Why is the price of new tonearms so high

"jacta alea est!" (The dice have been rolled)
Starting a war with Rome?
Crossed the Rubicon, no going back, hm.
What a crapshoot.
How about going back to tonearms then?
A.

Hello sir,

I just purchased a Jelco SA-750D tonearm for $490 without cable. I will be installing it on a new plinth we are building. The cable cost me another $130 total and both appear to be real bargains. The Jelco arm is a real beauty and works and sounds very well from those who are using it. I will be installing a Pete Riggles VTAF "on-the-fly" adjuster. Once I get everything dialed in properly I will purchase a cartridge. It takes a little time but it's all worth it.

Bob

Axel, you don't get it.
How about a new hobby?
Watching chinese TV can be very interesting

Syntax,
yet more room for continuous improvement?

"Watching Chinese TV can be very interesting", you say --- you are knowledgeable with this too?!

So how's your Mandarin, your Latin seems jolly good?

As to: I don't get "it".
That depends on your definition of "it".
Is "it" static or dynamic?
Greetings,
A.

Let me stick my oar into this old debate - Mark Kelly is exactly correct and Dertonarm is completely off base in his comment that " the inertia in a say 15 grams effective mass 12" tonearm with a given cartridge is always larger then in a 15 grams 9" tonearm".

The effective mass of a tonearm is in fact the inertia of the tonearm when it reacts to a deflecting force, which is what a warp is - that is what effective mass is BY DEFINITION. This is first year college physics. If the effective mass of a one tonearm is the same as the effective mass of another tonearm, it has EXACTLY the same inertia to a warp, regardless of its actual mass or physical dimensions.