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Revel Be series discounted by 25%

I've given/gave discounts on speakers all the time back in the day. My goal was to avoid price protection during and after sales. So I dickered with the customers all the time and gave them the minimum sale price that I knew would be a dollar or two from the occurring every 3 months sale prices. It was enough I think and to take more would have been being greedy. I ran about 34% to 35%+ margins at the end of the year(s) and set the record for highest average profit margins for the chain. I think that's fair to all involved but to expect full pop on all the gear is not realistic in my opinion. The expense of operating a large business like that and purchasing the property etc I suspect ran into the high 20% range. So a few percent of profit for the house is all that was left. But it's big business and like I said that is owning the property. 25% discount on speakers is veryy good.
Yes 25% is good, but it's not great. I will caveat that statement, everyone and anyone should aim for a great deal, but no one should expect to get a great deal. For that one particular speaker, I did end up getting more than 25% discount.

More on that story, that dealer actually did end up giving me a 5% discount. If they had matched the initial 25% discount I had from a different dealer, then I likely would have brought from them. But the spread was 20% and it's 20% on a a big ticket item nevertheless. Like I said, as consumers in a free market, it should not be the consumers' financial burden to carry non competitive business.
 
Yes 25% is good, but it's not great. I will caveat that statement, everyone and anyone should aim for a great deal, but no one should expect to get a great deal. For that one particular speaker, I did end up getting more than 25% discount.

More on that story, that dealer actually did end up giving me a 5% discount. If they had matched the initial 25% discount I had from a different dealer, then I likely would have brought from them. But the spread was 20% and it's 20% on a a big ticket item nevertheless. Like I said, as consumers in a free market, it should not be the consumers' financial burden to carry non competitive business.
5% is peanuts. 25% of maybe 45% markup is a great discount and it probably cost that seller $ to sell them for that discount due to operating costs but like you say if he was motivated it's a no-brainer to buy those ones. I would do that too.
 
5% is peanuts. 25% of maybe 45% markup is a great discount and it probably cost that seller $ to sell them for that discount due to operating costs
I do no envy the HiFi dealer business. And in case anyone out there is still wondering the 4x to 6x of BOM and labor being the MSRP, I think you have your answer here. It's the HiFi ecosystem, it's very interdependent and very fragile.
 
I've followed Emotiva for a couple of years, they intrigue me because they don't sell anywhere except on-line via their website. They cut prices considerably lately too. Interesting to follow them because their business plan seems fairly unique. Fluance is another, but they sell on Amazon and are owned by a larger corporate conglomerate and have more limited product.
 
MSRP basically = sucker tax.
That might be a bit extreme. MSRP sucks, but if you do the math, it's there for a reason. From the manufacturer's side, you have R&D cost, BOM, labor, logistics, warranty & defects and marketing; the distributor's side has logistics, marketing; the dealers have B&M, inventory, customer service, marketing, salary and putting little Johnny though college. It all adds up.

Manufacturer direct is a great way to save, I will shout out Philharmonic Audio here, unheard of value. Used market is also a great way to safe. Shopping around at dealers with low overhead is another great way to safe. DIY, I am not not convinced you actually save that much.
 
That might be a bit extreme. MSRP sucks, but if you do the math, it's there for a reason. From the manufacturer's side, you have R&D cost, BOM, labor, logistics, warranty & defects and marketing; the distributor's side has logistics, marketing; the dealers have B&M, inventory, customer service, marketing, salary and putting little Johnny though college. It all adds up.

Manufacturer direct is a great way to save, I will shout out Philharmonic Audio here, unheard of value. Used market is also a great way to safe. Shopping around at dealers with low overhead is another great way to safe. DIY, I am not not convinced you actually save that much.
Not sure I quite understand. If I go to my local computer store, and I want to purchase a video card and the price is $299.99, there's 99.9% chance I won't get any deal, because that's the price. Are you saying there's no "R&D cost, BOM, labor, logistics, warranty & defects and marketing; the distributor's side has logistics, marketing; the dealers have B&M, inventory, customer service, marketing, salary and putting little Johnny though college.", and that it doesn't add up for computer stores/parts?

Now at the time, if you bought an entire computer; 2500 worth, you might be able to negotiate a bit, but there's no rip off, a video card is 299.99, it's not marked up 499.99, so that when a grandmother wants to buy a gift for her grandson, the store can charge her 499 instead of 299... And most stores don't have to use such scam tactics to make a living. I'd just call it unethical business. Treat every customer the same. Don't charge more or less for the same item for different customers...

Charging more, or extra, to some customers is pretty much what I'd consider a scam... It's like short-changing a customer... It's saying: "This is worth $X", but then you know that the normal price is 20% less, with which make a very decent profit, and you'd even go 25-30% lower and still make good money, and would be happy to sell it at that price. I get that everyone has costs, and everyone has to make a living... I just don't consider this MSRP thing very ethical; given that the advice from pretty much anyone in the know is "never pay MSRP"... (Unless maybe your shop is in Yukon or whatnot..)

TLDR: That's my issue with 'MSRP'. No issue with literal MSRP, but I have an issue when the MSRP is much higher than street price, and unscrupulous salesmen use it to extract more money from unsuspecting customers. It's the sleaze feelings you get when you walk into an audio shop... Same feeling you get from car salesmen. You know they'll try to screw you as hard as they can... Versus, you walk into your local computer parts store, the prices are advertised, they're there to sell stuff at the price they're selling stuff; not to rip you off.
 
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Not sure I quite understand. If I go to my local computer store, and I want to purchase a video card and the price is $299.99, 99.9% chance I won't get any deal, because that's the price. Are you saying there's no "R&D cost, BOM, labor, logistics, warranty & defects and marketing; the distributor's side has logistics, marketing; the dealers have B&M, inventory, customer service, marketing, salary and putting little Johnny though college.", and that it doesn't add up for computer stores/parts?

Now at the time, if you bought an entire computer; 2500 worth, you might be able to negotiate a bit, but there's no rip off, a video card is 299.99, it's not marked up 499.99, so that when a grandmother wants to buy a gift for her grandson, the store can charge her 499 instead of 299... And most stores don't have to use such scam tactics to make a living. I'd just call it unethical business. Treat every customer the same. Don't charge more or less for the same item for different customers...

Charging more, or extra, to some customers is pretty much what I'd consider a scam... It's like short-changing a customer... It's saying: "This is worth $X", but then you know that the normal price is 20% less, with which make a very decent profit, and you'd even go 25-30% lower and still make good money, and would be happy to sell it at that price. I get that everyone has costs, and everyone has to make a living... I just don't consider this MSRP thing very ethical; given that the advice from pretty much anyone in the know is "never pay MSRP"... (Unless maybe your shop is in Yukon or whatnot..)
Very very valid point.

But here's a bit more insight from my previous lives: in all of electronics (video, computer, gadgets, HiFi), HiFi has the highest margin. Video (TV, projectors, Bluray players when it was still a thing) have razor thin margin; many manufacturers has exited this business, hence you see the raise in Chinese video companies, because of the labor pool and manufacturing infrastructure they have in place, they can still make a profit. Same thing with computers and any other electronic gadgets, profit margin are already razor thin.

Why does that matter? Because there are no room for discounts. Also with HiFi, for the most part HiFi is optional (everything is optional but everyone "needs" a computer and TV), and the fact that the profit margin is high, they can play around with the margin to make a sale happen, because the average Joe doesn't have to buy a HiFi system.

I am not arguing that it's kind of shady to give one person one price and another person another price. I just explaining why the MSRP for HiFi are so high and why it's so opaque and negotiable.
 
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My conclusion, buy open box or scratch and dent from one of the on-line purveyors when they show up. Those tend to be in the 25% off MSRP neighborhood on a regular basis. As mentioned previously, most of us in the market for Revel Be type product pretty much know what we'd be getting and probably wouldn't be doing A/B comparisons in a showroom anyway. As an aside, the only higher end B&M shop in my area only carries Focal, so no a/b comparison possible anyway.

I'm also surprised, given the retail issues in this industry, that more vendors don't pursue the direct sales paradigm. I own product from both HSU and NHT, both of which do direct sales only. Great product at great prices. If dealer markup of 35 to 50% really is the norm, imagine what Revel sales volumes could be at those kinds of price reductions...

I'm sure the retail landscape is more complex than that, but one wonders.
 
To toss another automobile analogy out it appears buying hifi from a "dealer" is a bit like buying a car. Nobody seems to pay the same price. Off to the grocery and negotiate over some bananas.
 
Most speakers' MSRP are 4 to 6 times the cost of bill of materials and labor. The reason why it's so high is because the distributor gets a huge cut, the dealers gets a huge cut too, then defects and warranty, logistics, etc. So in order to be profitable it has to be 4x to 6x of cost.
That's true of most everything marketed.
The SOP in manufacturer pricing is 5x their cost.
 
Amir is not trolling, there is indeed a sale, I confirmed it with my dealer.

Go pick up the phone and call the dealer. I just got my pricing on all the entire Be line and it's pretty good and the price is for any color, unlike last sale. Debating if I should buy the 126 or the 228 for upstairs or if any at all, since I just sold a pair of 226.
 
I know of at least one Internet Direct company that marks up less than 2X.......
You mean there are some people who pull numbers out of their $%^ in support of their narrative? or maybe because they sound smart? Say it aint so.
Internet participants would never lie, Dennis. Come on, man!
 
You mean there are some people who pull numbers out of their $%^ in support of their narrative? or maybe because they sound smart? Say it aint so.
Internet participants would never lie, Dennis. Come on, man!
Not sure if that is an indirect insult directed at me. . .but I stand by my statement. . .one, I used to work in the HiFi sales industry and two, I said: "manufacturer direct are generally 3x to 5x."

And so Philharmonic is an exception, that is not the norm. . .does not invalidate my statement. The 4x-6x and 3x-5x can be confirmed by anyone who works in the industry.
 
Yeah, sorry, that is exactly what I meant. I doubt any of these places which are often run out of people's homes actually stock anything for demos.
Yes, but I’m sure they’d be happy to take your order and get their dealer margin for doing nothing but taking an order.
 
You mean there are some people who pull numbers out of their $%^ in support of their narrative? or maybe because they sound smart? Say it aint so.
Internet participants would never lie, Dennis. Come on, man!
The markup shouldn’t be relevant to the end consumer. Just the purchase price.
 
I'm curious as to why you sold them.
I have my personal critique on them, which I rather not share on a public forum since in today's day in age, everyone has emotional feelings made of glass especially on the internet.

But my critique has nothing to do with the sound, in fact, Revel are some of the best sounding speakers I've heard, from there M16 to their F328.
 
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