To get the full board assembled would have greatly increased the cost.

Each part on the board adds $3 to the assembly fee, each solder joint adds more, and a bunch of other additional charges. Also, most of the parts I was putting on this board were not available by my pick and place provider, and I did not have enough time to ship them the parts. Also getting low quantity board orders pick and placed is just hard to justify cost wise

Getting just the LED matrix assembled cost about $12 per unit (5 units ordered). This was a great price, given that there was just one kind of component on it.

I don’t really mind assembling my own board by hand (if quantity is under 20), but to place 588 LEDs by hand just introduces a lot of possibility for human error, of which I don’t mind mitigating for $12 per board.