River Forest, IL
I want to thank everyone on this thread as it has become critical reading a few times a day. I own a few machines and have for several years, but during COVID is when I took a deep dive into the hobby and, for better or worse, spent a bunch of time digging deep into Pinside. I came across the DR threads about a year ago and have been following ever since. During the day, I am a CFO who deals with PE and VC funds. I’ve worked at startups and in buy and build strategies. To come across a narrative that combined most of what I do daily with this hobby was awesome. And to see the long-time stewards of this hobby engage in this ongoing conversation, call BS and try and steer newbies away from an enticing offer was must see/read. I’ve also watched all of Cary Hardy’s material on the subject as well and he was all over it.
To me, the most interesting aspect of this is how COVID impacted and extended the narrative. This thing would have imploded a year ago if not for PPP, and RM was exactly the type of individual that would exploit a once in a lifetime free money opportunity. He already had the org structure in place to capture multiple PPP loans, which had little to no scrutiny when they went out the door. On the flip side, COVID created what is likely an unsustainable surge in demand for pins and therefore increased/inflated pricing. If this thing was legit, you would be balls out to release these machines to capitalize on this trend before any sort regression. Supply chains have been pounded and would have been expected to impact the rollout, but they invited 6 pinball experts into an empty manufacturing facility to show off a shipping crate.
What a crazy story. It took the SEC several years to catch up to the insights that were being exposed here daily. I appreciate the community that exists in this thread and hope to contribute to it someday, positively, of course!
