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Suppose we were able to get quality chess variant pieces for a few dollars
a piece? How many people would be interested in getting Staunton
Capablanca pieces, or pieces for a 3D Chinese chess set designed with
variants in mind?   And the ability to buy just the new pieces, not entire
sets? 

This is a serious question. We do have the House of Staunton looking to
sell chess pieces - not really much of a surprise. But they just did nice
work for Seirawan, they put out Grandmaster commemorative sets, and they
would put out variant pieces if they could sell them. 

There are some exquisite and expensive chess sets and pieces out there. I
like the basic simplicity of Staunton's style, and like a similar look to
all my pieces in a game. And I like paying $10 plus shipping and handling
instead of $599 plus shipping and handling. If I can get 4-6 pieces that
match my current very reasonably priced chess sets for around $10 [yeah,
yeah, plus s&h] I will buy $50 - $100 or even more if there are more
options. 

Just did the numbers in my head. If 100 people like me will spend $100
each on average, that's $10,000. If 1000 people spend $25 instead,
that's $25,000, and now Staunton is putting its mold-makers to work, and
we can get plastic tourney Staunton chess variant pieces. They'd get $100
out of me easy, then... probably much more eventually.