Although I'm not involved with EPI (and made a conscious decision not to be), I think this conversation is worth mentioning a simple point about capitalism:
The price of a product is not based on its cost. It's based on its value.
Several comments have been made that seem to imply that "if the marketer wasn't making $1,000 then the product would only cost $295." That's not necessarily true. The price would be whatever the market will pay.
And chances are good that everyone here knows this. But, it seems to get forgotten when a company is candid about how much of the purchase price is kept by the marketer. The truth is that it's not really any of our business. In terms of asking what the product is worth, the marketer's profit doesn't matter. At all.
I'll give you an example: my wife and I bought a home pregnancy test a few months ago. (Unfortunately, it turned out negative.
) We spent $15 for the test, came home and, when I opened it, I started laughing, "I'm in the wrong business".
Ever seen a home pregnancy test? It's just a piece of plastic with a tiny slip of litmus-like paper in it. That's it. Probably about $.50 worth of materials and labor.
Now, you ladies on here may have bought one in the past, too. And, like me,
you couldn't care less that the markup on that product was close to 3,000%. You didn't care what someone else was making for selling it to you.
Why? Because what you were REALLY buying was
an answer. I was more than happy to pay $15 for something that would answer a very emotional question for me and my wife. Heck, if they'd had one, I'd probably bought a $25 model just because it was available.
And that's the point: in free enterprise and capitalism, the price isn't based on cost. It's based on value to the end consumer.
I wouldn't pay $1,295 for what EPI is selling. But, others do. Do they pay it because they're interested in making money? Maybe. Probably. But, for the purposes of this post, I'm simply pointing out that the wholesale price of $295 has absolutely NOTHING to do with the selling price.
Just my perspective,
Tony Rush