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How much will you pay for an exotic cartridge....

I noticed on another forum that there is an interesting point brought up by a US distributor/dealer about his perception that one of his potential customers bought a top end cartridge ( that he reps) from an off-shore dealer/source...and how he intends to try and stop the practice of ’grey market’ sales. ( At least for the lines that he carries).
This gent seems to believe that because he signed some paperwork somewhere that may ( or may not) give him exclusive rights to distribute the gear in the US, that he has the right to try and prevent anyone abroad from selling to US customers! To that, he wants to have the manufacturer try and enforce his right to do the above. Now, one could ask, what’s the issue with this, right? And here’s the rub, the dear distributor is adding over $8K to this product for the simple task of ordering and having shipped a cartridge from Japan ( Yes, i know the shipping of such a large and heavy item is expensive...and the dealer has to stand by the product...whatever that means when we are talking of a cartridge!) The profit motive is high here, and the opportunity to fleece some of the US consumers is also...so i get that, but to come on an open forum and complain about the practice that one of his potential customers did such a thing....is an interesting marketing tactic, IMO.
So, my question is this..how much will you pay for that exotic cartridge to insure that you are buying it from a "legit" US rep, and not from a grey market...or in this case out of area dealer....what’s fair to you...a few $$s- or the sky’s the limit??
128x128daveyf
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Facts and theories, Facts can be assumed to be ''true statements''.
But not all statements are truth-functional. That is those can't be
considered to be either true or false (tertium non datur). 
Well an enumeration of facts is not a theory. Theory is an attemt 
to explain the facts. Our problem by such attempt is implicite or
explicite mixing with personal valuatinon . As stated before value
judgment are not truth-functional. They can make ''sense'' but only
in the context of an culture or customs. Consider ''watershed'' 
between digital and analog sound. By CD introduction anybody
was convinced: ''it is done with analoge''. However our forum is
a proof that this is not ''the case''. Aka ''not true''. 
Similar to CD-versus-analog is the case with ''digital'' versus
traditional market. Our on division of labor based society means
that assumed skills for the old- are not sufficient for the ''new
division of labor''. Older people have difficulties to accomodate
to ''digital revolution''. This may explain the fact of dealeship which
 is ''fade away'' and buying on internet. Skills are also ''factual'' 
we can't assume them if they are not present. Not everyone has
chaksters skills to buy on inretnet in order to save his (modest)
means (grin).








dover
2,173 posts
 
Air Tight PC1

Original Price - $2000
Price 3 months later after TAS Review - $4000
Price then rose to $10000 over a short period of time ( happened to conincide with the release of the dumbed down versions PC7 etc that are still more expensive than the original PC1 ).

My issue is dealers who want full retail margins but are unable to provide product for audition. And then they wonder why people buy offshore.

If dealers/distributors/manufacturers dont ensure global parity in pricing ( allowing for local taxes ) then they dont have an appropiate business model for this world.

And then there are the $6-10k cartridges churned out with manufacturing faults like crooked stylus etc, but thats another story.

 
ebm
9,311 posts
 
I would pay big bucks asap dude.
lewm
12,451 posts
 
In reference to my post above, I made an error. The item that I priced at $6500 at Yodibashi, after all discounts, is the Technics SP10R, the chassis only, which retails in the US for about $10K. “SL1000R” is code for the complete turntable including tonearm and plinth, which is much more costly..
bkeske's avatar
bkeske
5,568 posts
 
I find this discussion interesting. But what I would like to know, what is the correct understanding of the gray market in audio. It seems implied that the ‘gray market’ in audio seems to ‘just happen’, or perhaps are counterfeit goods?

As a person who likes mechanical watches as well, I was always told that the vast majority of the gray market for watches were actually received/were sold their merchandise via actual *distributors*, who for a variety of reasons, could not sell a volume of ‘excess’ merchandise to retailers, thus cut their losses by selling them cheap to a gray market seller. Some distributors , as I understand, are forced to buy a certain quantity of product from manufacturers knowing they don’t have the retail market to support their overall inventory, and much of that is earmarked for gray market sellers. They essentially make their profit on the retail market they have relationships with and ‘dump the rest’.

I’ve purchased a gray market watch, but not one of incredibly high value, but one from a very reputable manufacturer, which is actually my daily watch. I took a chance knowing that any problems I may have would probably be minor, and was worth the risk.

I’m not sure I would take the same risk on a multi-thousand dollar piece of audio equipment, (or watch for that matter), as a warranty and factory authorized service of that piece may be necessary. That said, I do understand the risk one might take to obtain an actual trusted and reputable manufactured item at a fraction of the cost of retail. Again, it is a risk, but one a buyer may be willing to take. ‘We’ do it with used gear all the time.

I was just curious if the audio selling/distribution chain in similar to that of watches.
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