Hey I'm glad Nick has enough pride to make sure a product he has put his name to has quality. But what I have is the statement in bold. What is full retail? If I came on line and said, hey I have this book I'm selling and the full retail value is $50, does that actually make that the market price? Nope. And, the guy came on line and said, I can't tell you what the price is, but I will discount it 10 even 25%. Discount from what? An old trick in the furniture biz was when they wanted to have a "Sale" they would change all the tags on the furniture by the amount that they were going to "discount" each piece.
Finally, really, what business is it of the mfg what I sell the product for. I bought it from him. I own it. It is none of his business if I give them all away.
It all comes down to, they want to inflate the "retail" price, to insure the people who are rep-ing the product don't start to say- "Gee, we can't sell these for $100. Only $70. So I don't want to buy them for $50, I will give you $35." Price fixing.
There is no such thing as a "fixed" price under the law. There are only "manufacturer's suggested retail prices. (MSRP)".
In this situation I see nothing wrong with a policy where the manufacturer asks that the MSRP not be posted on the internet although I do find it silly. People "inflate" the SUGGESTED retail price all the time. Even on EBAY you can often find folks trying to sell something for MORE than you would pay for the same item at the local store. My father buys off off Ebay and stocks his electronic store and gets about 25-50% MORE than the average sell price is for the same items on Ebay.
When you purchase a good then you can sell it for what you want to - you can elect to make as little money or much money as you desire and are able to. If you can find buyers for the $50 wholesale cue who will pay you $500 for it then more power to you. It is
NEVER gouging when there is a free market with plenty of supply and choice for the consumer.
Of course when a guy comes on here and starts in with the "secret sale price" tactics then it will almost always backfire with commodity goods like mass production cues of any brand.
If you have a rare collectible then it's a different situation.
As to all the speculation on who makes the cues and why that matters I find it quite funny. It shouldn't matter as long as the product is well made and the seller stands behind it. It's not as if Kao Kao, Taican or any number of other cue factories have a reputation with consumers that stands on it's own. Both of these factories and many others make hundreds of brands of cues and the importers of these brands sometimes switch suppliers so unless you have very very intimate information it's almost impossible to say for certain that any particular cue came from any particular place.
Believe me, there are no new tricks in the retail game. The internet is the ultimate equalizer for anyone who cares to spend a little time researching it. If I were Nick I'd drop this guy as he obviously does not understand what Nick is trying to achieve here which is quite simply to allow each dealer to set their own prices and have a chance to maximize their profit. Obviously if a dealer is out of line then the local customers will figure it out fairly quickly and the guy will be done. By coming on here and advertising that you can't show the prices but call me up then it violates the spirit of the agreement that you signed when you agreed to be a dealer.
Kind of like if I sold Predator cues and I "advertised" that I had special "face to face" prices. Doesn't technically violate their Minimum Advertised Price policy, which is legal to impose, but does violate the spirit of the policy which probably will result in most of my orders ending up on perpetual "backorder".
The whole thing comes down to a dance that's done every day between consumers and retailers and wholesalers. It's been happening for thousands and thousands of years and won't change.
It's not price fixing - it's just making a living. Price fixing is a completely different and illegal activity.
:frown: