doldrige, heya, if you check the original post it was a response to someone who said that companies like A|W and Discreet had made back all their costs years ago, and were now just being elitist, which couldn't be farther from the truth. yes, you set your price based on supply and demand, and right now there is a demand for reliable professional apps in the $2000-$4000 range. there's also a demand for less expensive programs done by smaller teams in the $200-$800 range. I'm not going to go through a feature comparison, but there are reasons that film shops go with Maya, and most commercial/video game housees go with maya/max (and with some lightwave thrown in). While a lot of people moving up with 3D go with programs like truespace. They're all great programs, and they all fill a certain market niche. I'm sure as the world of 3D users get's larger, then the prices of the software will continue to drop! It wasn't so long ago (5 years!) that the only really professional apps were Poweranimator, TAV, and Softimage. And they all cost $30,000 ! I mean the base apps were only $10,000 (cheap!) but it really cost an extra $10,000 if you actually wanted character tools, and another $10,000 if you wanted particles (or in some of the programs, better modelling). I got a discount on mine since I was just starting out the salesman helped me, and I only paid $15,000 :) and it was only $14,000 for my used indigo2XL with a blazing fast 150mhz r4400 cpu. cheers! -Josh