Voyager series 2nd edition discussion thread

[John R]

(11-02-2014 10:27 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  I do not understand, why HP made only a limited edition of the HP15C.

The prices in ebay for these items are very high now, sometimes 5 times obove the original price. Could anyone tell, who could have an interest at HP, to keep these prices high. Why not make a unlimited edition like the HP12C, until the demand will decrease?

The demand supposedly evident for the HP-15C Limited Edition in the eBay market is not a good indicator of the demand for this kind of item in the commercial market. First of all, the people buying and selling the HP-15C LE on eBay are treating the item as a collectible -- NOT as a consumer good to actually use -- and the prices are thus speculative. Second, the volume of HP-15C LE calculators bought and sold on eBay is actually very small. It looks like only one or two of these change hands per week, on average. (And some of those are probably the same items being bought and sold by a small pool of people.)

I suspect that most people who were willing to pay approximately $100 for an item like the HP-15C LE actually did so when it was available from Hewlett Packard a few years ago. If there was a deeper demand for this kind of item at this kind of price, HP probably just would have extended the "limited" edition and made a larger profit. If HP began selling calculators from a new HP-15C production run tomorrow, I suspect they would see a short-lived spike in purchases from speculative buyers treating it as a collectible, but not enough extended demand to actually turn a profit. The speculative eBay market would crash, and lots of people on this forum would probably buy another HP-15C or two to actually use for fun and work. :-)