Why are dealers so scared to sell product out of

Instead, I have local dealers with zero demo stock who have not even heard the product I want to buy. They know far less about the product than I do. Yes, they are willing to allow me to walk in, order the multi-thousand dollar product and let me pick it up (and carry to my car myself) when it arrives and only ask for a mere 40% of the sales price for their service. No thanks.

This is the key point. Why pay top dollar & a huge markup, just for the privledge of letting them order a product for you? It would be different if they had stock on hand, demo units, knew the products and could make educated recomendations, but they don't.

Onhwy61-'your money, my money', what are you talking about? Consumer dollars, jeez. I've heard the million in sales already argument. How about the Capitalism argument? Never mind.

Mt- what I think you are missing is that this IS capitalism at work. Huge demand coupled w at least some limits on supply (production and delivery capacity are have some practical limits) results in high price. If a retailer can sell every unit he can get this hands on at $60, why should he sell it for less? Not say that it's right, but that's they way an unregulated market operates. Wait a few months and as demand ratchets down, there will be more price competition. The fact that there are some vendors willing to sell for less shows that there is SOME degree of freedom to the vendors in setting price. The fact that you have to pay for shipping is not their problem. Oh, and who is not to say that the game manufacturer is not wholesaling them at a level that makes $60 the practical minimum a retailer can get and still make a profit.

Zd542, recently had the same experience when trying to buy speakers. One out of state dealer told me he was restricted to his area under the manufacturer's dealer agreement. Failure to comply could cost him a valuable dealer relationship.

So, I worked with a local dealer near my house. Yes, he discounted the price by about 19% off MSRP. I thought there might have been more margin with the product with which he could deal. He said not so. His margin was not what I might have guessed, say 40% to 50%. He said it was much less.

And bty, I priced the speakers elsewhere. The deals were no better.

You mentioned that you used to be on the retail side of the business. Is it true that profit margins have been squeezed, at least with respect to higher end speakers??

As an aside, being in the business world, I realize that one must be realistic. The dealer has to make a reasonable profit on the deal. Otherwise, there will be no dealer. OTOH, in my case, the speakers are stored in the manufacturer's warehouse and shipped on special order. That means the dealer does not bear the risk of inventory carrying costs and market fluctuations. So, he clips a fast $n on a riskless transaction. This is also called a "flash title" transaction.

Thanks

Very interesting.Whow i didnt know that!!