I for one am completely glad that you have 'bailed on Stern', and hope that anyone else that is buying machines as an investment is going to follow your advice, and stop doing it.
It is people like you who drive up the cost of machines in the second-hand market for their own profit, refusing to accept that a game you bought new a few years ago and played to death would depreciate in value - who'd have thought? When enough people believe this BS you start seeing games for sale at more than NIB prices because the owner has had a clown puke some garish LEDs over them of zip-tie on some plastic toy to 'add value' to the machine
Who'd have thought that a business (for that is what Stern is) would see a huge demand for a product that they have made, still have the capability to make, and decide to manufacture and sell them? How dare they impact on your ability to profit from their machine.