Voyager Series: How "rare" are they, really?

[Jim Horn]

Regarding quality, no, Bill and Dave aren't in charge any more. And the entire supply chain has changed radically.

HP Corvallis no longer produces its own ICs from scratch and probably doesn't have the double shot injection molding machines, the pad printers to do the faceplates, or any number of other technologies on hand any more to make these machines any more. In the 1980s, they did and many had been amortized by prior generation calculators ($795 in 1974? $395 in 1971? $700 for a watch in 1977?). To make a 1980s clone of any HP calculator would take many tens of millions of dollars to acquire, restore, maintain and run the factory line to do so. With the limited market for such machines, would you really want to pay many thousands for a real HP-15C?

So HP does what it can, especially when the calculator team is a small group, not a whole division with vast resources. I'm amazed at what Tim and company pull off as it is.

Just my two cents worth...