Massdrop is selling grey market Chord products?

Discussion in 'General Audio Discussion' started by purr1n, Sep 20, 2017.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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  2. Pilsnerpunk

    Pilsnerpunk Friend

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  3. dmckean44

    dmckean44 In a Sherwood S6040CP relationship

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    Massdrop does this all the time, their Seiko watches are all grey market too.
     
  4. Elnrik

    Elnrik Super Friendly

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    I think that's all fine, as long as Massdrop tells people what they're buying. If they are passing these off as Mojos that will receive mfgr warranties and support, then that's a huge no no. Otherwise, caveat emptor.
     
  5. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    They do it with watches for sure. I bought one once and tried to get it registered with an official dealer to make sure I had warranty coverage. The dealer said he couldn’t do it. When I went back to CostCo and mentioned this they said to just bring it back to them if I have issues with the watch. I assume Massdrop is similar.

    I don’t have a problem with this. The manufacturer still gets paid. Maybe they just want their products to maintain a certain value due to brand reputation.

    Schiit actually does this too but they do the opposite. They don’t want distributors to overprice their products rather than underprice. Value is important to Schiit and they don’t need distributors screwing that up. Which is also why they have so few distributors.

    PS: noticed Marvey uses Opera. I made the switch too
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2017
  6. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Don't know how it is in USA (etc) but in UK, hifi companies and distributors could be said to be criminal, on a routine basis. The Resale Price Maintenance Act dates back to 1964 (I remember it!) and makes it illegal to enforce a minimum selling price on all but a small number of exempted things (that I don't remember, except it used to include books).

    So nobody forces UK hifi stores to sell at their stated prices: they just stop supplying them if they don't.

    A battle that should have been over decades ago. Chord, and the rest of you... There's a nice Mozart song you should all hear.
     
  7. Jozurr

    Jozurr Facebook Friend

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    It's similar to buying used - buy cheaper and forgo warranty; however in this case you still have MD warranty - for whatever it is worth.
     
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    ^ This is where I was headed. This model of super high dealer margins + manufacturer enforcement of MSRP is a joke in the Internet age. It's simply not feasible, because some dealer or some distributor is going to break, consequences be damned. This is exactly why I advise in the last sentence of my used gear pricing post that we should NEVER pay retail prices for any piece of new audio gear that goes through traditional dealer channels. Keeping calling each dealer, ask for "B" stock, ask the dealer to drop the box to put a dent into, a dealer might be in dire financial straits, someone will break. This is how the market is supposed to work.

    We've already been seeing cracks. The MSRP of the HD800 is still $1399, per Best Buy and Crutchfield. but now we are seeing Amazon dumping them for $980. What is Sennheiser going to do about it? Send Sgt. Shultz to berate Jeff Bezos? Amazon could care less. There have also been authorized vendors selling "demo" models which have arrived at my doorstep brand new in unopened boxes .

    I just find it hillarious that Chord is trying to stop it. And that likely some Ding Dong outfit in Asia, who overcommited on the Girl Scout cookie order, dumped a few hundred to Massdrop.
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2017
  9. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Even before the internet age. Might you not expect a city like London to have more than a tiny number of mid/hi-end audio shops? Even back then, not many. Never really thought about it in those days, but maybe the fact that nobody was (is) allowed to compete was part of the reason for that.

    Richer Sounds broke some barriers. Originally, it would be bankrupt stock and last-year models, but in their early days, their original shop was a treasure cave. Now they are just another domestic-electronics box shifter... but they still manage to shift more boxes than their big-store competitors. They might even survive the internet.

    "demo" stuff was possible. But it was ex-demo. I was a bit of vulture for that kind of thing. When I wasn't busy hanging around the supermarket bakery counter waiting for the Danish Pastries to go BOGOF.
     
  10. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    So there was and still is a British Hi-Fi Industrial Complex!
     
  11. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Ha Ha... Well, yes, I suppose!

    But, in the end, I found myself spending more time auditioning the Danish Pastries.
     

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