Asking for a discount without being an insulting idiot

[the record spot]

Hello,

I hope I will be understood well, because it's sometimes difficult for me to find the right words in english. But it will depend of the gear you are buying and the margin the seller is making on it. If KEF (it's an example, not a truth), allow a margin of 20% of his products, and devialet 35 %. When you ask 30% on the total price, you will undergo the margin of your seller and he's loosing money. So it will hardly depend on what the margins are.

Hifi sellers on the other forum I'm on, said to me that their margins where really tight and didn't allow them sooo much free room for negociation. Beside of that, more and more, brands are giving a fix price that you can't underpass.

I, usually, ask my dealer what his margins is and arrange with him a price he could be happy of. Another point we didn't discuss here, but is important, is the fact "what work your seller had with you". Did he brought the gear to your room after make it come from far away ? Those are all points that are heavy demanding money from him, because he bet that you gives him the favor of a buy. For all this, I would search discussion with my seller.

In ONE and unique situations, I contacted the official distributor and asked for a 50% price drop for my local seller. Because I knew they make beetween 150 and 200% margin on the amps they are importing. They was ok for 25% price drop (yes... not 24 or 26... 25), and my seller was able to make me a better drop, with a better margin for him.

Agreed - people forget that bricks and mortar retailers have overheads that strech beyong the costs of staff alone. While cables allow heaps of room for manoeuvre, it's less clear cut which hifi manufacturers give retailers the space to shimmy the price around for potential buyers.

Brian - are you planning to try gear at slightly lower price points too? It'd be interesting to see if you could get what you're after for less/ Also, have you visited the likes of Audio Emotion or Jordan Acoustics websites? There are others too, but those two offer some very high end gear at very sensible (relatively speaking) prices. Am sure they'd have something that'd tick your boxes. See also Midlands Audio Exchange.

 

[Frank Harvey]

The Bryston 4Bsst2 or a pair of Cyrus Mono X300s do a great job. It wont be the best youll hear the speakers, but as good as you'll get for the money.

 

[Bigsounds]

In ONE and unique situations, I contacted the official distributor and asked for a 50% price drop for my local seller. Because I knew they make beetween 150 and 200% margin on the amps they are importing. They was ok for 25% price drop (yes... not 24 or 26... 25), and my seller was able to make me a better drop, with a better margin for him.

Total nonsense, there is no such things as a margin of 150% - 200%. :wall: Your distributor doesn't know the difference between margins and % mark ups. I reckon a shop makes 30-35% margin after VAT, if we ask 10% that is some chunk still, a mad business model unless you are a box shifter with no store.

 

[busb]

In ONE and unique situations, I contacted the official distributor and asked for a 50% price drop for my local seller. Because I knew they make beetween 150 and 200% margin on the amps they are importing. They was ok for 25% price drop (yes... not 24 or 26... 25), and my seller was able to make me a better drop, with a better margin for him.

Total nonsense, there is no such things as a margin of 150% - 200%. :wall: Your distributor doesn't know the difference between margins and % mark ups. I reckon a shop makes 30-35% margin after VAT, if we ask 10% that is some chunk still, a mad business model unless you are a box shifter with no store.

That's why much of my stereo was bought as ex-demo. Any dealer when contrmplating giving a discount will probably weigh up whether or not reduced margins are better than no sale. Although I do buy off Amazon - it's never Hi Fi nor camera gear - the exception being cables.

 

[matt49]

Just a quick update. I listened to the Blades with the Devialet 240 and the 170. With the 170 a whole chunk of the bass extension and definition was gone versus listening with the 240, I was very supprised by the difference. So in conclusion the Blades need power, probably a low ohms issue with the four bass drivers. So deffinately worth looking into alternative amplification but I suspect it needs to be of the high current "meaty" veriety. I started thinking that there would be little difference going down to the 170, in therory loosing less than 2dba spl, now I'm thinking two bridged Devialets would be better, but this is getting into silly money. This hi fi business can be an annpying game sometimes!

Interestingly, the guys in the shop stated that with the majority of speakers they get no noticable difference between the 170 and 240, so the Blades must be a demanding load somewhere.

Brian, thanks for the update.

I suspect your conclusion is right: the Blades need a lot of power into their woofers.

Paul Miller in his HFN review of the 170 is very positive about its bass: that was into B&W802s IIRC. I certainly haven't noticed any problems with the 170, but then I'm aiming at a completely different level of speaker.

It sounds like the 240 did OK in your demo, but your comment about bridging 240s suggests you're having doubts. I guess one advantage of the 240 is that you could conceivably add a second one later, if funds allow.

:cheers:

Matt

 

[shooter]

SimAudio and Kef Blade doing the show stopping rounds presently.

Possibly consider ModWright, arguably producing the finest solid state at the mo...

 

[NSA_watch_my_toilet]

"Total nonsense, there is no such things as a margin of 150% - 200%.

Your distributor doesn't know the difference between margins and % mark ups. I reckon a shop makes 30-35% margin after VAT, if we ask 10% that is some chunk[/b] still, a mad business model unless you are a box shifter with no store."

I'm not sure I understood all of your text. I really spoke about the distributor, not the final seller. I don't know what your experience is, so it could absolutely be possible that you didn't encountered this siutation in the past.

For a while, I wanted to becoming an official listening spot of a rare amp brand. I asked the distributor if it's possible to becoming a listening place. I would receive his clients in my geografical zone and will send them to him if they want an amp. He was interested, after a while, he was ok for selling me the amp to the factory price, it was around 2.5k euros with vat and transport. The official sell price of the amp is more than 6k euros. So, as you can see, just one example, it could be an exception, but I believe he's not an isolated case.

 

[ifor]

Cost of goods at 2.5K and selling at 6.0K = 58.3% Margin, but 140.0% Mark Up.

 

[Bigsounds]

For a while, I wanted to becoming an official listening spot of a rare amp brand. I asked the distributor if it's possible to becoming a listening place. I would receive his clients in my geografical zone and will send them to him if they want an amp. He was interested, after a while, he was ok for selling me the amp to the factory price, it was around 2.5k euros with vat and transport. The official sell price of the amp is more than 6k euros. So, as you can see, just one example, it could be an exception, but I believe he's not an isolated case.

If he was willing to sell you the amps at below trade price, i.e at factory prices, it tells me one thing, he wasn't selling any :cheers: