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Author Topic: D800 Price Gouging  (Read 11798 times)

Petrus

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Re: D800 Price Gouging
« Reply #20 on: May 08, 2012, 06:31:30 am »

As an authorized Nikon dealer in the US, I can tell you that while Nikon recently instituted a minimum price point a dealer can sell at, there are no restrictions in the agreement as to how much you can charge.

Is that a legally binding contract, or just that you are not allowed to advertise a low price. You know: call/e-mail for a quote...

Is that not also price fixing?

Certainly Nikon could serve those retailers who refuse to toe the line a bit slower than more compliant ones, but do they have a bigger stick also?

Just curious.
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kuau

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Re: D800 Price Gouging
« Reply #21 on: May 08, 2012, 07:33:06 pm »


I use to work for a Authorized Nikon Dealer and I know for a fact there is very little margin for the dealer, actually in all camera gear. To me it's amazing there are still brick and mortar camera stores anymore.
Where we made most of our money was on accessories, memory cards, bags, etc, the small stuff. On camera and lenses alone there is no way a camera store can stay in business. The numbers are just not there.
So to see a dealer selling new D800's on ebay for 25-35% more does not surprise me at all.
In the mean time I am still waiting from my D800E I ordered from amazon on the day it was announced. Still no delivery date, but I will pay MSRP for it.


As an authorized Nikon dealer in the US, I can tell you that while Nikon recently instituted a minimum price point a dealer can sell at, there are no restrictions in the agreement as to how much you can charge.

so the decision is the dealers ... if they want to make a few extra bucks at perhaps the expense of reputation and customer loyalty they are free to do so.  Unfortunately with all the internet based companies now, many don't focus much on customer service and loyalty as they assume there are plenty of other customers out there.
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Wayne Fox

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Re: D800 Price Gouging
« Reply #22 on: May 09, 2012, 03:37:22 pm »

Well, binding in the fact that you can lose your dealership. I believe Nikon has realized that all dealers need to be protected from the large Internet retailers who still also have a huge advantage because of the sales tax issue. Nikon and others still  do things that hurt specialty dealers like shipping d800's to best buy stores costing small retailers sales.

 dealers will sell the brands where they have good margins if possible. So a new buyer vacillating as to what brand to buy may get pushed toward Sony where margins are good. Nikon now falls in that same category. Whether canon will follow suit remains to be seen.  No one knows for sure if Nikon will actually enforce the policy if b&h or others decide to again squeeze Nikon for lower prices so they can under sell other dealers, it's a pretty recent development.

This isn't price fixing.  Nikon has every right to do this. Many other companies have strict pricing policies.  Price fixing is where two competing businesses agree to pricing strategies. there is no collusion between camera makers.
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ndevlin

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Re: D800 Price Gouging
« Reply #23 on: May 10, 2012, 11:27:28 am »


Nikon, and all others, have "MAPS" - minimum advertised prices.  There is no maximum price, for obvious reasons.

And yes, it's price-fixing, but apparently legal because it fucks only consumers, and not other large corporations  ;)

@lfeagan.  Your position makes no sense.  I have something, you want it. It's value *to you* is what you are willing to pay me.  Say you leave for a once-in-a-lifetime Antarctic  expedition next week and can't get an 800E.  I'll bet you'd pay a heck of a premium to buy mine. In fact, I'd bet you'd rent it for two weeks for far more than the premium most of the internet re-sellers are asking.
 
The price will settle when supply matches demand.  It's kind of like gravity. Fight it if you want, but you will only get tired and lose.


Cheers,

- N.
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Nick Devlin   @onelittlecamera        ww

marfa.tx

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Re: D800 Price Gouging
« Reply #24 on: May 10, 2012, 01:53:27 pm »

to be "correct", it is demand of demand...
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richard

marfa.tx

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Re: D800 Price Gouging
« Reply #25 on: May 10, 2012, 02:01:20 pm »

... it seems like a Nikon dealer from San Jose ---

Is "he" a dealer? I've asked him, since he said he bought it...

My sense is that someone selling NEW, when they aren't a dealer/wholesaler, is suspect. That may be of interest to Nikon and Ebay...



and he responded, quickly -- "I am not" (him)


// abd
« Last Edit: May 10, 2012, 02:10:22 pm by marfa.tx »
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richard

Wayne Fox

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Re: D800 Price Gouging
« Reply #26 on: May 12, 2012, 03:05:35 pm »

And yes, it's price-fixing, but apparently legal because it fucks only consumers, and not other large corporations  ;)


I respectfully disagree.

This is not price fixing ... any company is free to charge whatever they would like for their product.  Price fixing is only when competing companies collude to control the price of a product or service in a free market.  I don't believe Canon, Nikon and Sony have gotten together to try and do this.  This is what is illegal. 

As a small camera retailer this move means I will continue to sell Nikon cameras and in fact will try to sell them equally as hard as I do Sony.  Nikon does not make any more money from an enforced pricing policy, but it does allow small dealers to compete.  What this does is redistribute the product through the channel and local dealers are an important part of their channel (as they have discovered over the past few years as that channel has eroded). This also helps slow the monopolistic practices of large internet retailers. 

Nikon was in danger of losing local presence in its' dealer channel. Not good for Nikon or even the large internet retailers, since we are their "showroom".  I frequently have customers come in to my store, spend an hour or so of my employees time "thinking" about which camera to buy or checking out a new camera, only to leave saying "they'll be back", which of course they never are.  Before this change my margin on a Nikon to compete with large "corporations" (not the manufacturers) was under 5%. Throw the 3% merchant service on there and now we're at 2%. Yes, every Nikon I sold lost me money, and everyone made money in the process except me (Nikon, Nikon USA, the credit card companies). That's a lot of cash-flow tied up in inventory that has no chance of helping cover costs.  It's not like the margins at MAP are that great anyway, but at least I'm not losing money.

In the U.S., the sales tax issue is really the biggest problem.  If the large internet retailers didn't have a huge price advantage by avoiding the collecting of sales tax, things would be dramatically different.

As it stands Canon is the only one who has not enforced MAP, but then again right know it appears most retailers are selling close to MAP or higher.  We'll see once production ramps up to surpass demand ...
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Peter McLennan

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Re: D800 Price Gouging
« Reply #27 on: May 12, 2012, 08:08:58 pm »

In the U.S., the sales tax issue is really the biggest problem.  If the large internet retailers didn't have a huge price advantage by avoiding the collecting of sales tax, things would be dramatically different.

This will change.  It has to.  I can't say that I welcome it, living in the boonies and being a frequent online customer, but it's gonna come.  It's only fair.
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