Posting Prices Publicly

vortrex said:
I don’t use any local dealers. I buy everything online. Example, I bought a Japanese cartridge from a European dealer for $2200 USD. That is the MSRP there. In the US I see a dealer selling it for 38% more than the price I bought it at. There is one US dealer selling a very high end Japanese cartridge for $8k OVER the rest of world MSRP. He even got angry at everyone for calling him out on it!
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Suggested list prices are just that, what the manufacturer or dist suggests and is the published price. I agree there is a growing trend or reluctance to publish prices. t gets back to scarcity or very limited items that may sell out it quickly where dealers sell at a premium. This is quite common in the luxury automobile biz, high-end watches, fine wines/spirits, etc.

The dealer selling a cart 8k over list (?) is adding a premium because of scarcity, its their business to do so whether you like it or not.
 
mep said:
Maybe the dealer(s) didn’t want to waste their time sending you a price sheet if they suspect you are a tire kicker and want to talk to you on the phone first to determine if you are a real potential customer.
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Didn’t ever ask for a “price sheet”. They don’t want to put prices in email. This is common. Has nothing to do with who is sending the email.
 
puroagave said:
Suggested list prices are just that, what the manufacturer or dist suggests and is the published price. I agree there is a growing trend or reluctance to publish prices. t gets back to scarcity or very limited items that may sell out it quickly where dealers sell at a premium. This is quite common in the luxury automobile biz, high-end watches, fine wines/spirits, etc.

The dealer selling a cart 8k over list (?) is adding a premium because of scarcity, its their business to do so whether you like it or not.
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That’s questionable. Does the manufacturer want the dealer making more money than them? All the dealer does is send an email to Japan to order one.
 
vortrex said:
That’s questionable. Does the manufacturer want the dealer making more money than them? All the dealer does is send an email to Japan to order one.
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Some but not many manufacturers put a cap on pricing which is unenforceable and may breach antitrust laws (price fixing). You are looking at this simplistically as a black/white issue when a much broader gray area exist between manufacturer and distributor.
 
Dizzie said:
Seriously you think that is all a dealer does?:disbelief::amazing:
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I bought an $1800 cartridge a few weeks ago from a dealer. No questions, no comments, price agreed upon, PayPal sent. A couple emails and 15 minutes spent that ended with “I’ll send an email to Japan and let you know when it ships”. Not saying anything bad about the dealer. Don’t know a thing about them. Never talked to them. Tell me, what else are they doing or what else can they even do? Fly to me and install it?
 
puroagave said:
Some but not many manufacturers put a cap on pricing which is unenforceable and may breach antitrust laws (price fixing). You are looking at this simplistically as a black/white issue when a much broader gray area exist between manufacturer and distributor.
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I’m not saying it’s black, white, or grey. It’s a known issue that actually happened and has been beaten to death on another forum. This dealer has missed out on selling 3-4 of these due to other dealer(s) having better pricing.

But I agree, charge a million dollars for it if you want. If the consumer falls for it then good for you. You can’t complain though when people figure it out and buy from the cheapest source.
 
vortrex said:
I bought an $1800 cartridge a few weeks ago from a dealer. No questions, no comments, price agreed upon, PayPal sent. A couple emails and 15 minutes spent that ended with “I’ll send an email to Japan and let you know when it ships”. Not saying anything bad about the dealer. Don’t know a thing about them. Never talked to them. Tell me, what else are they doing or what else can they even do? Fly to me and install it?
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This dealer is not in the U.S.?


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Mike said:
Well, back to our regular scheduled programming...posting MSRP prices online.


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Ok, so why do you avoid posting prices online? I’m looking at some of your brands that say you have to call for a price because the manufacturer doesn’t permit it. Yet I see other dealers with this pricing clearly posted online for the same items.
 
vortrex said:
Ok, so why do you avoid posting prices online? I’m looking at some of your brands that say you have to call for a price because the manufacturer doesn’t permit it. Yet I see other dealers with this pricing clearly posted online for the same items.
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Such as? We follow the guidelines in our dealer agreement. If posting prices online is allowed, we do. If not, we don’t. Keep in mind, that there are different dealer agreements. For example, online only dealer agreements Vs brick and mortar dealer agreements. Some dealers choose to just post prices anyway and prefer the “ask for forgiveness rather than permission” approach. I know of two that routinely take this approach. Manufacturers don’t have time to monitor every dealers website everyday and so, they get away with it. However, we prefer to respect the manufacturers wishes with respect to posting prices online.


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vortrex said:
I bought an $1800 cartridge a few weeks ago from a dealer. No questions, no comments, price agreed upon, PayPal sent. A couple emails and 15 minutes spent that ended with “I’ll send an email to Japan and let you know when it ships”. Not saying anything bad about the dealer. Don’t know a thing about them. Never talked to them. Tell me, what else are they doing or what else can they even do? Fly to me and install it?
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You missed the point of my other response. Perhaps it was to subtle. Lunch is not free. Even when a dealer provides minimal or no support they have expenses. Rent, utilities, insurance, payroll, and inventory/display. Most serious manufacturers are going to require a physical presence from their dealers. That is not the case 100% of the time but that would be mostly for lower budget equipment.
 
Mike said:
Such as? We follow the guidelines in our dealer agreement. If posting prices online is allowed, we do. If not, we don’t. Keep in mind, that there are different dealer agreements. For example, online only dealer agreements Vs brick and mortar dealer agreements. Some dealers choose to just post prices anyway and prefer the “ask for forgiveness rather than permission” approach. I know of two that routinely take this approach. Manufacturers don’t have time to monitor every dealers website everyday and so, they get away with it. However, we prefer to respect the manufacturers wishes with respect to posting prices online.
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Turntable category. No prices for Avid or VPI or Kuzma but these brands all have clear pricing on sites like Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds.
 
vortrex said:
Turntable category. No prices for Avid or VPI or Kuzma but these brands all have clear pricing on sites like Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds.
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Again, see above. Both those are ecommerce online dealers operating under different parameters. Pretty hard to be a ecommerce dealer without posting prices. They also have different buying requirements, goals, targets, etc.


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Mike said:
Again, see above. Both those are ecommerce online dealers operating under different parameters. Pretty hard to be a ecommerce dealer without posting prices. They also have different buying requirements, goals, targets, etc.
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Aren’t you an online dealer too? I would imagine a large percentage of your sales are outside your local area.
 
vortrex said:
Aren’t you an online dealer too? I would imagine a large percentage of your sales are outside your local area.
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I have a brick and mortar store, but we are authorized to sell online for some products and for those we list prices. Those others are online only and as I’ve mentioned, have different operating procedures. There is some overlap between strict online dealers and B&M dealers. But you will note the products offered is often quite different. A strict ecommerce only won’t be selling Magico, Wilson and MBL. A B&M with an online website can.


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How does not being able to see a price on site A vs site B benefit anyone? If the manufacturer is mandating this how does it benefit them? Especially when those with the prices listed are larger retailers that are easy to search and find. We’ve had the internet for 25 years now, there’s no hiding. I can understand not posting prices for esoteric $100k+ speakers, but you can’t for big box grade VPI turntables?
 
vortrex said:
How does not being able to see a price on site A vs site B benefit anyone? If the manufacturer is mandating this how does it benefit them? Especially when those with the prices listed are larger retailers that are easy to search and find. We’ve had the internet for 25 years now, there’s no hiding. I can understand not posting prices for esoteric $100k+ speakers, but you can’t for big box grade VPI turntables?
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Yup. The belief is that that $50k VPI turntable is in a luxury category and ecommerce will cheapen it. But I agree, all prices should be posted.


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Ok, I guess I don’t understand how Music Direct can post the prices and it doesn’t cheapen the brand but if Suncoast does it cheapens the brand.
 
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