The reason the price increase dates vary is b/c the distributors will only allow the appliance dealer to buy a certain percentage in the month of December..once the dealer reaches their limit they are stuck purchasing at 2008 prices..typically the dealer can only order 10% of yearly sales in month of december..most dealers will sell 20% of yearly sales in December when they are told their will be a 5-8% price increase...they can only offer so many customers the current pricing.....another case of the manufactures and distributors(the same in this case) taking advantage of dealers.

Bluestar raised their prices in Canada June 1/08 if memory serves correct. I bought before then!! :) God, I got such a SWEET deal on mine. Actually, on that subject. Since the CDN dollar plummeted so much lately(which i sooo predicted would happen.....damn, i should have bought US dollars a year ago). Anyway, it *may* be worth it for US residents in or near border towns to take a look into purchasing a Bluestar in Canada. When I purchased mine in the spring(08), when the CDN dollar was at about par with the greenback, I paid less than any price I had seen advertised in the US, and less than any price I had seen anyone on GW or elsewhere publicly admit to paying. Now that our dollar is a good 20-25% lower in value it may be very beneficial to try buying one here. I just thought about this scenerio....I know there has been talk about CDN Costco's having 30" RCS's for $2000CDN...I do remember hearing it has gone up to $2500 tho. But in any case, 2500x.80 is $2000 USD. I am not sure if I should post my price I paid for my 48" RNB, but if you could buy it anywhere close to what I had paid and factor in the current exchange, your head would spin!! lol

Hi charon70, Thanks for your question! This conversation can be a complex one. The convection steam oven offers a wider range of possibilities (with the inclusion of steam modes) than a standard electric oven, while the oven cavity size may be slightly limiting for some occasions. The convection steam oven interior is more than adequate for 90% of your day-to-day cooking tasks; it can handle 9 x 13 cake pans even most roasting dishes. The 10% of cooking tasks for which it's too small usually fall under the category of holiday gatherings, parties, or larger events. Sometimes there's just no substitute for size when a large amount of food needs to be prepared. I have a dual fuel range and a steam oven in my own home and feel that both are extremely important and useful. On any given day, they take turns as the main oven, and the supporting oven. I love the speed and flexibility of the convection steam oven, and the size and evenness (due to the dual convection system) of the dual fuel range. To answer your question, can the steam oven replace a full sized electric oven? Yes, it could, with the exception of certain overly large dishes or quantities of food that will occasionally need to be prepared. Should the steam oven replace a full sized electric oven? My best advice is that it should not. As I mentioned, both are equally used in my kitchen for different dishes and I would be at a loss if either was removed. I hope this advice helps. Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have.

They are pricing themselves out of the market.