Where is the cost in a club

[CWHolland]

This question is primarily in reference to Drivers, Woods and Hybrids. Where is the cost in a club? I keep hearing for example, that this shaft on a particular driver is a $300 shaft, or this is a $150 shaft on this particular Hybrid. I recently had an Adams insight XTD driver. When I had bought the driver(new) it had already been dropped in price (under $300) but reference was made that it had a $300 shaft on it. It seems that a lot of the marketing for these clubs goes into the design or materials used in the head but it seems that the price is all in the shaft. So is the majority of the price we pay simply in the shaft?

[JML22]

i'd say over 50% of the cost is in the marketing

[Slammin' Sam]

i'd say over 50% of the cost is in the marketing

...and most of the rest of it is in R&D.;

[te3point5]

I would agree with the above two assessments, and the $300 shaft comments may be the cost of the shaft at retail for 1 unit, but for these club makers, they buy massive amounts of material and shafts that would lower the unit cost to something much lower than $300.

[Gerald]

In a $500 driver ......

materials $25, costs, marketing, margin for the manufactor $100, margin for the distributor $100, selling costs for the rep. $40, gross margin for the retailer $200, sales tax about $35 ......

It would surprise me if it was much different. The Manufactor needs a margin to end up with maybe 7-10 ROI, same wth the distributor, an agent has normally about 15% commission from the retailer purchase price and a dealer needs a margin to pay for the shop, the staff, the launch monitor etc.....

[jamo]

Most of the price of a shaft is R&D; and marketing too. Carbon fiber is pricier than steel but it isn't $500 for a tubular (is that a word?) yard.