Easy does it Va. I won't presume that you are unfamiliar with manufacturing, marketing and distribution costs structures, but there are a whole lot more factors involved in setting price points than just setting in a meeting and saying to ourselves, "Do we want to sell lots of these at a small margin, or a few at a large margin?". Inventory costs, dealer margins, sales volumes, supplier rates, taxes (you can thank Obama and the libs for this one, all those Bush tax cuts are going away for every business in the country come December), are all major players in this equasion. And of course there is risk because they really don't know for sure if they need to allow a margin of 10% or .5% for after market inventory, not to mention how many of each color. 

 Sales volume is a big one. If you think about it there are only a small percentage of Visions out there without the top box and most of those chose to buy the street version because they didn't want the box "look". Now with demand for the street version so low they decided "what the heck, we will just skip all the trouble and sell one style". You get the box at a bargin price since it's included in the package, and if you like the street look, as I do most of the time, you store it until the next long trip is scheduled.

 As for those that unfortunately chose to buy the bike less the box, they pay a premium for buying a part that has a low and decreasing demand. I doubt they are selling more than one or two of these a month to street customers that have changed there minds. This would be comparable to a Ford truck owner who bought an XLT with standard seats deciding a couple years later to upgrade to power deluxe factory Ford seats and expecting a bargin price. Sorry but Ford and the dealer are going to stick it to you. And they're not really making a ton of money because they will rarely have a customer wanting to do this. 

Your price comparison of other accessories probably proves this more than anything else. Things that are moving and have a predictable sales volume probably will have a more stable and reasonable pricing pattern. 

 Last, I always get a little irked when people complain about the prices of American made stuff. We all love Walmart prices and do everything we can to drive the profit out of everything we buy and then b$tch and moan when there is no place to work in our towns because all the factories have pulled out and sent their manufacturing operations outside our borders to cut costs and be "more competitive". I realize that some parts of the Vics are already made outside the USA, but I sure as hell don't won't more or all the parts made over seas just to make a handful of short sighted customers feel like they got a bargin. As much as we hate to admit it, in the real big picture these are big time luxury toys compared to what the rest of the world knows. Even our Grandfathers' could not even dream of having something so luxurious, reliable and cool, as this for any price. If you really can't afford the toys, than buy a chinese made set of saddle bags and put them on your proudly made American Vision and be like all the HD riders with chinese accessories hanging all over there bikes. I've worked in 11 factories over the last thirty-one years. Half of them don't even exist any more and the ones that do get most of there components or raw material from over seas and just pay assembly workers 8 to 13 dollars an hour to assemble packages and ship to customers. 

 Sorry for the rant folks but to me the Victory line is the best thing in American motorcycle manufacturing in the last fifty years and to me something worth having is worth saving up for and taking care of for a lifetime.