Amp/Preamp Asylum

RE: In general how much of a discount should i expect on a amp used as a demo at a shop?

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" ... IME most dealers give 10-20% off of MSRP on brand new sealed boxed items. So a used demo product where, as others have said, have had numerous people fiddling with it in store or in their homes shuould be at LEAST another 10-20% off on top. ..."

Purchasing anything ... from watches to new cars (factory incentives come off the dealer cost, so go by the "regular" negotiated prices if you want to learn the margins) to mattresses to audio ... is pretty easy to figure out, because when the product goes on sale, they sell for a bit above dealer cost, or at dealer cost. So if you read the ads over 12 months, you can always figure out what the store is paying for the product. Easy peasy.

If you did that, you would learn the obvious. I'll save you some time with a few examples:

Clothing and jewelry is usually about 200% markup ($10 jeans sell for $30; a $100 necklace sells for $300), appliances about 25% ($100 washer sells for $125). Most things are somewhere in between those margins except new cars and trucks (10~15%).

Many product categories have margins that are beyond the known retailer's necessary margin, so that an artificial MSRP can be advertised while every single reseller sells for less (eg: beds and mattresses), but still makes the industry average profit. Consumer psychology is well understood, in other words.

With a specific brand / model, do a search, find out what dealers are selling it for. If the margin is lower on that line than other competitive lines, you will see it in the prices offered, and the dealer will offer a lower discount on that particular unit. If the margins are in line with industry standards, you will see that as well, and if the line offers margins higher than the industry average ... well, do I have to say it?

The price is the price. Pay it, after doing your due diligence, or not. But it's a mistake to think that every item has the same markup in the store. Retail doesn't work that way, and audio retail in particular doesn't work that way. Be careful if you are buying more than one item, because the retailer will blend the markups ... an amp plus a nationally advertised cable might ad up to $xx, but you can be sure most of the discount came from the cable, which will have a huge markup in comparison to the amp. And so on.


Edits: 05/16/17   05/16/17   05/16/17   05/16/17   05/16/17   05/16/17

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