While I see the logic behind Mockingbird prices, IMO the upper end is too expensive. The sweet-spot for the highest end has long been between 300-350$. With higher core-counts this has somewhat shifted, but very very few people are willing to pay >500$ for a mainstream CPU alone. IMO for the best incentive the 16 core models should not exceed 599$ and 12 core models 499$ (except for the higher clocked, binned black editions or whatnot, should those exist).
Also let's not forget that at launch a
top-of-the-line 2700X cost the same as a
1700 (non X) on its launch, 329$, both with coolers, so the price cut from 1800X was quite significant.
If anything, I'd rather believe, that AMD
might opt for not bundling the cooler with the highest end 12-16 core CPUs (which will be the most likely to run on higher-end custom cooling anyway) rather than price them to stratosphere.
IMO the best balance inciting people to upgrade to more cores (e.g. from 6->8; 8->12, etc) would be something like this:
Ryzen 5 3600 - 6C/12T - $199
Ryzen 5 3600X - 6C/12T - $229
Ryzen 7 3700 - 8C/16T - $299
Ryzen 7 3700X - 8C/16T - $329
Ryzen 9 3800 - 12C/24T - $399
Ryzen 9 3800X - 12C/24T - $429 <- enthusiast sweet-spot
Ryzen 9 3900 - 16C/32T - $549
Ryzen 9 3900X - 16C/32T - $599
I wouldn't mind 36xx series to be a bit cheaper (179$ and 199$) but i doubt it will happen initially.
I also don't see the point of selling the 39xx series for any higher prices (as they would probably be without a cooler anyway). People at those ranges would then rather go for Threadripper. Considering AMD is able to sell the much larger die 7nm Vega with its interposer, expensive 16GB of HBM2, Complex board with 300W power delivery, & corresponding cooler for only $799 (with a way smaller production run to remedy development costs) it seems ridiculous to price them that high.
For instance I own a 1700X, and though I'm really itching for an upgrade (part of the reason of building this rig was to update to 7nm at the first place) going to another 8-core seems like a waste. I'd like at least a 12 core, but wouldn't want to pay > $500 for it (especially as I'd probably want a AIO cooler as well, which is another 120$ or so).