If you’ve given any thought to buying your own espresso machines, you must be pretty serious about coffee. Unlike those plastic, cheaply manufactured drip-coffee pots, an espresso machine is just that – a machine. It contains lots of moving, intricately designed parts that get very hot and use moisture – which mean that using cheap materials is not an option like it may be for a $25 coffeemaker you can get at the local pharmacy.
Good espresso machines, like their owners tend to be, are sophisticated, and look great. But how much are they really worth? When you factor in the amount of them made per year, their price tag is explained a little bit easier. Unlike very large manufacturers of appliances or other durable goods (like cars), often, espresso machine manufacturers work in smaller shops and make them by hand. Or if they are built in modern factories, they are often not sold in quantities that can reasonably justify the savings you find inherent in large-scale operations just by how many of them they build and sell per year. Factor in the price of customizable components as well as shipping, import, and export costs, and you’re looking at quite a bit of dough for what some people would consider a glorified percolator.
The other factor in thinking about cost is resale value. Consumers of cars know this game very well – if you buy a beat up Chevy, you’ll get a few years out of it (but you’ll have to pour money into it every once and awhile to keep it running). But if you choose to buy a BMW or a Saab, even one a decade old, you can usually get a good return on it when you decide to sell it, or even scrap it out for parts. Their very nature as luxury cars attach a premium on them in the marketplace when buyers see them, even if they run as well as the Chevy or not. The same goes for espresso machines. Keep in mind factors such as these if you feel you may want to upgrade in the future when you figure out your budget.