If it's true that there will only be 500 units, and you have to amortize the machine tools over that few guns, the price will reflect that.
He does not HAVE TO amortize his costs over only 500 guns, but it appears that he chooses to for marketing purposes. Creating an artificial rarity to drive up the price. It's all marketing, and my attitude is "screw him" for marketing that way. On the other hand, Tony is richer than I am so he must, therefore, be smarter than I am.
Regarding the tooling, I know just enough about current machining processes to conclude that most of what he will have to amortize will be jigs and CNC programming. All of the actual machinery probably will be or has been amortized over the other guns he produces. So, he is trying to appeal to a certain snob factor by producing only 500 guns. They do look like nice guns and I would love to own one, but they just don't make economic sense from the perspective of a rational buyer. I'll just have to wait for the retro-launch edition with the 30" barrels and double triggers.
