Something tells me Stern is doing just fine without all the advice. I also have this idea that they are aware of much more than the average Pinsider. Maybe we should all stop whining and just wait. I say this respectfully to everyone. This Monday-Morning quarterbacking saturates all these threads.

Couldn’t agree more. I watch this thread so I can find out if anybody has gotten their Godzilla off the latest run.

Maybe we should publish what percentage of parts are American on the side of the pinball machine. Just like Ford or Chevy which is mostly not made in the US!

I don’t think it’s meant as advice to Stern. It’s a pinball forum so the whole point is to chat with strangers about pinball related topics.

About part shortages: In year three of the pandemic disruption, this argument is weak because companies should have ordered accordingly back in late 2020 or 2021.

What part shortages? Chips? Well, yes, if you wait until a week before you need parts, you are SOL but a semi competent buyer would have known to order parts ahead of time to work around increased lead times. In 2020 this was certainly a bad disruption but in March 2022, this excuse wears thin.

I was wondering this aloud in these forums before. So Stern is idling because they don’t have parts?!?!? Or are they firing on all cylinders and barely can fill orders because of “insane demand”. If it’s the latter, the shortage explanation makes no sense.

Not only parts but it takes how long to get a container shipped and unloaded these days. Guess what none of this crap is going to get any better for a long time.

FWIW I reached out to four different distributors over the last two weeks asking about putting down a deposit on a Deadpool Premium, and two very politely waved me off. Would not accept a deposit, would not put me on a wait-list, didn't suggest a timeline to follow back up. The other two were very clear about their uncertainty regarding production timelines but willing to help.

Is there really so much backlog that distributors can forego future potential sales because of uncertainty in their allocations? Or is it just not worth the hassle?

I find that very defeatist. Yeah, it was taking a fairly long time in 2021 due to a combination of vastly increased demand (stimulus, work from home) and lockdowns that affected ports.

But we are still in a performance based capitalistic market so this isn’t a permanent port congestion problem that will last a long time.

I’m currently importing a whole 40ft container with wall cladding for my house from Xian to Dallas via Los Angeles and the quoted time was 3/22 to 4/26. It cost as much as a JJPPOTC just to ship this time ($22500) LOL! We’ll see how this goes.

Last year, April 2021, I bought a 20ft container load with aluminum panels from Shenzhen and that also arrived in about 5 weeks. And in summer 2020 I bought LCL shipments with glass from Beijing and windows from Austria that also arrived in about 5-6 weeks.

Maybe I was lucky but if a small fry like me who is buying building material for my own house can get full container loads from China in a few weeks then I’d think the logistics pros at Stern can do this too.

Stern needs parts that are in higher demand than wall cladding and glass. Shipping is only part of the puzzle.

Like what? Chips? My main job that pays for my house construction is with a major semiconductor manufacturer. Yeah, we had INSANE lead times early 2021 due to absolutely crazy demand and we were literally firing on all cylinders during 2020 and 2021 but if there’s suddenly this extreme demand for semiconductors, there isn’t enough production capacity available to fulfill orders in a few weeks.
That has gotten a lot better and if for example Stern needed chips for their Spike2 boards, they should have ordered enough via their parts distributor back in 2020 and there would be no shortage. I’d think the same applies to the other mysterious parts that are in short supply.
And yes, for chips they likely don’t have sufficient volume to get priority so that can be a problem. The customers that I work with usually order 10 million or more units of a particular chip so with Stern buying maybe in multiples of 10000 this makes it challenging for them to get “in the queue” but that’s what electronics distributors are for.

A lot can change in a very short time. Candidly, it wasn’t really until mid January that used prices were more than NIB. I know it feels like forever because it’s been hard to score a good deal for two months…and I’m that time if you’ve ordered NIB you’ve heard that your 3-12 months out…but this really is a recent phenomena and I don’t think it’s going to last that long. In December many games used were still less than NIB, and I could have picked up many pros in December at $6200 MAP delivered. I truly believe Godzilla in itself, with the intense demand and the quick backlog early on created a weird environment where people figured they could dump their used Godzilla above msrp, then people started testing JP premiums and DP and next thing you know all used games are above msrp (even tmnt premiums that were mid 7s in January are now starting to get above msrp while a few have remained less). It’s new. But people are getting patient. When everyone that wanted a GZ pro has one from all these upcoming runs and then the dual pro/premium buyers try to dump their pros when they get their premium in august and the fall…well, perhaps we’ll see an over supply of GZ pros where people have a hard time moving used and that will shift the NIB/used market back into normality…

Well I disagree with the time frame to get better - maybe pins will eventually, but we live in a time of "just in time delivery" noone holds inventory anymore. Once that gets disrupted it creates backlogs. Unless the stars align and manufacturers increase their production and the supply chain works its way out - we are in for a long haul. Frankly the only thing that will fix the current problems is if we hit a recession/depression in which demand dramatically decreases.

This happened to me with BM66 a year ago, I called every Stern distributer I could find before I was able to get lucky when someone did drop off of their order.

I think most of us resigned to just waiting it out a long time ago, there have obviously been problems, and the days of paying for a machine and getting it within days/weeks are clearly over. I just hope that:

1) They are able to honour all these (very) long standing orders
2) They do not push another price hike on these preorders

... because there will be either very disappointed folk who have been waiting a year, only to be told they won' t get their machine, or some pretty peeved customers who have perhaps unnecessarily taken 2 price increases.

Scenario 1 for me will be pretty infuriating because I could have purchased another (maybe different) used machine months ago and could have been enjoying it now, but I've just kept holding out for my new DP Premium. Plus, yes I know broken record and all, but I sold my pro under the impression I would be waiting a few months max for the premium and well - here we are. I freaking miss my DP.

Just imagine if they hadn’t recently expanded production!

(Wow that was already 7 years ago!)

Anyone hearing from their distributor an update when to expect GZ pros to arrive?

I am supposedly in on the March run, and am wondering this myself!

Everything I’ve read so far says they’re supposed to be made this week

Same. Hopefully they really will get made this week and we can start hemorrhaging cash again. My favorite part of the hobby!

I’ve got a premium I’m waiting on I was originally told august, possibly March. That was before the extra runs in may,July were added, so I’m hopeful for it coming in may, just in time for my birthday

Some distributors don't want to lock in prices right now when they know they can move those units over MSRP when received at a later date.

My brother in Christ, you have already flipped multiple examples of these games for personal profit

I don't fault them - comes at the cost of developing long-term customers.

I didn’t really understand the feeding the sharks that can’t comment. It looks like he is buying it from the ones that can feed the sharks and selling to sharks that can’t get them from where he is buying.

I mean just say what you’re doing than trying to justify it other wise. I found nib and flipped it. It is what it is but it helped me get a pin a really wanted

Agreed. And his prior thread about distros hooking him up contradicts what he's saying here.

Local folks are acutely aware that he had been sitting on multiple NIBs of the same game

Glad to hear you are following my inventory. I have no nib at all. I have multiple machines on preorder for myself and for people that want me to find a game for them. I wait just like everyone else and pay the prices available to everyone. I just do my homework to find where machines are available. I guess if I sell a machine to you I'm supposed to take a loss?

I think their point is that why do you need to be a middle man at all? If you are truly just “helping” others find games, why not just point them to the right distributor for their preorder so you don’t take a “loss”?

I deal with a lot of people that aren't on pinside, never setup a game, never installed a shaker, don't know how to set it on Freeplay etc. I provide a service just like many retail shops. You might be surprised how many people need help. We also get operators as customers also. Why they don't go to a distro, idk. That is what i try to trade here providing an opportunity to people without the chunk of change it takes to buy one outright.

So the point of a forum is what exactly....?

....and that is why you prefer to buy parts from a sweatshop in China employing 12 year olds as slave labor?

Running out of March - I'm supposed to have a march pro, but crickets so far.

OK, I edited "has" to "had been" since you want to be a pedant and argue semantics.

But let's call a spade a spade. I've talked to multiple folks that have tried to deal with you in the past couple of months, and you've grossly misrepresented what you're doing with respect to flipping.

You don't get to complain about the problem. You're actively contributing to the problem.

Yes. BTW, Chinese companies buy the vast majority of my employer’s products. It’s called doing business internationally.

And even though you obviously are trolling and don’t really deserve an answer, let me shatter your little world with some hard numbers:

The cladding that I want for my house was $10/sf from China. The same product made in Texas, locally, was quoted by several companies between $90 and $120/sf.

I need about 4500sf total. So $45000 from China plus shipping, duties etc about $80000.
Vs. $483412 for the lowest bid locally.

The videos from the factory in China that the sales person sent for the cladding that was made as per my specifications showed adult males that didn’t look like slaves so maybe lay off the Fox News and realize that US companies aren’t competitive in some areas.

And I don’t believe for a second that you would have chosen the US vendor for almost four hundred thousand $ more. Ridiculous.

ok I guess it is ok for you to sell games and no one else. I get it. Now get back on topic instead of bashing.

Exactly…this isn’t “helping people.” Throw away that card and flip away. If you’re not a business then hope you’re claiming tax as well. I heard of a couple big flippers getting caught

Nice strawman and deflection.

I'm not flipping new games for profit. Your disingenuous shit rings real hollow

Anyways…

Here's something for What is on the line at Stern. This is the projected schedule with Godzilla starting this week. If you have any info pertaining to what's on the line or if you are confirmed with an order, please let us know.

Mar 2022 - Godzilla Pro & Premium
Mar 2022 - AIQ Pro & Premium
Apr 2022 - Rush Pro & Premium
Apr 2022 - JP Pro & Premium
May 2022 - Godzilla Pro & Premium
July 2022 - Deadpool Pro & Premium
July 2022 - Godzilla Pro & Premium
Aug 2022 - Star Wars Pro & Premium (original art package)
Aug 2022 - NEW STERN CORNERSTONE
Sep 2022 - Star Wars the pin (original & comic art)
Oct 2022 - JP the pin
Nov 2022 - Elvira Premium
Dec 2022 - TMNT Pro & Premium

The point of THIS thread is in its title. All I am looking for is information about the line. But I have to sift through many, many posts that don't follow the thread. I'm sure there is a thread for pontificating, bitching, bragging, or whatever you'd like.

I talked to my distributor on the phone today. She has heard nothing. She said people are getting their machines shipped but not my distributor, yet. So in short, no, nothing but they are being shipped through some distributors. My guess another week are two and we should be getting those emails/calls....emphasis on the "should"

OK. I can help. At the moment there are delays shipping.

so please bring this bitching Post and put it there as you wished it. Thanks for your patronage

My mistake, internet. I apologize.

Anyo r hear if guardians pro will be run again?

Word is my Mando Premium rolled out Stern’s doors today

No runs scheduled at this time I’m very confident that one is done

Love to hear the good news! Enjoy it!

Hoping for my Jurassic park in April!

That is positive news. Do you know somebody working on the floor?

My distributor told me

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