On Jul 9, 9:47*am, wrote:
On Fri, 8 Jul 2011 15:57:49 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

$150 for a six-by-six inch flat piece of metal is obscene.

Nevertheless, I'm considering buying one, using it as a template to make my
own, then selling the original on Ebay. I figure my net outlay, then, to be
about $10 which is a more reasonable price.

Heck, I might even make more than one, sell the copies for $50 each and
retire to a mobile home in Bakersfield!

If I decide to do that, members of this group will get first crack at the
product.

Let me know when you run a successful small business doing that. *Did
you factor in the cost of insurance? *having your product tested and
approved by Wyle Labs (probably 10's of thousands of dollars)?
...writing installation manuals? *...paying employees? * ...paying
federal, state, and local taxes? *...and last, but not least, making
enough money to live on?

Maybe you can run a hobby business where your labor is free, but I
doubt you can run a real business at those prices. *If the raw
materials cost $10 and they sell it for $150, trust me that they
aren't left with $140 in the bank at the end of the day.

Not to mention, based on his long history of posts, HeyBub
is the last guy I'd expect to be bitching about a company
being free to sell their product at whatever price the market
will bear and reaping the rewards of their efforts.
And that's exactly what they do. Products aren't
priced based on the cost of materials. They are priced based
on what will maximize revenue for the company.

To price figure that out, they would be looking at alternate
solutions. A full transfer switch and installation is going to
cost many times that $110. Which makes it looks like a
good value proposition to me. If he wants to bitch about
something, there are certainly far better targets. An
example would be repair part prices for many appliances.
$25 for a black plastic knob that goes on the
end of a mechanical thermostat in a cooler, for example.