Tefka said:
Why are people buying lightsabers?
Same reason people buy knives, or go looking for a good Star Wars RP site for that matter. Anyone with a manual and the right tools can knock together a functional knife. Same thing with a website. Building a basic one isn't hard. Anyone can do it if they're willing to put forth the effort, but there's a vast difference between an amateur flailing about with a keyboard and someone who knows what they're doing putting in the work to make it worthwhile.
If you think about it, the average Force user, Jedi or Sith, will build at most two to three lightsabers over the course of their entire lives. Granted, the process is fairly simple, and heavily ritualized to the point that even a novice can do it. And through years of training followed by a lifetime of combat and more training, that weapon will be an extension of their body. It might from a craftsmanship standpoint be crude and clumsy, but decades of familiarity elevates it to the status of world class weapon for its user.
But what if you could start with a lightsaber that's already a work of art in its own right? Exquisitely crafted from the finest materials, perfectly tuned and balanced, a weapon like that would absolutely be worth it to a certain subset of customer. Even kits that leave final assembly up to the customer would be a far cry from something cobbled together from leftover circuitry and a speeder bike handlebar. It wouldn't turn a novice swordsman into an expert overnight, no more than giving a novice marksman a tricked out M82A1 Barrett will make them Simo Hayha. It would, however, make it a hell of a lot easier for that novice to turn into an expert, and in the hands of an expert, it would be something truly special.
