Re: [Harp-L] SUB-30 price in USA/Manufacturers, less harp-ling!!!

[mik jagger <harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx>]

Charging, including charging a premium is different from "overcharging".  Otherwise, there would be no word for it. "Overcharging" stands for charging more than is reasonable, or justifiable. As such, it is wrong. How do you tell the difference between "charging a premium" and "overcharging"? When the price feels insulting, when you say to yourself "I see, just fishing for fools here" - that's overcharging. Sometimes people are taken advantage of , due to their lack of info on what's a reasonable price - it is still wrong, even though the victim of a scam is unaware of being fooled. Here is an example: a $1 beer is often sold in local bars for $5. I pay(always tip extra) and feel fine, even great. But not if I realize that a dude next to me is paying $3, whatever the justification may be. Sometimes it is illegal to play with prices like that, sometimes there is no law that says you cannot do it. But it is ALWAYS uncool, unethical and ultimately wrong.
 BTW, Europeans - I would not take it for granted that you should pay more for all kinds of things, gasoline included. Someone is ripping you off - that's the only explanation, well stand up and say so. The only reason Americans were paying less is because this "car culture" would not stand for it. Otherwise, it is just as tempting to charge more for gas here, believe me, and the attempt is being made as we speak. Here is harp content: Manufacturers are reading way too much harp-l!!! You are shooting yourselves in the foot when you market to harp-l, instead of the larger general population! We are freaks here, the ones that say "I'll pay more" are even greater freaks. Sure, we'll pay more if you twist our arms far enough, but evidently it is still not enough to make you money! Hohner would agree - poor sales of Xb40, or even CBH were to blame for their demise, not that those products were not good. Same with Suzuki - so many great innovative harp models,
 but do they sell? Really. Like charging whatever they do on their tremolo chromatic - does it really recoup your costs? Are you really making profit? Getting significantly rich? The answer is no, big NO.  How about Renny - did it bring any profit to its company? No way. Its just there, for "status' mainly. So that at best, more 10 hole diatonics and tremolos are sold. That's what the world plays - not Reny, not Filisko, not Overdrive, no Tremollo Chroms but simple inexpensive harps. Harps that were good enough for Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson, the average guy who is drawn to harmonica to begin with, thinks are good enough for me. "I'll try it" he says, "and see if it is for me". Such harmonicas already sell well into millions every year, for over a century. So what's the point of innovation?
If you don't want to get it to as many people as possible, if you are not willing to make your fortune by the old-fashioned way of producing and selling alot of your product (quantity is what always made money), if working for your profit is too much to ask for, if you'd rather be fishing for fools - there is no point in any innovation. Everybody looses - the manufacturer does not recoup the investment in any meaningful way, few of us here got "shtooped" for few hard earned dollars, music community never provides a critical mass needed for an innovative product to make a dent, and things just stay where they are. Well then - don't invent! But don't insult either, because when you try to sell same chunk of brass that Johnson sells for a$1, and claim that your brass is that much more expensive, the game is not that convincing. It just does not work - that had to be the lesson learned from hohner's XB40 demise. The product was good, the greed was even
 greater. Not the first time that happened.
P.S. Johnson at $1 a pop manages to be profitable all these years - must be a miracle! I'm sure their inferior laborers just swing a magic wand and those diatonics just "pop into the existence" , there's just no other, "inferior" way....




________________________________
 From: Stephen Jennings <harpfixer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 'george sanders' <georgegsandman@xxxxxxxxx>; 'mik jagger' <harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx> 
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2012 3:31 PM
Subject: RE: [Harp-L] SUB-30 price in USA
 
I do find myself smiling at this discussion - I don't recall *any* outcry
from the States when US retail for a Hohner harp was the same as UK trade
price!! On the other hand, I'm not aware that even Suzuki Europe know yet
what the price will be this side of the pond - guess we'll just have to wait
and see!!!
Hoping to see at least some of you in Bristol this weekend.

Regards,
Steve Jennings

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of george sanders
Sent: 25 October 2012 5:40 AM
To: mik jagger
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] SUB-30 price in USA

That means the harp should be costing less than $30 maybe somewhere near the
price of a Huang, which as far as I am concerned after being burned on this
harp(sub 30) is a better buy.
George



________________________________
From: mik jagger <harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 9:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] SUB-30 price in USA

Mike - the facts are as I described them in our initial discourse on Sub30
price - if we signal "we'll pay more" - we will pay more, indeed. Seems
unwise on our part, the fault is with us, not suzuki. Free market is free
market, we do not have same prices for same goods, imposed by a government
or something of the sort. There is nothing new here. Remember the BS about
cost of brass, etc - well, here is a fitting illustration.... I propose we
demand better, as consumers. Real great sub 30 is better be "SUB" $30!


<<The bottom line is, before people freak out, we really should establish
all the facts and details. Obviously, as consumers, we want the cheapest
merchandise we can get, lol.
----------
Mike Fugazzi