I want to make sure all of you saw this announcement which we posted on motionrc.com about 5 or 6 weeks ago: https://www.motionrc.com/pages/2021-pricing-update
I'm trying to keep all of our loyal Motion RC customers informed as much as I possibly can. If you have any questions, please let us know. The one thing I would like to address is some of the speculation I've seen. We are not raising prices to make more money. We are raising prices because we are forced to do so since every input cost has gone up significantly. In fact, after the price increase, we will be making less than we were a year ago. Despite what I've seen some people post, this is a low margin business primarily due to the cost of the molds and tooling to make these planes. When Samsung or Apple or another large company make a product, they pump out a massive amount of product using their molds and tooling. In this cottage industry, we pump out very few planes so the cost of the molds and tooling are factored into every plane. I've seen people say "it is just foam, I can't believe what they charge for foam planes". It is true, foam is not super expensive. However, the mold to make that foam into an airplane is very expensive. Molds and tooling can get into the 6 figure range for a large plane. After the foam and various hardpoints are molded (not to mention scale molded plastic details, carbon internal structure, laser cut wood internals, and CNC metal structural and scale parts), the plane is built and painted by hand often using paint molds and jigs, which are custom to each plane (and expensive). As I'm sure you all know, every material that goes into these planes has become more expensive and labor has become more expensive. There are over 100 people who touch each plane during the build process. Freight costs to get the planes to Motion RC are up about 2.5x from where they were a year ago. Rent and salaries are up in the USA as well as the rest of the world. FedEx raised their prices significantly since the start of the pandemic so we are paying a lot more to get every plane to our customers. Finally, the US dollar has lost a significant portion of its purchasing power so we were paying more for each plane even before the factories were forced to raise prices. As much as we hate to do it, it was 100% unavoidable. Unfortunately, there is a strong possibility this will not be the last price increase in the next year. The US dollar continues to weaken and that alone could force another price increase. Material costs, labor costs, and freight costs continue to climb.
I'd also like to address balsa planes. Balsa planes are also going up in price and while it also has to do with labor, freight, and the US dollar, the primary driver of balsa plane price increases is actually the cost of the balsa wood itself. The price of raw materials increasing is not any secret at this point but balsa has its own set of special circumstances. Due to the fires about a year ago, much of the balsa trees disappeared. This caused a scramble by the wind turbine industry which uses balsa for all the internals of the wind turbine blades. The balsa blades are covered with carbon fiber or other light weight material. The wind industry quickly went to all the balsa farms and signed contracts to purchase all of their balsa for the next 7-10 years. This left the RC plane industry scrambling to find balsa. The balsa factories in Vietnam (like Black Horse) were left paying a lot more for their balsa.
I've seen a few people say customers should stop buying planes and the price will go back down. Nothing could be farther from the truth. All that will do is make Motion RC and companies in this industry go out of business. The costs of raw materials, labor, and freight costs are going up if people buy planes or not. The USD is getting weaker if people buy planes or not. We hate to raise any prices but every input cost is going up right now and consequently we are paying a lot more for everything. I really hope all of you will continue to support Motion RC. We massively appreciate working in this industry and are grateful for your business!
Please, lets keep this about planes and not turn this into a political discussion. If anyone has any questions, I'm happy to answer them.
. Support (promotion and purchasing especially) for the hobby is crucial for it to exist as a whole, and I try to do my part in various ways, as do others.
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