So, um, I have been in contact with Melissa fairly regularly in regards to caps I've purchased for myself, and upcoming GBs I may or may not run.
Anyway I bugged her about PBT tooling, because I wanted to make an SA PBT Blanks GB. I wrongly assumed the prices would be similar to SP SA ABS...
Unfortunately, whatever the reason, the PBT caps in some cases were 3x-4x more expensive than SP SA ABS caps. And I am talking about blanks.
I know the difference between blanks and dye-sub shouldn't be as big as blanks and double-shot. But it will certainly be more expensive.
The reason I am saying this - is once pricing is ready - just be ready for a full set to be close to $200. I'm not going to post the full price list here, but I can tell you that even the simplest 1u R3 piece, is 4x the price of ABS.
For me, that's just too much. Now it is being priced at a super-premium custom set. I did the math for an XD75 *blank* kit. Even at super high quantities, the kit is still over $100. And that is before shipping, paypal fees, and any cut the GB organizer would take. And that is even if you can get such high quantities.
So personally, I've completely abandoned the idea of running an SP SA PBT GB. I do hope this kit does come out. I would still consider getting it for $200 if that is really the price - but at the same time I don't want to justify these kinds of prices. Maybe there will be more info about paying for tooling. Like maybe the first GB or two will pay for tooling, and will be expensive. I guess in that case I could justify the purchase. But what I'm afraid of is that SP is just simply attempting to gouge us on this. I'm not really sure. I'm not making judgements here because really I don't know the whole story. I just know the price chart that I was personally quoted (about 1 week ago). Maybe the chart will change, maybe SP will tell the GB organizer here more details about how much the community will be paying for the tooling.
I just wish it was more transparent. Like "Hey, we bought tooling, and we want the /r/mk community to pay $100,000 for the tooling over the next two years". That's a concrete number I can understand and makes sense. I would be willing to pay $200 for a kit, because I want it now - but at least I know that I have the option to wait 1-2 years and pay half the price.
Sorry I'm just kind of blabbing at this point. I don't want to get people down on this GB. I want it to happen. I guess I'm just here to curb people's expectations of the price of this GB.
By the way to be clear, I don't have any information about the cost for dye sub. I've literally only been asking SP about blanks only (which by the way I have a very cool IC coming up for that!).