Several hours ago I posted about two eBay auctions for full sets of Mendel printed parts. I just checked on them to check out where the two auctions ended. One ended at $446 (actually, at 330 Euros, for a seller located in Ireland) and the other at $455 (seller located in Ohio).
Why, then, would an auction just two days ago go for $630 (rather, 420 pounds)? A sale at 420 pounds implies someone else was willing to bid 415 pounds. I’m guessing it’s a combination of factors that went into a $600+ sale – perhaps because the English really want RepRaps, people wanted to support Adrian Bowyer, anyone who bought RepRap parts from Adrian himself can basically be assured they’re getting quality parts.
This tells me $450 seems to be the going rate for a set of Mendel parts (for now). This raises an interesting conundrum. Will the prices go up as more people become interested in RepRap? Will the prices go down as people start printing and making available more RepRap parts?
Either way, suppose the going rate is $450 for 60 ‘bot hours. That’s $7.50 an hour. This is less than the minimum wage in California!1 This means if human help is required at all in the production of RepRap parts, the entire process is taking longer than 60 hours and the hourly rate is even lower than $7.50/hour!
I’m not saying RepRap parts should cost more. I’m just saying I was really getting used to the idea of a gnome sitting in my living room earning above minimum wage while I slept.
Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to take solace in running a robot sweat shop.
- $8/hour right now [↩]