RRHobbyDepot

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,

I'm not looking to get sales from this post. I just wanted to let everyone know that Castle has increased its price from $650.00 to $900.00 on the complete conversion system for the HPI bajas. If your hobby shop still has them for $650.00 or less now may be the time to buy before they too find out what I have just discovered.

DarkFire989

DDM had them as the deal of the day a few days ago for 475$

And 900 bucks for a electric conversion? That's absurd for something that works way better on gas and already costs a grand.

Obeast44

I respectfully disagree

bbuzzard

My Feedback: (5)

DarkFire989

Ooooooooo now you done it.

Foxy

Wonder how they can justify this...?

hndaman1

My Feedback: (6)

thank god for HOBBY KING

JUSTPASSEDU

My Feedback: (20)

I have one fs brand new in the fs section if anyone is interested. I was going to do the conversion but it's just to expensive at this point in my life. Gotta save...

raptor 8

I found this on another forum. Thought i would share to clear things up.


It has everything to do with the price to neodymium. The price has nearly tripled in the past 6 months. A very large percentage of the cost in our motors is in the raw material of neodymium. Companies that make inexpensive motors tend to use much less of the material, so their costs have not increased as dramatically. Rare earth minerals in general have been rising across the board. I would expect everyone's motor prices to increase in the very near future.

Without getting too much into international politics and economics, when a country produces 97% of a particular material in high demand and they cut production by 35%, prices are going to soar; and anyone dependent on that material is going to suffer greatly. We held out as long as we could in raising prices, but it has simply become too much to absorb and a price increase was inevitable. As long as neodymium prices stay high, don't expect prices to come down any time soon. We were priced very competitively compared to other manufacturer's of the same quality, now our prices tend to be more in line with our competitors.

I'm sure when Pat gets back from China, he might be able to provide more details on the issue.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Maj_Overdrive

My Feedback: (11)

Here's a couple excerpts from a post by a novak rep on another forum regarding their new Ballistic 8 motor.

"During the time we were prototyping and testing this motor, our neo magnet segments (need 4 pieces for each motor) skyrocketed from 1.40 to 8.00 each! "

"We have been working on this motor so long that I believe that the first neo quotes we got were @.70/segment!! I got these numbers from the folks here involved with sourcing our magnetic material. Each week the neo prices increase, so 8.00 probably is no longer viable."

Castle isn't alone in this, the chinese copanies may get off a little easier though, considering their government mines and processes most of the neo magnests in the world. Either way, if you've been putting off buying a new motor, you might want to think twice about waiting any longer, prices will probably continue to go up.

http://www.metal-pages.com/metals/ne...s-information/
http://www.financialsense.com/sites/...are-earths.png