Houser636:
How much do you think a bootloaded atmega2560 is worth?
Well, given that you can buy a mega2560 clone all day everyday on ebay for ~$20-22 including shipping and often a USB cable thrown in, I think paying >$10 for just the chip (with or without the bootloader) is hard to justify.
I appreciate you may not be able to easily find a source for the chips to make them an economical proposition in the quantities you would be ordering, but it still comes down to coming up with a value proposition for the customer, with respect to the other offerings already out there.
Check out Paul's pricing on his new Teensy 3.0 boards
now they are a very attractive value proposition, I think. I missed his kickstarter offer but I will certainly be ordering one or maybe even two to play with as soon as they are available on his site.
I appreciate it's a Cortex3 vs Atmega2560, so not apples and apples, but given that there are lots of choices, I think the market for people who absolutely must have a atmega2560 in a small Arduino compatible board (as opposed to a different atmel chip, a standard size mega board, or even an ARM variant), and would be willing to pay the significant premium you are asking, would be limited.
Just my honest 2c worth. Maybe work backwards from parts you know you can source economically? I buy 328p chips in low quantities (like 4) for <$3/chip delivered (and that includes a flashed bootloader).