How Much Mark Up Really On Scuba Gear???

[theduckguru]

A well known on-line retailer is listing a console, reg, octo, bag package at 48% off the suggested retail of the individual items, all new stuff, no discontinued models, and all with manufacturers warranties.

How much mark up is there on this stuff?

 

[OldNSalty]

I think for some manufactures the wholesale price is based on the volume of the reseller and of course different types of equipment have different margins (BC’s may have greater margins then regs for example) but in general I think it is around a 100% mark up. I could be wrong; the last time a dealer let me look at their actual cost was about 10 years ago or so. Things may have changed.

 

[Web Monkey]

A well known on-line retailer is listing a console, reg, octo, bag package at 48% off the suggested retail of the individual items, all new stuff, no discontinued models, and all with manufacturers warranties.

How much mark up is there on this stuff?

I don't deal with any SCUBA sales, but if it's anything like electronics and appliances, there are more price lists than grains of sand on the beach.

A small dealer who doesn't sell much gets the "sc***-you" wholesale price that's probably about the same as you can find it for on the internet, and a really huge dealer gets to say "That's not cheap enough. I'll pay $xxx and cover the warranty costs myself. Take it or leave it." Then there's everything in-between.

The short answer is that nobody except the store you buy from knows what anything costs them, and if it's run like most small business, they probably don't really know even that (finance charges, depreciation, etc.).

Terry

 

[SkimFisher]

All of the above is very true, but I think it also comes down to the shop's business\sales practice. I can tell you of a shop near me that sells Zeagle Stiletto BC's for $600 - which anywhere else would get you a Ranger with some cash to spare. To me that's flat-out robbery. So honesty is also a factor.

 

[Davidstealey3]

looking at the books the manufactors give you, most of them have two or three different prices dealers get the equipment at. what price they pay is dependent on their buy in or total amount of gear bought in a year ( not sure exactly what one ). then they will have a MAP price ( manufactors advertised price ) and the MSRP. where the shops decidce to put the price tag at is up to them. some might sell at MAP others at MSRP and some might sell at a higher price. it all depends on what they pay for it and how much they sell it for that makes up the profit margin.

 

[RJP]

A well known on-line retailer is listing a console, reg, octo, bag package at 48% off the suggested retail...

Note that the most "well known on-line retailer" is notorious for inflating the MSRP and therefore their "% off" numbers are inflated as well.

 

[mathauck0814]

Aren't there enough shop owners on scuba board to give us some real data on this? Seems odd that as a society we can know every detail of how something like an automobile is priced so that when purchasing we have every inch of information the dealer has (and frankly can have a more pleasant buying experience just negotiating where we should end up rather than protecting our information in a perceived act of protecting our position). This information has to be someplace, no? How about an anonymous dealer posting their order forms? Must be at least one honest businessman in the diving world...

 

[cerich]

Aren't there enough shop owners on scuba board to give us some real data on this? Seems odd that as a society we can know every detail of how something like an automobile is priced so that when purchasing we have every inch of information the dealer has (and frankly can have a more pleasant buying experience just negotiating where we should end up rather than protecting our information in a perceived act of protecting our position). This information has to be someplace, no? How about an anonymous dealer posting their order forms? Must be at least one honest businessman in the diving world...

I see from you profile you are a corporate marketing consultant.... how about sharing the plans of your clients with us first?

The car pricing is a rigged game, much more complex and dishonest than you would imagine, wanting the dive industry to emulate that is a little like going on a date hoping to catch a STD.

 

[redacted]

My LDS told me that he normally has about 100% markup on everything that leaves his store. So unless there is a sale or I find a store with particularly good prices, that is what I assume when I look at LDS prices. I havs seen shops with even higher prices, well over MSRP.

So, 48% off is not unreasonable. Markup is a nice figure to have an estimate of. But I generally shop around for larger purchase to find the best price and work from there.

 

[Michael_Lambert]

Many people forget to take into the account the overhead involved with many of these dive shops. Dive shops don't make their money on courses or air fills they rely on the gear sales to keep them in business.

Many manufacturers require a minimal purchase to even get stock so then your stuck sitting on stock that you are going to slowly sell, they can't blow it out like a online store can because they need to make there profit margins to cover their overhead cost.