I have just seen online Jetcat FOD screens for over £50 ($80) in the UK[X(] Unfortunately, this isn't the only silly price around at the moment; 'everything' seems to be approaching excessive prices.

For instance, I have also noticed a significant price increase in JR digital servos. I remember not long ago when you could get 8411s for about £55. They are now £75. Lower spec 8321s are £85 a piece. 'Standard' trailing link undercarriage sets cost $600+[X(] Powerbox sensor switches £80 (after all, it's only a switch at the end of the day - albeit a clever one).

I could list loads more bits that have gone up significantly over the last 2 years. Rather than prices decreasing as jets become more popular and more accessible, it seems that manufacturers are cashing in on the expansion of the hobby.

Whilst I cannot do anything about it, I am now looking at alternatives whereas previously I wouldn't. For instance, equipping a typical sport jet with 7 digital servos, with high spec Savox servos instead of JR, could save in the region of £250 ($400). A123s with standard switches and no regulators etc. I am even starting to reduce the number of Festos/fittings I use to an absolute minimum as they are stupidly expensive.

Whilst the price hikes won't drive me out of the hobby, they will cause me to hold on to models longer and build less. With used jet prices at the moment, it's getting to the point where it's more cost effective to strip a second hand airframe of parts and give it away rather than selling it complete.

Maybe I'm just getting old but getting a jet in the air seems a lot more expensive than it used to be[&o].

OiL price increase, increase in vat, increase in chineese labour costs, weak pound against euro and dollar, are prob just a few of the reasons I would suspect.

Few years ago we were getting 0.66EUR to the pound. That made a 3000EUR JetCat £1980

Last year we sunk to 0.96EUR to the pound. That made the same turbine £2880!!!! That's £1000 pound more through NOTHING other than FX fluctuation - no retailer trying to profit etc

Now, we're at about 0.84EUR so the turbine is around £2520 so still £540 more!!!

Same applies across the board really. Now introduce higher shipping/transport costs due to diesel/oil increases, another 2.5% due to VAT increase and our hobby very quickly got a lot more expensive - it sucks [:@]

indeed it does

Bites for me in the States as I would love a Grumania ME 262. Sadly with the Euro being $1.35ish instead of the $.85 it was ten years ago just puts it out of my reach.

Yes, I agree the little tidbits are getting way out of hand.

I agree it's getting out of hand. $450 for a gear sequencer? For about the same amount of money you can buy a Playstation 3, Xbox 360, iPhone, iPad, etc, all of which are more complex and costly to manufacturer.

Yes it's the little things too. Start by making your own hopper tank instead of buying a "UAT".

It pains me to pay $65 for a UAT.

Ha!

Yep, let the word "Jet" appear on it anywhere, and it's somehow worth double. I love the look of my $2 Wal-Mart fod-screen with the $0.60 rubber washer to hold it on. It keeps the fod out just as well as the $80 one....

Funny though you know, we've only driven the market prices there ourselves, mostly out of laziness.
Lets face it, for years we flew ducted fans with a "header tank". Usually just a 2 or maybe 4oz regular fuel tank and it worked fine. When we started with turbines we still did the same thing, just a small header tank, the principle is the same as a UAT, there's just no bag in it. Oddly enough, they worked just fine in my first turbine jets (Kangaroo's, Exocet, Eurosport etc). But, somebody got us all convinced that we should have a "UAT" and we all bought into it. I'm just as bad, I have them in my jets too, although my CAI Raptor doesn't even have a header tank and I've never had a flame out on it either.

Now we have special UAT mounts for $30 instead of buying a $2 piece of plywood and making our own, we have special air tank mounts (which really, as nice as they are, still aren't universal for every jet), we have 30 different kinds of clips for every hose, wire, and line imaginable, we use extra battery backer systems, powerbox's, etc etc etc which really aren't totally necessary, they give some extra piece of mind, but again, how many thousands of jet flights have been done over the years with one receiver, nimh batteries, and a heavy duty switch. Sure any of that stuff can fail, but so can the new items.
We have landing gear boxes that run all of the lines, they have sequencers, they have lights, bling bling bling, when the old robart valves work really well with a servo and if one component fails in the old system, I can replace a $30 or $40 part instead of a $450 box. Sure, it takes a little more time to install and setup, but that's ok, it's a long winter, I have time.

The only reason all this stuff costs what it does, is because people will pay it. There's nothing wrong with that, but it does continue to drive the prices up higher and higher. Eventually people will stop paying it, but sadly that will probably mean that the manufactures will stop making it too.

There are lots of reasons that accessories get more expensive, but not unlike the automotive industry, they're only expensive because they aren't "necessities" and people will pay it.

What about the $120 gear failsafe? Remember Spring Airs?

Greg

it was you lot who liked the pound notes so much , you decided to hold on to it.
expensive toilet paper now

It's not all bad news....... for us Aussies!

Our poor dollar used to be worth as little as 34p, now it's worth 62p.

Turns Wrens from good buys into bargains! - John.

as someone else said it because we keep buying them,we have all become fashion victims as far as our jets go.we need the lastest UAT the latest oleo setup or the most powerfull servo money can buy.i might be wrong but i have opted out of all this B........T .
been flying jets since 1999 never used a uat,not needed.only flameouts have been me running out of fuel,power box and super duper switches how did we survive without them,EASY its called a good instalation with decent leads and good batteries ,touch wood never had a crash i could blame on a battery or a switch failure (plenty i could blame on dodgy fingers but cant get an upgrade for them)SERVOS dont make me laugh,why do you need a 30kilo servo on a surface that if you put 30kilos on it would probably fail on a hinge or control horn,by all means use good servos not cheapy knockoffs but if you have a good mechanical setup you can get away with far cheaper servos,saw a write up in a popular mag that said a 37kilo servo was needed on the flaps of a certain model WHY.i have owned a flown a lot of jets and not one of them has had anything more than a good standard type servo on any surface (less than forty quid)and never had a servo failure in many hundreds of flights.saying that i have also seen some very experianced (and free spending)and well known JET flyers with a model installation that would make many people cry,they have a crash and blame it on servo/battery/switch failure etc.nothing to do with the fact they have done there install with there eyes shut. i flew a well known modellers F15 last year,fine flew great until i put the gear down ,one main gear stuck up due to being caught up in all the loose wiring and pipes rattling around inside the fuselarge,powerbox uat or 100quid servos would not have helped that

True.... But they also sell millions of these! If they only produced say 3000 iphones, what do you think they would cost?
Our cost on almost everything has gone up, including freight. Unfortunately, the state of the economy is not helping. We have tried to offer more economical versions of products, like servos for example; they don't sell... no one wants to risk their expensive aircraft to "off brand" electronics.
We are certainly open to finding more cost conscious product lines if you guys are open to using them. History has shown this not to be the case but perhaps your opinions of these products is changing? Tell me what you want and I will see what I can do...
Todd

Top quality, not cheap is what I want.

Todd hit the nail on the head. There just isn't the volume in sales, you have to recover r&d, development, tooling costs, manufacture costs and the sales end. Then you add to the fact that everything gets outdated within 3-5years and your initial up front costs are lost. Then oil costs, everything that is made of plastic is oil based.

I would like to be able to buy more items in bulk.

Things like servo wire / airline/ fesgo keepers (the plastic ones) festo fittings, hardware (25+ pieces atleast). I know allot of places you can get the hardware from, but i would rather spend a few extra pennies to save on shipping from getting it all in one place.

so id. Say, more bulk and volume discounts would be great!

I understand the issues with low volumes verses high prices but that isn't what has caught my attention, it is the increase in prices. The exchange rate and fuel prices don't help but I don't think that's the whole story.

Maybe it's simply because I'm prepared to pay more for a kit or turbine, but I don't perceive that these have increased in cost as rapidly as the bits and bobs. I'm sure 2 years ago you wouldn't pay more for a gear set for a sport model than you would for the model itself. That almost seems to be the norm in some cases now.

Todd is correct! Personally, I never really cared how much something was...never asked for a "deal" either, just wanted the best and of course, it had to look awesome too!...until the wrecking ball from the economy hit me broadside! Now, I have to order on a budget as per my pay periods. It was such a change in how I purchased, I started receiving Get Well Cards from my favorite RC Shops and sites!!! I never really knew how much gas was per gallon either...but I do NOW[X(]

For the Jet's...I really do think it's the economy and just fear of the future, man. Even folks that haven't been hurt by what we have had are being extremely cautious and not buying like they used to.

But to answer the original Q...everything seems high to me now...not the manufacturers fault or the distributors either...they are living in the same world we are and in a industry that is not a necessity (well for me it seems like it is) but rather a luxury. I did see something unique though while at Speed World...less expensive turbines being used by some very "solid" RC jet guys...was surpirsed at first and then became amazed at the products and saw why they were flying them!!!

My one cents worth

Rex

That is so true and Steve Jobbs made $2 Billion profit in the months before Christmas

Dennis

If anyone thinks the hobby industry is making money...you can buy my business tomorrow!
How much margin do you think we have? I laugh at sales with 30-50-70% discount sales, if only we had those figures! In the UK many retailers are giving away even more margin "buying" custom,brilliant for the consumer...you cannot live off 12-15% margins...Our hobby is changing and soon you will be limited on where and when you can buy....then you will think differently.
If you want to buy a cheap FOD, great, do it, but don't shout about it like anyone in the real world is intertested. Some people pay for the badge on their cars, they feel good about it, the expensive moulded JetCat fod looks 100% better than a tea strainer or modified one..and it protects an expensive engine...so £50 FOD £350-400 rebuild and no flying for a few weeks...Its your choice. When you go for a nice meal, buy flowers at Valentine...buy a Valentine card costing 50p to make for £3 you don't ***** at the retailer...I bet 99% of you don't think, oh the food raw cost is £15, Flowers are £5 I can cut corners on these pleasures. Go and get a quote for an injection mould for the FOD...

I am sorry, but you don't have a clue! If you work for my hourly wage worked out on 350+ working day year, you lot would not get out of bed, yes I love the hobby and of course its why I chose this over mechanical design, where I would be earning 3x what I can pay myself in aeromodelling. But I would not know the thousands of great people I meet in this HOBBY, that is my business. It's supposed to be fun, the way some of you go on, looking for a reaction, I'd use the sharp knife you have in your workshops to...

Don't talk about things you have no idea about...

Do you have a problem with that?