The gears have never been plastic. The great that breaks is a brass gear that is the first gear in the gearbox that connects to the great mounted directly on the shaft of the motor. It's brass to save the motor in case of a stall. TBH I think there's no point since it renders the grinder useless either way, and Option-O are shipping a whole new motor/gearbox assembly to get it going again. My first Mini died after about 4 months and they sent me a whole new Mini. That one died the same way about 4 months later. It's been doing 0-1 espresso shots most days and occasionally 2-3. I use beans that are what I call medium-medium (dead centre of roast spectrum) to medium-light (one step lighter). I'm now awaiting the replacement motor/gearbox to arrive.

Read a lot about this little grinder and watched some YouTube reviews. Then went to buy one and wow the price has gone up. Prima wants $485 for it. Direct from option-O with shipping (without figuring tax) it is $428 with a month wait for dispatch and shipping. Everything said $350 a few months ago? Anyway holding off a bit due to the price bumping up so much.

Thought I'd pass that along for others that may be in the market. I'm still interested but need to reevaluate my buying plan to take into account the higher price range.

I don't believe the price has actually gone up, it just now comes standard with the 48mm burrs.

If you look at the archived page from earlier this year, you can see that the price direct from Option-O was $319 for the 38mm burr option or +$55 ($374 total) for the 48mm burr set:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220326070 ... lagom-mini

Prima has always charged quite a premium for Option-O products. They state this is due to their cost of covering warranty service and paying hefty tariffs that we may not be subject to when importing a single grinder.

I kept hearing the "best grinder under $350" or "great value for $350" on a lot of the videos. I guess maybe they were quoting a price from the small burr version yet testing the large burr version. Anyway, it felt like seeing the MSRP on a window sticker for $32k on a car and then the dealer tallying up undercoating, delivery, floor mats, etc and getting to $40k when it was time to buy.

I had to realign the value of this product from a $350 product to a $450 all told to account for either international shipping and tax or the Prima upcharge ($500+ for me from Prima with tax .) Not so sure anymore. I think I'm leaning toward a DF64 and then put my SSP burrs in it for that price range.

That is correct. And while we're at it: For full transparency, we maintain a 17-18% margin on the Lagom P64 and Lagom Minis, which is far less than most products that we warranty. Everyone likes to get upset at us for charging more than Option-O, but we have no choice because of the incredibly costly shipping and tarrifs/duty fees. Ultimately, if a lower price is more important to you than local service and support, we do recommend ordering the Lagom Mini direct.

primacoffee wrote:Everyone likes to get upset at us for charging more than Option-O, but we have no choice because of the incredibly costly shipping and tarrifs/duty fees. Ultimately, if a lower price is more important to you than local service and support, we do recommend ordering the Lagom Mini direct.

We're upset because we have no option but to order from you and be at the whim of whatever 50% price increase you feel like if we want the P64. Personally I would pay extra not to have to deal with Prima support.

primacoffee wrote:That is correct. And while we're at it: For full transparency, we maintain a 17-18% margin on the Lagom P64 and Lagom Minis, which is far less than most products that we warranty. Everyone likes to get upset at us for charging more than Option-O, but we have no choice because of the incredibly costly shipping and tarrifs/duty fees. Ultimately, if a lower price is more important to you than local service and support, we do recommend ordering the Lagom Mini direct.

I'm not upset at you guys at all. The numbers fall where they may for you to make a well deserved profit from running your business. My qualm likely falls with the widely publicized reviews that touted it as a great grinder for $350. They likely received the grinder for free and didn't look at the to-your-door price before deciding what to compare it to. I see this on a lot of alibaba stuff too where the frontpage price is quoted but not the 30%+ additional fees to get it to my doorstep.

I certainly didn't mean to take the thread in this direction. I'm sure it is a great grinder. It was simply a misalignment of pricing expectations set by reviews/media and what the reality was.

The situation Prima is in has to be weird as well. A manufacturer showing a "MSRP" on their website but not setting wholesale pricing for you guys to sell it at that "MSRP" is jarring for the customer and puts you in a position of having to defend a price. I don't run into that often while buying things.

Anyway, at around $450-500 I've got to consider other options up the ladder.

Milligan wrote:The situation Prima is in has to be weird as well. A manufacturer showing a "MSRP" on their website but not setting wholesale pricing for you guys to sell it at that "MSRP" is jarring for the customer and puts you in a position of having to defend a price.

There is no MSRP though, it's a literal price on a website you can buy it for, not a Manufacturer Suggested Recommended Price. If you don't like Prima's price buy direct.

I paid $428 a few months ago, shipped to the US. It is $409 when I just checked today.

Edit: As noted, on entering the shipping address, the total is revised to $428

I believe once you enter your US shipping address it adjusts the shipping price upwards to what you paid earlier.