as stated in the past just because stern develop a new controller system that is cheaper to make and cheaper to install etc doesn't mean the price should be hiked up. A smart business would plan ahead and recoup costs over a period of time, not slam their customers with all the extra costs due to development and new factory - slam the MMr contractors.

the fact that they are claiming it was a fake launch after almost everyone that made a comment on the pinside thread said they were out based on the price alone. I bet Stern are just getting greedy and trying to cash in on the boutique market but they are the holden / ford producer of pins with a base range, medium and HSV range. Boutique pinball is dearer because there unit costs are dearer as well as many other factors. Stern might of just seen the limits of the bubble plus  Stern's marketing guy is a goose - no more launch videos and not launching product professionally and constant price hikes.

admittedly the dollar value does not help but this pin is $500 more in the US than the Wrestling and TWD pro pins ??? and it does not have ramps, dmd or playfield toys ??

that aside it is a sweet looking pin and look forward to videos.

+1

Stern are just trying to milk the market while it lasts. Unfortunately they will end up killing the golden goose that they created in the first place.

ACDC was and will remain Stern's high water mark, but as swinks said they got greedy from that point on because they saw the sales and decided to implement bracket creep pricing that has far outstripped both inflation and currency fluctuations on subsequent titles.

People can bang on with glib internet statements like getting a better paying job, but the reality remains there is a finite amount of customers both in Australia and globally who can both afford and justify regular circa $10,000 outlays on a novelty item that is for all intents and purposes a beta unit on initial release and which may or may not receive updates of any significance. People won't buy because it is an unpolished product and Stern won't polish the product because the sales aren't there - round and round the merry go round.

Of course, those with a pecuniary interest will continue to preach about how sales of the Stern title du jour are going gangbusters and they can't keep up with demand, yet continue to overlook the fact that the time period required for titles to ACTUALLY sell out from distributors continues to widen with each title released. There are still Mustang LE's available in both the US and Europe from multiple distributors and we are rapidly approaching its one year release anniversary.

Stern can make "The Pin" and sell it for $3000US RRP on Amazon (Amazon also takes their percentage cut out of that price so the real RRP would likely sit in the mid to high $2000's). For that price it has over 90% of what a standard Pro model Stern machine contains. Yet people continue to go on about how Pro models represent great value because Stern can't afford to build them for less.

Can you hear that noise in the distance? That's the sound of a rapidly expanding bubble stretched to its limits and about to explode.