There are a few LEs for sale or trade that are not exactly flying off the shelf. I doubt they will make more, parts may be an issue as might cost. Demand really only picked up when people realized supply was being cut.

I would have done that in a second if it was a straight up trade. Potc is an amazing game. Taf, while very cool, is just not in the same league.

Is it possible the clear is being laid on too thick? I don’t know his process, but a series of very thin coats is better than a few thick coats.

i picked up my LE in this last run and it did not/does not have any clear coat issues. i posted pics earlier in this thread if you want to search for them. it's not every game. As a precaution, however, I did install star posts and put neoprene washers on. I was at the factory this morning getting my wonka and the POTC they had in the lobby also showed no sign of clear coat issues at the sling posts and they had the stock posts on.

Well, the game was not pristine, it was dirty and had seen some play. They aren't using it as a show piece. I doubt it was hand selected to be in the lobby. the point is not all games have the issues, some do, some don't. I don't think the number of plays is a factor. and 5-6 games you've seen compared to the 1000?? out there is pretty low. Even if it's 50, that's still relatively low, even though it may not be acceptable to those 50.

I haven't opened my wonka yet

I have a game from the last run and haven’t had to do much at all and don’t have playfield issues. All I’ve really had to do is tighten upper flipper mech, secure a ramp opto and adjust the spotlight under the shooter lane. I haven’t touched the bp. I think that’s really all I’ve done to it.

I did put down neoprene washers, just in case. I enjoy tweaking games, most times. When I did put those washers on, the hammer was coming out of the slings so I installed double star posts. This is a pretty complicated game, but the mechs are really not very unusual, uses bw parts and troubleshooting is similar.

I find wonka to be better playing than potc too, not quite sure why, but I’d play a game or two of potc and get my fill pretty easily. With wonka, i find my self playing over and over again. It just seems more fun and whimsical to me. That said, if I had a very small collection, I would choose potc as there are just so many ways to play the game, you’d never tire of it.

Never say never, but I do not think potc will be rerun. There wasn’t much demand for the game until they announced production would stop, didn’t have enough parts, it’s a bear to produce on the line, low profit margin (my guess), etc. if I were them, I’d focus on breathing new life into the company with new titles and not focus on the past. I just think they should be moving forward. that said, perhaps they could build up parts over time and do a small vault run down the road.

I’m also not sure the math works well on a rerun relative to a new game. If they can sell potc at $12k and do a run of 250 units, assuming build cost is $7k (I have no idea what it is, just making it up), that’s $1.25 mil ($5k margin x250 units) profit before taxes, interest, whatever else comes out. Even if they ran 500 units, it’s still only about $2.5 mil. Don’t think that that keeps the lights on.

If they make a new game, charge $9500 with a build cost of say $5k and sell 2000 units (easier said than done of course), that’s $9 mil ($4.5k margin x 2000 units). No way they should be making potc. You can adjust the variables as you wish, but Im pretty sure it will be more profitable to be running new games. Woz is different because there seemed to be insatiable demand, but I don’t think potc is in that same situation. As these examples show, it’s critical they keep costs under control (and margins up) and sell in volume, yet still build the best games out there as they’ve been doing.

I don’t know the margins, I had thought initially they were losing money on Woz when it was being sold for $6500. Based on that, I’d think they got margins down a bit from that and raised prices so I think maybe I’m in the ballpark. I could be totally wrong, though. my example was purely illustrative and shows the need to be producing in volume, not building 250-500 units of potc.

yeah, I think the one of the stern distros stated the build cost for a game was in the neighborhood of $3k against a pro street price of around $5500. I'd guess stern premium and LEs have slightly higher build costs, but margins are significantly higher.

they won't make much money doing a run of 250-500 potc. Unlikely potc ever gets rerun unless demand is considerably higher, and I doubt it is, and/or they can get the margin up/build cost down. Otherwise it doesn't make sense financially. They are better off moving to the next cornerstone game and getting sales volumes up.

It won’t happen. Jjp would be foolish to do a run based on “expressed demand”. They will also need to charge north of $12k to make a run work, particularly if it’s a small run. My guess is PL won’t allow it.

Pretty sure we can all agree potc bom is the highest among all jjp games. There’s not enough money in potc to make financial sense for small runs. Do the math, even with rough estimates. They are better off moving to new games where bom is lower and they can sell more units. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe this will be remade. Investors run the show now, they want to make money. Producing potc in small runs doesn’t do it.

Not sure about that. They need to be producing titles with lower bom and higher unit volume. It’s not enough to make $4-5k on 500 units when they could devote resources to make $5k on 1500+ units on a new title. I also doubt there is demand for 500 units at $10-12k.

I don’t own one.

Because they can rerun the games at the same or lower cost of the original and charge more for them. Iron man was how much at initial release? How much was the first vault? Second vault? Stern also has capacity to make many games at once. Jjp doesn’t have that luxury and they aren’t in the same financial position to take risks like stern. Stern can also recycle parts across games as the games are relatively generic, not so with jjp games. It’s not a good comparison.

I don’t have any inside info here, I’m just trying think logically about this. I think if Jack were running the show, with his heart, you’d see more potc made, and that would be a good thing. With these investors and Pats alleged distaste for the game, I think it’s very unlikely it gets revisited. Reducing costs and generating revenue through volume is likely the model they will pursue.

This has been my view. They are running this as a business and should be producing games that net them the largest margins so that they can fund future games, not satisfy a few hundred people at lower margins. If they run POTC again, they will need to raise the price substantially and/or find a way to reduce costs. I have my doubts it will ever be rerun. Is the license an issue? It could also be that once people see GnR and TS, they will forget all about POTC.

WOZ YBR basically had the same or lower build cost, yet they raised the price significantly. I'd expect the same for any rerun of POTC.

i think/hope GNR will be different since Eric is on it and I am looking forward to getting one. I am probably in the minority, but I sold my POTC and don't miss it, Wonka has remained and I love playing it more than I did POTC.

I don't know who is doing TS, but that theme has huge potential.