Are Expensive HDMI Cables Worthless?

[aliEnRIK]

Andrew Everard:
aliEnRIK:I recall a bloke on another site that has a mate work at Currys (or
comet perhaps). They had a hdmi for sale there for around 90 quid which
they BOUGHT IN for a tenner!I wish I could have found what make it was etc

...And they said investigative journalism was dead...

An unnamed bloke on an unnamed forum's mate, who works for Currys (or it may be Comet), and we don't know which brand of cable it was.

Your witness...

Cheers for that Andy. I post on another forum and it was a few months ago now. It was DEFINITELY 90 quid and a tenner and it was DEFINITELY currys or comet

And no ~ im afraid he never posted what the brand was as I asked him and he couldnt recall

Point being I wouldnt put it past currys and or comet to try such nasty tricks ~ would you?

 

[Andrew Everard]

I wouldn't be surprised if there were similarly huge mark-ups on such accessory items across the industry, and indeed many other industries: that's why you can get decent discounts on some 'brand name' cables. For example, think about the price of computer printers, and the price of the ink cartridges for them - accessories and consumables tend to make a lot more margin for those selling them than the ostensibly 'big ticket' items.

Though of course the larger the retail operation, the better the price they can usually get from the manufacturer or distributor - that's simple market economics.

So is that cable manufacturers ripping you off? Or the retail sector...?

 

[TKratz]

Andrew Everard:

aliEnRIK:I recall a bloke on another site that has a mate work at Currys (or comet perhaps). They had a hdmi for sale there for around 90 quid which they BOUGHT IN for a tenner!I wish I could have found what make it was etc

...And they said investigative journalism was dead...

An unnamed bloke on an unnamed forum's mate, who works for Currys (or it may be Comet), and we don't know which brand of cable it was.

Your witness...

Lol!

 

[aliEnRIK]

If I have to question any prices at all in cables its russ andrews

3.35k for a silver mains lead???

I work in engineering and can tell you now that whilst silver is expensive its nowhere near THAT expensive

 

[Anonymous]

Well I work for Currys currently, and a store which sells a premium HDMI lead usually makes around 50% of the retail price as margin. Head office obviously take a slice as well but I have no idea how much that is.

 

[Tom Moreno]

alwatson:Well I work for Currys currently, and a store which sells a premium HDMI lead usually makes around 50% of the retail price as margin. Head office obviously take a slice as well but I have no idea how much that is.

I used to work in a HIFI shop back in 2000 and for anyone who has worked in the industry knows that this is absolutely commonplace. The competition over pricing on your big ticket items such as your TVs and Receivers is so high that soon after release retailers see the margin on these items dwindle down to the point where only selling the box probably constitutes an overall loss for the business. I don't consider a 50% mark-up on accessories in any way, shape, or form a "rip-off" or anything of the sort. It's simply the way the industry has and always will leverage itself, and it isn't just HIFI either- it's the same for almost all industries. The difference between say the world of Computers and HIFI is that if you're buying a HIFI system as a package you're much more likely to get a generous package price (usually based around discounting the accessories) than you are in a computer package. Granted you can't download a pirated HDMI lead over the internet, so I guess that's where the value gets skewed for some people. The funny thing is that in the world of professional audio, there's never even a discussion over the cables and most cables are bespoke and manufactured at a quality far higher than people here might expect as a base standard. The cabling in these cases often runs in excess of 10% of total system price and that says a lot when you see the purchased equipment prices.

 

[Andrew Everard]

alwatson:Well I work for Currys currently, and a store which sells a premium HDMI lead usually makes around 50% of the retail price as margin.

So that's 100% mark-up at retail level for a kick-off. Factor in importer/distributor margins, tax and so on, and it's easy to see how a product costing £10 at the factory gate, or maybe even less, can end up on the hook in the shop at £100.