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New EU Tariffs push pinball prices up 25%

  • Thread starter Deleted member 2463
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Peeps mentioning about the prices inflating over the years from 5k to 10k etc....... yes I get, but that's happened gradually. Inflation is an accepted part of life. Not 25% off the bat.
Also, peeps mentioning we are already paying 12k, well maybe but I'll pay 12k for a collectors or a BM66 SLE for example, but certainly not a standard or an LE, a bad analogy posed IMO.
 
Really going around the loop on this one.

As of Jan 1, it's 0%. Should that change, there will be an update from the Government.
 
All business if financed is geared towards a production number. If the EU represents x% they need those sales to survive. It’s cash rich businesses which can downscale accordingly. I would think especially Stern need the sales. Look what happened as the sales dropped in the nineties 😳 I would think Stern are very worried of what happens next whether the market likes it or not there’s always a ceiling to what a person will pay for what they want as the price rises the numbers drop. In a limited market this can be very damaging. The other option for the seller is try to reduce the price of production and cut corners to reduce the SP. I always hated the sound of early noughties games, cheap parts and poor quality 👎
 
Yeah this isn't selling a few ****ty looking toppers at a grand a pop and looking smug when they sell out. This is potentially, an astronomical price hike in a market that is already overpriced. Huge implications and if Stern or JJP are fobbing it off and assuming it won't matter too much I think they might be mistaken.
 
huggers said:
Yeah this isn't selling a few ****ty looking toppers at a grand a pop and looking smug when they sell out. This is potentially, an astronomical price hike in a market that is already overpriced. Huge implications and if Stern or JJP are fobbing it off and assuming it won't matter too much I think they might be mistaken.
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People that can afford an LE will probably still buy a NIB. Okay, they may drop to premium but if you have £10k to spend on a pinball machine then I'd suggest that you have a healthy hobby fund.

Where it will impact is the folk who might buy a NIB pro every three years or so for £6.5k. This will price them out because 8.5k is just too much.

Given the choice of a Turtles pro or three games like Spiderman, Fish Tales and AC/DC for the same money it's an easy decision.
 
Gonzo said:
Where it will impact is the folk who might buy a NIB pro every three years or so for £6.5k. This will price them out because 8.5k is just too much.
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These are definitely my people.

Who knows man. Maybe the market will just suck it up, desperate to play Back to the Future or whatever. I'm too poor and have too much other ****e to spend my money on unfortunately. Hopefully it all gets resolved and this all becomes academic.
 
huggers said:
These are definitely my people.

Who knows man. Maybe the market will just suck it up, desperate to play Back to the Future or whatever. I'm too poor and have too much other ****e to spend my money on unfortunately. Hopefully it all gets resolved and this all becomes academic.
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Hopefully mate, at least you have a very good title at home. There aren't too many games out there better than JP2 that's for sure.

Maybe loan swaps might be the way to go to get a bit of variety?
 
Gonzo said:
Hopefully mate, at least you have a very good title at home. There aren't too many games out there better than JP2 that's for sure.

Maybe loan swaps might be the way to go to get a bit of variety?
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This is true Gonz, do love that J-Park! I have thought about a temporary loan swap or something along those lines. We'll see. Might be a good way forward for a few of us, especially if this is ongoing for any length of time.
 
If this was to go for a while I think Stern would open a factory in Europe or Asia. I doubt other pinball manufacturers would have the resources or sales to justify a second factory.
 
The European element is quite interesting, Stern could in theory ship a majority of raw materials into a factory in EU. Most probably don't originate in the USA (although many do), if assembled in EU, the tariff would only be applicabe on the US originated parts. Good theory, but it overlooks the simple fact that the US factory is probably heavily leveraged for the throughput it has today, sure they can scale up and down labour, but unless they own the bulding and machinery (from the walk round, I would be suprised if they didn't own that press as it was 25 years old they said LOL), the overhead on a dimished throughput would increase the manufacture cost for each unit.

Plus there is high barrier costs to production at scale that have seen so many others fail. Why would Stern invest that for c30% of their market?
 
If I understand it correctly, Stern sell to Electrocoin who then sell to Phil/HLD/Liberty etc, and Electrocoin being in the loop is the main reason UK stern's are considerably more expensive than buying from Europe? If this is the case Stern could easily soften the blow by removing Electrocoin from the equation. Apologies if I'm talking ********.
 
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kevlar said:
If I understand it correctly, Stern sell to Electrocoin who then sell to Phil/HLD/Liberty etc, and Electrocoin being in the loop is the main reason UK stern's are considerably more expensive than buying from Europe? If this is the case Stern could easily soften the blow by removing Electrocoin from the equation. Apologies if I'm talking ********.
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To me pinballs are beer, @philpalmer is a publican and stern, JJP etc are the breweries. Electrocoin are an unnecessary pub-co thats hiked the prices making the landlords and punters unhappy but with hands tied and no other options. If this process cut them out the chain then I'd be pretty happy about that tbh.
 
Electrocoin sell to Ops as well, there’s no way they’re getting cut out of the process. If you’re Stern would you rather sell to a single distro and let them sort out all of the logistics in a foreign country or set up business relationships with a few different companies and manage it yourself along with the increased cost to your business of doing so.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t like it to happen but the only way it would is if the cost of doing so to Stern becomes less than the lost sales. Even these days, Ops are still the primary market for Stern in the UK therefore Electrocoin are here to stay. That’s how I see it anyway, I could be talking b*llocks 😁
 
Nothing stopping you having more than 1 Stern Distro in UK?? 🤷‍♂️
Canada have two...

The vendors HLD, Liberty, PH have mutually beneficial business interests with Electrocoin.
If not then they wouldn’t do business. It’s the punter who pays in the end.
 
I told stern what I thought of the distribution to the UK; its all about some ancient loyalty :D
 
You guys always seem to give electrocoin lots of **** let me tell you they do not make a killing on the games and are advised by stern on cost they are distributor for other countries than the uk and ship lots of games do you really think hld would lower prices if they where the distributor
About 3 years ago hld had a meeting with Gary at the eag who wanted the distributor ship and Gary said yes I want to see a copy of your bank account and you make an order of 100 now and pay for them and we are good to go Andy at hld **** his pants and headed for the door super quick
If electrocoin gave up the distributor then if Phil didn’t take it on I doubt any other company in the uk would don’t forget it’s min 25 pin shipments
I see the containers come in to Hadfields and 80% are for ph on a 25 pin shipment I bet only 3 or 4 are for other companies in the uk as nobody else stocks them
 
If Electrocoin are some altruistic pinball importer barely making anything why are pins here so much more than in other EU countries? Not being a prick. Honestly asking.
 
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