I paid $299 plus about $45 shipping. Maybe the $499 includes free shipping? Jury is still out on this thing, though. I am not convinced yet that the second extruder will be useful. The printer printed OK with just the right extruder when the left was higher and out of the way. But after lowering the left to be about equal to the right and after leveling the table to the right extruder, I still see subtle differences in the clearances between the 2 extruders at different parts of the table and I am having issues where the inactive extruder catches on the print and ruins it. I guess it is possible the table isn't completely flat. I am going to install a piece of glass, re level it and see if that helps. I picked up some cheap picture frames from Michaels for the glass. That is what I am using on the Qidi X-One and it works great. Frames were on sale for $5 and have two panes of glass each. Not a perfect fit but having some hanging over the edge isn't an issue.

Meanwhile my Qidi chugs happily along printing anything I throw at it. Perhaps I should have just got another one of those.