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Story dated January 7, 2005

At long last, home buyers of new games are starting to get the recognition they deserve.

Last year Stern saw the percentage of games sold direct to homeowners double from 10% to 20%.

Elvis in particular found its way into many more game rooms, a trend that continued from the third edition Harley Davidson - always a strong home game. "Bars and bowling alleys are still big on pinball machines," said Gary Stern, "but more people want them at home."

A recent New York Times article on private gamerooms featured interviews with Jack Guarnieri of Pinball Sales and David Young of BMI Gaming. Jack says "now, people are more willing to part with disposable income. When the economy's good, buying these games makes them feel good. And when the economy's bad, well, they help them feel better."

David Young said the value of BMI's sales in 2004 were more than double the previous year at $4 million.

And Gary Stern hasn't been slow to exploit residental sales by promoting the possibilities to operators. He said “the pinball home sale phenomenon makes pinball the best ROI for operators of any coin machine. You can operate a game for years and sell it to the home…sometimes for even more than you paid for it!”

But forget about picking up a bargain game from Stern. " I'd rather take one apart and use it for scrap in other machines than sell it at a discount" says Gary.

 

 

 

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