Please dont get me wrong, I really like this idea, and I'm very excited about this product announcement. I've even shared about this idea on reddit.com/r/astronomy and to some of my colleagues. But I have to be honest, I feel like price on this is a little high.
I'm glad you like the HALO aznights, and thanks for spreading the word about it to your friends and colleagues!
And I can understand wishing that the HALO was less expensive. I wish EVERYTHING I wanted to buy was less expensive.
But the HALO isn't a mass produced product that can take advantage of huge economies of scale. All of the materials and parts that make up the HALO must be purchased in relatively small quantities (as compared to say the parts of a wheelbarrow that is made in China and sold by the millions in every Lowe's, Home Depot, and WalMart in America). And the HALO rings are CNC-machined out of 1-1/4" thick Extira (which isn't inexpensive, and because of the ring-shaped nature of the product, as you can imagine the material-yield isn't great). Then we have to do some hand-finishing work on the rings because they aren't ready for prime time right off the CNC bed. The degree circle inlays are also custom-made for us to perfectly fit the CNC'd Extira, and the leveling feet were special ordered as well. After finishing the Extira, we have to properly assemble everything and get it ready to ship.
CNC-machining certainly isn't the least expensive way to produce a mass-produced product, and the truth is that if we thought we could sell TENS of thousands of HALOs in a reasonably short period of time, those quantities
MIGHT justify investing in injection molds and manufacturing the rings out of plastic. With the cheap cost of raw material, and with the mold costs amortized over tens of thousands of HALOs, we could probably offer them at a significantly lower price. But injection molds are incredibly expensive, and we would need to invest in
FOUR different molds just to cover the GSO-made 8", 10", 12" and 16" bases. Then we'd need several more molds to fit the different Orion bases.
But even if I was 100% confident that we could recover the huge investment in injection molds in just 2-3 years, I still wouldn't go that route, because then if the Asian OEM base-makers changed the diameter of their Dob bases by just a little bit, our huge investment in molds would become instantly worthless. Instead, with CNC-machining, we can change the HALO dimensions to fit any change in bases with just a few keystrokes in Solidworks (the 3D CAD program used to design the HALOs).
So yes, you are paying more for the HALO, which is a highly customized product available in several sizes for a low volume, niche market, than if it were a one-size-fits-all mass-produced product on the shelf of every WalMart in America.
And believe me, I wish everyone in America wanted a HALO.
But unless I'm completely wrong about the actual demand for HALOs, I suspect it will remain a very cool, albeit niche product which carries a price tag that is reflective of its production volume and production method, and is not unreasonable (IMHO) when compared to other niche products in this market.
And by the way, aside from all the manufacturing issues, keep in mind that the prices do include custom-made shipping boxes as well as the cost of shipping the product to your front door. If you check the costs of purchasing 30"x30"x6" boxes in relatively small quantities from a box-supplier, and THEN check the cost of shipping that size box across the U.S. you'll find that those costs aren't insignificant....
David Giles
Opticsmart.com
Your mega-epic thread has inspired many astronomers over the years to build their own DIY setting circles, and needless to say I read through it MANY times to make sure we incorporated all the best ideas into the Halo. 
).
