[Icom] Cost of accessories...

[Mel Martin (VE2DC)]

Recently, I was going to order a cable from Roland to hook up a midi
control unit... Just 2 6 pin DIN's and same cable... And they wanted
about $90 + S & H Canadian... I built one with parts I ordered for less
than $15... And that's paying top buck for parts... That cable couldn't
have cost more than $5 to manufacture... Shipping, processing and
inventory actually cost a lot more... And actually this is where a lot
of the cost comes from... Also Dave... You should add a reasonable value
for your time... It's probably more than the cost of parts...

Back in the mid seventies I noticed some cables from IBM costing nearly
$300 for keypunch machines (remember those?) seemed rather high
priced... I started a little cottage industry building them... Cost
about $25 and 30 minutes of my wife's time and sold them for $100... Not
bad money back in 1975!

Just to illustrate it's not just Icom... And it's not just the price of
the parts... And they DO "stick it to you" for the radios... Ask anyone
in the electronics manufacturing industry... You would be amazed at how
low the manufacturing costs are today... It's actually a minor component
in the overall cost of bringing the equipment to market.


>Yeah, as in the the recent CT-17 discussion. Their radios are
reasonably priced, but they >really stick it to you for accessories. I
paid $35.95 for the 8-pin round to RG-45 adapter >and realized when I
got it I could have built it myself from parts I have onhand. I've >made
a couple


Mel...
VE2DC