Krelldog,you took the words right out of my mouth,10% is better than nothing.
Lush
here's what make's no sense to me about the dealer's who are unwavering on their price's or your defense of them,when you know the prospective buyer your talking with is a working man who needs to save in order to fund his purchase(like me)wouldnt it be smarter to make that buyer an offer he cant refuse even if it only meant making a 10% profit & gain a customer rather than chance alienating him,people who have to save & i really mean save & not just taking one vacation instead of 3 or putting off new furniture for their vacation home but realy save need to make their cash stretch & if you give them a smoking deal they will be back,instead of taking that approach they keep the price's high & drive that person to buy used leaving them with zip.
im very lucky that i have a great dealer who realizes that i simply cant afford to buy high end gear unless the price's are low enough that when i want to buy something different i can sell my old gear & not loose anything & maybee even put a few buck's in my own pocket instead of loosing a fat wad.
i will never understand the elitest attitude that many dealer's have twords customer's that ask for discount's or beg as you call it nor will i ever understand why people such as you leap to their defense,one thing that i know for sure is that if i had to pay 90% of msrp on the gear i buy i would be limited to midfi gear at best & by the time i saved up enough cash to buy a better 'whatever' the rest of my rig would be obsoulete so what would be the point of even trying to upgrade,i'd call it quit's before i went thru all of that & took huge losses when i sold to upgrade,the same 'starving dealers surely dont give a second's thought to me loosing 50% out of pocket at resale time,is that fair?
when a dealer give's a customer better price's he not only gain's a loyal customer but he gain's a customer that will upgrade more often & spend more in his store because he isnt loosing when he sell's his old gear to buy new but these guy's cant see that far ahead they are only worried about now instead of building a real customer base.
when i first went from midfi gear to the higher dollar gear i was forced due to a severe lack of funds to buy only used gear but after meeting a dealer who was willing to go the long haul with me & not try to make his whole monthly expenses off my single purchase i have been able to spend a lot of cash in his store & i constantly upgrade,also when i do upgrade i never make a move without first giving him the chance for my business.
i think that alot of dealer's have lost their way over the last 10 year's or so & blame their slumping profit's on internet site's & used gear buyer's instead of looking within & try to figure out why they do not have a loyal customer base anymore & it's not home theater either,home theater has become a huge part of high end audio & like it or not any dealer that is to thrive will need to offer these types of products.
last year most dealer's snubbed their nose's at my business & made me offer's like 5 or 10% off & in return they gained 0% of close to 30k worth of my upgrade's & lost me forever as a potential customer while the dealer who i am loyal to profited 15% off of that same business with me & this summer when i upgrade he will profit again.
Cjlcapp,keep on looking bro,sooner or later you WILL find a dealer who wants to have you as a customer & who will give you good deal's,it took me a while but i found one & you will too.
dont take my comments as dealer bashing because they are not & i do believe that dealers can use our business but i dont believe that we should buy from them soley on the basis that they have the gear.