3 ms·

You're not accounting for literally any costs besides parts. R&D, assembly, testing, support, shipping, insurance, marketing, administrative, taxes... I actuall

by qq66 12y ago

You're not accounting for literally any costs besides parts. R&D, assembly, testing, support, shipping, insurance, marketing, administrative, taxes... I actually doubt that they are spending $1200 on parts because if they were, they would be taking a massive loss on a $2000 retail price.

msandford 12y ago
Yeah, sure but I'm also accounting for parts at RETAIL. I'm not talking to manufacturers and getting wholesale pricing. I get that there's R&D and all the other things you've mentioned. I guess I didn't realize all that was going to cost $600-$1200 per board. I've always made the assumption that when you're not talking about software that your material costs dominate your price. Given all that it would seem to make sense for someone moderately interested in an electric longboard as a hobby to build their own. If they're going to charge themselves for their time, obviously not as it would be a $20k device. But if you're interested in it anyhow it sounds like you can get a 50% or more discount.
- argonaut 12y ago
  You're also forgetting... they have to make a profit on this! You're also paying for the near-or-at six-figure salaries of the engineers that have worked on this for a few years.
- qq66 12y ago
  Material costs only dominate your price if 1) you're minimally improving the material, and 2) you're selling so many units that all of your fixed costs get spread very thin. Both assumptions are not likely true for Boosted Boards. If they sell 10,000 boards per year, each $1 million in overhead costs equal $100 per board sold. And even the companies that sell 100 million units per year, like Apple, have to spend a lot more than material costs on assembly, testing, support, warranty repair, payments processing, marketing, and probably uniquely high liability insurance costs for Boosted Boards.

by qq66 12y ago

msandford 12y ago

Yeah, sure but I'm also accounting for parts at RETAIL. I'm not talking to manufacturers and getting wholesale pricing. I get that there's R&D and all the other things you've mentioned. I guess I didn't realize all that was going to cost $600-$1200 per board. I've always made the assumption that when you're not talking about software that your material costs dominate your price. Given all that it would seem to make sense for someone moderately interested in an electric longboard as a hobby to build their own. If they're going to charge themselves for their time, obviously not as it would be a $20k device. But if you're interested in it anyhow it sounds like you can get a 50% or more discount.

argonaut 12y ago
You're also forgetting... they have to make a profit on this! You're also paying for the near-or-at six-figure salaries of the engineers that have worked on this for a few years.
qq66 12y ago
Material costs only dominate your price if 1) you're minimally improving the material, and 2) you're selling so many units that all of your fixed costs get spread very thin. Both assumptions are not likely true for Boosted Boards. If they sell 10,000 boards per year, each $1 million in overhead costs equal $100 per board sold. And even the companies that sell 100 million units per year, like Apple, have to spend a lot more than material costs on assembly, testing, support, warranty repair, payments processing, marketing, and probably uniquely high liability insurance costs for Boosted Boards.