View?
 

From my view it is not any different that any other supplier who are getting their LiPo cells from China or Korea and rebadging them as their own. I am curious as to whether any of the LiPo cells are actually manufactured in the USA? I doubt it.. Considering the fact that their LiPo's may be getting better in comparison to the rest my only issue with them is the outragious pricing they think they are entitled to.

Thank you! Global supply chain! They all come from the same places but each us company claims to have the best ones. Now I'm not saying all packs are created equal. I would say the us companies do a better job of matching the cells together for a pack. But the cheap overseas companies get it close enough to work. I am all for buying American but not if it means paying two to three times as much for the same thing with an American companies sticker on it. To me all they are selling that is American is the sticker at that point. Produce them here and sell them here that would truly be American, not import them and relabel them. In a day and age where virtually nothing is made in America anymore it gets harder and harder to keep money here. At least design the stuff here with high standards and have them manufactured overseas to keep cost down for the consumers. This has proven to work well.... Very well.

Correct
 

You are correct Slim. Thats the problem I have with some of these suppliers like Company "P". They are just purchasing whatever they can get their hands on and selling them for double or even triple profits.

So who wants to start a lipo company? Let people know where it comes from, what it's capable of and have a reasonable mark up to cover the costs and still make a reasonable profit? Maybe call it monster amps..... Oh man I'm such a jerk! Seriously though monster mike could do right by his customers and sell the same stuff as everyone else without the insane markups.

How about MaxxVolts?

How about SurgeWatts? :lol:

^:lol: brand "p" would be pissed!

*Cough* Castle Cough* Great 'American Products' But they source products to be made in China and put together here. Hence Made In USA. BUT MAJOR FACTOR HERE: Quality Control!!!! Support, R&D, Customer Service ( How many times has a Castle Rep logged on here?! Yeah! Great Pricing... ETC ETC

I Felt as Slim said "close enough to work" and that is the taste I have from MA...

True that.
 

Actually that sounds pretty cool. I wish someone would pony up and start their own company in the USA making LiPo cells, packaging R/C packs, and all for reasonable pricing. Just think of the amount of sales one could drum up just by creating a product like that for our hobby masses. A volume business that would probably end up doing fairly well considering how large our hobby is.

~300% profit margin?

Austin, how do you sleep at night.... :no:

I am usually on the bandwagon with disliking MA prices and practices, but I can't really see the issue with this one. If people want to buy it without doing any research then let them, it's just as much the consumers job to know what they are spending their money on. If you buy something, then find out you could have gotten it way cheaper if you would have done a little research, it won't happen again, you learn your lesson.

This hobby is full of ridiculous markup, but you rarely see other brands getting bashed. A 35mL bottle of Xray silicone oil selling for $15, or a bag of 6 diff o-rings selling for $5, and there are many more examples. I can understand the frustration with all the markup on our hobby products, but MA is not the only one doing it.

I would think a mattress full of $20 bills would keep him up with all the crinkling...

You are completely correct.

However, its the fact that they left a bad taste in mouths for their products so they get scrutinized every time they do something.

About the markups, its normal. However, look across the board at buggy/truggy name brands. For the most part they are priced relatively close for relatively the same product. Now look at Maxamp's price for the same Turnigy pack, or even Hyperion. The prices aren't relatively close at all.

The difference is that you pay for marked up items like silicone oil, o-rings etc whatever it may be- and they have a very VERY low chance of causing catostrophic failure of your vehicle, i have never seen a car burned down due to under rated silicone oil or o-rings, I did however have a brand "p" pack go code red in my dx2.0 radio and have to promptly bury it in sand to later hear a series of low whistles as the cells vented. my silicone oil never went agro.

i dont mind paying overly high prices as long as the stuff works.. cant say thats always true for brand "p"

Not to mention
 

Not to mention that when you purchase a set of "O" rings you get what you see in the add. When you purchase a LiPo pack you have no idea what you are getting until you hook it up and start using it. So your comparison is somewhat mute. The electronic business in general operates pretty much by its reputation because once they start having failures and the word gets out, no one wants to do business with them. Much like the rep that company "P" has now. Sure markup is pretty much a common practice, and 300% normal for the USA in general, but how much do you really think it costs for China to make these cells? I bet the true cost of LiPo cells is less than $1.00. So who is the real victom here?