Orbits. There’s a post back there that will come up to feed the ball to the lanes.

Gonna disagree with you there. For me I paid $9,200 LE price + $500 distro mark-up (reasonable for repeat LE customer, considering lower distro alloc and high demand) + $450 shipping = $10,150 total out of pocket. The $16,000 hilariously stupid price is a 57% mark-up, which doesn't include unknown shipping costs assuming you don't live next door to the LE scalper.

So 25-30% scalpers markup is acceptable with you? You do realize many distros don’t charge tax, give discounts for paying without a CC and even offer free shipping.

Lower allocation? I thought the 750 Le mark was higher than most.....no?

Not sure if he means his distributor was given less. Mine was which I thought was weird with more LEs

Stern sold direct and (according to other Pinsiders) more systems heading overseas (higher return?). I heard that from 4-5 distros I talked to during LE hunt. So yes, higher than usual LE pool, but less available to my distro. Mind you, I usually see 500-600, so 750 is not double the amount.

Yes, lower allocation to distros in US (mine at least and some others I talked with). Should've been more clear.

Who the hell are you buying your games from???

Yeah. I heard the LE's are first this time from a distributor. I was just wondering if they have ever run LE's before the Pro's.

Yes heard larger dealers received four and smaller one LE. About 350 out of 750 left the USA. Some saying $18k+ by Xmas??

I've only been in the hobby for two years and have 7 new machines but has any other machine by Stern sold out LE's before launch? I heard Iron Maiden sold out in an hour. How much is an Iron Maiden LE worth now?

AIQLE sold out very quickly I think.

GBs were gone ASAP too.

I love Swords of Fury also. But those are drop targets and the ball then disappears behind them after knocked down and reappear elsewhere. Completely different experience than the comparison to Congo which I think is fair.

FYI. I love my Congo. I've had it the longest in my collection but I've disable the under playfield in the settings.

Reality is its more about 'how easy is it to get' vs 'sold out'. Every time there is places where distros have hold back or people are buying for speculation. And games always come up HUO quickly afterwards.

Games like Metallica and Star Trek really were the games that established the 'buy before release' pattern of FOMO.

There's been a ton of games with plastic ramps across the playfield.

Let's move on shall we to the next outrage.

I think it all looks pretty great but the magnet. Kind of a weird way to use it, if they could have just made it stop, hold the ball, and then fling it towards a target once every 16 games it would be just like Baby Yoda in the show

I think though they may have been trying to mimic how basically he can use the force but isn't very effective with it since he's young, so the magnet grabs the ball and holds it a little bit, then just drops it.... which is kind of what he did on the show several times.

Everybody wanted this to be Back to the Future and all they got was the big huge plastic ramp!

bttf (resized).jpg

Comparing to this Stern has seriously upped their theme integration.

As a repeat LE buyer, I paid $9,199 shipped. My distributor did not mark up the price, and unlike with other brands, I have never paid shipping for a NIB Stern game... I was under the impression Stern covers it. Is that not the case?

I missed on the LE was on list for 2 months but at the end of the day the distributor didn’t get enough. However that’s ok with me as I can wait to see the game and play it first which is a good policy. But not always able such as when I bought R&M which sold out in a few hours. But here with Stern it’s nice that the premium or pro can be got later.

Just watched Todd Tuckey's Mandalorian reaction video, and he's also saying the LE's are before the Pro's. Where can you actually look it up?

Nope - but distributors often use 'free shipping' in their balloon game of where you put the discounts.

It used to be 10k by Christmas..... must be getting older

Bonkers when the LE is EXACTLY the same game as a Premium, and the Premium has better art work.

Ain't artificial scarcity a wonderful thing?

I've bought a few LEs in the past and I always got MSRP + shipping. Honest distributors don't sell over MSRP. There's a lot of hype with this game and the theme brings demand. I get that, but my past experiences have always been very positive.

Wow - I guess my distributor will continue to get my business then.

Stern told us directly. Gary Stern. Pros have to go out first to get them on location for launch parties that start in early June. This was webinar for stern army people. It’s not publicly accessible.

It amazes me that artificial scarcity actually works but wow does it work. I get the whole illusion and how it motivates people and all that but once they pull back the curtain and everyone knows exactly why and how it's done... You guys ever feel like your at a really bad magic show and the people around you are just blown away and think its real. My favorite part is the people getting angry about scalping LEs when an LE is just Stern scalping a premium.

I know a few locations near me had got LEs in past but don’t think will be happening at these prices.

Thanks for the info.
So Todd is old and doesn't realize what he's saying at 3 min on his new video?

I don’t know where he got his information. I got mine from Gary Stern and Roper at stern less than 48 hours ago.

Also keep in mind LEs never go out first. Pros always do.

Yeah, I know that's the usual plan. But why do I keep hearing from multiple sources that LE's are first? Wouldn't make sense to me, but....
I always buy Pro, for multiple reasons, but mainly because they are always the best version. I'm hoping I can go pick mine up very soon....

Zero clue. My guess is they are either confused, or were provided incorrect information. For me, I’ll go with what stern says.

Also possible that the first run pros are mainly for locations. Some make it into homes as well. Then LEs. Maybe that is why Todd and others don’t mention pros as first as it’s pretty impossible to get the first pros.

It just makes more sense to run
pro>LE>premium
over
LE>pro>premium
because LE and premium have the same components and would hardly requires any change to the production line.

I'm seeing a lot of people question where certain shots lead to and such. I put out a quick video (6 mins - no fluff) going over the shots for those interested.

These days you can get as much or more by paying with a CC that has a high percentage awards.

So at the risk of offending some people, what is the value added here by distributors ? I understand in olden days you would visit the shop and order and then to pick it up. But these days all it seems a distributor does is put in the order at Stern on your behalf and Stern drop ships it directly to you. Please correct any misconceptions I have here as I admit being mostly clueless about their business model here.

Did not look at the video yet. What happens to a ball that gets ambushed? (Meaning the scoop is up and ball goes through..)

Olden days you could play it first at the distro location.

Even in what you describe you get a consumer advocate from Stern's real customers, distributors. If you have an issue you bought one machine but a distributor buys many and has a vested partner interest from Stern. Stern Pinball gets a huge global network of advocates/sales/support to deal with customers.

Do you think anyone would be able to talk to Stern on the phone with their current employment numbers if all sales were direct?

If all sales were direct Stern would be required to hire out a support staff. Your position doesn't really make sense.

Correct, Stern has no incentive as it currently doesn't have to pay anyone or manage them. They also get all their money upfront and sell through everything to distributors. Every pin is sold out to Stern, it's distributors jobs to rotate their own stock.

Edit: This doesn't factor all the other things into account like free travel and advertising of distributors going to shows, doing podcasts, or sponsoring streams. Zach Meny may as well be a Stern Employee yet they don't have to pay for his 401k or health insurance.

Lol probably The Pinball Company

Anyone else (I do see a few posted here already) interested in sharing what they paid for a fully-paid Mando LE? I paid MSRP plus shipping.

Stern won’t end up selling direct because right now their customers are only the distributors and they have all the power over the distributors and can control them. If you sell direct you now have every customer you’re responsible for keeping happy, they’ll never sign up for that when the distributors are begging for that opportunity to be the buffer between stern and the customers.

I posted in the other thread that Classic Game Rooms was selling their LEs for 11,500. That included shipping and there was a $200 discount for repeat customer and $200 discount if you didn't use a CC to pay for it. I am waiting to play after the reveal. Hoping it is a good game.

Think stern will ever jump on the Collector editions?
Or we just call then vault editions? Just make a LE with different art add 1k to le price.

Loops underneath the right ramp and comes down the right orbit guide.

JJP's The Hobbit, Smaug (the dragon) will point its head towards the last switch that was triggered (until you trigger Smaug Multiball).
Making it appear as if he's following the ball.

Perhaps Grogu will do the same?

Distributors buffer production. They buy games, warehouse them and sell them on, freeing up Stern to concentrate on manufacturing and not having to store unsold inventory. They also provide support, although this varies greatly from dist to dist depending on customer needs (some want white glove delivery, others are load the box n go).

When you order a game and it is dropshipped, that means the distributor was out of that title at the time. This is occurring more and more often as pinball has become even more popular and there are more titles in production. Hard to keep stuff in stock, but distributors still have their place.