Manufacturers who prefer not to see their brand equity diluted by pricing wars specify MAP pricing and will terminate your re-seller agreement if you are "caught" selling beneath it, e.g Cobb Tuning. Several forums we're apart of now mandate that the advertising vendor must post their "price" or the thread will be closed and removed. Many vendors complain about this and it is more than apparent why. The industry is changing and as companies fight to sell parts at 5% above cost to "earn" business, vendors will continue to go out of business. A 5% margin will not even touch the overhead of having a physical location, staff for sales and order support, etc.

I suppose the morale of the story is you will always get what you pay for and the guy with the cheapest price is not necessarily the "ideal" place to purchase from.

Regards,
Alex

It's not dishonest, but it is slightly unfair. But life isn't fair. To give a brick-and-mortar example, I am a "wholesaler" of auto parts for various shops in my area. The company I work for has pricing tiers based upon how much a commercial customer buys from us. The more they buy the higher the tier they will move to. This is the same as having preferred pricing, but more structured.

Commerce has *always* been about the person with the item charging what he feels he can get from the person with the money. If someone buys from you a lot, you might charge them less because you know in the long run they'll spend more money with you. Conversely, if someone rarely buys or is a giant PITA, you'll want to charge them more to get the margin you require or to cover the headaches (a.k.a. @$$hole tax).

There's nothing stopping someone from selling their product to a customer for one dollar or a million dollars except their wish to see them come back. What a customer has to do is ask themselves, "Am I someone this business wants to come back?"

I don't really think it needs to be a rule, but it seems like bad business. I won't consider buying something if there's no price posted, plain and simple.

Well said.

Posting a price should be mandatory. You're not selling, you're fishing without it and it comes off as shady.

The big issue is people want instant gratification,

even after very clear explanations, people are telling the vendors,

"I'd rather pay more and not have to send a PM, Than get a hookup for below MAP because you are trying to support the community"

yeah, super, those are the customers no one wants to deal with anyway. Idiots, the guys that call 50 times and then buy nothing, or get a knock off off of E-bay, or buy a simple part and need 3 hours of Tech support because they have no mechanical aptitude and/or friends.

Not gonna say that I agree on that last paragraph, but the first part is pretty much the vibe I'm getting from this thread.

I would prefer seeing the price also. I don't recall buying anything where I have to PM the vendor for the price.

Wow dude, 28 years in the military a decent college education and you jump immediately to insults? I look at prices to see what fits my budget for a purchase. I am not a zit popping 16 year old scratching coins from the couch, nor am I likely to purchase a set of Fikse for my BRZ (when received). Although I am a person of reasonable means. I own and have owned a number of new sports cars including Porsches, Lotus and Italian bikes and have a Mooney to comute in. I'm not interested in games! Be polite,look the guy in the eye and tell him what you will or will not do! A lot of questions could be minimized by not saying PM me. I am not a merchant, but I am a customer of 49 years, if you want to alienate your customer base game him or let him think you're gaming him and yeah, I think PM'ing for a price may convey that.

^^This. I work in eCommerce and a lot of times we can't advertise a %off or price. So we have to do MAP busters where you see the "add to cart to see price" or "see price at checkout." I would discourage having vendors post prices because then they have to meet MAP or IMAP pricing rules.

you guys are campaigning to not get good pricing.

what makes an idiot an idiot is when you explain something, in clear language, and they deny the obvious,

Bottom line it has been laid out for people, PM'ing someone doesn't mean you commit to purchase, if you are too lazy to save money, that's your deal but don't campaign for higher pricing on the forum, I'd prefer if the collective ignorance didn't affect everyone.

Zoomie, Thank you for your service, for our freedom.

Please read and understand what has been posted, do you really want the mods to effectively lock vendors into selling all products at or above MSRP/Minimum Advertised Price, the vendors are trying to cut people breaks to encourage new customers, why would you want to screw that up, you don't have to buy or even PM the guy if you don't want to,

So Skullworks. Are you saying that I am an idiot because I would rather not have to PM the vendor to get the price?

I understand completely why the vendor would rather not, but if a vendor wants MY business(not lumping anyone else in with this) then I need to see a price in the post.

To sell a part. You have to sign a contract stating you will stay within the MAP rules per that company.

An example:
If I went and posted the MAP pricing at $590 a wheel. You would say oh that costs to much. And move on to something cheaper. If you pm'ed me. You would have found that I was willing to sell it for much less but could not post the price on the thread.

I find it hard to think that you would rather spend 25% more on parts then send a simple PM to a vendor.

You guys are circling the wagons for higher pricing. I don't mind. Just means I make more money since I do not have to give a discount. I would now have to sell at the posted price. :(

I want to give out deals. Not sell at msrp or map. :party0030:

I guess the people that can PM will get the better pricing. :happy0180:

Like I said, I completely understand why you guys do this.:) I'm just saying, that for me personally, if I don't see a price in the post, then I just move on.