You would think with the long list of new pinball companies, Stern would cut their prices to make it harder for the competition. It's what the supermarkets do to smaller operators. Drop prices to drive out the small guys, then once they are gone, up go the prices again.
you would think that would be the case but with boutique pinball the design costs may not be as high, their hours much longer, their shed rental lower but the crunch comes down to buying / purchasing costs per unit are higher which bumps the price up.
I have been watching this for a while and strongly believe that JJP stepped it up by approaching building pins and setting a price to reflect their higher quality product and getting sales as that is what alot in the market want (new technology and higher quality). Then I believe Stern probably thought crap JJP are selling a crap load of pins at a higher price - why don't we rise our price to cash in on the available sales and in came all the premium and le options and there starts the vicious circle of pin prices radically going up in price and then companies like Dutch Pinball & Heighway coming in with a high end pin prices and granted some of these maybe granted but Stern are enjoying the higher prices.
With the last few years of higher prices, 2nd hand pins have risen alot and am sure people are running out of money for a fancy but simple toy in the corner.
As for the value of The Whoa Nellie, since it has no ramps, dmd programming, playfield toys maybe $7000 AUD would help a heap of sales, whats the point of being too high even for the US market and you go to all the effort of manufacture setup and lucky to make a few hundred sales, may as well be competitive and make people think they are getting a bargain and get a heap of sales.
