Re: Best Repeater Deals

[Mark Pulver <mark@midiwall.com>]

Tim Nelson (06:16 PM 08.31.2001) wrote:

 >At 05:27 PM 8/31/01 -0700, TG wrote:
 >
 >>If anyone finds a cheaper price, be sure to post it!
 >
 >Wasn't there some sort of, um, unwritten etiquette thing about not posting
 >the prices on group buys/special discounts?

Yeup, on this list or not, it is generally a bad idea to disclose any form 
of special pricing.

Most manufacturers will have a Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) rule in 
place 
which basically sets the lowest price that a dealer can advertise. This is 
to help protect the smaller dealers than may not be able to buy in 
quantities great enough to get a better price break.

A smaller store may be granted one-time special pricing in order to help 
promote a specific item and get it's feet off the ground. That pricing can 
often be the same that a large _distributor_ might buy the product at. If 
that pricing gets out, then it tends to cause a good deal of friction 
between the larger stores and the manufacturer (not to mention the 
distributor and the manufacturer) since they would have had to normally 
buy 
huge quantities to get the same price breaks.

Special pricing happens all the time in all sorts of business. In the 
music 
business, you saw it for a long time with Mackie products where dealers 
wouldn't print _any_ price at all, and ask you to call or come in to get 
it.

When public notice is made about a dealer selling at a very low price on a 
special deal, it will tend to kill the deal for the dealer.

When you see a dealer asking you to NOT mention a price on a list like 
this, it's best to heed to his wishes or everyone may lose.


Mark