 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: icecoke12
Date: 2003-05-13 14:31
I requested a resend of a price quote of a clarinet recently from a mail order retailer. The salesperson cut and pasted from the previous email and sent it to me again. He also included (accidentally???) the cost price of the new instrument in the email which was about $500 lower than the price listed in the catalogues.
Is this the normal profit margin a retailer makes from an instrument sale? Is it considered high or low? So should I press for a cheaper price or just accept the price being offered?
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2003-05-13 14:45
That's a big "it depends"! If you're buying it in Singapore, then that "cost" might be the cost before shipping, customs, handling, and other associated items.
The markup depends on a lot of things - exclusivity of the dealerships, the "luxury" of the item, the cost of money (borrowing/investment costs), the price at competing dealerships, the cost of service and returns, and a customer "pain threshold", among many.
If it's a good price, "it's a good price". I know what a good price is here in the USA, but I don't know what a good price is in Singapore.
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Author: icecoke12
Date: 2003-05-13 17:28
Yah true...
I realise that the price difference in different countries are quite great. I compared certain instruments like R-13, Opus, Yamaha custom clarinets across countries like US, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and prices can differ up to US$1000 to $2000 for the higher range instruments.
I don;t know much about the markups of retailers, but I do wonder what is the reason for this difference.
I will be quite interested to know whether is it largely due to import taxes or the different pricing arrangements the manufacturers make with the retailers?
I guess it could also be just due to the retailer's personal costs like the cost of debt or service as mentioned... but in that case, it will only differ between retailers in a country, not as a general trend between different countries.
Anyway, I'm just wondering about it... (while in the process of trying to buy my clarinet...)
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2003-05-14 00:27
I would be more interested in the VAT (or equivalent import tax) for a given instrument...
You may save considerably by purchasing a refurbished instrument under your tax structure.
Hard to beat the Dutch companies, for import to the USA.
Dunno about Sing-a-pore...
How long you gonna kick this one down the street, anyway?
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