That's a great goal! So why the $75 fee for the opportunity to buy the game at full price? Why not just let people buy it at full price?

They can mitigate this by saying we have 200 club members with option to buy. I hope they do this to be fully transparent.

This would help but this membership structure feels bad. I'm not a collector so scarcity plays no role in what I decide to buy but I know it does for some, especially for these higher cost boutique games. The way this would be implemented doesn't make me feel good about the company tbh, I think it's a bad look.

Here’s my math,
Winchester as an example.

525 to be made.
200 club members guaranteed a game within 7days.
So 325 available for sale day of release.

The reality, this is a fair approach. Manufacturing pinball and predictive sales is a difficult scenario. Having a methodology that allows you to sell at a high level of confidence the minimum needed for marginal growth is good business if you want to stay in business. The potential additional sales benefit both the consumer and enhances the health of the business.

I had no idea the management of BoF also worked on the New Coke and Crystal Pepsi campaigns...

No, if 525 sold out and 200 members wanted it within 7 days, they would make 725 total

If 400 people did this, it raises only $30K.
And..400 people are NOT going to do this, so why?
Butcher what's been gained over 3 solid years for 30K?

Say they did get 400 subscribers and 300 of them wanted the next game?
That increases a 500 production run by 60% to 800.
Sure..no problem.

This is ludricrous.

I get it now!

Yes,I understand that.
What I’m saying is they need to guess a higher number based on club membership.
We should never know that it was 525.
They just need to figure out a higher number and hope for a sell out.
Only way a “collector” will be happy is knowing the total going to be made before purchasing.

Me buying this instantly when it was in my e-mail then approaching balcony to see pinsides reaction:

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SpookyLuke - take note for The Goonies release.....

They want to capture all the non pinsider impulse buyers who go to Expo,probably don’t even own a game yet.
This is how they could of sold another 250 too!

It’s beats calling a single phone number and trying to get through for thirty minutes.

Isn't this "pay for dibs" scheme nearly identical to what haggis tried right before they imploded?

Damn right it does - or getting on some Distributors magic list that you have no real chance of actually getting a game because the Good Ol' Boy club is alive and well for their allocations. Get on PinballStar's e-mail blast list you say? Done - and I hope to see that e-mail in time......

Totally not the same. We will tell you after the reserve period is over how many games were ordered. It won't be a secret.

If the goal is to get games into fans hands, then why have any kind of artificial scarcity?

You could not charge $75 and just change your policy to sell games for 7 days or 14 days or 30 days and the run will be whatever sells in that timeframe.

This seems like a money grab for an artificial problem that doesn’t even need to exist.

That’s a bit harsh.
I admit, my first reaction to this was basically “WTF?”
But as I thought about it, I think it’s good for BoF, for pinheads and for pinball. The reason? Let’s say BoF has a theme they want to make but it’s not something they expect to sell a lot of (see Mystery House, Winchester). They announce a limited run of 300 machines, which would keep their line busy for about 3-6 months. But lo and behold, more people want the theme than they expected. So member orders combined with direct/distro orders comes to 345. That’s still a limited run, but everyone that wanted the theme enough to preorder an NIB are going to get it.
If they had done that with Labyrinth, they would’ve manufactured a number closer to the actual demand and not been left with a bunch of unsold machines. And they could’ve moved in to the next machine faster.
So that’s part of what I see here: a way for a boutique manufacturer to make small runs of lower-demand themes. Which would make more pinheads happy.
And when it comes to big-time themes, BoF can state the usual limit of 1,000 but then accommodate their loyal customers by making a special number of additional machines for them. It’s not likely that the number produced gets doubled, it’s more likely to be 50-200 extra machines. Not a big impact on the collectibility/scarcity of the machine, if that’s your concern, but still enough to meet David’s objective: every fan of the company can buy one of their machines. That’s it.
But I will say this to BoF: get rid of the credit card 3.2% fee and the taxes on that $75. Just make it $75 for your fans. Nickel and diming is what Stern does. That shouldn’t be the relationship BoF has with its customers.

Will people who buy before the reserve period starts know how many possible could be built. How will the game be marketed? Limited run of 525 plus the collectors reserve of which there are 500 members? It just seems confusing to market a game as having a run of x number if there is a large group of buyers who could materially change that number. For me, this concept lives in a confusing weird middle ground if you are going to continue to market games as limited run. I understand the final run number will be disclosed and not change…but only after people have put hard non refundable money down. Either build count matters or it doesn’t.

Hell man.....I'm still struggling why my new iphone wasn't "get a free phone on us" like the tv ad said....I have no chance trying to figure out this BoF deal.

I'm going to buy a membership for $75 and then transfer it to someone else after the sell out moves to the reserve list for $1k Kidding aside, I don't have a problem with this model as it gets more games out there but I also won't buy a machine I haven't played first so I don't really have a dog in this fight to begin with.

Correct reaction to realizing you have the next Keith Elwin: not this.

It's a fairly small fee or the opportunity to make sure you get to buy a machine. Personally, I'd rather have my funds go to BoF rather than a scalper. I do understand the frustration of those who buy more for the collectability, but I am not sure how big that market is vs. those who buy for the actual gameplay.

Oh...this will surely happen.

Yikes,
Great deal
In Michigan!

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I think it would be good that if a member bought a game, their game is tacked onto the total and not use up a game in the original game count. That seems fair.

One group is happy to play awesome games, the other group is only happy if people are left out of the fun. I know which group I support.

OK, got it now. Pay $75.00 so I do not have to pay $25,000. Why didn't they just say that.

I thought BoF was going to start producing bourbon or something. "Barrels Reserve"

I am sure Jack Daniels' trademark infringement legal counsel is looking into this.

Does the fee auto renew?

I just realized there is a way to abuse this: by selling your spot as a member. So, let’s say you are a paying Barrels Reserve member and they announce a machine. You post an ad on pinside or Facebook that you can buy that machine for someone if they pay you $X dollars above the cost of the initial deposit.
Granted, a member could only do that once, but if the demand is high enough, as it was for WMH, some fans who aren’t members pay too much.
That’s not common enough to totally undermine the BR program, but does mean it won’t solve the problem entirely.
I think ForceFlow has a point: why not just remove the limited aspect of every run?
If you need the BR program to be in place in order to assure license/IP holders you will stay within some agreed production limit, there are other ways to do that.

Now it’s the credit card fee and tax the problem? Lol

1) Agreed, this feels more like "flipper insurance". For $75/yr you can see whether demand will be there or not on each title. Pennies if you're flipping for $5K.

2) Those who might normally buy Day 1 may get this membership instead, in turn cannibalizing the number of initial orders. They don't want to buy until it's sold out (to ensure it's sold out/valuable, and to feel like their membership was worth it). Meanwhile the game may not sell well since there are that many people holding out with their membership, and then no members buy since there's no sell out. Backfire potential. BoF only made $75 from that "member" instead of the price of a new game.

3) I think the best solution is to just not cap orders. Maybe incentivize the initial orders with something small but special (i.e. a custom shooter rod only offered with Week 1 purchases), and then say after maybe 30 days that sales are closed and they're making as many as are on order. This also allows some to free up cash by selling off some games within the ordering window. BoF's aint cheap!

The problem is that you left out the "pay $75/year" part for the new model. Given that it would appear 2 models a year is the target and there are fees/taxes as well, this basically boils down to paying a $40 fee in advance for every release just in case you want to order one. Could there at least be a $40 discount if you end up buying a machine through this system? In that case it could be seen as a small, non-refundable deposit for potentially saving a place in line.

So BoF says they will only make a certain number of games, then more if the game sells out.
Some shady double talk really, and I don’t think it will help the initial offering to sell out.
But at least they are kind of being upfront about it.

Yall complainers might as well just say it with your whole chest: "Barrels, please make less money so -I- can make more!"

I never knew how many sales and marketing experts were on this forum!

The problem is when companies think limiting games is the why that they sold well.

I'm pretty certain no one would have an issue with the unlimited option.

Pre production sales numbers means a more reliable supply chain, would be my thought. Unlimited just bogs down a line and pushes back future title production.

This was my first reaction as well. Collector mindsets ruin so many hobbies. But to say that 500 units has great value, but 510 units means they lose a significant amount of that is a pretty big stretch. I don't like this structure, though. Just charge people a one time fee to have that option on the next release.

The issue with that statement is BOF is very publicly stating they regret limiting a game.

You could make a SHOEGRUMENT that limiting has it's place in sales. But only in spots, you have to have the smarts to realize when you are just limiting yourself, especially given the extra effort it takes to make a pinball game relative to a new color scheme on a shoe.

Sorry, I mean why a year, why not just a one time fee? Or one time for the next title?

Hah you've only been here 7 months; there isnt a type of expert we don't have 100 deep on here.

I think because they are doing more with this than just the buy spot. They are doing other things with this group as well, exclusive merch, discount merch, etc. Time will tell if that stuff is worth it or not.