VCR's were also 1000 bucks... microwaves very expensive too when first introduced. They got dirt cheap as time went on so maybe there's hope for us average boaters.
Yes... but both of those products were priced that way because they were brand new to the market for public consumption, they didn't have a thousand different brands competing to bring down the price like they do today, and it wasn't like one brand of VCR or microwave was $1k when all the rest were $150 or less. Same goes for computers back in the late 1980's to the early 1990's when I was growing up, and I think our first Apple/Mac desktop was around $3k or so, when today you can get a laptop or even a desktop for around $1k or maybe even less. That's the biggest issue here that I see with the Sharrow props in that propellers have been available for the public to purchase since longer than I've been alive. On top of that, you've got some propeller brands selling their products for less than $200, yet the Sharrow props are listing theirs for $5k a piece, and with some applications you see very minimal performance/fuel economy gains. At that price, it could be 20 years or more before they start to bring down the costs, if they're even still in business at that point. And even still, I doubt they'll list them competitively to what the other majority of propeller manufacturers are selling their products for. Nowadays, almost everything is made overseas and sold on Amazon, to where you've got literally hundreds if not thousands of different manufacturers of now DVD/Blu-Ray players and microwaves or other household appliances. Which only brings the cost of products down even further than before. During the late 1990's to early 2000's it seems like was the time when VCR's started becoming obsolete and DVD players were coming out. I remember they were around oh probably $400-$500 when they did first come out, now you can find one on Amazon for less than $25.