Doug:
ok i will give you your point on research and development to make a further point.
say you can make these thing up for a cost of 5 bucks in parts and another 5 bucks in labor, that seems about fair
now you stock them so you can sell them,, and you tie up your money and labor anticipating sales, so there is a further
cost in cost of funds or interest.
now you get an order for one, and it takes you maybe another 15 minutes to box it up, gas to get it to the post office
or whatever,,
at the end of the day, i don't believe you could compete or rather would want to compete with utterpower on price.
also it is a fair point that utterpower not only needs to cover all costs, but make a profit!
so then the question might be, what is a reasonable profit?? i got an answer for that one to.
a reasonable profit has no calculation, in that price has nothing to do with cost!
price is what the market will bare, and really has no function or basis in cost.
then there are warranty issues as well, what if you sell a kit and the damn thing quits on the guy?
you get to send him another one for free, with shipping.. we all no that electronics fail, and cheap electronics fail often.
so you are left with trying to balance cost vs quality issues as well,, so as a supplier of a kit are you going to market a 3 dollar
radioshack bridge or a 10 dollar GE part or something somewhere between?
remember the supplier of the kit is not selling to licensed, bonded, skilled technicians, but rather DIY'ers who may or may not
have to skill to install properly, and kill it himself,,, then you are faced with sending out another for free or get bad press from
some joker who really has no clue in the first place.
at the end of the day, my bet is none of us could or would compete with utterpower on price of that kit and make out like a
bandit,, likely we would fall short and wonder why the hell am i selling these kits.
i would also like you to know that most of this diatribe is for everyones benefit, and i am not singleing out anyone.
further:
i like to do things myself as well, and i too have built some pretty cool stuff over the years, but after 32 years in my business i am very tired
of wrenching on anything and making a part that i can purchase doesn't have the appeal it once had.
perhaps when and if i can semi retire i will get the fire in my ass to build more of my own stuff, and i would assume at that point my time will be mine
and the value of which will be somewhat reduced.
an example is my offgrid place i plan to start building this year,, i would love to do it all myself, but i realize i can hire it done (at least the heavy stuff)
for far less than the cost of losing time in my business.
something like if you make 10 bucks an hour take home,, and you can find a willing person to do something for you for 3 bucks and hour and do as
good or probably a better job, would you still think it wise to do it yourself? in the analysis i am far better off to hire it done, it will be done adequately
and i will be dollars ahead. However i will not have the satisfaction of saying i built it myself,,, oh well, i have built enough crap for other folks it is time
for the circle to come around i guess.
bob g