I've ordered many high volume tools that were way less than 50k, more like 5. Things in this world have vastly changed in the last 2 decades. Places like Xcentric Mold, Xometry, Fictiv, Baro, etc. all offer very good quality tooling production and molding, very quickly, and the line between soft and hard tooling is much more blurry now. A lot of the advice others are posting here re: injection molding is true for 20 years ago, but doesn't really reflect the current state of the market.
I've ordered many high volume tools that were way less than 50k, more like 5. Things in this world have vastly changed in the last 2 decades. Places like Xcentric Mold, Xometry, Fictiv, Baro, etc. all offer very good quality tooling production and molding, very quickly, and the line between soft and hard tooling is much more blurry now. A lot of the advice others are posting here re: injection molding is true for 20 years ago, but doesn't really reflect the current state of the market.