Surprising price ratios - why?

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

I have sold some stuff to a clubmate, and I wanted to find out a good price. So, I did a web search. I did come up with some surprising results. No, not that prices for the same (or similar) items vary from dealer to dealer. Something more difficult to figure out:

The ratio between the prices for two items varies widely from dealer to dealer.

I sold 2 epee bells and 3 epee 3-prong bell contacts to my clubmate. Bells are *generally* costlier that contacts, but the price ratio between them varies widely from dealer to dealer. Of the 6 dealers that I have looked up, the ratios are: 3.2, 2.25, 1.70, 1.33, 1.29, 1.00.

Why is this so? When I look at price ratios for household items and compare high-cost and low-cost stores, I can not remember seeing such huge price ratio variations.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[JEC]

It's call "marketing"...

[pkt]

Peter,

are you comparing the same things? i.e. to use a phrase the economists are so fond of: to hold everything equal.
r u comparing apples with oranges?
are the guards the same?
are the plugs the same?
are the quality the same?
where are the different pieces made?
any shipping costs involved in your calulations?
any taxes and duties?
any handling charges?

Are you a statistician or cost accountant in real life? If you are not, perhaps you should explore those careers...

PK

[magma]

in defense of peter, who i don't really know, except for the posts, he has a history of being heavily involved with math, and exploring the connections between items and their intrinsic value, when along comes X and places a value on it, and he wants to see Y. It may have to do with Supply and Demand, so, I would go back to the economics forumlas and look into that. For me, in comparing catelogs which I find fascinating, is the sheer amount of equipment and the variations in each item: I can't give out names or someone might feel i'm biased on some point but:
catelog A has 3 or 4 masks, they obviously favor sabre but the rest of their stuff is good.
Catelog B has 12 masks, most of which are good, but the rest of their stuff is questionalble, especially weapons
Catelog C has 30 masks, some they should dump [uninsulated masks for example].
Its's all there, we just don't see it!

[pkt]

magma,

I agree with you. One of our juniors recently bought an electric sabre mask. Within 2 months - on average he fenced twice a week of toto 3 hrs - the side of the mask is rusted so that it won't pass the test... so now he has to buy another one for tournaments.

So, Peter, quality is definitely an issue that you have to consider.

PK

[veeco]

Also, some vendors may decide to make their profit margin higher on some items when others might decide to make them on other items...