Quoted from jarch:More likely the bride's parents questioned their daughter's judgment for getting engaged to a guy with such poor decision-making. Paying that much for Mando LE is hilariously stupid. Same thing I told Nic and Brooke over text when they sent their $14,999 price gouge to folks on The Pinball Company's "interested in an LE" list. People like this hurt the pinball gene pool and we'd be better without them.
Quoted from Xelz:Oddly, I contacted The Pinball Company early this year to pre-order a Deadpool premium and they told me Stern wouldn't be producing them anymore, which I knew was wrong because multiple other distributors told me about the planned April/May production run. So I pre-ordered from a different distributor. Now The Pinball Company has Deadpool premiums available for sale... at over $1K what the other distributor charged me.
I'm new to this hobby and starting the learn the reputation of different distributors. Now I know to avoid The Pinball Company in the future.
I don’t know what happened to them, they used to be great.
I bought two NIB games from them in ‘14-15 (separate transactions), and at that time they were great to deal with and didn’t come anywhere close to price gouging; they posted prices at or below MSRP and would “deal” further, and were pleasant to interact with. I had a shipping issue with one of them and Brooke profusely apologized (not their fault), got it resolved immediately, then refunded a small amount of the purchase price for my trouble. At the time, I thought I had found one of the best distributors around...
Then I called them in late ‘18 ready to buy, and Nic treated me like I was wasting his time - very rude and abrasive, and I was really taken aback. It was also around this time that I noticed them beginning to post NIB games above MSRP and inflating used prices to laughably stratospheric levels (though I must give them credit for at least not raising the price on that NIB Jetsons machine they have been sitting on for at least 4 years, lol). I have also seen a few posts here and there over the past couple of years with similar experiences as mine.
For what it’s worth, I have had great experiences buying from GEX, LSOG, Cointaker, and Hemispheres, and I would have no reservations about doing business with Automated/pinballs.com or PinballStar in the future (I have interacted with both, but not bought anything; they were very pleasant, have a good reputation, and I have a strong impression they’re reliable and ethical.)