[dixie_land]

On a similar note, I'm genuinely curious as to why Pi chose the "authorized reseller" model instead of selling them directly.

[djbusby]

B2C, small quantity sales are not fun. B2B selling pallets full.

[rewmie]

I'd be surprised if reselling through authorized sellers isn't much simpler and problem-free than selling them directly.

I also expect that using resellers ensures better odds of protecting the brand/project goodwill. Resellers deal with problems like "I paid a ton of cash for a board and it arrived late and/or broken". Support alone is a nightmare, and I recall that raspberry Pi struggled with PR when they started out. I vaguely recall Liz Upton being behind some ill-advised episodes that didn't improved Raspberry Pi's image and would get anyone other PR person sacked.

[extraduder_ire]

They do also sell them directly, though not in large quantities. They even have a retail store somewhere in the UK.

[KaiserPro]

Because world wide sales is really hard.

Having trusted local resellers is a much more scalable way to sell to local markets.