I am looking for advise on the Maltby putters vrs the Odyssey Tri-Hot jailbrird Cruiser putters. What makes these putters so expensive compared to Maltby Moment MAX Milled Center Shafted putters, or the PTM-5CS Center Shaft.
In one word, marketing. Putters, of all categories, are the most overpriced, in my opinion. A putter that works for someone requires the correct specs for the individual (like any other club), and the best possible mass and dimensional characteristics for the design type. That can be achieved for a lot less than $600.00 retail. Costs have gone up and to get a high quality milled product, or multi material product, it does cost more today, and we could charge a lot more. However, we make decent margins on the putters we offer and just don’t feel it’s in our best interest to overcharge or to try to play in that market. How much you pay does not determine performance, especially in putters. Again, material costs are higher, multi-material designs cost more, CNC milling costs more, tight tolerances cost more, overall manufacturing and assembly cost more, but even with all that, major OEM prices on putters are really high, in our opinion. The Odyssey putters are really good products, as are Cameron, Toulon and several others. Pricing is what the market, or each brands identified market, will bare. We do not have the costs they do related to development and marketing. Development costs do not have to be as high as I believe some are with the major brands, but that is just an observation. We develop products in a similar way they do, I believe, but just don’t have the overhead I guess. And the marketing part is very expensive and we absolutely do not market the way they do. We just don’t have the resources to do it that way.
Anyway, hope this sheds a little light on it. Putters are very individual. Trust me, I know. I have a bunch of them. I think sometimes companies may take advantage of the fact that golfers will spend anything on a putter if it makes more putts, which all of them promise to do. Harder to convince the wife you need another one when they cost $600+ though, just sayin…
Britt Lindsey