With ST season 4 about to come out in a few months, and it being renewed for a Season 5 (2023?)..... interest will be rekindled in a big way.
Shouldn't there be another run or two on this one?

Every pin I like the most, are the one's Stern doesn't like building!! (Elvira & ST) HA!!

Stranger Things = ST

I guess that's true too, ST = Star Trek. HA!!

Oh for a new classic Next Generation Pin and not all this remake/reboot stuff.

Just curious..... regardless of what's on the line for the machines..... how does accessory manufacturing work with Stern?
They just pop out without rhyme or reason? Or just the initial run and that's it? Does demand drive it?
I'm new, so just trying to understand.

Do "The Pin" versions actually sell that well? Seems like a whole lot of production time for something that doesn't sell.

Not only that, I hope they do one more special version of it. The 40th sold out, and at the highest price ever. Doesn't need to be a 40th caliber, but something above a premium? Oh yeah.... I'd move my deposit from a premium to something a little more loaded. Is it Lyman's last Stern game, or Lyman's last finished game?

I wouldn't be surprised if the build on the next premium run is early/mid next year and not Nov. If they DO hate building these the easy way to cut down on the numbers is run the clock, release a couple new pins and watch people cancel. Tough to build? Please. Money is money. There was no pro, they're making a killing off these boxes. One for one this has to be the most profitable pin Stern makes. Cassandra isn't an expensive license at all, and she's eager to cash out and retire.

Are you sure?

When I was trying to find somewhere I could get a deposit on a premium, I casually asked three of the places if they had the 40th and all of them were sold out.

Just curious: The new cornerstone, only part of Aug? How can they fill demand with such a short initial run? Is that "normal"? Unless they dump the two months of "the pin" (although I don't know why they'd spend so much time on those, I don't think they sell well). If it's BTTF, Bond or something else which is really popular demand could eclipse GZ. You'd think with them dumping one title for the year they'd keep the one they're expecting to sell better on the schedule.
My distro said could be March before my EHOH is run, and that makes sense to me considering the situation.

Sure would be nice if there would be one more run of (Premium) STH. Everything points to no on that one though.

Personally I think so, it's three years old. Probably only lasted this long since it has a large fan base and movies are still running.
Everything else from that year is gone....
Black Knight: Gone
Munsters: Gone
STH: Gone
EHOH: Almost Gone
JP: ?

Would be nice if they had an official policy of making pins available for three years, then there wouldn't be any guessing. I'd buy a Munsters or STH if they still made them.
Funny how Star Wars and DP are still being produced even though they are older than these. Must have sold really well.

Still don't understand why they don't do an official "last call" for all models.

Seems like they'd get one last push of sales if they would.

That's hilarious...... I just ordered one. LOL!! No problem waiting.

Bring on 2024!!!!

HA!!!

Or they could just fill all orders and not do allocations. Want 1000 units? Here's a 1000 units.

I can see (maybe) them doing allocations for dealers, but distros? Sell them as many as they want. Distro's should be holding stock for a long time after a game ceases, that's why they're distros after all (and why they get better wholesale pricing over a dealer).

Right? My $1 deposit on Monday didn't get me one either!! ROBBED!!!

I know!! Stern can sell a "Fast-Pass"... for more money, you can bypass the line and get your game faster!! They want to be closer to Disney right?
Insider Connected Ultra+ Status
"Limited" to 5000 members
$12K Premium only

OR for a better experience..... choose the "Personal VIP build tour".... bypass the "fast-pass" line and experience 1st hand the magic of pinball making as we put YOU to work on the 2nd line assembling machines for all the dregs who aren't VIP's! We'll build your machine immediately on the 1st line, and Gomez will come out to personally bless your machine before being thrown onto the pallet at the end of the shift.
Insider Connected Ultra+ Super VIP, Gomez Status
Limited to 1000 members
$18K LE

Or for the ultimate experience.... choose "Gary's Inner Circle of Friends"...... with each new release you will be afforded a DAY 1 impersonal non specific recorded message from Gary telling you your credit card has been billed $30k and receive an obligated LE machine with each new release, customized with the limited Elvira shocked face mirrored decal sticker on the left side of the cab, a super limited Gary shocked face mirrored decal sticker on the right side of the cab, a personal message which plays at system boot in Gary's voice "Thanks [name], you're my friend", AND a SUPER.... LIMITED.... NUMBERED..... PLAQUE...... on every surface of the machine!!! Proving for all time the machine and all it's parts are genuine matched Stern OEM issue: AN INDUSTRY 1st!!
(Topper not included).
Insider Connected Ultra+ Platinum VIP, We Like you More than a distro, Gary's Rolodex Status
Limited to as many as can pay.
$30k Super Duper Signature Ultra Awesome Once in a Lifetime until next time: LE

There's always a way to fix a problem and give people what they want....

LOL!!!

That will have the opposite effect: It's supply and demand.

Increase the # of LE's, not reduce them. Most LE's don't leave collections anyway, so let more have the warm fuzzy. Won't have any effect on secondary market, with the exception of a slightly lower top ceiling on price. Scalpers go out of business since supply meets demand = no markup.
1000 should be the starting # of a LE, maybe extend it to 2000 or 2500.
JJP was absolutely right (IMO) in having enough available serials to continually make more, and then retire a game before the allocated number was used up.
Everyone wins except scalpers. Of course the limiting factor is production speed, but if people know they can get the model they want - the FOMO ends and Stern winds up selling even MORE high priced models.

If you want an "extra" tier higher than LE, that's great! They should do it for every model. That can be 200-500 units.

Standard (Pro), Standard+ (Premium), Numbered (LE), Elite Showoff (Whatever you want to call it).
You could easily sell triple the amount of a numbered editions if they were available... and if a specific game doesn't sell well, then you stop production and the numbering ends, making it more rare than expected. So simple.

Yup, I agree.

My wife used to work in the art world..... and it was all the same game: Limited this, exclusive that.... in the end, none of it meant a thing. You'd run one print at a certain size and that was a "limited edition". Then the artist would go back and sign another run of the same print, now it was a different "limited edition". Then they'd go back, print out the same print and have the artist put a couple hand drawn dots on the print (such as white areas in wave highlights, or blue in the sea, or put a star or two in the sky) and that was another "limited edition".
When all that was done, they'd go back and make a different size of the print and run the same scam all over again.... all new runs of "limited editions".
The buyers all thinking they had a "one of a kind, special thing", which they did but so did several thousand other people. HA!!
Only once a painting was "retired" would it end, but even then wait a couple decades and a new printing technology comes out promising "better" and the cycle starts all over again.

Pinheads (or any niche) are the same marks that exist in any hobby or interest. Many want something that others can't have, the same snobby elitism that pervades everything (sadly). For many it isn't about having something good, it's only about having something that others can't so they feel better about themselves.
In art there is only one way to actually achieve this: The Holy Grail: The original painting.
Can't do this in pinball since there is no singular original, but you could come close to it: A Reference Grade Pinball machine made in very limited quantities (similar to the fanatic audiophile and vintage audiophile communities). While the pin community thinks that's what an LE is (since that's all they've ever known) the truth is "standard" Limited Editions are nothing special in most other niches and are used liberally and loosely.
Stern and the other pins makers need to figure this out.... fast. Their growth and ability to sustain a healthy audience depends on it. Rule #1 of business is to give the paying consumer what they want, and most people in any niche want a special number on the item giving them a false sense of security that their purchase was a smart one.

Only if the distro is taking too many orders and aren't gong to get their full allocation. How big the list is and where you are on that list is what matters.

Also I had seen one distro increase the price by $1000 to $9999 (Granted that is only one, does it foretell that the next run will see a thousand dollar increase? and if so will that reduce the number of peeps on the existing list?).

Always a chance when we get to 2023 there will be one more run before they lob things into the archive.

Maybe it's time for a third line?

Just curious: There's two titles listed each month and there's two production lines..... but often it sounds like only one title is ran at a time.
Is there any difference in capacity between the two lines or are they identical? Do they run a single title on both lines at the same time, or two different titles running concurrently? Was just wondering how that worked.

Seems like people are getting pins left and right...... a distro I talked to yesterday said they're getting shipments weekly now. Of course they're all spoken for with pre-orders, but they also said they've had several people say they weren't interested anymore and down the waiting list they go to offload the machines.

I wonder how long it will actually take to get mostly caught up. All the fake orders in the system are gonna shake out before long.

Well, that's a fake order..... or rather a bunch of fake orders.

I wonder why some do that and others don't.

The ones who dropship generally don't charge shipping right?

I asked a distro this a couple days ago, and they said Stern tells them their allocation at some point before the run starts (weeks or months - it depends) and then they receive the allocation in pieces as they are built.

So as I understand it:
Dealer/Distro orders X amount of units (example 10).
Stern sits on the order until closer to production time.
At some point Stern calls/emails and says you're getting X (example 8).
Dealer/Distro hopefully hasn't taken more than 10 deposits, and starts fulfilling as the product comes in. With any luck, enough dropouts to make the allocation of 8 work for everyone by the time they receive all the units (people getting filling by their multiple deposits at different distros, or just not wanting the machine anymore for whatever reason).

Sure would be nice if the dealer/distro could order X and actually get X. That would eliminate the multiple deposits at various places and give Stern a much better understanding of real demand. Would help us have confidence that we will get the machine too.

The distros will get the official production list for the 2nd half of the year in July (that's what mine told me anyway).

Stern is kicking them out left and right, soon no one will be waiting for anything.

Pretty impressive.

Half to 70% of the backlog gone by the end of July. 100% gone before the end of the year. There isn't 20K "real" backorders.

That's totally understandable...... I just look at the # of people here saying their pin is arriving or has arrived. Nice sample of what is happening out there.

2000+ a month for Stern, so around 16K pins to be built before the end of the year. The only variable is the new one in Aug and parts.
Once you take out all the fake orders.... I think they clear the backlog easily.

I don't know.... it's possible. I see the prices going down in the marketplace already, and ads lasting longer than before.
Are we past peak pinball already? More supply will only make that trend accelerate.
People seem to be waiting on pins they already ordered vs. placing new orders like crazy.
Another 10-20 days in the markets like today and you'll see a lot of people drop out and dummy up with their money.

Flipping stops when there's no one to flip to, then it's just a race to the exits.

How many people plopped down a dollar? Several hundred FAKE orders (or maybe thousands, who knows).
Feels good to have a "spot"...... all those people taking delivery? Not a chance.

It'll be great when Cointaker starts calling people on the list later this year: it'll go something like this
CT: Your game is here
Big Spend: What?!?!? I thought I had until 2024!!!
CT: Yeah that's what everyone thought.... you got the cash? It's 9K, oh wait Stern just increased the price. That'll be $9600
Big Spend: Um, well... I wasn't expecting this so soon.... I've got 20 bucks. Since I've got you on the line, can I reserve the next 20 releases? LE's please.
CT: *CLICK*

Maybe they'll pull another Stranger Things......

Stern: "Here's some pros"
Pinheads: "We want premiums"
Stern: "HERE'S SOME PROS"
Pinheads: "We're waiting for premiums"
Stern: "We no longer have the license"
Pinheads:

Yup that's right...... and I bet once everyone is caught up, the norm will become nonrefundable.

Thanks JackG!!

That looks like a solid end of year schedule, great to see the cornerstone fill out the calendar.
Very nice

Now if they would drop those "the pin" times and build more EHOH's.

Backlog will either be totally gone or almost gone by the end of the year.

Halfway there by the end of June. The only outlier is GZ, but I bet a lot of those will evaporate when the next cornerstone is announced.
People love the latest and greatest (excludes music pins).

Uggh...... why does Stern do this? People usually want premiums. I'd be interested in a GOTG premium, but not a pro.
They did the same thing with Stranger Things at the end:

Stern: "Here's some pros"
People: "We want premiums"
Stern: "HERE'S SOME PROS"
People: "We're waiting for premiums"
Stern: "Game archived due to lack of demand"
People:

Thanks Stern for the last calls on STH and IM

Oh..... right.

Why is this news having to come from a distro? It should be on Stern's site for all customers to see and know...... not some privileged info coming out of a shady warehouse backroom, disseminated in a cloud of cigar smoke by a fat sweaty underworld pinball kingpin ruling over the local chapter of the cult Stern Illuminati.

That's a little deceptive though..... when was the last run of premiums for GOTG? Some of us will only buy Premium or above: it essentially has been OOP for a long time already.

Since more GZ has rolled off the line...... how many $1 Cointakers have been filled here?
I'd imagine that list has to be insanely long......maybe the longest ever?

Now that would be fun, figuring out where you are on the list. HA!!!

Pinhead: "Where am I on the list?"
Cointaker: "You are 3579 on the list"
Pinhead: "Really? What is your allocation for July?"
Cointaker: "50..... assuming we get completely filled on this next run..... we do have 5000 ordered and we're expecting some to drop out"
Pinhead: "Oh.......... so you're saying there's a chance!!"

Yup...... but what a weird vault right?

Canceled.....[one year passes]..... here's a vault of it.

HA!!

Nothing has ever gone into the archive and then come back from the archive right?

When did they do that?

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:

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.

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

The distro's are told their allocation beforehand.

If I was a dealer/distro I'd be sending invoices as soon as I knew too (for a specific run). Gotta run thru those people who are dropping out and get to the good orders.

That is great news!!! Star Wars has ran way too long as it is. Good riddance!!

Any guesses on how much of the backlog has been cleared?

I still think it will all be gone by end of year (which is why they are wiping out LZ, GOTG, SW and EHOH(?) )
Except GZ of course. I wonder if there will still be outstanding orders for that when it gets canceled in a couple years. Guess it all boils down to 4+ releases a year or not starting next year. 5 releases (with Kapow) and there won't be time on the line to make that many more GZ (or any other catalog game for that matter).

I wonder when they will be told their allocations for that run?

My distro had alluded that he would know in July sometime. Seems like a pretty big lead time to know what you're going to be getting.

It's been on the line for five years already. Almost twice the length of a successful standard run, and three times the length of a shorter title run.
How long should it be produced?

I hope allocation news for the rest of the year hits soon.

All those final run games and people wondering if they will get one.

I wonder if they are just trying to crush as many GZ's before the next game takes over the line and steals the limelight.

They know ahead of time if they have a real winner or not. Sell 'em a GZ and then wow them with something else for another sale instead of having people cancel their GZ to get whatever is new.

Excellent..... Stern is cleaning house!!!
Last call and drop TMNT, SW, GOTG, IM, JP, LZ, DP, EHOH, AIQ, Mando...... do limited vaults where needed but not on the regular line.
Then they can get to 4 new titles a year unimpeded.
Six months without a new title: we're behind by two right now.

Yes....... teaser tomorrow..... Stern knows TS4 can only be beat by a game with a number at the end of it.....

Here's what it should be......

LSL2!!!

Leisure-Suit-Larry-Goes-Looking-for-Love-In-Several-Wrong-Places (resized).jpg

Really looking forward to an announcement about the next run of EHOH. It'd be nice to know when it's going to be scheduled and let the dealers get their allocation numbers.

I'm totally fine with them getting LZ, TMNT and GOTG out first though. The catalog needs to be thinned for the new year.

I bet EHOH and IM have their final runs in Q1 2023 before the April cornerstone release.

I was told Q1 2023

Always appreciate this list you put together

Sheesh, talk about an unhealthy stranglehold....... Control supply, control price, control who can be sold product (and when), select which groups of customers are allowed to have product (and when), track customers and verify if they are complying, blacklist & punish those who don't comply.

I wonder how long it will be before these machines have a remote kill switch and require a terms of service & annual license to function.

Was it a $1 special?

I really like the $1 special.... wish they had that for every title.
What would be nice is if they had some sort of regular update about where they are on the orders (such as "we're filling July 2021 $1 specials right now"), that way there would be some kind of indication of how much further away your order month is and can have fun guessing based on Stern's production calendar.

Then again, a dollar is just a dollar and you can't expect anything for a dollar really..... but for a buck I have just as much information as two $1000 deposits I have sitting out there. Maybe a dollar is a better deposit after all.

I got my $1 special in April, so that's what? 2024?

Except no one waited for 2023 to hike the prices...... they've already been the new 2023 price for a month or two.

If you check the distro websites, almost all the prices are Bond prices now, and they have been for at least a month (depending on the distro).
What is not clear is: Did Stern already hike? Or did the distros hike early to get that spread as additional profit for the next couple months?

The average premium prices and spread I'm seeing (averaging across :FNO, CT, GEX, Fun, LSG)
Bond: $9700
GZ: $9700
AIQ: $9500
JP: $9500
DP: $9500
EHOH: $10K+ (TBD)
Rush: $9k - $9500
Mando: $9k - $9500
SW: $8700 - $9500

So except the oldest and least desirable, which you potentially can find on the lower end of the price scale at only a couple vendors, all the averages are $9500-$9700 which is 2023 pricing. There are still 5000 machines to be built in 2022 (although many will be Bond). That's a lot of machines which should still be 2022 pricing unless Stern was the one to already hike.

Yup, I'm in the same boat as you..... but it's not just EHOH orders that are going to feel the pain as Stern cancels all the other older games too.

They want a clean slate, and flush all the 2019+ games they didn't fulfill deliveries on. LZ, TMNT, EHOH, JP, DP, IM, GOTG, SW....... all gone. Maybe even AIQ and Mando too.
Too many new games coming in 2023 to maintain the current roster. Slice and dice.
Only thing we can hope for is a proper "last call" with premiums instead of the typical force-fed run of Pro's or Stern's absolute favorite thing to do: "Oh you have a deposit on a premium? How cute.... F-U the game is canceled!!!".

Stern is tired of people asking when their game will be on the line, they're gonna flip everyone the bird and move on to the next game, and then move on to the next game, and move on to the next game. 2023 will be swamped in new stuff and a bloodbath for old stuff.

Now Stern can waste most of the month building home-pin versions no one wants.

Should satisfy demand!!!

Wow, that's amazing. A lot of people have been waiting a year.

Sales are slowing down for sure..... and heaping on another price increase surely isn't going to help.
Who's going to pay Bond prices for old titles? I'm not.

A premium should be $7800....... not $9000, and absolutely not $9700

What are you getting for the extra $1900 paid? NOTHING!!!
People are slowly figuring it out.

It'll be very interesting to see a schedule for 23, I hope one comes soon.

So a $26 million lease..... they can't construct a purpose built building for that much dough?

You'd think they'd want an asset if they're spending that much cash.

I know this is what most people think (and most businesses I deal with now days don't own their buildings anymore either), but if the ROI was bad, then there wouldn't be landlords.

I think most people have been conned out of intelligent long term decisions for the perception of a quick buck.
Look at the Las Vegas casinos..... they sold their land and buildings to RIT companies. Was that smart? The RIT's are very happy to own Vegas now. They're thinking long term.

The people who own land in Manhattan, they never sell. Businesses come and go, but the land and the buildings are where the real generational wealth and power is.

It is a very interesting question. Management (not just in America) has been struggling to answer it for a few decades now (since the 80's).

I guess I'm old school since I'm of the opinion that complete vertical integration is the best form of production, recruitment, and TQM...... but then again, I'm a Deming student and that line of thinking (Sadly) has been tossed in the trash.
I like to think of what the pandemic would have been like had all the companies still been vertically configured and not "just in time". The world would have yawned and moved on with little disruption at all..... but we'll never really know.

Com'on production schedule for Q1/Q2 23'

We wanna see it

You kidding? If there was an opening for EHOH now, Gary would schedule it for Jan 2nd just to apply a price increase.

Gary: "And a happy new year....... FOR MEEEEEEEE!!!!"

It's simple: They won't send anything out which isn't going to be sold at Bond pricing. They could have pumped out 6k+ units of older titles which are backordered at older prices the last couple months..... or they could build Bond Pros, home pins and last call titles no one wants..... The last call titles aren't going to sell anyway, so they will get the higher pricing as well. They know all the people waiting so long for older games will already pay the higher price, so no reason to be good to those people (it's an extra 4 mil or so for Stern, free profit, they're not giving that up). All they're doing is providing inventory to distros to try and squeak out a few extra sales they wouldn't have had otherwise for the end of the year.

It's all about price.

Maybe they're on hold while Stern figures out if they can be bothered to build more games?

What's the latest? This is what's known, right?

Jan - Bond
Feb - ???/EHOH
Mar - ????
Apr - ????
May - ???/IM
Jun - ???/JP(?)
July - ????
Aug - ????
Sept - ???
Oct - ????
Nov - ????
Dec - ????

If Stern is going to discontinue at least two a year (last year was four models: LZ, TMNT, 2 Homepins), then I wonder which it'll be this year?
IM and DP? EHOH also? SW's run comes to an end?

Going to be interesting.

I wonder too...... but I'm not sure if SW really is a great seller, I'm sure it's a steady moderate seller but not a great one. If it was still hot then they'd be making the comic art version.

You're right about too much Marvel.... I wonder if AIQ is on the chopping block. I love that ramp game, but I don't love the theme. Part of me thinks JP should be on the block too. Get rid of everything 2019 and prior.

Wow, I thought EHOH was at the end of Feb......

How I imagine Stern with their parts issues..... or maybe how the Stern customers feel about Stern's parts problems

Com'on Stern or else we are Doomed........ Dooomed...... DOOMED!!!

My distro said he was only getting a quarter of what he asked for (and had deposits sitting for all of them). That can't be fun: calling people waiting for years and telling them "Yeah, sorry about the 25% price increase and oh by the way.... you didn't make the cut either, sorry. Maybe next year IF they make more next year. Glad to have your deposit, call you in a year or so."

Relax, it's as good as yours!!!

Slap down that buck and call it a day!!

I wish every game could be had for a dollar. SOOOOO much better than the $500-$1000 everyone else wants just to secure a place in line.

Wonder how many spots were bought for a dollar, and where they are on their list. Good to know they are still in 2021 orders.... but where? Oct? Nov?
Two big GZ runs this year, maybe they'll get to the early 2022 orders before the year is out. Maybe Stern will send them more allocation. Surely Stern asks them how many orders they have and do some adjustment? If Brand-X has 100 GZ orders and CT has 1500 GZ orders then Stern throws them a couple extra each time the merry-go-round spins. Right?

Looking forward to factory Friday and confirmation that GZ has been on the line this week. One week down, two to go

I wonder when the next cornerstone begins production in earnest. After the Bond fiasco I'd imagine they'll want a ready supply for the launch and toss them out the door fast.
With everyone else releasing games over the next month, will they get in front of it all and announce 1st? Or right after JJP puts out their next game later this month and take the wind out of their sales?

Com'on leak of pictures......

Oh right, 60th was this week..... hmmmmm.

So if GZ has three weeks on the line, where does EHOH fit in? March? But then we're into the next Cornerstone...... isn't that all of March?

Technically they can do two games at a time, but when is the last time that happened?

On what day do they switchover the line? Monday?

So they built GZ all week, that means 60th wrapped last week?

$2000 insane? Meh, in a year that will be a bargain!!!

$3000!!! GO!!!!

spaceballs (resized).jpg

So is Feb production this?

6th-10th: GZ (Done)
13th-17th: 60th (underway)
20th-24th: GZ
27th-3rd: EHOH

I thought GZ was getting three weeks?

Sure they would.... this is Stern after all. Munsters, STH...... Stern axes all horror'ish stuff without warning. All those were killed abruptly with orders pending.

Who's on the chopping block this year for retirements? They're running all catalog titles over the course of the year, perfect time to end production on three games (I think EHOH, IM and DP).
Come the end of the year no way Stern keeps three music pins active at the same time, three super hero/comic pins active at the same time, and Stern's most unfavorite thing to build.

Just my opinion.

You know I'm saying Iron Maiden

Time for a new dealer. They canceled all orders for Munsters how long ago? I wish it'd come back, but it isn't. That was the 1st NIB pin I tried buying (unsuccessfully).
Sure wish Stern would have a policy for a minimum availability period of three years for each title. I'd have a Musters and STH right now.

Two weeks from now right?

It goes on the line the week after next right? The week of the 27th.... Factory Friday the 3rd..... get shipments the week of the 6th.
At least that's what I thought the schedule is.

Would be great to get moved up a week...... but really, any time before TPF is more than acceptable.

But that doesn't make sense right? Wasn't GZ suppose to be a "big push" this month? A big push isn't one week of production, it's three (but 60th stole a week).
That means next week is GZ (Again) and EHOH the next week (hopefully)..... unless parts jack it all up.

They have every reason to push as many GZ's out the door before new pins steal interest from sales next month. EHOH interest has collapsed due to the price (I've talked to two distros and they said roughly half their standing orders have canceled since Dec). Stern evidently may have extra stock from this one week EHOH run and are moving allocation around to get rid of it all. Could be a little over, or a little short..... but you know Stern wants every machine pre-sold before a build. Thousands of GZ's already pre-sold, but they no longer have every EHOH sold (incredible).

There should be zero NIB marketplace spots from dealers/distros, and there are several.... that says it all.

This is it folks, the last EHOH run: Stern has fulfilled demand via reduced demand.... just like they wanted. They're closing it out "clean" but no last call unless they get another 500 pre-sold at $10.5k (or higher). That isn't happening. Grab one if you're going to.

They do have two lines..... but when is the last time you heard about them building two different games at once?
I think they purely use them both for added capacity. They do what...... 500+ machines a week using both lines? Seems like they are happy having all 500 units being one title. Makes sense too.... they probably buy parts in lots of 500 (or whatever). They want to get all that crap out of inventory as fast as possible.

So what's on the line right now?

Last week was 60th...... "big push" GZ week or EHOH sneaks onto the line?

Com'on Tilt, you wander around unopposed over there
Just tell 'em you're there to pick up the 41st anniversary edition and casually stroll onto the floor to inspect them.
If that fails, just tell them you paid the $40 for ALL ACCESS

You should ask Zack and Kaneda........

Wow man, you're fast!!! My distro hasn't even billed me yet.

It'll be like EHOH: gets a week and that's it.

Absolutely. Another 500 SW's and 500 Mando's is more than enough. Probably for AIQ also. EHOH is fully satisfied with 500 more (at this price).

Seems to me, except for the unknowns in the move - Stern has a LOT of production capacity this year.

It's going to be a bloodbath when they decommission titles at the end of the year. So much not needed anymore....... and then hopefully they'll get back to four titles a year in 2024.