[sdiy] rising cost of PCB's?

[Paul Schreiber]

Referring to the "cost" being what myself and others charge for selling pc 
boards:

a) the main issue for me is: how much do I value my time & the 'IP' of the 
design itself? For any given design, there are only 'X' number of people 
that will care enough to buy a board. The really profitable boards are 
thouse that people will want 2, 3 or 4 of them eventually, BUT those tend to 
be easier/simple designs that people expect to pay less for (basic LFO, 
etc).

b) In my case I have high-end CAD tools to 'pay for' (cough) and so instead 
of looking at 'recovering' the pc boast I am looking at the CAD tool cost as 
the main item. I guess my time doesn't count for much :) Rather, I put that 
time into the fully assembled MOTM modules. I realize most people use CAD 
tools that are 1/20th of what mine cost (shrug). But I'm a CAD tool junkie.

Part of my $$$ I charge is for the wonderful documention I provide. Really, 
buy a board and see if you don't believe me. It's the original full MOTM kit 
docs. Not just a schematic and a BOM.

c) Although there is a sort of 'mad scientist' feeling to etching your own 
boards, I really don't see any reason to do so. I did my share in 1976 at 
Tandy doing Pong-clone video game boards. The Kodak developing fluid 
starting giving me a rash and I ruined all my blue jeans with the ferric 
chloride buring holes and leaving orange stains everywhere. No thanks.

Paul S.