For anyone who can't be bothered to use their brains, the prices are specifically high because they are SAMPLE chips. Its to discourage one developer buying more than they need which is unfair - Avalon will only have a tiny batch until their actual batches for SALE come in.
The more important thing is that the W/GH is moving down to 0.5 at chip (likely 0.7 system) which will push pressure on the BE200s. Hash rate density is up 4x on the last chips which is a great indicator that prices will be competitive with anything BE200 based.
It just seems to me that they are a day late and a dollar short, in comparison to the BM1382 28nm powered
finished hardware that has already dropped in price to
BTC1.28/TH of mineable product, and quite likely drawing similar power. Shouldn't they be rushing these chips out the door trying to play catch up, instead of charging more than retail for an un-developed product to keep these said developers in line?
I guess this means pre-orders should be opening up soon.