I get it, the price totally sucks! 3D printed 420 alloy steel is an expensive multi-step process requiring the parts to be printed, annealed, then buffed before shipping to me. This was affordable........ until our country enacted steel tariffs which raised prices on the raw steel powder used in 3D printing steel (this raw material is available from only one supplier in the entire world), as such once my manufacturing costs increased 150%, I was forced to raise the prices slightly on all steel scoop tools to cover the increase in costs. That's partially why I've introduced some new nylon tools which are still a bit pricey to manufacture currently, but not quite as much as the steel. These days I'm essentially printing these steel tools at cost for my customers because they are so popular. Given expenses and taxes I am sadly not making any profit even at these prices until I can afford to move into a space large enough to acquire my own metal 3D printer for the studio which is a future milestone for the business.
All that said, I do have several blemished Scoop-n-Stir copies laying around the studio. Copies which I rejected for one reason or another, and can't justify selling at full price to my customers. Shoot me a PM if you'd be interested in a blemished copy. I believe I only have two laying around and I'm sure after typing this they'll be gone fast, but I'd be happy to help out. The Scoop-n-stir was my original scoop tool (still using my original yellow golden scoop-n-stir six years later almost daily that entire time haha)
I promise I'm constantly working on expanding the studio so I can add more machinery in-house to reduce these manufacturing costs. If only I was foolish enough to outsource my designs to China for low-cost mass production like most of my competition
[10 minute later edit] - aaannnnd the PMs have started pouring in already.
@iammyself as the OP I'm holding a copy for you - PM me and I'll send over pictures of the blemished copies and payment instructions. I'll reach out to all those who PM'd as well with any other copies I can dig up around the studio