The base price of the Pi has remained at $35, they just aren't possible to get. Regardless, the Pi Foundation / Pi Trading Company / whatever weird part of the Pi Empire actually sells them haven't raised the base price version-over-version.
sure, but it's like tickets at a concert. They sell most of them for $30. There's nothing they can do to prevent scalpers from buying them and jacking up the price 10x, but that doesn't make it the performer's fault you can only buy them for $300.
yes, it sucks, but the performers (and the Pi makers) did the best they could to offer them to folks at a cheap price.
Then that is just giving in to capitalist excess. The only way I could see stopping it would be to stop OEM purchases and sell to individuals who sign up with real credentials (like a phone number or credit card that can be verified) and limiting the number of sales to those individuals and even that is only going to sort of work.
They can always let the middleman have the difference between the actual price and the MSRP, but then they might as well take it themselves if there is no difference for the end consumer anyway.
Equilibrium price is capitalist excess? Help me out here: if they can't meet market demand at 35/unit, doesn't raising the price mean they can make more units? Then, they are easier to find and so there is less unmet demand to support scalper prices at $150-300, ultimately making it cheaper for end users who don't 'get in' the first batch of orders?
Not everything is all about the laissez-faire market, if the seller wants to control who buys something. Luxury item companies and artisans do it all the time.
Can you elaborate? I'm not completely following. Are you saying RPi wants to sell cheaply to specific customers and prevent everyone else from getting their hands on the product, even at the cost of increased revenue and (probably) margins?
The goods will get sold at market price either way. The only question is whether that will happen formally, with the manufacturer profiting, or informally, with the profits going to flippers. In order to satisfy more buyers, they will have to increase their production quantity. The study of this & related phenomena is known as economics.
I think you're wrong. If the manufacturer requires ID to purchase then they absolutely can stop scalpers as it would be too expensive for the scalper to hire people to buy their limited number (say 3) of items per month/per year. Capitalism can be beaten into submission if you're willing to take the proper actions, if they're interested in the Pi's going to hobbyists and schools rather than to scalpers who buy hundreds of them and then resale them at 10x the price on eBay or other auction sites. I know libertarians don't like to hear that not everything is about money, but sometimes it is if the source truly wants to see the pi units get to the right people.
No. If they don't raise prices what is going to happen is that the difference between the sale price and the real price will end in the scalpers pockets, who will have an incentive to keep scalping.
Instead, if they raise prices the difference will end on the foundation pockets, and they could use that money to ramp up production.
What they are doing right now reeks of either corruption or stupidity.
Eh - I suppose with the music analogy it's more like the Pi folks chose to play arenas instead of festivals, and keep putting corporate box seat customers on the guest list ahead of GA attendees. I think there's some blame here, I just also think it's flat-out incorrect to claim that Pi prices have increased.
It's what they sell them for. The scalpers will do what scalpers do when demand outstrips supply. It's a hard problem to solve in this day of automated everything. If you have a solution for them to keep scalpers from gouging then I think you should get in touch with the RPi foundation and help them solve the problem.
