Riddle me this...(pricing rant)

[El Caballo]

An LED costs $0.10.

A lens to put over the LED costs $0.30-$0.60.

You'd think it's a lot more difficult to make a LED than to make a little piece of molded plastic, given that an LED is a little piece of molded plastic plus doped semiconductors, leads, etc.

So why does the lens cost 3-6x as much?

[object88]

Perhaps far more LEDs are manufactured than LED lenses, so the cost to produce them is lowered?

[nelson]

It is simple supply and demand.

[Torchy]

I would think that (commercially) 75% or more of led's are used behind custom panels and there isnt a great need for them in the commercial sector. So, less demand, higher cost per unit.

[nelson]

Less demand = less competition = the manufacturers can charge what they like.

[Hal]

less demand = less consumption = it costs more to make.  90% of the cost to manufacture any of this stuff is the setup of the machines.  If you're making hundreds of millions of them, like LEDs, that gets absorbed.  If you're only making thousands, like the lenses,  its more.