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In Reply to: Primedia Weasels Part Deux posted by Steve Eddy on January 23, 2007 at 11:07:32:
C'mon now; be honest.Admit that this doesn't even reach "troll" level, as a Stereophileflame!
Follow Ups:
C'mon now; be honest.
No, really. I found many of the responses instructive, if not a little depressing. For example I was a bit surprised to find that so many didn't seem to get that it wasn't about the price, and rather depressed that so many defended the practice simply because "everyone else does it."
Admit that this doesn't even reach "troll" level, as a Stereophileflame!
Seeing as it was neither a troll nor a Stereophileflame, I admit it.
It was a rant. And it was directed at Primedia, the corporate owner, not Stereophile, the magazine or its editors and contributors.
se
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No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
... someone's bound to suggest that he could get a lifetime subscription to Stereophile for the price of one of Steve's cables. And then someone would point out that he couldn't find the list price of the cables anywhere on Steve's site. And that would lead to a heady discussion of Values In Audio, and Lord knows where it would all end.
And then someone would point out that he couldn't find the list price of the cables anywhere on Steve's site.
I don't sell direct. Why would I have prices on my website?
se
Showing an MSRP gives at least a frame of reference, especially when the product is obscure or exotic. Without some price reference, the would-be buyer is in the dark, especially since interconnect cables range in price up to five figures and there's no way to look at a cable on a website and come within guessing distance of its price range.I guess I forgot though, that you're not really interested in selling enough of them that you want to risk breaking a sweat :-)
You have to understand that Steve's product cannot be treated like others, for example how many manufactures insist that purchasers sign a disclaimer anything like this:The purchaser agrees in advance that any subjective improvement in sound originating from the usage of Q cables does not necessarilly derive from actual audible changes in the sound itself. In particular the purchaser acknowledges that any improvement may be due to a favorable bias, whether conscious or not, for skinny things clad in fine silk.
Showing an MSRP gives at least a frame of reference, especially when the product is obscure or exotic. Without some price reference, the would-be buyer is in the dark, especially since interconnect cables range in price up to five figures and there's no way to look at a cable on a website and come within guessing distance of its price range.
In the dark?
What, are some people truly so stupid it would simply never occur to them to go to the people they'd actually be buying the cables from to get pricing? If they're that stupid, I'd just as soon they buy from someone else. It would save me from having to answer a bunch of phone calls and EMails from people asking how to plug them in.
As for MSRP, that stands for Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. So, who is that retail price being suggested to? It's being suggested to those who are doing the actual selling, i.e. the retailers. But it's only a suggestion, and being only a suggestion, the retailers can ultimately sell them for whatever they want. So what's the point?
I mean, I could choose some arbitrarily high MSRP, sell the cables to my dealers for small fraction of that, the dealers can offer them at a price substantially less than the MSRP and mindfuck their customers about what a "special" deal they're getting.
So I don't see that a published MSRP imparts any truly meaningful information to the customer. Speaking for myself as a consumer, I don't give a shit about MSRPs. I just want to know what they're actually going to cost .
I guess I forgot though, that you're not really interested in selling enough of them that you want to risk breaking a sweat :-)
Mmmm. Well, Kimber has been quite successful at selling cables. Far more cables than I'll ever sell or would want to sell. And I don't see any prices on their website. So the lack of an MSRP on a manufacturer's website doesn't seem to be any barrier to success.
se
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