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72: Can I Be Honest?

Pinball Party Podcast·podcast_episode·38m 58s·analyzed·May 18, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Host grapples with exclusion from Stern media event amid broader market downturn and personal burnout.

Summary

The host of Pinball Party Podcast discusses his exclusion from Stern's recent media facility tour, exploring themes of honesty, disappointment, and the challenges of sustaining engagement in the pinball community. He reflects on the current home market downturn, poor resale values (citing his difficulty selling a Jaws Premium), inflated game pricing, and questions whether his podcast efforts and personal investment in pinball are worthwhile. He briefly covers John Wick's launch, Funhouse remake announcement, and licensing updates while wrestling with his role in the industry.

Key Claims

  • Stern invited multiple podcasters and content creators to their facilities all-expenses paid but did not invite the Pinball Party Podcast host

    high confidence · Host states 'Stern has decided to invite a bunch of podcasters and video content creators and everything in pinball media to their facilities, all expenses paid' but clarifies 'no, I did not get the invite'

  • The home pinball market is in severe downturn with resale values declining faster than pre-COVID, making it unsustainable

    high confidence · Host provides direct experience: 'I had to basically beg to sell it for eighty five hundred dollars' on a $9,500 MSRP Jaws Premium; describes market as 'house of cards' with dealers sitting on inventory

  • Jaws Premium by Keith Elwin is difficult to sell despite being the newest game from arguably the best pinball designer

    high confidence · Host: 'I have not had a harder time selling a game in six months than Jaws Premium under 50 plays, bought brand new by Flippin' Up Pinball' and sold for $8,500, losing $1,000 in one week

  • John Wick Pro performs better design-wise than the Premium version

    high confidence · Host: 'the pro looks better than the premium there's my tldr don't buy the premium'

  • Tron Vault edition is 'pretty likely' to be released and owners should sell high-value Tron LEs soon

    medium confidence · Host references 'Tron Vault is pretty likely by the way so yes list your Tron LEs for like 20 grand sooner rather than later'

  • Metallica is scheduled for late summer release (Spike 3 platform)

    medium confidence · Host: 'I was led to believe that Metallica is late summer-ish, Spike 3' but qualifies 'I don't think that that's a Jack thing. I think that's a Borg thing'

  • George Gomez interview on Flipping Out Pinball YouTube touches on licensing issues including Lord of the Rings 'probably not happening'

    medium confidence · Host: 'Gomez touched on the vaults and the Lord of the Rings probably not happening and probably not'

Notable Quotes

  • “Can I be honest? I guess that's a rhetorical question, a theme for this episode, and maybe an ongoing theme with this podcast since its beginning.”

    Pinball Party Podcast host@ 0:04 — Establishes the thematic framework of the entire episode and the host's core value proposition

  • “no, I did not get the invite. get fucked do i um it it hurts uh that's i guess it's hard it's hard to say that you know you want to act manly or whatever or put on like nah it fucking doesn't bother me it does it bothers me that i didn't get an invite”

    Pinball Party Podcast host@ 3:08 — Raw emotional core of the episode; demonstrates vulnerability and authenticity while explaining the impact of exclusion

  • “I had to basically beg to sell it for eighty five hundred dollars uh basically a brand new game a thousand dollars less a week later because that's how i roll um jesus the um that is it is a house of cards it is a bunch of dominoes this market and everything right now is bad.”

    Pinball Party Podcast host@ 15:05 — Concrete evidence of market collapse; illustrates the unsustainability of home collecting at current prices

  • “either I just be like an advertising arm for everyone. Everything's great! Go get these mods! Go get... Everything's great! Oh, Galactic Tame Forest! Great game! I mean, a couple things would be better, but yeah, go buy it! You know, come on. I can't do that stuff.”

    Pinball Party Podcast host@ 30:47 — Articulates the core conflict between maintaining credibility and achieving commercial success/inclusion

  • “I don't know. I want to love it so much, but there's just so many things stacked against it right now.”

    Pinball Party Podcast host@ 28:43 — Summarizes the existential tension driving the entire episode

  • “the pro looks better than the premium there's my tldr don't buy the premium because if you can't get even close to close to only 500 less than what you buy for a Jaws. John Wick is not going to do it.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyKeith ElwinpersonZach SharpepersonJoel EngelberthpersonGeorge GomezpersonJaws (Stern)gameJohn Wick (Stern)gameJurassic Park (Stern)game

Signals

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Host expresses severe burnout after exclusion from Stern media tour, questioning sustainability of podcast and home collecting; demonstrates sharp motivational decline

    high · Host states 'I have no pinball machines i'm not checking pin side that much i'm just second guessing is it worth it' and 'i don't know if i can play these games at home hence the break'

  • $

    market_signal: Severe depreciation in home game resale values; Jaws Premium MSRP $9,500 selling for $8,500 within one week; market worse than pre-COVID; dealers sitting on inventory

    high · Host: 'I had to basically beg to sell it for eighty five hundred dollars... a thousand dollars less a week later' and 'It is a house of cards it is a bunch of dominoes this market'

  • ?

    pricing_signal: John Wick Premium and other premium versions overpriced relative to Pro versions; market resistance to $13k Limited Editions

    high · Host: 'the pro looks better than the premium there's my tldr don't buy the premium because if you can't get even close to close to only 500 less than what you buy for a Jaws'

  • ?

    community_signal: 'Gun gate' controversy around John Wick launch regarding missing guns in certain region versions; community polarization embarrassing host

    high · Host: 'wick gun gate what the fuck is wrong with a lot of you out there... it's embarrassing it's embarrassing' and 'it's clearly just a licensing thing'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Stern curating media invitations to exclude critical voices and control messaging; selective inclusion of podcasters/content creators

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.117

0:00
Hello, pinball party fans. Can I be honest? I guess that's a rhetorical question, a theme for this episode, and maybe an ongoing theme with this podcast since its beginning.
0:17
Yeah, we'll talk about WIC. We'll talk about pinball. Oh, we're going to talk about pinball the whole time. But I got to say, and I got to ask again, can I be honest? and I don't know if I can to get what I want maybe out of this hobby.
0:36
Yeah, it's been a few weeks for a reason, and a pinball reason. It's difficult, honestly, there's that word again, to say this, and I've been struggling with how to say it. I've gone through anger, jealousy, all the various forms that disappointment does to you. And I'll just cut to it. I guess, can I be honest? I'm just going to do it. It's what makes people listen to this podcast. I think it's one of the main things. It's one of the most popular forms of feedback I get is thank you for being genuine. Thank you for being honest. and to the people who see through the swear words as just like, that's just how I talk or other people, you know, like, yeah, I'm not putting on a show. I literally am putting on a show, but I'm just being genuine.
1:34
That could be in the form of this game is great. This game sucks. That mech is great. That person in pinball sucks or every form. It could be middling, but the thing with sincerity and honesty, even though you may not like the outcome of that, is that at least you know where the person or the entity stands. So what I'm getting at is there is going to be a lot of media coverage of Stern soon. Why do I know this? because I got an influx of text messages and emails from people in the media last week saying, oh, did you get the invite from multiple angles? What invite? Well, Stern has decided to invite a bunch of podcasters and video content creators and everything in pinball media to their facilities, all expenses paid, to maybe make up for the John Wick launch of using some YouTubers that aren't in the pinball realm to promote games or really get a taste for it, which is the right move for sure. And it's awesome. And I'm glad Stern's doing it. Are they doing it late? I guess. But hey, they're still listening. And that's awesome.

The exclusion from Stern's media tour reflects Stern's desire to control messaging and avoid critical voices

medium confidence · Host theorizes: 'the only thing that makes sense to me is because I am not a shill, because I am not giving them a pass... they want to control the message going out there'

Pinball Party Podcast host@ 19:58 — Direct consumer guidance; warns collectors about pricing and resale risk on premium versions

  • “when you get the dedicated ones that want it for what you're doing, those numbers don't change, and they'll be with you through thick and thin.”

    Pinball Party Podcast host@ 32:08 — Identifies the value of authentic audience despite growth plateaus

  • “I need that progress. And really, just a 180 turn of like, ah, shit.”

    Pinball Party Podcast host@ 32:44 — Reveals the psychological driver behind his content creation and what demotivates him

    • Pinball Party Podcast
    content
    Funhouse (Chicago Gaming Company)game
    Medieval Madness (Chicago Gaming Company)game
    Tron Legacy (Stern)game
    Metallica (Spike 3)game
    Lord of the Ringsgame
    Pinsideplatform
    Insider Connected (Stern)product
    Pinball Networkorganization
    Flipping Out Pinballorganization
    Kaneda (pinball media personality)person
    Iron Maiden (Stern)game

    medium · Host speculates: 'the only thing that makes sense to me is because I am not a shill... they want to control the message going out there'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Lord of the Rings licensing appears problematic or impossible; George Gomez indicated 'probably not happening'; host expresses long-standing desire for this title

    high · Host references George Gomez interview stating 'Lord of the Rings probably not happening and probably not' and notes earlier speculation

  • ?

    machine_intel: Tron Vault edition believed to be 'pretty likely' release; host advises selling Tron Limited Editions at high secondary market prices before Vault announcement

    medium · Host: 'Tron Vault is pretty likely by the way so yes list your Tron LEs for like 20 grand sooner rather than later'

  • ?

    content_signal: Pinball Party Podcast excluded from Stern facility media tour; multiple other podcasters/creators receiving all-expenses-paid invitations

    high · Host: 'Stern has decided to invite a bunch of podcasters and video content creators... no, I did not get the invite'

  • ?

    business_signal: Dealers sitting on increasing inventory; manufacturers continuing to produce games despite weak demand; secondary market experiencing sustained price compression

    high · Host: 'dealers are sitting on inventory and they're getting bigger and bigger and bigger and they're still making games... people are afraid to buy because the price is going to go down'

  • ?

    product_concern: John Wick Premium version criticized as inferior to Pro version; price differential not justified by feature upgrades

    high · Host: 'the pro looks better than the premium there's my tldr don't buy the premium'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Host expresses concern about Funhouse remake as inferior theme choice compared to Medieval Madness remake; questions caliber of selected IP for remakes

    medium · Host: 'Funhouse, that's how much I care... Monster Bash and the vein of all those remakes medieval madness this is not that caliber in my opinion'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Keith Elwin's Jaws experiencing unexpectedly poor resale performance despite designer's legendary status; suggests market saturation not mitigated by design pedigree

    high · Host: 'Have you heard of Jaws, the biggest game that's newest by arguably the best pinball designer out there, Keith Elwin... I have not had a harder time selling a game in six months'

    • 3:01
    But the thing that's hard for me to say or what I took a break in the last couple weeks of trying to digest is, no, I did not get the invite. get fucked do i um it it hurts uh that's i guess it's hard it's hard to say that you know you want to act manly or whatever or put on like nah it fucking doesn't bother me it does it bothers me that i didn't get an invite um i won't say the list of people who did go you'll slowly find that out. But knowing that a lot of the content creators that are going, whether I've helped them or I have had maybe some of them on guests, maybe I've had better numbers, maybe this is a more popular podcast, maybe some of those creators have reached out asking to be on this show. a lot a lot if not all of them are listening and um it sucks to not be included in that i try really hard at this podcast and i can only i mean so all those things being said i mean those who have listened to the last couple years of this podcast whether just having guests on stern employees or doing the 12 days of balls of having all these media creators on here of really trying to lift this hobby up, creating incredible songs for other things, making the most of this audible podcast when I can, doing lots of things. Anyway, it sucks. I'm trying to justify the feeling that it just sucks. It feels bad. But what it tells me is that what's knowing the list is that, yeah, Stern doesn't want, I guess, my opinion going out there, whether it's from talking about their support being terrible with my experience 100% of the time and others, still true. And even talking to Stern employees behind the scenes about me talking about that, no one disagrees. Knowing many stern employees that I do or yeah it's uh or making a meme about oops all air balls maybe which is just fun games uh being honest about I guess I'm just grasping the straws because the aforementioned reasons why I would think I would be included the popularity of the show the connections and all that it doesn't make sense to me and the only thing that makes sense to me is because I am not a shill, because I am not giving them a pass, because I am not saying that everything they do is God's gift to pinball, I guess they want to control, as they should, as a media company in the marketing, they want to control the message going out there. But I don't feel like I am one that just bashes stern. In fact, I rarely do it. I guess I do it when the feeling arises or it's deservedly so, but it's not an attack. The thing with honest reviews, whether it's of a game or a company or the marketing or the ongoings of just a hobby, the thing that honest reviews does is helps you and myself as a hobbyist make informed decisions, lets us save money when we need to. Makes us maybe make a move on a game before something bad happens. These things are very expensive for the hobbyist. And a lot of us who listen are hobbyists that buy and sell and trade and don't have a lot of location time. Some of us do, and it's nothing against that. Locations are great. But, no, you're not going to come here and hear that, oh, a bad game? It's still great in so many ways, and we're just lucky to have pinball. then go be go listen to them go listen to how everything is great all the time and then ask them to be honest and and they squirm a little bit for those who listened to the 12 days of balls the reason i asked everyone to say a curse word as one of the questions was just to let them be them they're so used to just oh i don't i don't swear i don't i i gotta protect all this because I don't know. Just you have one life to live. One. What are you doing? I mean, I guess. Yeah. What are you doing? You got the you got the invite. You got to go ahead from the companies. Good. You got it. I didn't. And it sucks. It feels like. Again, I mean, if you want to shut the show off, I'm going to talk about pinball, even though I am right now. But this is why I just you know i wanted to quit i wanted to post stuff i wanted to just yeah it just it sucks um it sucks i don't know what else to say um so stern all of you there at stern they're listening um i keep me in mind next time i would love to um help keep doing what i'm doing which is add more entertainment to this hobby boost your sales if if you don't think that this show has boosted some of your game sales uh you're wrong so um yeah yeah there's uh you know when you when you do certain promotions and you tell people to say certain things if they're maybe going to buy a certain game and then they do say oh i heard it here and you make sales based on this?
    8:57
    Anyway, goddammit, it sucks. I don't know. I'm not blaming them. There's no one to blame but myself for the path I've chosen to do with this podcast, which is really to just use it as a form of honesty about pinball and half of it almost therapy for myself. I'm sitting here talking to myself, looking at a computer about pinball and the number of listeners we get, both paid and non-paid is extraordinary. And thank you to everyone for sticking with this and going through some of the breaks and even the last couple of weeks, I'm going to try to get through this severe disappointment, this feeling of this lack of inclusivity that I feel, um not in the woke sense but like yeah I just don feel like I part of the band anymore to be honest But knowing how much effort does get put into here knowing how many listeners we do have, knowing how popular it is, but I guess it's similar to the Kaneda thing, right?
    9:56
    And honestly, last week's Saturday Spectacular, as he calls it, my favorite that he's done in the past ever. um he did and not just because he said the f word a lot um which he did and kudos um that anger i was sharing at the same time so i i really you know i empathized with it and i think when i've expressed anger in the past of course we all we're all humans we all get angry and yeah it's a show but i'm not doing this as like clearly i'm not doing this for stern or any companies i'm not some media outlet that's getting paid to like hello and welcome to the wonderful world of pinball here's this week's news buy this buy that aside from flipping out pinball which um there's a reason why i talk about flipping out pinball all the time and yeah they sponsor the show and zach helps me out and the reason that i am sponsored by one and only company is out of all the pinball content creators, the pinball personalities, the two people, I should say, honestly, that have actually reciprocated effort that you put in to build these relationships. Zach Many of Flippin' Out Pinball and Straight Down the Middle. Thank you. He knows, and I don't have to go into details, but it's a win-win for both of us. And Joel Engelberth from Triple Drain and all that.
    11:29
    It's not that we put in work so that we get something from each other, but when it naturally happens, it's appreciated. So Joel and Zach, thank you for things that you've done in the past and the invites to be a part of these things.
    11:45
    It's strange for those listening to know the amount of outreach we've done here with others and those are the only two interesting huh but that is the lonely game of trying to make an inclusive um it's not the right word to try to lift all ships as a tie to try to do something together a lot of this is just out for themselves but anyways back to Kaneda he had a great Saturday morning spectacular love him or hate him whatever you want he's also honest he might lean in to a little bit of the like hey amp you up and do this but great that's his shtick he's doing great um he might be an asshole i guess to some people great uh he hasn't been to me and i'm not gonna for what it's worth but yeah uh that was a great one talking about really the um there's something i want to talk about let's get into a little more pinball stuff and wick whatever oh yeah okay well wick gun gate what the fuck is wrong with a lot of you out there or or anyone so dumb oh my god that was another thing that just made me pause of like what is happening with these people do i want to be associated with people that freak out about not guns not being there when it's clearly just a licensing thing oh my god it's embarrassing it's embarrassing jesus but i think what canada was getting a little more amped up about which i was and am and like whatever is like the prices of games leading to this the head of of john wick being fine from all intents and purposes but the le they're asking 13 grand but yo the market is not there it is not there it is stressful to sell a game right now so to keep asking that money for people in the market of the hobbyist who's buying and playing games at home holy god this is not sustainable. Here is my very subjective, anecdotal, but literal evidence of the market is worse than even pre-COVID. And that doesn't mean that you can't play pinball and you can't do all these things, but I was not fooled by the COVID market of you can buy a game and make money and all that kind of stuff. It was a little blip in the radar. But usually you would buy a game, play it for a I'll lose, I don't know, 10%? No, not 10%. Maybe like 8%. Basically, on a pro, you'd for sure lose $500 on a premium. Maybe $1,000, give or take, but whatever.
    14:23
    Have you heard of Jaws, the biggest game that's newest by arguably the best pinball designer out there, Keith Elwin, Mr. Elwin Keithen?
    14:36
    I have not had a harder time selling a game in six months than Jaws Premium under 50 plays, bought brand new by Flippin' Up Pinball.
    14:47
    How much did I sell it for? How much did you think I sold it for? All right, well, it's what? $9,500 new, maybe free shipping, you know, right? MSRP, right?
    14:58
    $8,900? Wow, that'd be low. Oh, yeah, no. $8,800? No. $8,700? No. 86 no i had to basically beg to sell it for eighty five hundred dollars uh basically a brand new game a thousand dollars less a week later because that's how i roll um jesus the um that is it is a house of cards it is a bunch of dominoes this market and everything right now is bad.
    15:33
    It's not... Nothing's safe, so it feels bad. It's stressful. Stern. Everyone, sorry, not just Stern. JGP, everyone. These prices are what makes this stressful or why Canada was angry or why people are angry of like, we're losing value on these things. We're not trying to make money, so please don't send them the email that these aren't investments. I know they're not investments. Der.
    15:54
    The amount of times that happens in the arguments in email or pin side of it. Jason, these aren't investments. Don't think of them... No shit, bro. I make enough money to buy pinball machines. I probably know that they're not investments. So please stop.
    16:08
    But losing that much money that fast, and it keeps getting harder and harder to sell the most popular games out there while prices are way too high and dealerships are just sitting on inventory and they're getting bigger and bigger and bigger and they're still making games and they're bringing games back out and they're vaulting them, what do you think is going to inevitably happen?
    16:35
    Some things have to change. Something has to budge. We've got to either make more sales or people got to start going out of business. But if you look on Pinside or if you talk to people, everyone is just kind of sitting and selling. And having Jaws out there in forums listed at 8,600, basically brand new, People are just like, if I only had room. And then you ask people, hey, why aren't you buying? Why aren't you selling? Well, I'm afraid to buy anything because of how much money I'm going to lose immediately.
    17:09
    Okay, so dealers are sitting on inventory. They're getting bigger. They're making more games. And people are afraid to buy because the price is going to go down. Keep going down.
    17:22
    Yeah, so I don't have any games right now. I sold Jaws. I'm like, I'm just out for a bit. I need to just like,
    17:30
    paint this picture of myself in this hobby. All right, well, I'm doing a podcast. It's really popular. It has a lot of notoriety, you name it. But I don't get invited to these things because of, again, I'm not crying about it. It just sucks. But for XYZ, well, that sucks. Okay, so I guess I'm not part of that club. um and that you know we're social creatures we're humans we whether you say it or not and i like being alone a lot i still like you know people and don't get me wrong i i make friends easy and i have friends but you know it's this like other it's it's grimy so the side of it that i do a lot the the media side the podcast doing the deep dives and sorry to the patreons we'll get back to it. I appreciate your patience. Doing two podcasts a week, one the Patreon, one this, that's part of the hobby. All right. Well, that's not really paying off because either people will, it's not a huge hobby, so you can't really do tons of Patreon with it. Or people just tell you how to do your job or they tell you not to think of it that way. And again, they're probably just engaging with the show, or that you have a bad attitude, or the industry says, get bent. We don't want you part of this. So that sucks. But the actual reason of doing all this, playing the pinball, the location I go to, or did go to, is tainted now. I won't even go into certain reasons, but I'm somewhat actually afraid to go there, and it's strange to say that. and the home market is going down so fast like i don't know if i can play these games at home hence the break so what the fuck am i doing if i if i doing a podcast it not paying off um for a couple relationships And the games I can play it And John Wick coming out looks cool, but it's not like, eh, it's not like, oh, I'm not wild by it. And it's been out, I guess, for almost a week now. And we've had enough podcasts. I won't go into the gun gate, other than that's ridiculous. I'm embarrassed to even be a part of any of that. all of it all of it i'll just say all of it yes i'm aware of all of it and oh my god all of it my god jesus um yeah i john wick comes out the pro looks better than the premium there's my tldr don't buy the premium because if you can't get even close to close to only 500 less than what you buy for a Jaws. John Wick is not going to do it.
    20:22
    But the Pro seems pretty awesome. Seems like a fast, fun game. Slightly on the difficult side, which is exactly what I like. It's my style. It's got Keanu Reeves on it.
    20:35
    It looks good. I've watched some videos, but I've also been kind of checked out for a couple weeks, so I haven't watched a ton.
    20:41
    It's just, it's weird. There's a lot of... I don't know. It's like that divided, either where everyone says everything sucks or everyone's like, oh, we should just be thankful we have pinball. And I don't know. I'm not on either of those sides. I guess I wax and wane all the time about it. And yeah, nothing's pulling me back right now. A nice Lord of the Rings would. Again, still looking for that Lord of the Rings. Oh, man. Remember when we used to do Figure It Out? Oh, man. I could go into that with some Lord of the Rings, but I just don't want to right now because it would really bring the vibe down of this super positive episode of all these amazing things. Yeah.
    21:25
    Some nonsense emails I've gotten about Lord of the Rings. I want to kind of wait a little bit on the John Wick thing to skip the media explosion and then the gun gate, and then it's just kind of like, it's out there.
    21:41
    Let's let it simmer a little more. Because last time I played Jaws and I said, oh, it's fucking terrible. And then I got it. I was like, oh, actually, it's pretty great. And guess what? My final results of Jaws, I mean, I sold it. I got rid of it.
    21:54
    It's fine. Yeah. It's not incredible. I thought, like, oh, it could maybe beat Jurassic Park. No. I think it's still my, it's, like, tied for second and third place for favorite Elwins. Yeah. Iron Maiden and Jaws. It got old fast.
    22:13
    Yeah. I don't know. Maybe that's, like, every game. Once you, you know, in the beginning when you don't know everything, it's super exciting. and then you get to know it and you're like, oh, okay, it's just that.
    22:21
    Most games are kind of like that to a certain extent. So aside from John Wick, there was the Funhaus announcement, which we all saw coming. Funhaus.
    22:31
    Are people going to be buying Funhaus, really? A lot? It's like, it's true. There's never been a better time to play pinball. and with Barrels of Fun, Pedretti, Pinball Brothers, Dutch, Haggis. Haggis! You know, there's another positive. There's a feather in the cap of pinball, right? What's going on there? My God, I don't... Hmm.
    23:03
    Hmm. Some nasty stuff. But Funhaus is like... It doesn't seem like the right call. I know it's not the same, but Monster Bash and the vein of all those remakes medieval madness this is not that caliber in my opinion please email and tell me i'm wrong but um i did play plenty of this era a lot and rudy was always kind of like okay shut up i don't okay you're fine but uh with joel having gomez on recently look at this we're bouncing all over the place stay with me because I'm just kind of puking here. I have no agenda this time.
    23:48
    Because Funhouse, that's how much I care. Moving on. Some really good little nuggets that came out of the Gomez interview, but a lot of defense and a terrible microphone. Again, Stern, if you want to invite me, I'll fix all your shit. I'll tell you how to use microphones if you'd like. But no, truly. If the message isn't clear, I would like to be more a part of this industry.
    24:16
    I'll just say that. Does that make it clear? Maybe the enthusiasm of doing all this and trying... So for all those out there, yes, if you have any thoughts or ideas or if you'd like, please reach out, pinballpartypodcast.gmail.com. Otherwise, just leave me alone.
    24:33
    Gomez touched on the vaults and the Lord of the Rings probably not happening and probably not. and Tron yeah we like it and we'll Spike 3 be able to do it ah you know Nap said this as well about things I've heard Tron Vault is pretty likely by the way so yes list your Tron LEs for like 20 grand sooner rather than later sell them and yeah because you're not going to yeah sell those and that Jack Danger's in the chute and I think what he meant by in the chute is up next. Yeah.
    25:11
    I was led to believe that Metallica is late summer-ish, Spike 3. I don't think that that's a Jack thing. I think that's a Borg thing. But hey, you know, again, maybe I'm losing my touch. Maybe that's not what's happening. But if history is any indication, usually the touch is somewhat accurate. Is that weird? Is that perverted? Accurate touch. but you could also see in that interview of them like yeah we want to really do this and bring some of the content creators back here and and get a glimpse of the games and i was like oh fuck yeah that'd be awesome i don't know yeah back to that again but that i really encourage anyone out there to go check out uh the george gomez interview with joel on i think it's on the flipping out youtube yes it is it's a it's a great interview and yeah i'm happy to uh uh be very professional and ask some of the real questions if you'd like.
    26:04
    But yeah, I think there's a few questions that people want to know of. How can we expect to mitigate the losing cost of being a home buyer in this market as it goes down? Do you have any thoughts, any ideas, any suggestions?
    26:27
    Is the market, are you more concentrated on location or home? from your market. It seems to be a mix of both, but insider connected and some of the home stuff means that the home market is not sustainable if we keep losing severe amounts of money to do it and locations are not necessarily growing or we don't know because the market doesn't really communicate that to us. Yes, hearing things like lit or electric bat or all these great positive stories, yeah, but there's equal amounts of ones that do not do well at all.
    27:04
    I would just like some clarity. Again, these are $6,000 to $10,000 machines. They are life-changing chunks of money should someone need a surgery or a car or you lose your job. And they are... Maybe it's just me. I don't know. And kudos to all those out there who just don't plan as well, maybe, or just have so much money it doesn't matter. But I do very well for myself. But even then, maybe it's just beaten from a young age to be very fiscally responsible.
    27:47
    And because I go through games fast, which is my personality, let's say exactly what happened with Jaws. Let's say I paid MSRP for Jaws Premium. Eh, you know.
    27:58
    $9,500, free shipping. And within three weeks, I'm like, okay, I saw everything I wanted to with the game, and I sold it for $1,000 for three weeks of, let's say, five minutes every other day, and then one or two days, like two hours at a time.
    28:19
    That's just not worth it for me. I can't do it. And I want to. God damn it. I love this hobby so much. Enough to do a podcast, enough to go through all this shit, buying and selling, lifting these games, hurting your fucking back,
    28:34
    driving 8-hour, 10-hour, 11-hour, 12-hour round trips, texting about it with friends all the time. I don't know. I want to love it so much, but there's just so many things stacked against it right now.
    28:50
    Honestly, again, here we go. back to the Stern. The Stern invite, I would be on cloud nine, so fucking pumped to come back and just talk about it and feel like part of it, putting in all this time, all this effort feeling like a little accomplishment If it not clear from long listeners I need to accomplish things to be motivated by it It the same like same like in a game i don get motivated if i if my scores keep going down over time and i get worse at a pinball machine i'm not like i can't wait to play it again i'm like uh okay uh same thing with this podcast you know in the beginning i just wanted to i don't know have have a little fun see what i could do make a pinball podcast but also put in crazy sound effects and do my audio stuff and all that and realized how much time it was. And it was awesome. Like the, the numbers were growing fast, went on the pinball network pretty fast, you know, got on, did a lot of shit, you know, it was progress, progress, progress every couple of weeks. So I could be like, Oh, your numbers are going up. Your numbers are going up. And then it got to a point where I was like, you know, I'm going to leave the pinball network. Not because I don't need you anymore. It was awesome. Um, but I wanted to control the own, my own schedule and, and, and release things and I had my own kind of branding stuff. It was all amicable. Again, I left the pinball network on my own accord so I could say anything I wanted to and not harm their brand, let's say. And that wasn't the only reason, but it was part of it. So that was another accomplishment. Leaving the pinball party, great. Getting to know Cale and Rachel and doing all that with them, great, another positive. And then things just kept kind of leveling out because it kind of came this crossroad of like, either you sell out and do all these... I've been reached out by all the manufacturers for certain reasons here or there, but either I just be like an advertising arm for everyone. Everything's great! Go get these mods! Go get... Everything's great! Oh, Galactic Tame Forest! Great game! I mean, a couple things would be better, but yeah, go buy it! You know, come on. It was either go down that path, and I can't do that stuff. I can't whether it's work, whether it's my relationships, whether it's friends, I can't be disingenuous. I just can't do it. I mean, I can if I have to, but I'm just not wired that way. To enjoy anything long-term, I just got to be me. It's just, I got to be me. You know, I have to. So it's like, well, that's why when you started hearing the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck song, it was really just a you know another reason to like all right i gotta i gotta double down on this not like i'm the first one to swear i just like i gotta i gotta shed my skin and really just make it clear that like i i'm doing this for me this is this is fun this is art this is i'm not a advertising arm i'm not a media mogul for any of y'all i'm not gonna lie to people i'm not gonna man, it's going to be me.
    32:00
    But then, yeah, there was a sharp turn in numbers for sure. But as they say, or pro tip for anyone wondering about podcasts or growing an audience, when you get the dedicated ones that want it for what you're doing, those numbers don't change, and they'll be with you through thick and thin.
    32:19
    And so that had settled down. Yeah, do you think I took a listener hit from leaving the pinball network? Of course I did. I'm not going to tell you numbers because they have their own proprietary thing going on there.
    32:33
    It wasn't as significant as you think, but it was definitely like, holy shit. And then you got to build it back up. And then starting to do the deep dives, numbers growing, and that's all great. But I don't know. I need that progress. And really, just a 180 turn of like, ah, shit. yeah so um again getting blasted from all angles hey did you get the invite when you're going no it just deflated me full stop i have no pinball machines i'm not checking pin side that much i'm just second guessing is it worth it is this is is this grind worth it it's a small market you can't like succeed much there's so many opinionated people yeah so it's um it's in flux i hope to keep doing it i hope to find reasons to keep doing it but i really just wanted to hit record get a few things off my chest talk about wick briefly which is like yeah let's let's wait a little bit and uh yeah i'd be excited to have a lord of the rings and polish it and say you're my pretty little girl put incandescent bulbs in it if they bastardized it with leds um but it's got to be the right play field let me know if you find one but yeah stay tuned for more pinball party probably and uh hopefully i can get over this shot to the gut um this gut punch and no promises really I would like to but I truly love the hobby do I like doing this? is this worth it? I don't know can I be honest? we'll see if I can and keep doing this it's been a while, how about I share a new song I recorded this a couple weeks ago yeah, I like it hope you do, it's called Demon Dance it's a work in progress forgive me that there's a couple spots where it's like not great but other couple spots where it's like fuck yeah that's great till next time i wanna feel this I wanna wake up this time, don't wanna wait out I wanna break from this dreamer, in this moment, you and I Call it anguish Call it pain justified I wanna wear out I wanna dance with the demon In this moment You and I Well, no one's looking Let's have a dance to the death I wanna feel now that I'm alive Just gotta break, dance this dreamer For this moment I'm alive Fallen angels Fallen dames with the time I wanna feel now that I'm alive I wanna dance with the demon In this moment You and I
    37:18
    Only the rest for the wicked Only the rest for the calm Only the rest for the wicked All I ever wanted was a friend Hold me closer, my dancer While I take the lead with my boots Oh, I know what's best for us, demon In this moment
    38:15
    You and I you