Initial adjustment
Regrettably, the time has come to re-evaluate prices. As the figures for listed products were created in mid-2022 when the first drafts and parts lists were originally planned, and later releases such as the S20 and S30 being set relative to these price points, the time has now come after considerable inflation for a price adjustment of approximately +10% to be implemented on the 10th of September 2024.
Since June 2022, we have seen an official inflation figure of over 10% to date, with the CPI rising 10% from November 2022 to the same month in 2023. Fiat currency volume has been increased out of thin air by 25% in the last 4 years. This debasement would not be troublesome if it were possible to arbitrarily increase the pool of resources and labour that it competes for on the other side of transactions, though many fallen empires have discovered that such magic isn’t possible in the real world.
Operating costs have risen above official figures by a considerable degree, but to be fair, some savings have been made buying parts in larger quantities as the quantity of business has grown. However, a great deal of time is required to assemble and test units to spec, so no saving for the major part of the value created is possible. Although an increase of 12% was originally planned for the start of 2024, finishing production of older projects was prioritised. Now they are complete, a reduction to 10% has been decided upon in the interests of clearing stock to make way for new projects.
Gold and silver pricing
As real prices must be maintained, measures will be put in place moving forward to make sure this announcement isn't necessary the next time fiat currencies are debased via 'quantitive easing'. For this purpose, and to avoid having to make any further arbitrary decisions, the base prices of all products will be set in grams of gold and silver on an approximate 1:80 weight ratio.
Prices have been redefined as gold and silver weights
The gold and silver prices are to be converted into a fiat currency base price every quarter, based on the average prices for the preceding quarter. This will be done using the average gold and silver prices from the last quarter in GBP, before adding the costs of postage, applying currency conversion based on the average of the preceding month for global prices, and then rounding to the nearest 10.
Price-setting mechanism, example for September 2024
Gold has been chosen as it responds well to the initial liquidity of currency debasement, typically rising earlier than when the worst inflationary pressures kick in and increases are felt most acutely. Silver responds to industrial demand along with global energy prices quite accurately reflecting the real price of parts of the bat. Combining the two provides an accurate metric of what the real price of completed units should be in relation to liquidity and industrial costs. This is also more fair to customers selling on second-hand units, as they need not compete with prices for new units that have been diminished in real terms.
Cryptocurrency discounts
Since fiat currency — inevitably inflated to the point of worthlessness by central banks — is the cause of the rises detailed above, it is only right that some encouragement in the form of a discount is offered for payments made through other means. Unfortunately, physical gold and silver are impractical for anything other than payment on collection, which is not very conducive for global business.
Cryptocurrency payments are faster and cheaper
While payments made in GBP/USD/EUR will still be accepted at standard prices, inflation-immune cryptocurrency has now been chosen as a preferred payment method with an approximate 10% price discount applied against conventional prices for all orders made via this means. Cryptocurrency payments made using the following coins will be possible from September 2024...
- BTC - Bitcoin
- ETH - Ethereum
- XRP - Ripple
- DOGE - Dogecoin
- TRX - Tronix
- ADA - Cardano
- AVAX - Avalance
- SHIB - Shiba Inu
- LINK - Chainlink
- DOT - Polkadot
- LTC - Litecoin
- XMR - Monero
Transactions using the above methods are much faster than traditional card and bank payments for international orders, which typically require 48 hours to complete. Global orders using these payments will therefore be dispatched and delivered considerably earlier than would otherwise be possible. Due to volatility, cryptocurrency prices will be determined at the point of order against the regional standard price. Please e-mail for further details.
