bestbuy.com selling stern pins now

I don't really follow the prices of new pins. Are their prices any good?

They're about the same as what you'd pay from a dealer, no better, no worse. I highly doubt these would ever show up on the sale floor of a Best Buy retail store, they're too expensive and they wouldn't want the clientele to mess around with a $4500 piece of equipment.
 
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Just found out that my company "best buy" is selling stern pins now. Cool thing is I checked, and my discount does apply to these. Its not substantial, but its six to seven hundred dollars off retail which is still pretty cool.....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...p=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960

So 5% over factory is $600-$700 off retail huh? Do you still have to pay to ship? I doubt you can have it sent to the store. Tax and shipping will be killer on these.
 
I really don't think they are stocking these in their warehouses. I bet when they get the orders they tell Stern and Stern ships them direct. Just look, they are all "Special Orders". Prices seem ok, right? Delivery and tax is a killer, though.
 
I think the "Professional" models are the kind you'd find on route and the "Home" models are scaled down a bit and don't have coin slots. Anyone know for sure?
 
I think the "Professional" models are the kind you'd find on route and the "Home" models are scaled down a bit and don't have coin slots. Anyone know for sure?


The only one I have had any experience with was Batman: The Dark Knight, so this info could be flawed but I think this is how Stern does these:

Home - one non-functional coin slot, game is set to freeplay in the software and can not be changed. Some dumbing down of the rules / removal of "expensive" game pieces. Think of it as a stripped down model that collectors really don't want.

Professional - this is the machine you will normally see on route at your local bar or arcade. I believe the majority of the pins from each theme will be Professional models.

LE - This is the limited edition, geared towards the collector crowd. Upgrades are primarily cosmetic and the software may be more advanced. These normally come out a little later and are fully ready to go on route if you desire.


One thing to consider when buying a new Stern pin - they have a very Microsoft esque attitude towards software. Early software releases are usually buggy and incomplete. This is completely fine for the casual bar player but home owners and really good players playing a game on route often bitch about the machines until the updates fix all of the problems. If a machine doesn't sell well Stern doesn't put much effort into updating the software, so you may end up SOL with a partially working machine.

Updates are easy to install, just download the file from the Stern website on a jump (thumb) drive and plug it into the machine. As far as I know updates are always free.
 
I'm going to have to burn my Best Buy Credit card now...otherwise the wife may kill me when I wind up with a Tron pinball in the house.
 
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