[BrianG]

Sometimes the best research is watching sales. If it takes off, great. If not, they just cut the losses and learn from the mistake not to repeat the error. It must be tough to find out exactly how much people are willing to spend on an item until it's for sale.

What they could have done is make quite a bit more to help keep the per-unit costs lower, sell what they can at their inflated prices, and then sell the remainder at their cost. Or, keep them as spares and sell as parts at even more inflated prices. After all, the people who did purchase them will have a broken part eventually and will probably pay to replace it as opposed to buying a whole new setup.