Is it possible for a high end manufacturer to overprice their goods?

I’ve read of two examples from completely separate sources that were so similar they must be indicative.

A speaker manufacturer and an amplifier manufacturer both told virtually an identical story:

‘The ‘bean counters’ looked over the business and said, ‘You’re selling this for $3000.00 dollars? Price it at 10 (thousand dollars.)’

And then there was a story I read from a salesman about customers who are their own worst enemy, who think high price means best quality:

‘People would ask, ‘What’s the best pair of speakers you have? And I’d show them the $3000 pair, the best I had. Then, they’d see the $8000 pair and lose interest in the ones I was showing them. What are these?, they’d ask; tell me about these (the $8K pair.)

No.  It's completely impossible.  Never happens.

Overpricing can occurs at every price point.

There are multiple ways to price products and when pricing 'premium' products in a portfolio with a "good/better/best" stratification some manufacturers look to recoup R&D costs as soon as possible.

The true value of something is better measured by actual sales.  Products where there's no sales indicate the market doesn't believe its worth it. I also believe most of the folks in this forum have limited discretionary income and some folks concentrate that on 1 or 2 hobbies and others may have spread the funds over more activites. 

As an example, Samsung, like most manufacturers, does not price televisions based on their internal parts, manufacturing, marketing, and shipping costs.  Many items, and particularly luxury items, are priced (at least in part) based on what the market will bear.  This should not come as a shock to this group given that audiophiles are being sold fuses for hundreds to thousands of dollars, and stuff like this ground-breaking game-changer for many thousands of dollars.

BTW, it appears Tweak Geek has taken down their QSA products.

Hard to answer this one; my first response was, "Is it possible NOT to overprice high-end gear?"

A former business associate used to RAISE the prices of stuff that did not sell, and heavens to mercy, he was successful in many items.  Some people judge items by their price, so he played on that situation and it worked.  Nutty.

After spaking with Bill Johnson in the 1970's when we sold his products, I learned what it took to do what he wanted to do.  It was one thing to build an amp for a few friends (See McIntosh beginnings) and another to build a product to sell worldwide.  What I learned is that aiming for perfection is expensive.  One example he gave me:  He spec'd the top 10% of an item from a manufacturer.  When 100 came in, he had to measure each one (a PERSON on the payroll does this).  He told me that even though he spec'd top 10%, he RETURNED 20+% of each order since they did not meet his high standards.

SO, if you are building a car by hand or an audio piece spec'd a certain way, it costs more than it would if you were building mass-produced stuff.

As for the silly prices I see today on some things, I always wonder how they could possibly be any better than, for example, in speakers, Magnepan.  I realize their best stuff ain't cheap, but I have no idea what could be more accurate no matter how much money you spend.

Finally, since YOUR ROOM is the most important part of ANY system, it seems odd that speakers, for example, could cost that much (regardless of the cost of making them) since even Maggies are not good for EVERY room.

As almost everyone on here preaches, you have to take the gear HOME to see if it is good for YOUR ROOM, regardless of the price.

Cheers!