I have often wondered what the profit margins are at Stern.

Not because I dispute the price, but because they can’t be making much.

Huge cost increases can be attributed to the whole building of designers, animators and programmers now that there are these LCD screens.

Technology has shaved the price of board components and made the electronics more modular, reducing assembly time.

Licenses are expensive. Stern is not doing low-end licenses.

Blah blah blah. Let’s say it’s a push.

Let’s pretend the a $6000 pro, out the door and on a truck to a distributor costs stern, from design to marketing to engineering to packaging, $3000.

So they sell to Cointaker, Marco, Yo Grammy’s Pinball Haus, etc for $4500 (making that up).

Who then will bring it to my curb, delivery included, for $5800 - making $1300 minus cost of operation.

Let’s pretend those are ball parks. $1500 a game? How many do they sell? 100k?

1.5 mil profit. That seems like very little. 50% return if sales are good. A strike, a massive recall, a shelved game could erode that considerably.

Parts? It’s the value of the intellectual property (patents, design) and tooling necessary to stamp out those bat wings.

I really want an Avengers. How much is my divorce gonna cost.
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