$3000 for 30 plucked hairs

[rapunzal]

maybe marcus forgot to mention that each plucked follicle was also going to be gold plated at the same time

[plopp]

This topic is getting a bit one-sided. I don't want to defend Dr Hitzig in any way; $3k is obviously way off for a test procedure. However, two points:

1. A very small procedure will, naturally, have a quite high per unit (hair/graft) price, since it has to cover the fixed costs involved. For instance, I believe Dr Bernstein charges $5k for an eyebrow transplant. That's about 50-200 hair follicles, and thus roughly the same per unit price as what Dr Hitzig is asking for.

2. Dr Hitzig would likely not earn any significant amount more if the autocloning procedure would become a success, since he doesn't hold any patents. I have a hard time seeing how the advent of autocloning would drive up demand in any substantial way. If it infact does, the resulting profit would be split between all the physicians utilizing this new technique (i.e. pretty many).