The internet has already all but destroyed hi end.The biggest problem any dealer has is having to match a price someone got on the net. When i was still in the business we would loan out equipment for home demos all the time. We never pressured them into thinking if they took it home, they'd have to buy it. One example, we had a customer who wanted to buy a turntable. I spent some seven hours over a two week period explaining the product and convincing him the money spent on a Rega 25 with Grado cartridge was money well spent. He listened at length to the table at the store, never any pressure...that was not our style. He finally decides to take it home for the weekend and calls me on Monday and says he loves it...I'll be in a little later to write it up. He rolls in about an hour before close and asks if I can match a price he got on the net. I'm doing a slow burn and he wants 25% off. I tell him to forget it, and asked him how he looks at himself in the mirror, jerking us around like this. I then told him what he was doing was F***king Bull***t and to hit the road. That was the first time I ever unloaded on a customer....he walked out of the store with his head hanging and feeling real guilty...which was my intent.This, believe it or not, happened all the time. I'd guess for every 50 pieces of gear we sent home for demo....2 would actually buy. Word usually got back to us that they ended up buying it on the net. They come in, pick our brains, we spend hours educating them..and then they buy it on the net from someone who usually has little to no overhead and can still make a profit selling it at 25-30% off. I don't begrudge someone trying to get the best deal...but you can't have it both ways. People like this totally soured me on the business, as it has others. Between these kind of people and home theater (don't get me started) I left the business I loved. Oh how I long for the days up until the mid eighties...when CD came out. Don Mclean had it wrong, the day the music died was when they came out with the CD, which spawned all this other crap.It's now 4:36 AM and longplate is done ranting.
Will Internet Distroy High End ?
The internet has been a godsend to those who wish to trade used equipment. It has also been ok for those dealers who care to do internet business. In the long run however, I don't envy local high end dealers. As more people jump on the used equipment bandwagon it may have a serious detrimental effect on new equipment sales. That in turn may distroy or shrink the cottage industry we call "High End Audio." We would then be left with all the mass merchandisers who want to reduce us all to mid-fi garbage. What do you think ?