[DDRRE]

Most of you noticed the fact that all Grado products are price-fixed - as in - if the retailer sales it at a lower price he becomes an unauthorized dealer and doesn't recieve shipments from the company.

This happened once, with "Powermax" - they even wrote an article regarding this situation (They sold Grados for a really low price.. SR80 for 64$ instead of 95$ etc.) Actually, they lost their authorization because of us head-fi'ers, advertising their price - which reached Grado eventually.

I find price fixing very lame, tbh. It also eliminates competition.


Debate

 

[cantsleep]

their policy, cant really argue..

 

[plainsong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cantsleep their policy, cant really argue..

They also have zero intelligence with how to pick a distributor. Other brands use local distributor, and yet, their prices don't quadruple. Grado? Well they'd rather not have worldwide customers. That's what the prices and the worldwide lockout tell me.

But sure you can argue it, you can just not buy a Grado product. If they don't want us to buy it, we won't.

The only one we were allowed to have was the HF-1.

 

[Geoff Rymer]

Debate? Hehe, you know the Powermax thread got locked down due to people overheating, right?

Personally I don't care so much about Grado enforcing MAPs, but I really wish they changed their international pricing policy. In the UK £800 for RS-1s is just silly, and I don't even know what they are supposed to retail for over here in Australia!

 

[alfie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geoff Rymer Personally I don't care so much about Grado enforcing MAPs, but I really wish they changed their international pricing policy. In the UK £800 for RS-1s is just silly, and I don't even know what they are supposed to retail for over here in Australia!

Agree 100%. It is not the price fixing the problem, I find it fine; it is the pricing all over the world to be so strange. I think that if Grados were so chip (hummm in the rest of the world as in the USA, Grado couldn't match the demand and would be in production troubles (?).

 

[Carl]

Quite a few companies have minimum advertised prices.

 

[909]

This issue has been beaten to death. I don’t care much for the pricing policy. If a manufacturers’ pricing scheme seems so offensive a consumer could always boycott the product(s) or only buy used. Consumers' voices are heard the loudest and clearest when they vote with dollars or withhold their dollars.

 

[MarkyMark]

Grado headphones are grossly overpriced in Europe due anti-competitive practices. As Geoff says, £800 in UK for an RS-1 is a joke. But the local distributors are given carte blanche and Grado will punish anyone daring to ship into another's territory.

Does anyone other headphone manufacturer use this strategy?

 

[alfie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 909 This issue has been beaten to death. I don’t care much for the pricing policy. If a manufacturers’ pricing scheme seems so offensive a consumer could always boycott the product(s) or only buy used. Consumers' voices are heard the loudest and clearest when they vote with dollars or withhold their dollars.

I think everybody in Europe (in Italy for sure) (tries to) boycotts the "local" distributor while he/She doesn't want to boycott Grado headphones at all

 

[F107plus5]

I agree on the boycott question. I'd really like to boycott the gasoline stations and our local power company for what THEY are doing to my wallet! But then again, I don't like the thoughts of always staying at home in Florida in the summer sweating with no air-conditioning and not being able to listen to my MS2i!

For the price of just one tank of gasoline in the Wifes' mini-van I could buy a pair of SR-60s, or for the price of just one months' electric bill I could buy RS-2!

I guess I LIKE gasoline and electricity.

Major Bummer.

 

[DaDude]

I agree with alfie. I would like it a look to take al closer look at Grados, but i won´t pay 125Euros (140$) for a SR60 which costs 60$ new in the USA...

thats the only bad thing about Grado.

Maybe I should try to talk with the dealers and maybe they will reduce the price...

 

[MonkeyMan]

The easy workaround for those outside of the USA is to have an American buy them for you and then ship them to you with the customs form marked "gift" to avoid paying import fees...

 

[audiofan]

CAD prices are crazy.sr60,160.00,sr80,220,sr125,250.00,sr225,300. 00,sr325i,425.00,rs2,700.00,rs1,1000.00.

 

[F107plus5]

Something that may have been touched upon before, but I may have missed it:

Ok....I have Alessandros and they can be shipped all over the world for the same price. Where the problem comes in for buying Alessandros' elsewhere, is the cost added to the price of the cans at that particular countries border. Does the effective price increase reflect a similar "mark-up" by the distributer in those countries?

I mean; here we are complaining about Grado and their distributors, when we may be seeing the same inflated prices, but it's happening instead at the border.

Maybe?

 

[augustwest]

A number of years ago Levi Strauss was sued for their pricing policies. Their policies were similar to Grados. Levi's lost the class action suit that was filed against them, and had to make restitutions.

If you feel so strongly about Grados way of doing things, step up to the plate, and file suit.

- augustwest