Clan tech's gotta be somewhat expensive even during the Dark Age even ignoring c-bills as they're in the rules.
[citation needed]
Yes, I know, it follows logically if you start with the base assumption that "Better = more expensive". I challenge that assumption. The Foxes presumably have access to better facilities than a good number of IS factories, and it behooves them to sell cheap: there is no determined cost (or percentage of cost, or
literally anything) suggesting that the Sea Foxes post-Jihad can't sell a modern Clan Heavy Omni for
less than a high end IS Heavy to interested groups.
Demand should arguably shoot the cost up a bit, but nothing can substitute for the most important part of a merchant business: selling product.
We have absolutely no way to put an acurate price on modern equipment post-Jihad. We have no way to determine cost to manufacture. We have nothing to base any assumptions
on.
In that absense, instead we have to work backward. We
know that there are several high end Clan Heavy (and even Assault!) designs in regular use with mercenary units. That is true, we can't disregard it. The goal then is to determine how and why.
The how is easy: Sea Foxes.
The why is also easy: the mercs bought them.
Which leads us to one of two conclusions: either mercenary units are thriving like they have never thrived before (we know this to be false at least as late as the early 3130s in the Republic) or the 'Mechs are within their reach even during slow working times.
This leads inescapably to the conclusion that Clan 'Mechs aren't actually nearly as expensive as the 'written' C-bill cost implies.
And that's a good thing. C-bill are garbage outside of the relatively narrow band I already described.
Otherwise by the rules a Mad Cat Mk. 4 is something line 300 million C-bills to an IS merc unit at the cheapest and that doesn't make any ****** sense since it's literally in TRO3145 Mercenaries.