Stern Pinball

"See, Stern's pretty smart. They make the distributors the bad guys, right? They make the distributors be the ones who are like, well, they're the ones who are inflating the price. They almost give their distributors a chance to act like scalpers and flippers."

Stern deliberately makes distributors appear as the bad guys with super limited edition pricing by selling to them at lower prices and letting them set retail prices

"Stern Pinball is the most efficient and the most effective at getting a game on the line. I think Stern Pinball probably has at least two titles complete and ready to go at a moment's notice and I think they can shuffle the deck."

"there is no better bet in all of Pinball than buying a Stern machine. Not only will you get probably the best gameplay in all of Pinball, you're going to get the most code complete game in all of Pinball. And the other thing is this, the games will hold their value pretty much better than anyone else's machines."

Stern machines are the best bet in pinball - best gameplay, most complete code, and hold value better

"Here's my prediction. I think the next game from Stern Pinball, I think it's gonna be Venom. I think the next game from Stern Pinball takes game of the year."

Prediction: Stern's next game will be Venom and it will win game of the year.

"That's a five year cycle for one title that is simply a remake five years people. Stern pinball in five years will put out 20 plus games, new inbox, new code, new art, everything designed from the ground up."

Prediction: In five years, Stern will produce 20+ new games while CGC completes one remake title in the same timeframe.

"I don't understand what happened there. They went to Comic Con. They had Ozzy Osborn. They had Todd McFarlane, a huge draw at Comic Con, and they set up a bunch of Mandalorians and I think some rushes, and then there was absolutely no news in the pinball world."

Stern's Comic Con appearance was pointless marketing failure

"The biggest thing made up ever was this, that half stern games go overseas. That's not true. Half of Stern's machines never went overseas. That was just a story they would cook up to create FOMO"

Half of Stern games don't go overseas - it's manufactured FOMO

"The Stern catalog is stronger than every single pinball company combined in the history of pinball."

Stern Pinball has stronger catalog than all pinball companies in history combined

"this is the only efficient and legitimate large scale pinball company in the world. Everybody else is just a booty company trying to do what Stern does."

Stern is most efficient pinball company with best value

"When Stern Pinball returns, they are going to return and be at the gates of boutique pinball like Hannibal's at the gates. And they are going to show everybody how it's done."

Stern Pinball will dominate when they return with new releases

"the reason why Stern Pinball machines keep going up in value is they have the largest collector base. And I also think people believe in Stern's quality the best. I think Stern games are sought after more because they're less problematic."

Stern games are best investment because of quality and collector base

"it is Stern Pinball that keeps this hobby exciting. Because without Stern, and we're feeling it right now, without Stern Pinball releasing a new game every four months, this is pinball, people. Everyone else is absolutely fumbling the ball on the goal line."

Stern Pinball is the backbone of the hobby and other manufacturers are failing

"for $11,500. Everything that these modders are doing should have been done at Stern... I think these games should come loaded with stuff and not require us to buy additional mods."

Stern games should include more features for the price instead of relying on mod community

"Stern Pinball doesn't want to help you, Stern Pinball doesn't want to support your efforts, Stern Pinball does not want to have competition, Stern Pinball wants to bury the competition"

Stern Pinball actively tries to bury competition and steal licenses from boutique companies

"the only company that can really have multiple designers because it makes sense is Stern Pinball, right? John Borg, Keith Elwin, Brian Eddy. So those three guys, if they have three cornerstone games a year, each one of them will have a new game out each year. And Stern has consistently hit on that note"

Only Stern Pinball can justify having multiple designers because they actually manufacture consistently

"We don't need four new games a year. We absolutely do not, two is fine."

Stern should stop at four games per year - two is plenty

"Stern games work out of the box for the most part, right? I mean, they wouldn't be where they're at if Stern games were out of the box problematic."

Stern games work reliably out of the box

"when Stern takes your money and Stern reveals a game, the game is on the line"

Stern Pinball operates more reliably than boutique companies

"And I think Stern Pinball is a bunch of morons for walking away from Christopher Franchi. I really do because I don't want Johnny Crap on stuff. And I don't know who's their go-to guy after Zombie Yeti."

Stern Pinball are morons for walking away from Christopher Franchi

"They're the only global pinball company. They're the only company that has brought pinball back. They're the only company that has expanded pinball."

Stern Pinball is the only company that truly brought pinball back and deserves credit

"I am almost 1,000% positive that Stern puts out fake rumors... I would totally orchestrate a campaign of fake news if I were Stern Pinball"

Stern Pinball deliberately spreads fake rumors to confuse the community

"buying a pro or premium over sticker price is the dumbest thing you could ever do because Stern Pinball was always going to make more"

Buying pro or premium Stern machines over sticker price is extremely foolish because Stern will always make more

"When I see people spending $18,000, $19,000 on like a stranger things, I really do wish everyone would just slow down. It's not going to be like this forever"

Stern Pinball price increases are getting ridiculous and people should slow down buying

"Stern pinball is pinball. There is nobody else on this planet that actually, efficiently, effectively does what Stern does. Every three to four months, this company puts some of the best themes on planet Earth into pinball form"

Stern Pinball is the most reliable and efficient pinball manufacturer, consistently delivering quality games every 3-4 months

"when I see a big company like Stern hasn't really, really, really engineered stuff as cool as that rug or the upper playfield or the bowling alley. It just reminds me and it should remind all of you. You're getting what you pay for with Stern machines. They're not putting the engineering complexity into their games."

Stern doesn't put complex mechanical engineering into games compared to smaller companies

"This is another example of how Stern Pinball doesn't really test these games very much before they send them out to customers. How do they not test this? How do they not spend a few months with the scoops on rush, making sure that either the playfields didn't wear or they needed scoop protectors?"

Stern Pinball doesn't test games enough before release - Rush scoop protector is defective

"They could never make a new game again and still make tens of millions of dollars a year, because all of us would be clawing over each other to get the new super limited version of Iron Maiden or Jurassic Park or Tron or Lord of the Rings or Simpsons Pinball Party."

Stern could stop making new games and make tens of millions vaulting old titles

"Do not, and I'm just doing this to save you money, do not pay over sticker for a pro or premium of a machine... you're going to lose so much money because Stern is going to remake all of these pros and premiums."

Don't pay over MSRP for Stern pro/premium models

"Personaally, again, this is me personaally, I don't know how you unbox a $25,000 Stern Elvira. You watch the playfield dimple to all hell because those Elvira playfields are horrible... You spent like $20,000 more just for $500 in decals and painted armor."

Stern Elvira 40th Anniversary is overpriced for what you get

"The world's number one pinball company that has more volume than all these other companies combined, that releases four games a year, that has the most mouths to feed, that has the most at stake, that has the highest rent and overhead, the world's number one pinball company, Stern Pinball, doesn't do this crap."

Stern Pinball doesn't need non-refundable deposits unlike smaller companies

"Now think about nowadays, who is Stern competing with? Nobody. They have no competition. There is not a single Pinball company out there that even makes Stern think twice about the games it's making."

Stern Pinball has no real competition, which is why their games lack innovation and magic

"Stern Pinball realizes we are not going to show you the game until it's on the line, why is that so hard for everybody else to do, it's so easy to do it that way, just don't ask for people's money until your game is being built"

Stern Pinball's reveal-and-ship strategy is superior to other manufacturers who show games months/years before delivery

"that interesting battle between him and Stern all of those years where Stern just wanted to rush games out. But Lyman needed more than a year to make a game great"

Stern rushed games out while Lyman needed time to make games great

"Stern loves it when they release an $11,000 game and seeing itself for $15,000 right away. They love it. They don't want to stop scalping because what scalping is doing, it's showing them that they have not come close to the ceiling yet"

Stern loves scalping because it shows pricing ceiling potential

"Stern from a gameplay standpoint absolutely laps all Jersey Jack games. It just does."

Stern absolutely dominates Jersey Jack in gameplay flow and energy

"Do I think these games are worth the prices? No, they're not. We all know that. These are not worth the prices. Stern is completely fleecing all of us."

Stern is completely fleecing customers with current pricing

"Stern has zero competition. There's zero competition. Nobody can make pinball machines, really, efficiently. Nobody. There is nobody else out there that is doing what Stern does. They make a new game every three to four months and they make hundreds a week. Nobody is even close."

Stern can charge whatever they want because they have zero competition in making pinball machines efficiently

"But Stern gets it to the only drug dealer in town that could cut up the dime bags fast enough because that's what these people want... If you're the only drug dealer making drugs and this is a drug and it is and these grown men don't need another pinball machine, but they're addicted to this."

Stern is like a drug dealer - the only supplier feeding pinball addicts

"The real eye-opening thing today is that Stern once again is using each new game to trojan horse a higher price into the pinball market."

Stern is using each new game to trojan horse higher prices into the market

"And without Stern Pinball, there wouldn't be much pinball to analyze because nobody else can do what Stern does and that is get a new pinball machine even in pandemic times. They get us new machines every three to four months."

Stern dominates the pinball market because no other manufacturer can match their production speed

"Stern can sometimes do really piss poor direction on callouts when they're working with, like, talent."

"If you took 99 million people and surveyed them, put Guns N' Roses next to Led Zeppelin and say, which one do you think costs more money? You would get 99.9999% of people would say the Jersey Jack machine looks like it should cost way more money. The only person that would vote for the Stern is someone named Gary Stern or George Gomez."

Jersey Jack machines obviously look more expensive than Stern machines

"And ultimately, stern pinball, are you ready for it? Has the best quality. There is no one who even comes close to Stern's quality."

Stern has the best quality in the industry

"if you were to say which pinball company is efficient, has the best quality, has the best code, has the best games, the best themes, it is unequivocally stern pinball. That is why they are number one."

Stern Pinball dominates the industry in all key metrics

"When you look at the prices of these toppers and shooter rods and people begging to get Batman inner art decals, Why do people who buy Stern machines have to beg for accessories that Stern made for those machines? So my wish is Stern goes down every single game and remakes those accessories and gives them to people who bought those games. I don't think anyone who bought a Ghostbusters should have to spend $3,500 on a $500 topper."

Stern should remake all accessories for past games instead of making fans pay inflated prices

"they control about 90% of the pinball volume and they have about 99% of the games you really want and that's just where Stern is at... They control the entire market."

Stern controls the pinball market and has no real competition

"I don't think anyone should be paying like $5,000 or $3,500 for an Ecto 1 Topper. Look at the thing. It's cheap... It looks like it was made in China for like 30 bucks."

People paying $3000-5000 for Stern toppers are overpaying for cheap plastic

"Stern should just do a platinum series. That's the top of the top and the platinum series is just like 200 or 250 of every title they make and they would sell everyone and they could charge 20 grand and all these rich guys that are bored out of their mind that need to have Christmas morning happen every other week are going to buy them."

Stern should create platinum series of 200-250 super limited games at $20k for wealthy collectors

"I think Stern is going to the same well too many times. So many superhero games, so many dad rock games, where's the originality? Where is the diversity in the lineup of machines?"

Stern Pinball is going to the same well too many times with superhero and dad rock games, lacking originality and diversity

"I would argue no Stern is worth anywhere near. Anywhere near $9,000. Let alone 10,000. Let alone $20,000. No Stern is worth anywhere near that."

No Stern pinball machine is worth anywhere near $9,000-20,000 given their low production costs