04-21-2010, 11:50 AM
The cost of Brass is in the cost of Material plus the amount of labor required to build the model with most of the cost being labor. That is why Brass rolling stock used to be made in Japan, but as the wages increased in Japan, the industry moved to South Korea. The major cost for plastic is in the mold and die work. Once the molds and dies are done, that cost is recouped over the life of a production run or runs as the case may be. It costs the same to produce a die for a "one off" model as it does for a locomotive type that every railroad in the country used. The difference is that the cost must be recovered by the buyers. If every model railroader in the country was a customer for the model, it could be produced cheap, but since it is of limited interest it will be expensive. At $110.00 per shell they are probably only looking to "break even" and may even lose money if they don't sell enough units. It may be that with the $50.00 deposits received they have a good idea of interest, and will break even on the first production run.