I get what you're saying. But as a consumer, I don't care what the production costs. I care what the product itself costs and what I'm getting out of it vs what similar products cost and what I get out of those.
The people buying Mini-ITX cases for custom PC builds are typically hobbyists, and the value they derive from these cases (which are expensive across the board, it's a niche low-volume market) is not the same value you or I get from buying a (relatively) cheap ATX tower and throwing whatever parts into it. If you go looking for "similar products", I guarantee that you will find some very expensive cases indeed.
Not every product is for every consumer. This case is already sold out, so apparently somebody wants it.
My Phanteks Evolv Shift Air 2 mini-ITX case was about 120 € (with one 140 mm fan) and I don't think it was that expensive. And it looks really nice + fits beefier components.
The Evolv Shift Air 2 is a cool case, but (as you say) it is on the large side for Mini-ITX cases and therefore likely has much more mass appeal, since the smaller a case is the more difficult (and rewarding for hobbyists/enthusiasts) it will be to spec out components that fit and have adequate cooling.
Just comparing it to some other popular Mini-ITX cases, 23 liters for the Evolv Shift Air 2 is nearly twice the volume of the NZXT H1 (13 liters), and far in excess of the Dan 4 (7 liters) or the Velka 5 (5 liters). Especially the latter two cases are extremely challenging to build in, and at 8.5 liters the "computer-1" is arguably most comparable to that segment despite its GPU length limitations. It's not a put-whatever-you-want-in-it case, and that makes it a niche offering.
I'm not going to argue that there's no TE tax attached here, especially since (unlike similar cases) it doesn't include a PCIe riser or other electronic components, but it's not way out of range for its market segment.
Well, maybe you as a consumer can value the effort this guy made and pay it. I mean, not every one of your consumer decisions has to be based on the lowest price possible.
Exactly. The PC case market is actually really competitive these days. It seems like new high quality cases at a good cost are coming out on a monthly basis at this point. Teenage Engineering makes cool stuff and this case looks nice, but I don't think I would ever spend this kind of money on a case.
