Hmm, wonder if they squeezed back in those DP or if there's a split allocation with August. The dealer I'm buying from had said it was pushed back to August about a month ago when I last checked in

When did you put your request in?

I might bug my dealer tomorrow. At putting the request late September I'm hoping I made this cut.

Man, I had put my name down for it on 9/23. Dealer hasnt responded to that and another pin inquiry I had for the past week (emailed and called w/ voicemail left).

Yeah, for future Pro/Prem orders will look into out of state for one that has lax tax laws for selling from outside of their own state...while its still a thing.

I want to support local businesses, but theres been a couple of things that's left me a little skeptical.

I sent them an email a week or two ago and havent heard back about that. Because lower in that listing it says July 2021. Everyone else seems to have removed it from their store and I got a similar answer when I asked my local dealer...that it wasnt in the production schedule.

For how much people are already selling theirs, 9600 shipped even without IC is cheaper if they're done with production for a couple of years. I'm on the fence. If these are w/o the IC and NIB, then its 1k-ish over what the normal price would have been back in September if it was that build...bleh

Looks to be on a pro before the last iteration of the scoop fix. Which seems to be a temporary fix while they test a better one, but better than the first run of Pros that were shipped out

Crazy. Premiums wrapping up and still no word on LE from direct Stern purchase.

Yup. The day or two after reveal they'll drop a handful, or whatever amount, on their site. MSRP but does have taxes added. Cheaper if I can get MSRP with a distro out of state (to not pay taxes), but those already have a healthy client wait-list. I know some new distros popped up with an empty queue, but have to be aware of them as they join the market.

Hmm, thought did cross my mind. Them just having those sitting in the corner pretty much complete

The main plus side to the Stern insider membership is access to that purchase. Just need to be glued to the computer that day or two

Oh really?!? Bleh. I just put in a deposit for a JP. If there's anther run in 2023 I don't mind the continue waiting, as won't have room till much later for another game

They have Beatles and GOTG not in the archive as well, but havent heard those being on the line either this year. I didnt keep up with production last year, were those made in 2021 at all?

Cool, so SUPER recent. Then yeah, who knows if there will be other runs for some of these in 2023. Or "suprise" builds end of this year

At the end of summer, early fall, best buy switched to giving their totaltech subscription members first pick. But before that, it was "normal". And that subscription service is not cheap =(

Does seem that as more and more people flock to trusted/reputable/well-known distributors they end up back of the line. Those places can get 1k requests, but stern will only give them a small percentage. While smaller distributors might get something like 50 requests and have a better chance of getting all of them in.Its a weird balance. Sure Stern could give the bigger shops a higher allocation, but then they'd end up screwing over smaller/newer businesses.

Usually announcement/teaser is a couple of days up to a week before they go "on sale"

All are built in that month of release. since they give out the allocations everywhere for the 1k, it would be difficult to make them later. All should be sold in the first month (roughly, depending if distros store them away)

So GZ was my first NIB. An LE and had called a couple of places before going local. Kinda sucked getting taxes, but also was interesting that the dealer said they had to buy that LE from another dealer, so I got charged shipping twice (250x2) b/c of that. When I went to go pick it up from their location, had a nice big sticker, or airbill, that had IL (Stern) to the location I picked it up from. sooooo, very suspect. It sucked that all combined it was almost 4k over MSRP (2k extra from dealer, b/c again they had to buy it from another place....and 2k in shipping and taxes). Only consolation was that if I decide to get rid of it, shouldnt be in the negative unless things crash hard in this pin market. But still, after that double shipping and shipping+tax on another MSRP NIB I placed an order at the same time, not buying local anymore. Love to support businesses in the area, but theres a limit. I'll just put money into their arcade to do that.

I'll see if this risk was worth taking. Not ready for JP till end of 2023 (space/cost/etc) so had put a deposit in for CoinTaker seeing that they're one of the main ones that has a longer queue. Hoping JP still throughout next year and that I fall within that range.

Had almost FOMO'd myself into trying to hunt one down this month, but had to keep myself in check. *crosses fingers

Yeah, that looks to be the pro model

british flag on the front right, orange backboard, and part of that backboard has the pyramid outline. color hues on the side art also matches with the pro

Prices should be hiked already if all their expected inventory is for next year. So most distros are not taking advantage of the new pricing and hiking early of 2022 stock, its more like the majority of the machines on the line for the past couple of months had been already called for and invoices already paid. I looked up several of those machines listed at 9500 on a several of those sellers, and they're all for future builds.

Think its rumored Foo Fighters