I see they are now selling "standard" versions for the same price but without the extra clear coats, shaker motor and gold trim - oh and plaque. Jeez price gouging at its finest.

It's a remake for goodness sake, therefore remake it like the original and produce whatever the demand is. Leave the LE, Pro games for your new pins. Poor business decision IMHO. If they want to maximise profit from this they should have had one replica and sold as many of it as the market wanted, that's it. If I was in the market for one and missed out on the first 1,000 I would have been pissed enough not to buy the standard when they offered it for the same price. I would figure I would wait and try and get one when someone flips it.  The clear coat is the thing that would annoy me comparing the two for the same price.

The cynic in me says the greed and games played by some of these people will eventually blow up in their faces and they will end up crushing the hobby to a certain extent at some point.

Bad Business decision? they just sold 1000 machines at 8k and will probably sell heaps more standards! less not kid ourselves there not in it for the long run :-) its about making fast money.

Peter