Quote:
Originally Posted by 370Ztune
The cost comes from all the R&D costs in making the original kit in Japan. FRP molds in Japan can cost in excess of $30K. They need to amortize the costs of this into every piece until they're totally paid off.
The only reason the $2600 price for the knock-off can exist is because they were able to have some cheap molds made off an authentic kit. (No time invested in drawing a design, purchasing a Z, adding clay and foam to the exterior, spending hours of sculpting to make everything look perfect and symmetrical, making prototype molds off that, testing the production of the prototype parts, adjusting the molds and so on and so forth)
The production costs in SoCal for FRP are also very low. I can pretty much guarantee you that the knock-off kits make more money for the sellers than the real Amuse kit does for them. Especially when it costs about $200 (or less in most cases) for a knock-off bumper to be produced that is then marked up 300% (or more).
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So if it cost $30K for R&D work with design and development then they would only need to sell 6 kits to recoup the cost.. So if they sold 12 kits at $2500 each then they would recoupe their cost as well. Don't see the logic in selling a kit for $5K sorry..
Hey I would love to support Amuse - just can't afford too.. So I'm thankful that there are knock-offs and quality ones at that.. I'm ok with them making a profit because in the end they are saving me $$...