I don't think Bennett has a house brand of parts. So you have to ask what parts they use. If it's good stuff, that explains some of the expense. If they use Eagle or other chinese stuff, ask them why they chose those parts and how many failures they have seen with the cheap stuff.
Cheap isn't always bad. Chinese isn't always bad, you just need to find the right stuff. For example, China has a large state run pellet rifle buisness. As long as you stay away from products that are made in a few factories, most of the chinese pellet rifles are very accurate and the actions are made from quality material. The bad factories make really cheap rifles, like $20 rifles, and that includes shipment on a boat to the U.S. They work, but they are not as accurate as a cheap crossman, and the finish is very crude.
For another example, China makes the parts for the shop task mill/drill/lathe combination machine. It's the best, most feature packed 3 in one machine on the market. China also makes the cheap harbor freight versions that chatter like crazy if you try to mill more than .005" in one pass.
Economically it makes sense to manufacture things in china. The government will subsidize any new manufacturing plants, so that is almost free, labor is almost free, and in certain places it is free (it isn't good to be a comunist). If you want to make a cadilac or a yugo, they can do it. It's just sad that they are willing to flood the U.S. market with worthless cranks, just because they can, when they could sell plenty of quality affordable cranks for nearly the same price.
