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colas said..Simonc34 said..
But it shows the contempt buyers are treated with!
I don't understand your rant.
It is normal to pay extra to get goods before others. It has value.
What you paid for was a year use of a great board, one year of fun, one year of progressing, helping the Kalama brand to prosper and have funds for the R&D of new boards... Not a bad deal in my opinion!
I'd say the cost breakdown is like this for downwind boards
$600-800 to manufacture
$200-300 shipping and distribution
$750-1000 profit for board designer
$150-200 import duties
$900-1200 profit for retailer/middleman
The middleman usually has the highest cost, and that is what you are seeing reflected in the price drop. You'd be lucky to get $2300 for that model board with tracks so far back, very limited use case for most foilers. I'd drop another 500-700 as shipping costs are very expensive for retail punters.
You can see all retailers are slashing prices to accomodate new stock, nothing new just the retail business model.
Board designers win when they cut out the middleman and clip the ticket twice with B2C.
But I guess $1200 for a years worth of fun is less than a coffee a day, but I still agree with you they are priced outrageously in Australia and prohibit many getting into the sport, whilst middlemen drive new tesla's and visit Hawaii often, they have to pay for that somehow