I forgot to mention that Data East boards were all made in China so it is very likely that Stern boards are as well.

It is very flag waving and admirable to try and keep things made in your own country but when they can be made in China - in most cases with BETTER quality - and for 1/10 of the price and often in a few days from scratch, it just doesn't make any sense at all.

As a small example, one of my commercial customers asked me about a new product that required a small PCB. I hand made a sample for them over a weekend and they debugged it and made mods to the PCB artwork the following week. One week later I had the finished boards in my hands. The entire process from initial discussion to completed boards took less than a month.

Other factors are the cost of parts. Last week I purchased a few reels of surface mount parts here in China. I bought Samsung branded parts as they were only slightly more expenxive than the no name ones. A reel of 5000 resistors cost me $5. I didn't even bother looking up the price in Australia but I'll bet they are about $40 or more.

It is a very stupid business decision to make PCBs in any place OTHER than China IMO.