Episode 1189: "The Single Most Important Question in Pinball Right Now!"

PodcastAnalysis updated 6d agoFeb 18, 202624 min listen

TL;DR

Pokemon Pinball sparks historic demand surge; Kaneda dissects secondary market controls and predicts $25-30k valuations.

From the creator

And it starts with the word WHERE....

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Synopsis

Kaneda celebrates Pokemon Pinball as a transformative moment for the hobby, delivering unprecedented demand and community solidarity. He critiques Pinside's Robin for restricting secondary market sales while praising Stern's successful restoration of FOMO around LE machines, predicts Pokemon LEs will appreciate significantly beyond $20k, and analyzes competitive landscape implications for upcoming titles like Transformers and Fallout. He also discusses Melvin Williams' hire at American Pinball as a quality/taste improvement.

Highlights

Pokemon LE has zero units available for sale anywhere in the world despite 750 units being sold to customers
Pokemon Pinball represents unprecedented demand for a Stern machine, surpassing even Ali/Batman/Ghostbusters/Tron
Pokemon LE games are currently selling for $20,000 on secondary market with multiple confirmed transactions
Pokemon Pinball will appreciate to $25,000-$30,000 in the medium-to-long term
Transformers LE is already sold out due to FOMO cascade from Pokemon success
Stern will never make special edition variants (Charizard/Pikachu editions) of Pokemon, protecting the 750-unit LE scarcity
Melvin Williams joining American Pinball will not result in Raza production this year
Pinside Robin's marketplace restrictions prevent opportunistic sellers from profiting while Robin himself profits from every sale listing

Notable quotes

“I have never seen this in my 13 years of covering this hobby, that a game comes out that has extraordinary demand... You can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone on pin side that wants a Pokemon LE.”

Kaneda

“This is Pokemon, baby. But here's my thing. When is this nonsense gonna stop? Now, let me just clarify for some of you out there. I am getting a Pokemon LE.”

Kaneda

“What this game is bringing to pinball is solidarity... everyone who plays Pokemon is going to feel like a good pinball player.”

Kaneda

“It's a George Gomez game, people. He runs the freaking company. Who do you think is going to get the best resources and the team to work on this game?”

Kaneda

“The reason why the LE will always hold and go way up in value, there's never gonna be any more to get.”

Kaneda

“If there's only 750 Pokemon LEs on an IP that's worth $220 billion, has more fans than all of these other IPs combined, I think those 750 games are going to go to the moon.”

Kaneda

“With this one game, they restored the FOMO around their LEs instantly. Now nobody wants to be caught in this predicament again.”

Kaneda

“Melvin is a good hire. He's the right kind of guy... more importantly, he's got the right kind of taste. And I think American Pinball, where they've struggled, was under David Fix's leadership, they might have had the worst taste in all of pinball.”

Kaneda