Re: TP Memory source

[dewar@nile.gnat.com (Robert Dewar)]

"I suppose, but its a sort of knowledge I'd rather not spend my time
obtaining.  I'd just assume buy from the company that prints the
lowest price rather than obtain a written quote and getting a $5 lower
price, since the company that prints the low price is doing me the
favor of enlightening me with the truth."

You mean the truth about how low they would be willing to go? Fine, you
just express the opposite of the bargaining mentality, and it is true that
a lot of Americans hate to bargain. It's not in the culture, but someone
willing to bargain will almost always be able to do better. That's life.
THe Wall Street Journal did an article a few years ago (in the height of the
recession), and found they could bargain everywhere, at gas stations, at
department stores, at restaurants. It was quite amazing.

I bought a power book at Rockwell a few months ago. The price on the power
book was good, but they wanted $899 for memory. I told them too much, that
I could get it from CDW for $699. They were willing to match, given they
would be selling the power book. If you can do it (I certainly am not good
at it), you can save a lot of money by bargaining in the computer field.

It's easy to see the dynamics. Suppose someone buys a memory card for $500.
They figure that to pay the rent, overhead, salaries, and make a profit,
then need, given their estimate of the competition and elasticity of the
market, to sell the card at $700, so that is what they advertise.

Now if someone comes along, bargains hard, and offers $550, it is worth
it on a single shot basis to sell one unit at $550 and make a small
incremental profit of $50. But that does not mean that the "truth" is that
they can afford to sell all the boards at $550, on the contrary, they might
well go broke doing it.

So you see, the "truth" in this kind of pricing situation is an elusive
thing. 

I know this is a bit off topic for the Thinkpad mailing list, but perhaps
not so *very* much off topic, when obviously a lot of people are concerned
with getting the very lowest possible prices. One thing that will help
is for people to post deals they have managed to make. This mailing list
is small enough that we can do that without disrupting the market. Of course
if you advertised the prices you got on national TV, you would blow the deal!