Hi Everyone,
I recently saw that the cost of many V5 Electronics had increased. These include the V5 Battery ($69.99, previously $54.99), V5 Motors ($44.99, previously $39.99), and V5 Brain ($349.99, previously $274.99), to name a few products.
Are these increases in cost due to the supply-chain issues or VEX changing their supplier for the electronic components in these parts? Or some other reason?
more expensive, yet still out of stock.
Vex really gonna increase the cost of the brain to $350 and still not put ESD protection on the ports 
.
Last time there was a major price increase (in 2019), we got a bit of a warning…
I really want to see VEX’s reasoning for doing this. 
90% sure it’s due to the massive electronic shortages lately, but if it’s not, I’ll be pretty curious too
Agreed, and that was for only a 10% increase (for EDR anyways). The new price of the V5 brain is $350, which is a 27% hike over the old price of $275.
@Bob_Mimlitch_III Can you comment on these recent price changes, and also whether the increase in price of the V5 brain will be compensated for by additional features, such as static protection, and other features that VEX promised us nearly 4 years ago now?
Japanese company’s whole staff apologize for raising the price of their Icebar by only 9 cents!
(They kept the same price for 25 years.)
Not just the increased cost of components due to the chip shortage, but the increased cost of shipping. Shipping costs have raised the price of goods in general 10% in the last year and expected another 10% this year.
And think of teams outside the US. The cheapest way to mail a Christmas card to Australia from the US last month was around $80. Can’t imagine what that is doing to the price of their robot parts.
Does FedEx have to be used for shipping everything now? Bet using USPS or even UPS sometimes would be cheaper.
It’s not just the final shipping from TX to you, but the container shipping rates from China to US have gone up as much as 400%
Nevertheless, I agree that USPS could be used to ship small items much cheaper. For our organization, I try to make only really large orders, and just keep lots of stuff in stock for our teams so there are no “1-item” orders where shipping costs more than the parts.
Vex is a for profit business. It is simple economics that in a capitalist system, as the supply for goods decreases, the demand increases, and that increases the amount that consumers are willing to pay.
going off of economy the US dollar has been largely inflated recently, that could account for a chunk of this
Think of us in EU we pay what you pay in in euros so battery now 60,90EU or in dollars about 69 and then 21% VAT on top and expensive shipping…it is no longer competitively priced…parts come from same Chineese factory have same cost basis and direct shipping too EU is less or same cost at most….just something to think about.
The price of a V5 brain has risen from an Ender 3 Pro and 8kg of PLA to an Ender 3 Pro and 12kg of PLA.
Service and cost, Dan is my FedEx guy, he rocks the daily delivery, items on the porch, door bell ring. FedEx is ‘three business days’ from Texas, but I get Friday to Sunday delivery on a regular basis. Hey, still love you Bill (UPS three times a week ) and Mike (USPS 6 days week) and (Tony / Sue) from Amazon. Plus Jim, my trash guy.
Edited to add: So do you know the names of the people that bring you happy stuff?
And we still dont get 3d printing
“it is simply too expensive and too difficult to learn…”
in other words we are watching economics right now
wonder if a point will be reached where its no longer cheaper to make in china?
Yes I think it’s kinda ridiculous.