I'm fairly sure it's being done by distributors and this has been going on for at least 3 years now. It's just been a while since there has been inventory on amazon. I've seen Gameroom Goodies (listed as seller), QUALITY TABLEGAMES (listed as seller), and Kinney Billiards and Games (listed as seller) respond to questions on the ads. They also list ‎Stern Pinball [DROPSHIP] for manufacturer. It's possible stern created the entries and as distributors have inventory to list on amazon they can use the existing listings

https://www.amazon.com/stores/SternPinball/page/83EBFB25-0C8F-49B3-A7ED-2EBDBD919CB8

Considering you've been able to do this going on at least 4-5 years if not longer I wouldn't worry too much.

Stern has always answered my calls and gave me just as much support as a dealer, Just saying they back their products and think they deserve credit where credit is due. But the tax sucks.

Wait it’s not normal to pay sales tax? LOL just got killed on sales taxes for my GZ premium I just finalized payment on.

A lot of places you can buy and get shipping from another state and pay no tax.

I wish that worked in Canada lol!

Same here. Stern support has been awesome.

Technically, if you buy out of state you are supposed to declare the purchase on your taxes and pay it I believe.

You can usually avoid sales tax if you order from somewhere out of state. But the other side of that is shipping costs so…

No, it's called 'retail'

Totally depends on your state and your distributor. It used to be the norm to no pay if bought cross-state lines.. but recent SCOTUS decisions made it so states could mandate sellers collect tax from out of state buyers. The qualifying points depend on the states involved.

In general.. the days of no sales tax due to out of state sales are dying quickly.

This is correct. Your state tax form will ask for a "use tax", where you declare anything you bought from out of state that wasn't sales-taxed.

What’s the consensus on how the backlog is going? I really feel like they’re doing well catching up apart from GZ premium orders from large distros. The next few releases might put them back to square one though if they’re popular enough. Or maybe people are actually starting to cool on how many games they have on order? I had a GZ and DP on order and have received both now and have no plans to order any other current games, just waiting to see what comes next.

Things are definitely getting better. Today I saw all of the following games were advertised as in stock now- Beatles Gold and Platinum, SW Pin, GZ Pro, DP Pro and Premium, Avengers Pro and Premium, Mando Pro and Premium, LZ Premium, Rush Pro. Not bad. Of course not all of these titles are available everywhere, but they are out there.

Anyone know when the next build date is for JP Premium?

Not till next year now. Pro's are this month though

They recently ran a batch of JP prems and just seen you're in the UK, they probably haven't made their way over there yet so your distros may get some soon, they may all be spoken for though!

We’re not really in a position to buy until next year - so I don’t really want it to turn up until the next production run!

I just want to make sure I get one before it goes out of production…

That would be a joke to put the most probably most wanted game (GZ premium) on hold until next year and to introduce a new cornerstone game in August. Ridiculous.

They've already skipped one cornerstone to catch up on backlog. Stopping all new product until no demand for GZ makes no sense. People who have GZ will want new product, and people who have no interest in GZ want new product.

Stern has limited manufacturing capability right now. We all can see they cannot make enough games to meet demand. So then it comes down to which people you piss off. The customer that has been waiting 6 months for their game, or the POTENTIAL customer that MIGHT like your next game and order it.

When it comes down to pissing off an actual customer or a potential customer, the actual customer should be the one you take care of. Every time.

100% disagree. People waiting will wait and they need to keep fresh ideas on the market and roll out new concepts.

If you really want one that badly you can get one.

What if their model is a tiered system with the largest profit margin on the item with the most rabid buyers?

Waiting already 6 months and being told to wait at least another 6 month makes them think of moving elsewhere, another newly introduced pin or a pin from another manufacturer. So they kill a portion of safe sales.

Does anybody know if Rush production is over? We are in July now and last thing I saw showed Rush wrapping up in June. I would guess it will be strictly Godzilla for the next ten years?

Lololololol

This completely ignores the reality that licensed themes have contracts and contracts have deadlines. COVID lockdowns softened those contract deadlines a little, but those days are pretty much over from a licensor standpoint. They need to hit their marks on licensed releases.

Stern distributors should email each customer when they’ve ordered a game and include poll question asking how happy are they with their purchase decision, on a 10 point scale. Then every month resend email including poll. When distributor misses first delivery in six months, one starts to get perturbed. When Stern pushes out and extends your order a second time, one may begin giving Stern 3’s and 4’s. If another deadline comes and goes now one might lower satisfaction to a 1 or 2. Then game is delivered and the monthly emails quit arriving. Your last poll reflects a satisfaction of 1 or 2.

However, now you start playing your game and maybe you like it or even love it already. If one were to be given a poll that month, one might select an 8 or 9 or 10 for satisfaction. If one doesn’t like the game after buying it, they might only raise their poll to a 5.

My take away based on fake summary data, is the timing of where one is in the purchase cycle affects how happy one is with their purchases. So it goes to reason if a person has 2-5 games on preorder, there will be various degrees of displeasure until each games is delivered. In that sense, the guy with many pre-orders may be more upset than those without any games expected.

I think Stern is already bored of building GZ, Rush, JP, DP...... they'd much rather be making something (or somethings) else.

Give them six months and it'll be the same old story:

Pinheads: "We want GZ premium"
Stern: "Here's some Pro's"
Pinheads: "We want GZ premium"
Stern: "HERE'S SOME PROS"
Pinheads: "We are waiting for premiums"
Stern: "Discontinued. Low demand, no need to renew the license"
Pinheads:

You forgot the price increase

Price increase expected on august title or not till new year?

If TS4 taught us anything it was open thy wallet and bend over. I’d be shocked if their wasn’t a price increase in august. The fact is GZ still sells at 12k and LE’s can get up to 17k. AND THEY SELL ALL THE TIME, stern sees that and they want that money for themselves. AND how convenient is it now cry covid and inflation is hard we need to increase our prices. Expect 8k pro’s really soon (guess)

Really? The only reason why I for example wait for a GZ Premium is because I won’t have space until the end of 2022. I ordered in February. If they can’t deliver in 2022 I will cancel and do something else with my money. Maybe some fancy ski vacation.

The idea that I would wait years for a toy is just absurd to me. I’m sure Stern doesn’t care because right now business is awesome for them but it’s still a lost sale because of their failure to execute.

Agreed. They've also got multiple design teams that are working on stuff. Do they just fire those guys, or pay them to hang around and play pinball in the Stern arcade? Pissing off some customers is never the optimal situation, but sometimes there are other business realities to contend with.

Anyone get an invoice for JP pro or hear of possible delivery dates?

They need to be careful with prices. A lot of people are not buying Toy Story because of the price. If the economy tanks no one will be buying these over priced games

Not even close to true.

Some people will think twice or not buy but to say no one will be buying is just not even remotely true. A recession doesn't mean everyone is out of work, most people will still be fully employed and buying things as usual. People living hand to mouth aren't buying pinball machines anyway.

I don't know if I totally agree with that. The rocket in prices has brought people in to the hobby with riches in their eyes making some risky decisions. If things slow down or the market softens, it's gonna hurt.

History shows high priced nonessential items durning an economic downturn are the first things dropped by consumers.

pinball is not nonessential

I don't think this is right at all.

When has Stern been in danger of going under?
Just after 2001 when the .com bubble burst.
Just after 2009 when the housing market blew up.

Seems to me, a recession would put a big dent in their sales but they have also learned how to survive.

They'll be just fine selling 4,000 LE's a year to those with money no matter what happens, but their premium and pro sales could go into the crapper.

Great business model. Very resilient, and they learned it the hard way.

Stern isn't the same Stern as it was then. It's basically controlled by an investment group now that bailed them out after they almost went under in the housing crash era.

Just curious, who is the investment group?

Oh I didn't know they were taken over...... ouch, so it's not just JJP.

Some people do treat this like a bad drug addiction. Lol.

In 2009 it was Hagerty Peterson and Company that invested in Stern when it was on life support and Gary had fired most of the talent because he couldn't pay them. After the deal, Gary stayed on as CEO. Money terms were not disclosed. No idea if the investment company has since sold their stake to another investment company or are still holding it because the namesake Bill Hagerty was a Trump appointee for Ambassador to Japan and then rejoined Hall Capital in 2019.

As of 2013 Gary had said that the revenue since the investment partnership had tripled. I'm sure it's done a LOT more since then because the 2022 BOM and 2008 BOM are wildly different while the price is literally doubled or more.

Just dropped out of pre-order to keep that cash in reserve. Still think I'll buy but maybe not now, and "not now" can turn into not never when I find another use or need for the cash.

Debating on doing this with my GZ premium, I imagine at some point the market will be flooded with them and could possibly pick up a used one.

Like in the next month I’d imagine. Just wait till the next game is announced and people who had their GZs on a credit card trying to make a quick buck will flood the market

You can get one now for msrp in a package if you have the patience to try and sell a distributors unwanted stock

I just traded mine for an absolutely loaded Stranger Things premium figuring i can get one back within the year if I miss it that much

Never a rush to get a game, you are right. It's the hottest game now but who knows what's next. Should be lots of them in a year or two.

AC/DC was the hottest game once. They made a ton. Could order one at any time. Then brought it back with a vault. Try to find a used one for anywhere close to MSRP.

Yeah I never see them for sale