Sounded like for the foreseeable future 2 a year, not just next year

In the live stream, Gomez said about the pop bumpers, "What do you care if they're tied together, honestly?" which seemed very cavalier and not thoughtful.

One cost of that decision is down the line for locations especially, and home customers secondarily. Coils have a life, and firing them up to 2x more frequently than necessary because they're tied together will reduce that. He kept saying he'd have to remove stuff to have them work normally, without admitting a AUX board being added would have solved it. So Stern saved money on an Aux driver board (they've done before) to do it right and passed the shorter coil life cost to their customers, i.e. business as usual. But it probably wouldn't have been well-received if he said that out loud.

I hear ya, but I'd rather have to replace a coil than repair or replace a board with surface-mount components... and how often do solenoids really go bad?

Has anyone reported problems with Aux solenoid driver boards (Not talking about the servo driver in RUSH)? I haven't heard of them failing.

So just to confirm, are we to expect NIB pins to have a price increase across the board effective 1/1/23? Meaning I see some vendors with a couple Premiums at 8,899 but will those auto increase to $9,500+ once the ball drops?

If I were in the market for an available Premium then I should lock it in this month?

Correct. If you want something that someone has in stock atm, you should probably move on it, unless you want to give more money after 1/1, for the same thing.

Reply fail.

He is talking about other premium titles. Bond already at the new after Jan 1 price.

Yeah, specifically seeing Mando or Star Wars available but not sure if they are worth the $8,999 price.

Be careful thinking you can "lock in" a price, most places will charge the going rate when your game ships. to get one with today's pricing, buy it today.

yes and no, lol.

If you order a game that is in stock, like tmnt, star wars, mando, rush, lz, as long as you order it and have a check mailed to me on or before 12/31, you are "locked" in on the 2022 prices. if you order the same game on or after 1/1/23, it is now 700 more. The ship date can be after the first, since i obviously cant ship a game new years eve night if someone orders that day.

Now if you are ordering a game like jp or deadpool, that wont be in stock till middle of the year or so, you cant pay for it in full now at current price and it stay the same price. Its only applicable to games that are in stock

so if you want any of these titles that i have in stock, order it now and save 700
tmnt premium
star wars premium
mandalorian premium
rush premium
led zeppelin premium

It can be worth it if you put it on your Amazon card for no fee and get 5% back. Not a terrible deal if you have a bunch of points and plan to pay it off on the first billing cycle. $9k game, no CC fee, free shipping, get a good chunk of sales tax back in credit card rewards plus use any rewards you currently have to drive down the cost. (I'm speaking strictly for the ones from Stern, not the goofball markup place)

I keep checking for that too. Can’t wait to get that installed. Love the aces high theme.

It's amazing how many people are just willing to let this slide and ignore it. We should be ADVANCING in pinball mechs, not going backwards like all machines are Home units being cheapened out. Especially with the constant and high price increases.

If anything, we should be seeing two-stage pop bumpers! But stern continues to cheapen, under impress, and raise prices all while acting like they are doing us all a favor.

I vote and will continue to vote with my wallet.... I'm not sure I will ever buy another stern NIB ever again... I find myself loving the older titles more and more and more. Wish I would have kept all of my old machines!!

I own a lot of older games where two pop bumpers are tied to one relay. I could care less.

*couldn't

George stated in the Marco stream that he would challenge any of you to show him how this makes any difference. I’m going to go with George here.

Probably not touching a “mint” IJ for less than 15k

I bought mine years ago for 6500 and have put about $3000 into it and probably 80 hours into restoring it. It’s pretty cherry. No topper. That elite topper is crazy money and does it really add that much towards the game. I don’t know I’d have to see one in person I guess. Just sold a TZ for around 10. I really was only into 90’s Williams and Bally pins. But since stern has come out with some really fun machines with deep code. Those newer sterns have kinda made the old TAF TZ IJ Totan code seem so basic. Don’t get me wrong I still love them but with limited funds and space I can’t keep them all. I guess it’s to each their own.

Transformers is SAM?

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Even worse choice than Avatar, IMO. These are C and D list Stern choices.

Stern will look at all Sam system games. See what game is demanding "Top Dollar". That's what they will pick. Out of Transformer $5500 and Avatar, Avatar $6500 will advance in this two game list.

I asked George Gomez about Stern Vaulting a game yesterday and I got the impression that while Vaults are technically a thing at Stern they probably won't do one anytime soon.

Those two are in the lower-value tier of SAM machines on the used market. If Stern is looking at "top dollar" SAM machines, it'd be:

AC/DC Prem $10k-$11k
TRON Pro $10k-$11k
Metallica Prem $10k-$12k
Star Trek Prem $8k-$9k
Walking Dead (hopefully vaulted with a Star Wars-like comic overlay on cab and PF, which would be less ugly and allow it to print money) $8.5k-10k

Since TRON didn't have a Prem, a vault would likely be a Pro+ upgraded pro machine. But with the parts situation and the line of backed-up new, unannounced designs waiting on the runway to take off, I can't see Stern doing a vault soon.

+ Metallica

Added. For some reason, I didn't see the higher sale prices.

Yes, I would think it would be one on this list to be vaulted. IMHO

Yes all these games are going for a pretty penny. And all have extra added to them to get ask that and get that price. Just to name a few in no particular order. Sound System, Art/Mirror Blades, Speaker Light Kit, PinStadium lights, Plastic Protectors, Topper, Power Coating and other mods.

It's just getting harder to justify NIB at the newer price and then start adding all the upgrades. Now if all were (fully loaded).

Prices are starting to level off some thought from what I've been seeing. Nothing will make IJ a fun game to me no matter how much it costs. It's more of a trophy that's a cool title. The slow wide body flow and everything else just gets boring quick... But hey, it sure looks nice and is a cool title and that seems to be more of a thing now than ever.

Cmon Mang show Bond LE photos.

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Ridiculous argument given the price increases. What if the ONE coil fails? Now the entire pop area is out! This isn't about gameplay, it's about STERN BEING CHEAP.

Stern can and will most likely start removing all kinds of mechs, lightning, mechs, and things (and charge more) and then say "you won't notice a difference". But he's not kidding anyone but himself.

Take it up with George man

To each their own man! Raiders of the lost ark is one of my favorite movies. Theme is huge for me. The game is fun for me. Prices are what people pay man.

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Oh, don't get me wrong. It was just for purposes of my list of more valuable/likely vaults than Transformers and Avatar, which are both low-wattage performers on the secondary market. I actually don't get the lauding of TRON's pin. Just not my cup of tea. LotR Spike is the one vault to rule them all. A Money Mauna Loa for Stern when they finally get around to getting it out.

Got his cell #?

I wish lol

Aurich is worried he will be building toppers 24/7.

"I wish I could sell more of these Tron toppers!"

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Sell me your Tron and I’ll buy a topper.. that will get you a Godzilla and then some.

I’d rather replace a solenoid than a board *shrug*

This isn't how it works, they don't decide "we're vaulting some SAM" and then pick one. They've already decided which one, based on demand and licensing, and just tossed "some DMD SAM" as a teaser hint to us.

I got a surprise email last night from MAD pinball saying they had a GZ prem for me shipping from Stern on Monday. I had pretty much written off getting one due to no more production prior the price hike, so im currently in GZ shock that im finally getting one.

Dead MOSFET replacement $2
Dead Coil replacement $20

Literally 10x more expensive.

Your money *shrug*.

Also if they have one transistor driving both pops and the transistor dies, BOTH your pops are dead. In a traditional arrangement with one transistor per coil, if one dies, the other still works. So, another major downside. Redundancy is good.

I think the larger offense is the principle of the thing, not the impact on gameplay or the maintenance impact... Whether it irritates you or not that it's a shared coil for both pops, it's obviously a shortcut.

When you're paying another couple grand for the premium model of the game, "shortcut" doesn't feel like a word that should be used to describe its design.

Does anyone really want to play their game with a broken pop? One or two either way it's out of commission.

That's the fair take, imo. All this other stuff about repair and wear etc feels silly. But if you're just emotionally annoyed over it that's your right, these things are about to be $700 more ffs.