Does this sound fair to you?

J

jason2891

Joined
Sep 28, 2010
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I was at a gun show recently and ran into a gentleman selling high end knives, the designer shall remain nameless. i asked the guy what his prices were and he told me, so i commented on how reasonable they were. he proceeded to tell me how he had the same knives listed on his website for $5 less than retail (or lets say $5 less than what 99.9% of everyone else sells them for) and he said that the designer/knife maker himself emailed him and said bump up the price $5 or take the knives off of his website. Obviously this guy owned the knives and IMHO he is free to do with them what he wants and sell them for whatever price he feels is fair...do you think its right for the designer to make these demands?
 
The maker has that right, or the right to not sell him more in the future. As does the seller to no longer buy from that maker if he thinkgs his business practices are not fair.

I can see both sides of the arguement. The maker doesn't want his sellers getting into a pricing war which cheapens his work. However, the seller wants to move product.

It's a personal call. They both have the right to do business with who they want the way that they want.
 
Well, on one hand, the knife maker would obviously have the right to refuse to sell his knives to a dealer if he didn't like how that dealer did business.

On the other hand, that maker sounds like a dick. The dealer has the right to sell his stock however he wants.
 
i do see both of your points, and understand completely, yes they both can refuse to do business with each other in the future, and thats all well and good. more power to both of them. i just felt like the maker was being a little unreasonable, we're talking $5 here.
 
I can see both sides of the story. Unreasonable or not though, the reseller should probably abide by the makers wishes. The maker just doesn't want his other resellers pissed off. This is typical in any industry on high end items.

And, for me personally, $5 isn't enough of a difference to make me choose one website over another for a purchase. I'll pay an extra $5 and go to a shop that I've had a good experience with in the past and that offers me the products and services I want. I'm not gonna abandon them just to save $5. YMMV.
 
jason2891 said:
I was at a gun show recently and ran into a gentleman selling high end knives, the designer shall remain nameless. i asked the guy what his prices were and he told me, so i commented on how reasonable they were. he proceeded to tell me how he had the same knives listed on his website for $5 less than retail (or lets say $5 less than what 99.9% of everyone else sells them for) and he said that the designer/knife maker himself emailed him and said bump up the price $5 or take the knives off of his website. Obviously this guy owned the knives and IMHO he is free to do with them what he wants and sell them for whatever price he feels is fair...do you think its right for the designer to make these demands?
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Both seller and maker have a good point, BUT once the seller OWNS those knives I cant see how a maker can IMPOSE a price upon the seller.
These are the terms the Maker/Designer needs to express BEFORE they "go to market".
Then we get to the $5 part - what respected self serving dolt is going to demand an extra 5$ ?
Seems a little childish to me
 
Surely, they have to have agreed to some pricing terms. That's what ultimately will matter.

...and don't call me Shirley!

scarysharp said:
Both seller and maker have a good point, BUT once the seller OWNS those knives I cant see how a maker can IMPOSE a price upon the seller.
These are the terms the Maker/Designer needs to express BEFORE they "go to market".
Then we get to the $5 part - what respected self serving dolt is going to demand an extra 5$ ?
Seems a little childish to me
Click to expand...
 
scarysharp said:
Both seller and maker have a good point, BUT once the seller OWNS those knives I cant see how a maker can IMPOSE a price upon the seller.
These are the terms the Maker/Designer needs to express BEFORE they "go to market".
Then we get to the $5 part - what respected self serving dolt is going to demand an extra 5$ ?
Seems a little childish to me
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We don't know what agreements were signed before the seller became a reseller of those knives. If he/she has signed any agreements (as explained by MAAP), then he is contractually and legally obligated to follow those terms.

If I was a maker and my prices were being eroded by one reseller who isn't following the Agreement, I'd be pissed. You might think it is "only $5", but if every other reseller lowered the price, and then buyers became expectant of price drops, that is price erosion and has it has devalued his entire product line.
 
scarysharp said:
Both seller and maker have a good point, BUT once the seller OWNS those knives I cant see how a maker can IMPOSE a price upon the seller.
These are the terms the Maker/Designer needs to express BEFORE they "go to market".
Then we get to the $5 part - what respected self serving dolt is going to demand an extra 5$ ?
Seems a little childish to me
Click to expand...

We don't know what agreements were signed before the seller became a reseller of those knives. If he/she has signed any agreements (as explained by MAAP), then he is contractually and legally obligated to follow those terms.

If I was a maker and my prices were being eroded by one reseller who isn't following the Agreement, I'd be pissed. You might think it is "only $5", but if every other resellers lowered the price to stay competitive, and then buyers become used to price drops, that is price erosion and has it has devalued his entire product line.
 
If the maker has the right to stipulate how the dealers sell his product, the customer has the right not to buy a product that has been artificially made more expensive than it has to be. I wouldn't buy from him, he sounds like a jerk who doesn't care about his customers or the people who spread his work to customers. Most production companies seem to intentionally sell at a higher price than their dealers, and clearly say so, in order to support their sales network and give the customer a good deal.
 
my main reasoning for not revealing the makers name is to prevent an uproar in this thread one way or the other, but i will say you guys would be suprised to learn who it was.
 
Fair?

The only thing not "fair" here is one party's choice to breech/alter whatever agreement was made...and it sounds to me like we do not know which party is acting "unfair" here.
 
jason2891 said:
my main reasoning for not revealing the makers name is to prevent an uproar in this thread one way or the other, but i will say you guys would be suprised to learn who it was.
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There are many companies that enforce MAAP -
ZT
Leatherman
Surefire
Strider
CRK
Benchmade

This is done to prevent the legitimate dealers from being under cut by ebay entrepreneurs some of which may provide horrile service and not be able to provide warranty information. Yes, I do think this is very fair, in the long run it promotes competition between businesses. They not only have to reply on a decent price, they have to provide courteous and professional services as well.
 
RevDevil said:
There are many companies that enforce MAAP -
ZT
Leatherman
Surefire
Strider
CRK
Benchmade

This is done to prevent the legitimate dealers from being under cut by ebay entrepreneurs some of which may provide horrile service and not be able to provide warranty information. Yes, I do think this is very fair, in the long run it promotes competition between businesses. They not only have to reply on a decent price, they have to provide courteous and professional services as well.
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im not arguing the practice, im fine with the concept
 
but if all those companies have that agreement then how is it that you can find certain websites that sell the same product for $50 less than another?
 
jason2891 said:
but if all those companies have that agreement then how is it that you can find certain websites that sell the same product for $50 less than another?
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Perhaps "another" is selling the item at $50 above the agreement price that you see at "certain websites"? i.e. the "certain websites" is not discounting, but rather the "another" has found that they can charge $50 more?

Perhaps "certain websites" is simply outright breaching the agreement and jeopardizing their supply by doing so (but making sales so they can pay their bills at the end of a bad financial year)?

I honestly have no idea...especially since there are so few details shared here.

If you are fine with the concept of such an agreement, why are you asking if others are?
 
unit said:
Perhaps "another" is selling the item at $50 above the agreement price that you see at "certain websites"? i.e. the "certain websites" is not discounting, but rather the "another" has found that they can charge $50 more?

Perhaps "certain websites" is simply outright breaching the agreement and jeopardizing their supply by doing so (but making sales so they can pay their bills at the end of a bad financial year)?

I honestly have no idea...especially since there are so few details shared here.

If you are fine with the concept of such an agreement, why are you asking if others are?
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well if youd like specifics yourcornerstore.com sells the Ti Millitary for $195 and the Ace of Blades is selling them for $236...i was just simply looking for everyones take on it...if you didnt want to contribute to the post simply becuase youre questioning my reason for the OP in the first place thats fine..but like most others here i was just wondering how everyones opinion differed from my own and to maybe shed some light on something that i may not have understood 100%
 
jason2891 said:
well if youd like specifics yourcornerstore.com sells the Ti Millitary for $195 and the Ace of Blades is selling them for $236...i was just simply looking for everyones take on it...if you didnt want to contribute to the post simply becuase youre questioning my reason for the OP in the first place thats fine..but like most others here i was just wondering how everyones opinion differed from my own and to maybe shed some light on something that i may not have understood 100%
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Did someone say that Spyderco has/enforces such an agreement?
 
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