Quote from: Cow Corner on May 28, 2012, 10:37:32 PM

Thats some good info there, thanks.
I certainly wont be buying one sight unseen and unplayed thats for sure!!

CC,

I don't want to derail this thread with negativity, but if you are intending to buy a LE full featured model, I don't know whether you will be able to take that approach anymore given Stern's LE marketing strategy.

What I am seeing is a dramatic shift from buying a NIB Stern pinball machine for the intent of enjoying a NIB game experience, to buying a game for the sole purpose of profiteering. That is, snapping up as many LE's models as your budget allows, holding for a month or two in the box (before any major details of the next Stern pin come out) and then flipping for a tidy (few thousand) profit without doing a damn thing to it.

With the money you make on that model, this then goes into funding the next LE model purchase that will come out in a few months time and the cycle repeats itself. Since the hype life cycle is so short for a new Stern LE machine (a few months at most), the "speculator" as I call them, has to offload fairly quickly in order to maximise their return.

Now this is a free market and buyers are allowed to pay whatever they think something is worth, but I do lay part of the blame for allowing this to occur at Stern's doorstep.

Flip:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/190682583433?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

for

profit:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/150824241554?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

More evidence of this going on with a LE LOTR nib and RS LE with a 100 plays both going for 12.5k on fleabay.