What am I paying for?

[modernwizard]

There are quite a few BJD companies out there that make beautiful, well-sculpted, appealing BJDs for between $200.00 and $300.00. There's Elfdoll with its line of 14cm tinies, Fairyland with its RealPukis and PukiPukis, 5StarDoll with its 60cm line, Planetdoll with its entire stock, Angell Studio with all dolls <40cm, Dragondoll with dolls <70cm, et hoc genus omne.

Knowing this, I have to wonder why other companies [coughVolkscough, coughSoomcough] charge up to 4 times that amount. Obviously, I have willingly paid for multiple Sooms and Volkses, so I'm not complaining, just wondering where the markup comes in. I think we're paying for the brand. >_>

Comments

[blackbootsboy.livejournal.com]

I also find this phenomenon with computers. I, as you know, use a Mac at home. I feel it has many advantages over a Windows computer, mainly in the area of ease-of-use and accessibility features that I'd have to spend extra money to modify a Windows computer to do. Stripped of the flashy cases and operating systems, (bearing in mind that Apple designs the computer *and* the operating system, whereas Windows is only an OS) both types of computers are built of the same components, often made by divisions of the same overseas corporations (Foxconn, Samsung, Toshiba, etc), but Apple's Mac hardware and software costs so much more than the same offerings from Dell/Acer/Asus/Lenovo that run Windows.

I have no problem paying for the brand. As my recent repair issue showed, parts are also expensive, but a logic board for any computer, regardless of manufacture, commonly costs around 7/8 of the MSRP.