I don't see it as a forced situation - see, I'll go to clones first when it's a "long shot experiment" that I'd only throw $10-$25 bucks at. But when there's a new device that by description sounds like a GREAT fit for me, and there's a proliferation of positive reviews, etc - then I usually have a preference to buy the original, and I'll spend what it takes or wait until I can.
The NarDa was such a device - I would absolutely have bought one if they were available.
And I don't need instant gratification - I would have pre-ordered and waited a month.
But the fact is that for all intents and purposes, Nar Mods does not want me (and a bunch of other people like me) to buy a NarDa from them. That's OK - there are other atties. I suppose it's tricky to scale up from a run of a couple hundred to make a run of 1000 if you find yourself with a "hot atty" in your product line - but it's not THAT hard...
Some vendors are just going to stay "niche" and maintain high prices and do small runs and sell through Facebook only or with F5 races. Those vendors are not for me.
I do not do Facebook, for starters.
I won't pay exorbitant prices due to manufactured scarcity. I will pay a premium for quality.
And I'll even pay premiums based on the concept that it's a company earning a profit from a successful innovative design, and based on the fact that their manufacturing costs are higher than China.
I agree PW, as I am glad Roscoe is doing these as well. It's going to be interesting putting the Chi-NarDa up against the original.
With that being said, I'm sure we all ( including Roscoe) would much rather be dealing with authentics. With the current atmosphere of the high end atty game, where more often than not the runs are limited for the latest greatest and the releases become F5 wars only to be snatched up in mere seconds without another run for months or in some cases never, it's pretty easy to me to see why folks turn to the clones.
While I'm sure it must be disheartening for the modders, it must be equally disheartening for them to see the flippers turning around and selling them for grossly inflated prices. Unfortunately for many, the only chance one will ever have to be able to get even close to these unicorn atty's, is forcing them to turn to the clone. We won't even get into the money thing or the fact that clones can be used as a gage to measure whether or not the genuine is worth the pursuit.
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