Costco sells brand new pinball now ? WTF?

[yojo!]

I went to costco today and found this:



And apparently a sale representative said there were more coming ! WOF and a Nascar one.

[dcharlie]

whut
tha
fugg

i have the chance to move to the US right now (or the UK... or HK... Or china... or singapore... or australia... etc.)
but things like this make the options seem more attractive

[PC Engine Fan X!]

That's cool that Costco is selling brand new Stern pinball machines. I recall that they used to sell those generic arcade cabs with emulation included but at crazy ass MSRP of $1,999.99 USD. I personally tried it out and it was just licensed game Roms sold with the cab anyways. The control panel even had a proper full-sized trackball setup for playing those arcade Roms that originally used said control scheme back in the 1980s (i.e. Centipede, Millipede, etc.)

So how much was the MSRP of this Stern "The Dark Knight" pinball machine, yojo!?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Sweet. I love playing pinball games at arcades. Sadly, I don't have the resources or space at home to accommodate one.

[neorichieb1971]

Sweet. I love playing pinball games at arcades. Sadly, I don't have the resources or space at home to accommodate one.

Really, I thought Americans all lived in warehouses.

[Vexorg]

NIB pins generally retail for around $4,500 give or take a bit, so I can't imagine it being much less than that. Kind of interesting that Costco would have them though... I'll have to keep an eye out and see if any show up here.

Edit: There are a couple on the costco.com website showing a price of $3999.99.

[yojo!]

So how much was the MSRP of this Stern "The Dark Knight" pinball machine, yojo!?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Cheaper than the advertised price on the website; It's only $3299. They have one on freeplay; It feels and looks like the real thing to me; although purists say that Stern removed some features from the playfield to cut cost and dumb it down for mainstrream public.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For yojo!,

That's a pretty reasonable price for one if Stern had to cut some corners for release to the general public. Hmmm, I should check out my local Costco and see if they're selling new Stern pinball machines. Could be a regional Costco store sale or a limited Stern pinball promotional deal if a Stern rep is on hand to answer questions about their games.

Plus you don't have to deal with the middleman that would markup the intial wholesale price even more. Since Costco buys directly from Stern, they can sell it at a lower price and still make a profit.

At the California Extreme shows, I've seen brand new boxed Stern pinball machines priced at $5,999.99 USD but sold through an arcade distributor. They accept all kinds of credit cards assuming if you're willing to plunck down some serious $$$ for one right on the spot. Arranging transportation for a new pinball machine is on your own terms though. If you're a shrewd buyer, you could always haggle a deal on the spot to make the arcade distributor's selling price come down a bit lower. Could knock off a few hundred bucks by doing so.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Vexorg]

I tend to think that if I was willing to drop that much money on a pinball machine I'd try to find a late 90s Williams/Bally machine, although those unfortunately tend to fall just about into that same price range. If I was going to get a Stern machine it would probably be Monopoly, although I don't believe those are being produced anymore.

[cools]

Stern Pinball conducts market test at Costco

Stern Pinball Inc. is conducting a limited market test exclusively in 16 select Costco stores in 12 states. The test includes a total of 48 reduced feature, lower cost, custom designed Batman pinball machines with less complex playfields. Participating Costco stores have three games each. Stern is conducting this test to study products best suited for various segments of its market. These games are shipped from the factory set on free play and have only one fixed coin setting of five credits per one coin.

Stern plans to sell no more of this test Batman in this configuration in the U.S. If the test is successful, Stern will further simplify the game design for tested market segments, such redesign including a much more simplified cabinet, replacement of the current dot-matrix score display, and other features. Stern will continue to build its full line of traditional coin-op pinball games as well as collector models.

Costco store test locations are in: California (Carlsbad, Rancho Cucamonga, Simi Valley, and North Fresno), Nevada (Reno), Oregon (Tigard), Washington (Issaquah), Utah (St. George), Texas (San Antonio and Houston), Kansas (Overland Park), Ohio (Deerfield Township), Virginia (Chantilly), Georgia (Alpharetta), Florida (Pembroke Pines), and New York (Melville).

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Sweet. I love playing pinball games at arcades. Sadly, I don't have the resources or space at home to accommodate one.

Really, I thought Americans all lived in warehouses.

True only if you live in the woods/have munnies.

[yojo!]

I could never I built up my arcade collection the way I did here when I lived back in europe. Everything is so cheap here , and the floor space is just incredible. It makes it almost a no brainer to own a couple of cabs.

[caldwert]

Personally I wouldn't pay that much for them. Stern's aren't Williams in terms of build quality/price appreciation(deprecation). Monopoly as mentioned earlier in this thread sells for about $1,500-$2,000. Tons of old Williams machines sell for the same price. Honestly the only Stern I'd like to have brand new would be The Simpsons Pinball Party. Other than that I can deal with a machine that's been on route and is way cheaper.

[Damocles]

I tend to really hate licensed stuff, so I'm not a fan of Stern. ...not like there are many options, however...

[Vexorg]

Looks like one of the test locations (Issaquah, which is actually next to the Costco corporate headquarters) is nearby, so I'll try to go check this out and see how it plays. It'll be interesting to see to what extent they're simplifying the playfield designs (I imagine it's probably mostly in terms of playfield toys and possibly stuff like strobe lighting effects, I can't imagine there's going to be a lot of cost savings to be had on more standard parts.)

[cools]

BDK is quite a fun game. One of the better recent pins (24 is terrible). It's not a patch on NBA though, which is the best I've played of the recent releases.