why is yoyos so expensive
think about it
They’re made of metal and precision machined. The makers want to make a profit.
materials and machine time arent free ya know
Costs to buy the materials, cost to design them, to machine them, to finish them (anodize), texture them (beadblast, soda blast, etc), and yes, time.
It’s just like anything else. Better materials, parts, and machining are going to raise the price considerably. Not all yoyo’s are expensive, and there’s a reason for it. Go buy yourself a duncan butterfly and you will know on the first throw why it was only a few bucks. It might be fun for a couple minutes, but it’s not going to get you far. Unless you mod it, it’s not much more than a paperweight. When I started throwing, I didn’t understand why anyone would pay $100 for a yoyo. It didn’t take me long to figure it out. I only have one yoyo that I payed more than $100 for, and it is my favorite throw. There’s more for me in the near future. In two months, I will have my final run Peak from my wifey. Christmas is so far away.
I will admit. Yoyos are sold for much more than they could be made for. For example the DV888: They were originally sold for ~60, and then they went on sale for ~40. Obviously for this sale to make sense to the manufacturer, the yoyo would have to cost less then the price they are selling it for, even when its on sale. This means that there ARE some yoyos that can turn a crazy profit. But hey, if you don’t like their prices just make your own yoyos I guess 
if u would make massive production it wont cost u that much for one yoyo and like YYFs is sold for much more than it really cost eg. 888 made in china probably costs about 20 to 30 dollars its true
many people tend to get the “margin/profit” thing wrong, if you run your own company you would understand, I will take french-ish values things might differ in US but basically you end up with the same problem, I’ll skip some parts because it would be too long and pointless otherwise
let’s say the materials/ressources/parts/package etc… needed to build the yoyo “X” cost about $10 for each yoyo
the company has a rent on the building, let’s say $1k/month
accountant is mandatory, costs about $100/month
your salary’s about $1500/month, costs about double to the company so $3000/month
you have two employees, one to answer the phone (commercial) one to send the packages, you pay them each $1k, so for the company, it means $4k/month
you build 100 yoyos a day (no idea how realistic it is), so for all the ressources together, you’re out $30k/month
let’s sum up, in order to just NOT lose money (not talking about actually making money here, just not to lose any), the company has to make
30.000 (stuff to build 100 yoyos/day)
+4.000 (employees salaries)
+3.000 (your salary)
+1.000 (rent)
+100 (accountants)
$37.100 every month out of selling yoyos, and that’s if they actually sell 100/day, with leaving ALOT of other costs out
now picture this, we are talking about a company where 3 people work only by hand for minimum salary, making a hundred pieces a day, working 30 days a month, in between 4 naked walls, without any computer, phone, heat etc… a company that would make 100 yoyos/day would actually cost waaaaay more to run than our fantasy scenario
So with the reasearch, human resources of sometimes qualified and competent (read “not cheap”) people, investments and various costs involved into actually crafting one yoyo, the equation is way more complicated than “the materials to make it costs 10 bucks, they sell for 50, what a ripoff!”
you can actually calculate the cost of the trip from home to your company and include it in the margin
all in all, here’s my opinion
yo yo is by far the cheapest hobby I’m in (try photography)
I’m actually wondering how anyone could actually make money out of selling or manufacturing yoyos, the high end yoyos companies might do great tho, because even an expensive yoyo (talking $100/$200 range) is fairly cheap when you compare to the equivalent in anything else. How much would cost a piano equivalent of a CLYW yoyo ?
you can actually get a very decent metal yoyo (so I’ve heard) for the same price of a brand new xbox game
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You also have to take into account that a lot of times you aren’t buying the yoyo directly from the manufacturer. The manufacturer has to turn a profit selling the yoyos in bulk to the shops, who then have to turn a profit selling the yoyo’s to the customers. To put it simply, a portion of each yoyo you buy is going to pay for buildings, materials, machines, employees, and much more. It’s just not cheap to run a company of any sort.
Personally, I feel that if you buy a yoyo, and think about all the time you spend playing with it, it’s almost never a bad/expensive investment. Just make sure you know what you want in a yoyo, and read some reviews before you commit to one. More often than not, you’re going to get your moneys worth.
yeah but u know yoyofactory collected all the money that it spend from the first day it opened and more so its made in china 888 and g5 so probably it wont cost much as i said before 20 30 35 dollars even they sell it for 100 i mean come on ;D 
you have no idea what goes into a selling price do you?
no offense but seriously, most companies do so that
- they can pay what has to be paid
- they can match the quality requirements
- they don’t lose money
seeing the business that is the yoyo, I’m pretty sure 90% of the actors who are in it are in it because they actually like it, not to make money. I dare you to make money selling a product that sells (depending on quality) between $7 and $100 to a very small group of people, let alone make a living out of it.
I have actually no idea about how big the market is, but from where I’m standing, we’re not a million out there and other than the biggest yoyo companies, I’m pretty sure guys at YYE or other fan shops are not in it for the money.
do it, see how it goes for you, and get back to describe your experience, I find that yoyos are cool and fun (and cheap for that matter), but there is absolutely NO WAY, I would ever attempt to do business out of yoyo and the actors out there who make it happen deserve our gratitude, because I’m pretty sure they don’t make that much money selling yoyos.
actually I think that if a basic 20$ yoyo were actually sold $40, they wouldn’t sell less and they would probably still not make that much out of it
any $100 yoyo would sell just as well, if not better if it was sold at $200 with the letters “LTD” on the box
a high end plastic costs about $50 man, how cheaper do you want it to get ? they’re practically giving these things away
Sorry to lose my nerves but come on, please, pay some respect to those who make it happen, and don’t try to understand how a business works with gratuate school level mathematics. it NEVER comes down to whatever the material costs, determining a margin is rather complex and it involves things you have no idea about until you actually do it in the real world.
if yo-yo’s too expensive for you as a hobby, the only thing you could potentially do is go out and climb on trees or play catch
teens spend thousands on game consoles + flat screens + iphone etc… and you find a $100 top of the line yoyo expensive because “it only costs $30 to make”?
the limited edition of gran turismo will cost around $200, how much do you think it costs to make ? and how much do you think all the qualified people who worked on it for what, like 5 or 6 years are paid ?
Some companies don’t even make money on some products (I doubt sony ever did any $ selling PS3 but I agree, they probably don’t do it for the sake of it either, it’s part of a larger plan)
just put things in perspective, yo yoing is probably one of the cheapest hobbies (if not the cheapest) in our world. And people don’t sell yoyo for profit, and getting a salary doesn’t count as profit (yet it’s part of the margin)
either you understand, either you don’t, if you think they’re making outrageous profit, just try it yourself and see how it goes.
Even the time spent by someone to think about what the yoyo they’re going to make has to be paid, no one works for free
just saying… your average metal saaaay an 888x, costs nowhere NEAR 100 dollars to make, they could sell them for 40 bucks and still make money
Go and buy a (after a quick google search) $30,000 dollar lathe, spend $30 on the materials, plus however much it costs to anodize, and blast the yoyo, make maybe 100, and try to make not go bankrupt selling them for $35-$40. Because you wont get a retail price below probably $70 if you sell them for any more than that.
Hadoq has it right. What many never grasp is that high end ticket items like say jewelry are not high priced just because the materials are expensive, but also because the selling those items has to cover the cost of doing business. A company that sells millions of widgets can have a lower profit margin per item because the overall return on the investment is higher. Add to that the cost of manufacturing a item. Cost goes down the more you produce…So,make more and sell more, and the price goes down. Conversely, if you only sell a few you would only make a few. Therefore the cost of manufacturing would be higher. So you would have to set the price higher to make any money, and that money would have to cover ALL of your business costs, not just the obvious costs of making the product…
i think old yoyo companys made every $ they spent and more so it wont cost him much now and when the quantity is more the price would be lower
The price would only be lower to produce as a whole. But if a yoyo company made a million yoyos and sold them at a low price, and barely any of them are sold, how do they make a profit then?
why wouldnt them be sold (grammar) any way i see ur point for bur u know why is Auldey Aoda yoyo are cheap not cuz of quality but cuz of there quantity they MASS produce them thats why metal yoyos of auldey retail for 20 bucks and so 
Seriously guys I think we are the last people on Earth who should be complaining about the price points of high-end yo-yos. There’s enough of that outside the community already, we don’t need it inside too. They price them the way they do for a reason, and believe me - they are coming out if this with as little profit as possible per unit - that’s how economics works. If the products were truly overpriced, they wouldn’t sell. Manufacturers know that. They’re experiencing the hardships of today’s economy just like the rest of us.
I’ll just leave it at that. I think I’ve done more defending now than I wanted to. Especially for someone involved in the community.
I give up. There is a huge range of yoyo’s in all different price ranges. Get what you can afford, and enjoy it. I mean, I could sit here and ask “Why are cars so expensive?”, but I don’t because there are cheaper cars in my price range that still get the job done. You just do what you can. If you don’t know what all goes into getting the product out, don’t complain about the price. I doubt the mark up on yoyo’s is any worse than any other product you buy. You just have to accept it.
I don’t know if I agree with that. Imagine you are fairly new to yoyoing, and all you have is a kickside, or even a Dark Magic. You’re getting pretty good with them, but now you want to try out a decent metal yoyo, but don’t really have the money for it. Now you see that the DV888 is for sale at $40. Same price you paid for the YoyoJam Dark Magic. You go ahead and get it, and end up loving your YoyoFactory DV888. Your first throw from a different company and it’s a great experience. The next yoyo you buy is another YoyoFactory, and the sale did it’s job. It’s getting its products out to new customers because of that sale. They can effectively sell a yoyo at near cost now, in order to get more sales from you in the future. It’s more of a kind of advertisement for the company. At least thats how I see it.