I was initially pretty unhappy with the price bump when the Axidraw was re-released by Bantam Tools (who purchased the Axidraw IP from Evil Mad Scientist). It

I was initially pretty unhappy with the price bump when the Axidraw was re-released by Bantam Tools (who purchased the Axidraw IP from Evil Mad Scientist). It went up $150! However, if you use Archive.org to look at the old prices on EMS's website, it's actually just the price of the Axidraw + the brushless servo upgrade kit (which now comes standard on it); I think they may have also added an auto-home improvement, and possibly other tweaks. You're really paying for the dedicated use-case design (the pen carriage precision on the Axidraw is excellent) and the active software support both from the company and the community.