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Quoted from Sorokyl:Of course. Besides, no need to make too many GZ at $9000 when in 2 months they can sell them at 9700.. surprised they are making any now actually
Ya know, I ordered a EHOH Premium in September.... 2021. I was quoted a certain price, and put down a $3000 non-refundable deposit. I'd be pretty disappointed if they didn't honor it.
Quoted from NoSkills:A deposit for a Stern game should not be non-refundable. Talk to your distro.
I probably should have held off saying it was non-refundable. It has been a year, and I thought it was non-refundable. I need to look back at the emails.
Also... even if it was non-refundable at the time.. I am sure I could probably get it back without too much grief.
My main point... I have had $3000 tied up for a year, with no ship date in sight, and with the agreed upon price jumping.
Quoted from LoranSlater:Talked with JJ from Game Exchange over the weekend and got told Stern is now saying Feb/March. But also, to put it politely as possible, he told me he doesn't really believe them.
I'm also about to just put money on a Rush because at least I'll get that in something resembling a reasonable timeframe.
That's crazy.
Quoted from beltking:I lost $2k just to move my 50 play avengers aiq premium loaded with topper and mods. Couldn’t imagine paying the new prem price for it.
For most titles the Premiums are back to selling at a pretty significant discount. I have a feeling Stern may have a hard time pushing this price increase.
Quoted from Thunderbird:Stern price increases are being met with very little enthusiasm around the world. They were foolish to increase LE prices a whopping 17% over Rush LE, which was already priced high. Premiums rising to $9700? That’s an outright fleecing too. Only pros managed to escape such plundering, at a small 1% rise in MSRP.
The Le’s sold out, fast. So I understand that…. But legacy premiums… good luck with that
Quoted from Yoko2una:My local distro 11 months ago only had one LZ Pro in stock. That was it. I had to convince him to sell me a floor model from his showroom. That's how tight things were last year. As of his website this morning he has 8 different models in stock of Stern alone, multiples of some of them, plus a few other games/titles from non-Stern companies.
Automated this time last year was similar, almost no new Sterns in stock. As of this morning they have 22 different pinball models in stock, 16 of which are Sterns! Most of these titles have been sitting for weeks.
If they aren't selling now, a January price increase isn't going to help. If you don't want a Pro for $6700 (street price) now, $7K (firm floor price) in a few months isn't going to sweeten the deal.
Then you have to look at what Stern ran this year and break them up into groups. The runs in the first half of 2022 of the more "A-tier" titles were all quickly scooped up - Deadpool, JP, Godzilla. Then you have the titles which were popular in their day, but the 1000th run of them at higher prices mean many already have the game by now or have mentally moved on - SW, Mando, AIQ. Lastly you have the games (I don't care how much any one person likes a particular title, sales are sales) where they just weren't received overly well and the runs just use up existing parts, kept the lines running, and built inventory back up - LZ, TMNT, Mando.
Just so happens that the more desirable titles were built earlier in the year and the less popular titles were being run from August - present. Now those are sitting at a ton of distro's and many buyers are simply waiting for Bond, the next Stern, CCrLE, or the next AP. If not, each distro wouldn't have Pros and Prems of Mando, LZ, SW, TMNT, GOTG and Rush in stock (plus 2-3 models of SW/JP home editions!). These getting jacked up in price will just add to the dust layers on the boxes.
I bet this is why they held off running JP’s and EHOH until next year. They have a better chance of pushing the price up on those games
Quoted from Grantman:Indiana Jones 5 comes out in June 2023. Any chance they could remake that? Neither Avatar nor Stern IJ are top 100 games so we can't make a conclusion based on either being a top-rated game.
I think if they make an IJ it would be a complete redo. I think you would have to wait for the new movie… and I suspect Disney wouldn’t allow them to use the ip from the older movies.
Quoted from hiker2099:If I was Stern my line per year would be....1 music pin, 1 vault pin, + 1 cornerstone.
What bands are left? I like Rush, but that was already a reach. They will need to move out of the 70/80’s music if they want to continue.
Quoted from RikeIsland:I am right there with you. I am trying to get in touch with my distributor to see what they tell me. This is a slap in the face by Stern.
Yeah... so, so, so wrong. They have held all of our money for over a year... built a super expensive 40th Anniversary edition... and then 18 months later they decide to build it again but with a $2000 price increase.
The insane prices are one thing... but these super shady business practices are a whole different issue. If they had any honor they would have held the price at time of deposit.
Quoted from Tilt:in price increase cases, there is no doubt that a deposit should be returned. We give a deposit back regardless of reason. and the one that sucks is when someone puts a deposit on the same game with every distributor and takes the first one. Then when we call them that their game is ready they inform us that they bought one from someone else and want their deposit back. We even give it back in these cases, but really, we should keep it, just morally dont like to so we dont. But kinda pointless to have deposits if they are fully refundable for any reason, just defeats the purpose of what they are for.
The distributor was cool with the refund, and even offered it when they broke the news on the huge price increase.
It's just a BS move by Stern. They ran the 40th edition when they had a backlog of EHOH (at the $8700 price).... they ignore all of those people who paid their deposits for 15 additional months - then push an (almost) $2000 increase.
The price increases are bad enough... but the BS ethics is what will keep me from buying new games from Stern.
Quoted from kool1:I think it's too soon to say how deep the recession will be but the pinball market definitely continues to cool off.
Maybe it's a good thing. Like the stock market, the pinball market was getting a little too rich and frothy. I certainly hope none of the makers have to close.
If there is an actual recession, I think it will be very light... more like the Y2K inventory adjustment recession.
There is still a significant labor shortage in the marketplace. Any layoffs that happen will be offset by new hires. It may help to cool wage growth, which will ultimately wind down inflation.
I just don't get the belief that we are headed to a massive 2008-era recession when there is such a shortage of labor. For it to happen the absolute bottom would have to fall out of the jobs market, and based on corporate profits, I don't see that happening.
Quoted from kool1:I would agree that it seems unlikely we will see a deep recession or a huge uptick in unemployment, but the Fed will want to see a 1-2% uptick for sure. There is no other way to loosen the labor tightness.
That said - uncertainty, wealth shrinkage (stock market), high interest rates and inflation will continue to slow discretionary spending and that includes pinball. I can't see any other outcome, at least for the next 4-6 months.
I agree. They definitely want to cool things off. I am sure a secondary goal might be to create a little more flexibility in the jobs market.
However, for the people banking on the economy crashing, unless something dramatic happens… i don’t see it
Quoted from JackG:Not good. Price went up 2k from initial deposit and shipping no longer included free. Plus, been waiting 2 years.
That’s what happened to me… I put down a deposit in September 2021…. And was quoted a price of $8900…. When they changed it to $10,500 plus shipping I canceled
Quoted from PinMonk:Indy 4 seems like a weird (boring, repetitive) game to vault, but maybe it'll get the Batman-TDK/Batman'66 treatment and be redesigned and freshened. If that's the plan, hopefully they at least finish the code this time around. Crazy that the namesake wizard mode for Crystal Skull was just abandoned and never put in the game at all.
If they are going to update Indy they will probably base it off the new movie that is coming out this summer.
That... would be the hit game of the year... or at least have the potential to be.
Quoted from mzhulk:You know how to take the reservation, you just got to learn how to hold the reservation is what Jerry said
It is one of the classic scenes in the history of television. Legendary stuff
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