Ok…these have been out for some time now. I know they play well etc… but has anyone come up with a good answer as to why they command such a high price tag? I just don’t get it :-\
It’s solid titanium and made by YYR in Japan to exacting specifications? But i mean no, there’s not necessarily a reason other than that. No magic to it. I swore i’d never buy one when i saw the price, then i did, and so have lots of other people. Worth it? Eh, i dunno, it’s a fun yoyo and there’s not exactly a lot of other options when it comes to titanium yoyos being made these days. I suspect we’ll never again see the days of $200-$250 titaniums like the Ti Walker and Sovereign. Not sure if that’s due to material costs, or machining, or just general price creep that we’ve seen in the industry, but for sure i think titanium is an amazing material for yoyos and i’m certainly sad no one else seems to be doing it when it’s shown time and time again to be popular.
The same reason any expensive item costs what it does - because that’s what people will pay.
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Thanks for the input…
Still looking for a legit “good answer” ;D
Simple answer is the demand for titanium ore greatly exceeds the extraction of every variety. Throw in inflation and the price seems predictable. Doesn’t help that it’s manufactured in Japan.
Your right…that is a simple answer. Just irrelevant seeing how Titanium is the ninth-most abundant element in the Earth’s crust! Still hoping for a good answer though!
yoyos made of raw ore
OP you moved me so much im gonna leave this patent to you
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Ti really isn’t that much more then aluminum.
Cutting ti takes longer and dulls tools faster, but no where near the level it would take to quadruple the cost.
Japanese manufacturing doesn’t really cost much more then american, so that really don’t come into effect.
There is some global market factors going on as well, I am unsure how much they effect final price, but I would bet that all of these factors together still don’t explain the cost increase in ti throws.
Basically people will pay that much, so there is just no need to sell them cheaper.
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Jesus i laughed hard at this…
how were those not good answers. They’re about as good as you can expect to get.
There is no good answer–IMO. This is an outrageously overpriced throw.
I don’t buy any of the arguments put forth as to why it should cost this much.
Even The Oxy Hyperion is $150 less and it has much more detailed machining
But some people will buy it and feel they got their money’s worth, and I don’t begrudge them that.
Why don’t you just tell us the answer you want to hear, someone can repeat it and you’ll be happy.
My perception is that a lot of high end yoyos are priced at what the market will bear.
If you want them to be cheaper, quit paying the exorbitant prices they ask.
They don’t play 200% better than reasonably priced models.
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I think this is the best answer. It rings true, because honestly, I don’t think many people who actually bought one are complaining about the price. Sure, we would have liked to buy one for less, but that applies to everything we purchase, and this is no different. The business knows that among the die hard YYR fans, all other interested players, and collectors, they can sell them for that price. If the OP wants to discuss “ethics” of a business, and whether they can justify charging a price well in excess of what it cost them to make the item, that’s a different topic altogether. And, there will be differing opinions, with no real consensus anyway. There are some people who do not consider $650 a lot of money, even for a yo-yo. The people who would take issue with the price, were probably not the target market for that yo-yo in the first place.
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JHB8426 & TA said it well.
As long as they sell out at the requested price, then that is all the justification necessary to charge that amount.
That’s as clear as it needs to be. 
I would even argue they could charge a little more and still sell them all…
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This can’t be repeated enough times. I was talking to a friend of mine who knows nothing about yoyos other than he knows I buy, sell, trade and play with them and he said something along the lines of “I obviously don’t know a thing about yoyos but if you want the one that plays the best how come one week you buy one that costs over $200 and the next week you’re buying one for $35?” and he was shocked to hear my opinion that there is very little difference (if any) in quality between a $45 retail and $200 retail yoyo and that if there is a difference, it certainly doesn’t account for the price to be 4-5x higher. I fully understand (and he doesn’t care) that yoyos can cost more to make due to material(s) used, reject/B-grade rates, run size, blast/anodize features, location of manufacturer, etc. The fact is that doesn’t make the more expensive ones better.
And the answer as to why Dazzler is so expensive is probably a combination of a lot of the things I just listed. Run size, location of manufacturer, more expensive material and a couple things that I didn’t list before because they have nothing to do with the cost of making the yoyo…the prestige associated with the brand and BECAUSE THEY CAN. I’ve considered buying a Dazzler many times. Everything about it appeals to me and I bet I’d love it but the price tag is high enough that I suspect I would feel legitimately guilty owning it and I would actually be afraid of damaging it despite the fact I am fully aware it is a toy that is regularly moving at high speed toward and around the ground. For that reason, it is not the yoyo for me, and thankfully there are many offerings at $200 and under that are great fits for me.
One thing that manufacturers overlook is the fact that I have yet to see a titanium yo-yo that failed to sell out with in a few weeks - whatever the price. This means the investment risk is very low. This should mean better prices. But the opposite seems to occur. The more titanium throws that are made; the higher the price seems to go. I think this is because titanium is such a superior material for making yo-yo’s. The more there are in the world, the more they seem to stimulate demand as people discover how superior titanium yo-yo’s can be.
Why is titanium so good? For the same reason that titanium is used for internal gearing in high-performance racing engines. As one mechanic put it: “What people don’t realize about titanium is that it changes direction quicker than any other metal”. That sort of sums up why it is so good for yo-yo’s and may explain why it commands such high prices.
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I’d love to see what YYF or OD could do with titanium these days. Ricochet was fun (and the best performing undersized organic I’ve ever thrown) but something a bit more modern would be awesome.
I think what would be even more interesting is for YYF to work up a Yoyo design ‘very close but not exact’ to a Dazzler.
Then to have that design machined by the same Machine shop that made the Ricochet.
I would actually dare to suggest that YYF could probably retail the Yoyo for about $350 bucks… If that.
I have ‘no hesitation’ is saying the 600+ price tag of the Dazzler is Overboard and not an excellent value.
It would be in my opinion a much more realistic value for less than $400.
That being said, I think the Dazzler is an Excellent yoyo(especially when not thinking about the price).
When the price of the Dazzler is seriously considered, I think a very good contrast to get a better ‘handle’ on price/value/performance can be simply sorted out.
Compare 2 Excellent yoyos: 1 Dazzler 2 CLYW Bonfire. A $650 Yoyo vs a $150 yoyo.
Do I think a Dazzler plays 4 times better than a Bonfire? 3 times? 2 times? < 1 no 2 no and 3 no.
To me(my opinion) the Dazzler and the Bonfire play at a very similar performance level.
Do I really care? Not really.
When I payed Full Tilt for my Dazzler, did the price bother me? Not really. I would have preferred to have paid much less… But the price was the price. I basically wanted to see just how much I would like it. And since I didn’t know anybody that would/could loan me a Dazzler, I had 2 choices: buy one or pass.
If somebody would have let me borrow one for a day or two, would I still have been compelled to buy one?
No… I would have passed on the Dazzler. It does nothing that other yoyos can’t do. The Slasher, the Draupnir, the Phaser, the Space Cowboy, the Oxy Hyperion, the Valor, the Caesar;, the Anglam, the Anglam CC, the YYR Perfect Star, the Sasquatch; they can all slam out the same tricks for less of a financial impact.
The Nail in the coffin? Easy enough. The Berserker SS will run circles around a Dazzler for less than a third the price.
Bottom line? I do not regret buying the Dazzler. I throw it every day. It is an excellent Yoyo. It has a great weight. The weight is spread out just right for a single metal Yoyo. It is not too big in diameter or too small. It is not narrow but it is ‘wide enough’. It makes some really neat calming sounds that you only hear while using Titanium yoyos. You don’t see mine up on the BST; nor will you. I am not afraid to ‘use it’ over any surface. And last but not least; it is very ergonomic. It literally has no ‘edges’.
But it is not my favorite Yoyo. Even if the Dazzler had only cost me half(-say, bout $325) it would still not be my favorite Yoyo.
PS, I don’t think YYR used any form of financial rocket science to arrive at the suggested Retail price.
I think it was very simply decided. They decided to set the price to identify with a very small number of people that ‘would bounce so high’ to procure one to: display, to sit on or just the curious wanting to know the level of magic the Yoyo might possess?
I am a member of the last group. I just wanted to see.
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I agree 'doc. I would choose my $50 TooH.O.T. or a Richochet, in terms of both looks and play, over the Dazzler. And, many of us who bought the Dazzler, didn’t buy it because we thought it was going to be our favorite yo-yo ever. I looked at the specs, and knew they weren’t really my thing. It had a lot to do with curiosity, it being collectible, and some of us just having the money to go ahead and buy it, without feeling like it was a big deal. I am hoping that YoyoFactory does the titanium thing again soon. I was a huge fan of the Ricochet, and consider that the best undersized yo-yo I have ever played.