Pricing

Pricing

Designing, manufacturing, testing, packing, shipping and supporting BlueFlyVarios has been streamlined to make the varios as cheap as possible for pilots.  The varios are sold cheaper than wholesale pricing would normally be calculated. The price  you will pay for a BlueFlyVario is based on:

  • The cost of components used in manufacture. This accounts for about half of the price. Components are sourced from many suppliers around the world. The component prices include exchange rate fees and the cost of shipping components to Australia. Components are purchased for 100 to 1000 varios at a time from most suppliers.
  • Some component wastage in production and some of the components use in development. This is about 5% of the component cost.
  • The cost of consumables and manufacturing overheads. This includes solder, the ongoing upgrade and maintenance of tools and equipment used for manufacture and some of the cost of improving the production workshop.
  • The cost of packaging and postage.
  • Paypal or credit card fees (about 3% of the transaction cost).
  • Exchange rate fluctuations.
  • The labour time for production and support for each vario.

What you do not pay for:

  • The time spent in developing new varios. 
  • The opportunity cost of the money invested in components sitting on the shelf.
  • A formal dealer network, which would include the time and support a dealer might provide. A few people have asked if they can be dealers, but most pilots prefer to purchase directly instead of paying a premium for another link in the supply chain.
  • Profit to return a dividend to investors or an income to owners.
  • Certification testing: What you see is what you get. We have not done any kind certification testing to ensure that the devices meet any kind of standard. Although, read the blog in detail to understand how they have been developed.
  • Website and shop costs: I have the website space anyway, and as you can see I have not paid anyone to design a professional one.

If you were to pay for all of the stuff you don’t pay for, the price of the BlueFlyVario would almost double.