brucelee

iTrader: (6)

You asked, "What is wrong with it?", and I replied with greed. It IS greed. The vendor wanting more $ because he can get more $. Supply and demand it is, but greed is the card.


Also, I asked for 16k for my car. I would have taken a little less, too.

suby_dude

iTrader: (18)

i guess if you really look at it... greed does have a big role in an open market.

maybe you should have asked for 17k

suby_dude

iTrader: (18)

oh yeah one more thing.

greed is also relative. for the person buying the car at 3-4k over MSRP... i'm sure he's not crying all the way home. he's probably passing all of us

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

What do you think about Great America charging $8 for a slice of pizza?


Or what about this, if someone had a water stand in the desert, and 2 almost dead hikers (which were out of water) asked how much 2 glasses of water were, and the vendor replied with: "$1,000 for a glass of water please", where he usually charges $5 for a glass. Is this wrong? The hikers have no other choice but to buy it, so does that make it right?

suby_dude

iTrader: (18)

if you read carefully i said 'open market'..

what you are describing are 'captured audience'

big diff.

i have a econ book that's quite interesting if you really wanna read about market trends/behavior.

cyyeo

Let's say that a used 2.5RS is suddenly in very high demand and people are willing to pay around 25k for a used one because one is so rare. Would you tell your buyer that you would sell it for $14.5k instead of $25k?

suby_dude

iTrader: (18)

brucelee is not greedy!

he'll sell it to me for 16k... and turn around and sell it for 22k (ya, i gotta be the lowballer )

Steppin Razor

iTrader: (5)

Greed has NOTHING to with dealers selling products over MSRP. MSRP is the price at which the producer RECOMMENDS the dealer sell the product at. This price is not set in stone so that a dealer can charge more if the market allows and less if demand is low.

I can see why you might be upset here. There are people who are willing to pay a premium in order to be one of the first people to own an STi in the US. I assume that you are not willing to pay extra in order to be one of the first people to own one here. The price for the STi will not stay high unless Subaru does not produce enough of them. Judging by their supply of WRXs to the US, I would be willing to bet that they will provide more than enough STis.

This means that a person who is only willing to pay less than the MSRP will have to wait a few months until the demand for the car falls to (or below) the level of supply.

EDIT: There IS a "loss to society" when producers are not producing enough product to satisfy the demand of consumers. What we see in the real world is that while the manufacturers are making enough product in the long term, they are unable to supply enough product in the short term when interest in the product is high. It seems though in this particular case that Subaru might not be doing too badly as there are dealers who are offering the STi for MSRP or below right off the bat.

While I do agree that all people who work for Subary of Stevens Creek suck (and thus the dealership itself sucks), they WILL take the money of a person who is willing to pay more for a car and they will sell a car to some one who wants to pay less than MSRP. I know that because I bought my rex for a couple hundred over cost. Olympicjosh knows this because he got his for below MSRP as well. Sometimes you have to use a skill called negotiation. For some of us it's actually kind of fun to go in there and make an *** out of the dumbass sales guy and waste half his day to get a car for dirt cheap (thus eliminating his pay for that period of time). Those of us who do not enjoy negotiation are more than welcome to go to a dealer where no negotiation is involved and you pay a decent price for a car and walk off (Subaru of Santa Cruz, Carlson, just to name a few.)

Don't get me wrong, I hate SSCreek worse than most. I'm just saying that in my opinion it's not wrong to take the money from an idiot. As the old proverb goes, "A fool and his money are soon parted."

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

Wanting more money = ?


Greed. Simple as that.

Not saying that it doesn't happen every single day of the year.

I was brought up to be honest, so if my car was in high demand, I'd sell it for the same price as it were if there was low demand.

I did this with a set of 98' gold wheels, I sold them for $350. I could have sold them for $500, because they are rare, and in high demand.

Some vendors don't believe in reaming people because the supply of something is high, like Target. Though, other vendors, such as Stevens Creek, believe that making the most money per sale is the best thing to do. Of course it is the best thing to do for the company, but it is NOT the best ethical thing to do.

Look at Targets success. They succeeded because they had low prices, everyday, even with high demand items. People acknowledge that, and become return customers. They gain a huge customer base, because each customer knows that target will ALWAYS have low prices, no matter what the demand, or what the rarity of the item.

On the other hand, if a customer finds out that he/she could have gotten the item they purchased at a better price than what they paid, you better believe that they will not do business with the company that charged them more again, unless they are rich and don't care about money.

It all comes down to greed my friends, all greed.

cyyeo

How bout this....Let say that you buy a house 5 years ago for 350k and now it's worth 500k. Would you sell it for 350k today? Most likely not.
How are you gonna afford a new house, with the 350k you just got, in the bay area?

IMO, everyone is greedy. It all depends on how you look at it.

wrxtuner

I think that for short sighted vendors, gouging people dumb enough to pay for it, is a strategy. The problem is the goodwill that an establishment loses when this occurs.

Some companies believe that the damage to their goodwill (reputation) is too great to justify any momentary profit to be gained for unique market situations. Hence, the more reputable dealers will forego the short term profit potential and focus on the trust that is generated among the prospective buyers.

Supply and demand always rule, but ruthless adherence to this rule usually only works in areas where goodwill is more or less meaningless...Such as commodities trading, monopolies and individual selling their homes. Eventually, market forces will go back into balance and vendors will need to compete based on reputation, service and price. This is where Stevens Creek plays as a severly handicapped competitor. If they were smart, they would use this opportunity to help repair their seriously damaged reputation...They aren't and I agree with Brucelee that $41K will probably be the going price at Stevens Creek.

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

That is different.

The price of EVERY house went up. So, if I want to move out, and buy another house, I have to pay X amount more, so I need to sell my house for more. Get it?

cyyeo

Ya...true...but you could also move to a smaller house. DS...I am not trying to disrespect you here.

Your opinion on greed might differ from others. You might perceive some action as greed, others might sees it as a way of living.

Sorry if I offended you.

Charlie

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

No, no! No offense taken! I don't see anything wrong with it (unless it is major gouging), as it IS a way to live. He asked what was wrong with it, and I said greed. That's it.