Stern needs to be careful with the vaults. Vaults compete with their original pins on the secondary market. This creates more supply which eventually reduces the prices of pins on the secondary market. Take a look at the price of any popular Stern pin machine before and after a VE was announced. Also look at the price drop of NIB pins that are being sold a few months after being bought. You are seeing $500-$1000 depreciation on almost new stern pins. Why buy new when you can buy at a discount a few months later. Collectors specifically and operators to a lessor extent need a healthy secondary market to sell their formally NIB pins. Without a good option to sell these pins, buyers will less likely buy NIB. Stern does need to keep an eye on the secondary market because it does effect their sales.

If you think Stern gives one iota of care what secondary market values of their machines are, you are dreaming. The only sales prices Stern cares about are the prices of the machines they are building today.

It took me like 3 months to sell my decked out IM for $4200. Is this game really going to sell enough to make it worth switching the line over? I guess if they weren't running anything else anyway.

Yeah I agree, they don’t give a shit as long as people buy them.

I do however think that they should wait like 10 years to do this shit... so it’s 2020 and anything prior to 2010 is game. Vault to me has the meaning of dragging something out of the archives on a new limited basis.

Just my 2 centavos

Agree with you @vireland, Stranger Things sales couldn’t have been anywhere near what Stern hoped and 2019 simply wasn’t a good year for Stern, no hits other than JP2.

Make BTTF Stern and put some effort into the playfield and you wouldn’t need another title all year that thing would be the modern day Addams.

This is why I think IM Vault now is the spike test for vault games. They have the parts laying around, they'll only need to make 100-200 games and if it doesn't sell then they can let distributors drop prices slowly or hold inventory. There is no way they'd vault a game that had no demand OR there is such a small run being built it is for testing something.

So I played ST at CES and I don't like the way it plays, but I hear on podcasts and streams that people love it....sooo what is going on?

This is IMrv, where rv = revault. But didn’t Stern have an additional run of either IM after the original run or IMv after the initial run? I can’t remember but if so this might be IMrvv. I sense everybody that wants IM or IMv already have one or would buy a used one for less money. Unless Stern does something different with this version, there is no market imo.

If I were Stern, I’d make IMv LE. Powder coated hardware, laser-etched side rails, custom apron with lighted triangles, shaker motor, convert to Spike2 boards, swap dmd for a lcd, real backglass, license the Iron Man song from Ozzie and get Robert Downey jr to do some custom call outs. That’d motivate me to trade my IM in for one. With no changes I’ll pass and bet those with an IM or IMv will too. So where’s the market for another IMv?

You know of any stream or podcast besides kaneda, Who says anything negative about Stern ever?

I was hoping for an updated vault with LCD and fixed geometry - more of an upgraded vault - more of a fantasy

Ball drain callout would be easy:

"Fu@$" (in the Witcher's voice)

Exactly. It'd be funny for tilt, too.

It's not that I don't like Ironman, it's just that there are plenty of them out there at good prices already (plus I own one) and TRON has a stupid high demand and price right now, why not do that one? Even Kiss would have been better as there doesn't seem to be as many of them out there as IM's.

and this IM vault 2 an easy distraction from the numerous build and code issues at hand.

Stern gives exactly zero shits about the secondary market.

True, Iron Man in solo for Barcades to get a new machine in the lineup. I doubt if home owners are excited for this title. Stern needed to fill the line, make IM's for 2-3 weeks, that will be 150 pinballs. Then proceed to the next game. I just wonder which parts they have lying around to vault anything. Vaults like Star Trek and IM are not for collectors. Maybe they sell e few to a hardcore fan. But even these are already served by the second hand market. It is not that IM or ST are unobtainable.

When are they going to make a Ton VE?

Just not sure how you pull off a price of $5600 for a SAM system game. It's not like you can't already find an HUO IM VE for under $5000.

probably cheaper more like 5200-5400 from distributor. i am probably buying a new one. been looking for a ve and not many out there and too expensive.

They will come down now.

LOL, Stern can do up to 100 machines a day at full tilt.

So I didn't think STh was doing that bad but this just confirmed it (even though I think it's not as bad as others say it is).... we now have the vault no one asked for. Also shows Stern doesn't have a good vault on hand like Tron

As someone hyped for tmnt, this is great news. If Iron Man is their solution - wow things must be bad.

And who in the hell is buying this game NIB right now when they run them? SO many better IM options that unless you're just throwing money away, this is a clear PASS PASS PASS

I wonder how the shills will spin this...

LOTR would be Stern's chance to do something like a Special Edition LE Vault, and people would buy it.

Gotta fill the line. I'm sure Moose and Rocco can "persuade" distributors to take them.

moose (resized).jpg

Stern is a bit ballsy asking that kind of money for old tech. Iron Man vault should be $4800 tops when compared to current offerings.

this has been said a million times before but if you're buying a pinball machine and expecting it's price retention to be different than driving a new car off the lot, you're crazy.

Also Stern doesn't give a shit about secondary markets, outside the market research for their VEs

I'm kind of surprised they're running IMVE instead of more JP2's. I have an order in for a Premium and was told they wouldn't be hitting the line again until April. Makes me wonder if they're waiting on parts or something for JP2 and this is just filling a gap in production while the main line is churning out Stranger Things?

the world is ready for a Wheel of Fortune vault with finished code, especially with Pat Sajak's health issues. (mind you I just read his wiki and had no idea he promoted and funded climate change denialism )

https://i3.ytimg.com/vi/VsPg0acvgFQ/hqdefault.jpg

Touche.
Does this mean he is out of the sdtm/flip-n-out family?

Most likely due to lead time on parts.

After playing this recently...its actually a fun game, and really a shame it was never finished. I'd probably own one if I found it at the right price.

After weeks of him blathering about the game he finally played it?

Stern does care about the secondary market, that is why they are able to vault games. I do not understand why no Tron or Lord of the rings.

Stern know that Stranger Things is DOA.

Smart move to move to Iron Man vault to keep the line rolling.
Then Stern needs to throw everything and the kitchen sink in TMNT.

Market saturation does not allow sub par games . It just does not work.

Not to mention the saturation is only going to grow with DR pinball.

Stern needs to crank out a cornerstone music theme hopefully Led Zepp. They need a big seller.

Fact is they sell well, earn well on location and haven’t built one since Maiden which is quite a while if you look at timing of these themes from ACDC-Maiden.

and maybe this is the reason why there are so many issues straight out of the box with so many stern titles recently. maybe stern should be taking the time and QA/QCing the machines instead of rushing them off the line and into shipping boxes

Stern doesn't care. Every game they make is already sold. The only way the quality will change is when people stop buying and sales slow down. Only then will they start trying to figure out why.

Well here’s to beating a dead horse

bought a new IM vault couple of years ago. My son and I just love the game and the only thing we did was adding some figures and we put a colordmd, so the graphics would be nicer. Great thing about this game, no matter how many times we play it, we still hear new speech

One word: licensing

Just buy a used IronMan. Definately less that $4999.

I’d agree with this it’s fairy obvious that Disney have zero interest in TRON:Legacy, it’s been dead in their eyes for years.

All the cast and crew from Legacy have been trying to push out a sequel but Disney are simply not interested, especially when they can make 4, 5 or 10x more off a Marvel or Star Wars deal.

And JJP GnR probably also at Texas with DR.

Saturation is going to start to bite real soon.

Turtles a week after Texas?

This new tech needs to be awesome - playing head to head with friends could be really good, depending on implementation.

It's just behind Quality Control on their List.

I stopped following all the DR noise, are they actually revealing playable “non prototype” games at Texas?

Is turtles going to have internet connection? What would that be used for beyond code updates? Excited for possibilites

Rumour is yes, my big concern is stern will fall back on that being the main feature and give us another barren playfield like most their 2019 offerings.

I’d love to see some interactive toys for a change, a bash and reveal krang keep costs down and just use the mech from Elvira crypt, shredder with magnet in front of him so he can fight back and most of of all TMNT screams for subways!

Doesn’t have to be anything mind blowing for this game to kick ass, Ironman being vaulted again proves this, simple interactive toys/areas that are a lot of fun.