I think you guys are way overthinking this issue. The brass tacks simply come down to;
1. How big is the
real market for these blocks,
2. How much does it cost the entrepreneur to create the block,
3. Could he make more money with his money doing something else,
4. Like patrick so accurately pointed out
Quote:
Originally Posted by patrickt
... But then when someone tries to actually accumulate a little seed money to place an order, those birds disappear in to the bush. That's just life in the big city, and there's no shortage of bullshi! around these parts.  |
It is sort of like Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football. Charlie Brown has yet to kick the football. The FE block sales phenom is exactly the same. With small volume you will never be able to get the quality that large production runs provide. If you loose you shirt once or twice (financially speaking) on one of these boon-doggles You're damn sure not likely to piss away another quarter million bucks — which might be low when you consider engineering, tooling and fixturing costs.
We and our market appetite are our own biggest enemies, in particular the guys who say they will buy and then flake out or the guys who can not come to grips with the costs involved with bringing one of these components to the market for resale.
This is not a technology problem. It is a market size problem, a cost to manufacture problem, and a flake out problem where someone is hot to trot, set to get and flakes out when it comes time to pony up the bucks. Think about it — the enthusiast and market size are the real problem.
Ed