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Price Fixing - Right or Wrong?


Price Fixing - Right or Wrong?  

122 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you think it is right that a manufacturer/importer/distributor price fix an item so to maintain a certain price that an item can be soold at?

    • No - this is completely wrong. Let the marketplace dictate the price
      110
    • Yes - this is an proper way to do business
      9
    • Doesn't matter to me as long as I can get the item regardless of price
      3


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When, oh when, are you people going to learn?

You can't successfully argue your cases in this forum. You have nothing to gain discussing this here, other than total frustration. Take the advice of my PR company, "Just say nothing in a public forum you don't control. You will only make it worse and broaden the misconceptions already out there"

How many minds do you think have been changed since this started?

Somebody please take the high road. You've taken something that really no one was discussing or really cared about about for the most part, and would have just gone away if you left it alone. But noooooooo!

If no one cared, no one would be reading.

Why are you here? Just for the opportunity to lecture others?

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I appreciate Ken coming on here and defending his argument. The same issue applies to quite a few other hobbies I have and although I don't care for price fixing I understand the principle. I will say, if Ken makes a good 1/48 Mig-23/27 I'll be his loudest supporter of price fixing! :jaw-dropping:

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You can't successfully argue your cases in this forum. You have nothing to gain discussing this here, other than total frustration. Take the advice of my PR company, "Just say nothing in a public forum you don't control. You will only make it worse and broaden the misconceptions already out there"

How much did your PR company charge you for that "advice," that amounted to instructions to do your public speaking through them? :jaw-dropping:

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Well, I guess if nothing else Pacific Coast has achieved some free advertising. I lived on the Pacific Coast for 20ish years and never heard of them. I can't say I've ever been in a hobby shop that carried the line.

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Forcing someone to sell at full retail so they make the full margin...that sounds like a socialistic nanny state policy. :woot.gif: This is America the home of Sam Walton where falling prices are expected!!!

It's also the home of farm subsidies. And it's been the home of steel tariffs. And public regulation of utilities. And obscene quantities of tax dollars poured into heavy engineering for waterways, highways, airports, and other infrastructure used by businesses to make money without disproportionate payback. So Uncle Sam has been a nanny for two centuries for many different interests. Oddly enough, that goes unreported these days. Go figure.

I was thinking that if we really wanted to help your local hobby shop, buy them a stock portfolio consisting of solid, dividend-paying investments. Then, they could take a loss on the hobby business while still remaining afloat. This is great way to support non-profit enterprises. It's leveraging capitalism for stuff that frankly isn't otherwise doing so hot in market value.

Edited by Fishwelding
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Forcing someone to sell at full retail so they make the full margin...that sounds like a socialistic nanny state policy. :jaw-dropping: This is America the home of Sam Walton where falling prices are expected!!!

It would be (nanny state stuff) if that were the only game in town and you HAD to sell their stuff. They have the ability to charge whatever they want and everyone else has the ability to keep shopping.

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Forcing someone to sell at full retail so they make the full margin...that sounds like a socialistic nanny state policy.

That is astounding. If you think one manufacturer forcing prices up to keep private businesses going is socialism, you really need to check the definition of socialism. A socialist writes ...

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That is astounding. If you think one manufacturer forcing prices up to keep private businesses going is socialism, you really need to check the definition of socialism. A socialist writes ...

Indeed, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a socialist would insist that citizens themselves own the mode of production of plastic models, thereby ensuring they are produced at cost, or perhaps with a margin for reinvestment in, say, new model kit plants. Therefore, the lowest price and widest distribution of models would be the goal. But I suspect that, in the U.S., some problems would still be the same, or a different set of problems might arise. If the kids aren't building models, a state-owned model kit plant would produce horrendous surpluses. Of course, a socialist system might then produce a big propaganda campaign to encourage kids to build models. Or it might make it a school activity. Or reward children, through the youth groups, for models built. All this to preserve the jobs of the model kit factory workers, who may have developed considerable political power. Finally, out of desperation, the government might simply have the model kits shipped to another factory to be melted down to make traffic barriers.

It's amazing to me, sometimes, how the supposedly clear divide between free markets and socialism isn't that simple, clearly defined, or even relevant to problems. After all, the Soviet communists admired Henry Ford's auto plants, and U.S. Steel's Gary, Indiana Steel Works, emulating both in their own constructions.

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Indeed, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a socialist would insist that citizens themselves own the mode of production of plastic models, thereby ensuring they are produced at cost, or perhaps with a margin for reinvestment in, say, new model kit plants. Therefore, the lowest price and widest distribution of models would be the goal. But I suspect that, in the U.S., some problems would still be the same, or a different set of problems might arise. If the kids aren't building models, a state-owned model kit plant would produce horrendous surpluses. Of course, a socialist system might then produce a big propaganda campaign to encourage kids to build models. Or it might make it a school activity. Or reward children, through the youth groups, for models built. All this to preserve the jobs of the model kit factory workers, who may have developed considerable political power. Finally, out of desperation, the government might simply have the model kits shipped to another factory to be melted down to make traffic barriers.

I think the only way in which you're wrong is the assumption that socialism = bad management. The examples from history aren't good, but there's no rule that says it's obligatory.

Also, of course, capitalism = good management is another false assumption. When I hear that "the market is the solution" or "private enterprise is inherently superior", I always remember: a third of new businesses go bust in their first year.

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This thread is really turning into a yawn full of yappers, guys.

Gordon wants to discount and sell online. Great.

Ken wants to not discount and sell in a brick'n'mortar. Great.

Two different philosophies. It takes a mighty tiny person to not calmly have enough room for that.

This place being ''online'' is inherently biased Gordon's way & mankind seeks convenience.

But the thread did remind me of the rag wing'd Hurri Ken's group does and it's not in my collection yet.

Just remember this business truth: For every 1% decrease in margin, there is a 10% increase in the chance of business failure due to improper cash flow. Profit is linear, cost is exponential, & risk follows a log scale. Those are very steep parabolic realities all businesses follow.

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Gents:

In every country that has had controlled markets uncontrolled (black markets) have sprung up. In these venues goods have sold for the local market price whether higher or lower than the official prices. Artificial constraints don't work.

Mark

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I think the only way in which you're wrong is the assumption that socialism = bad management. The examples from history aren't good, but there's no rule that says it's obligatory.

Also, of course, capitalism = good management is another false assumption. When I hear that "the market is the solution" or "private enterprise is inherently superior", I always remember: a third of new businesses go bust in their first year.

I didn't assume that either socialism or capitalism automatically means good or bad management. My point is that the debate over the two is often not useful for really understanding a real problem or situation at hand. After all, well led and highly successful military units are, fundamentally, government bureaus, akin to socialism; meanwhile some of the most effective socialist advances have mimicked private enterprise elsewhere.

Incidently--although this is off-topic--my suspicion is that each system, especially by itself, chronically suffers peculiar problems. In fact, lately I've been thinking more and more about the problems inherent in big institutions. Why do some quantity of corporations and government bureaucracies seem to share inherent "rot" over a period of time? Complacency, interests that acquire enormous inertia ("the way we've always done it," or "it's never been my job before now, so it isn't now" for example), problems keeping costs under control, and even corruption seems to attack businesses and government equally. I agree that a third of business new businesses die. I'd add that older businesses frequently rot from the inside, too. Theoretically, the market "punishes" these businesses into better management or by destroying them, but in reality they can cause enormous damage before finally changing or dieing. And that's why governments "bail out" such businesses, rather than face a traumatic, further economic hardship.

I remember reading, either about the deployment to Desert Storm, or to the latest Iraq war, that some U.S. National Guard units, upon their attempt to deploy, showed that they had suffered this kind of rot beforehand. Meanwhile, other Guard units have high reputation for being as or more effective than "regular" Army units. Interesting, to figure out why they're different. But that's another thread entirely!

Edited by Fishwelding
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