next crunch hits, manufacturers are going to cut out distributors and go to direct sales in order to maintain their margins. I've seen it happen in other hobby segments, and it would't be much of a stretch to see it happen in this one as well. Or think about Stern knocking the pinball manufacturing world to their knees by offering games directly for "just over 3900" per game.