Halcyon BCD

[Dive4Life]

Halcyon has Fair Trade Pricing which sets a minimum selling price for their gear. So you might find it other places, but the prices are the same.

Pretty crappy if you ask me.

Yup, definitely crappy. Oh well, the lowest that I've found for what I was looking for has been $515.00 plus shipping of $15. When will people be able to charge whatever they want for a product. If you want to sell high thats fine but someone should be able to sell it for less to beat the competition. Guess they don't like the thought of that. WHAT HAPPENED TO A PERFECTLY COMPETITIVE MARKET? I'm done, thanks for listening to my venting.

 

[Karen Cleveland]

Halcyon has Fair Trade Pricing which sets a minimum selling price for their gear. So you might find it other places, but the prices are the same.

Pretty crappy if you ask me.

Just curious, what is so crappy about Fair Trade Pricing?

Karen

 

[SDAnderson]

Just curious, what is so crappy about Fair Trade Pricing?

Karen

The long and the short of it is that FTP is anti-competitive and costs consumers money.

FTP means that the manufacturer sets (and enforces) the retail price, not the retailer, thus inhibiting price competition between retailers. The effect of this for you, the consumer, is that you pay an artificially high price. Many consumers call that "crappy." Many retailers agree, since they want to be able to compete for your business.

Others disagree, arguing that a manufacturer should be able to control his brand and to take a paternal interest in the long-term financial welfare of the retailer.

This essentially boils down to a question of which one of three parties (manufacturer, retailer, consumer) should have the greatest rights in an open marketplace. FTP means that the manufacturer is able to override the combined interests of both the retailer and the consumer, a position that isn't always easy to justify.

Ops populus!

 

[jonnythan]

As far as I can tell, the only ones benefitting from FTP are EE and 5thD because competition is impossible.

 

[Meng_Tze]

As far as I can tell, the only ones benefitting from FTP are EE and 5thD because competition is impossible.

Who runs these outfits? I saw the price of the Expl. on EE lower than in a LDS (where I did see the FTP on the list)......Hmm is EE undercutting the reatil chain?

 

[SDAnderson]

Who runs these outfits? I saw the price of the Expl. on EE lower than in a LDS (where I did see the FTP on the list)......Hmm is EE undercutting the reatil chain?

My understanding is that Halcyon sets their FTP as a minimum price and that stores are free to charge more than the FTP, if they wish. I don't know if EE is undercutting the FTP but it may also be possible that your LDS is bumping the price above FTP.

 

[Meng_Tze]

True, but their price is comparable to others I have seen............hmmm interesting.

 

[jonnythan]

I believe JJ does [or did] own/have a large interest in EE, but I dunno about FifthD.

 

[Schwim]

Another consideraetion is the Dive Rite Venture Wing. This is a well-designed 30 lb lift donut wing specifically for single tanks, with no bungies, etc. Inner bladder design, so easy to replace in the event of a puncture. Just order it without the hose dump valve (I actually switched it out myself for a $7 part when I wanted to go DIR, pretty simple). Also cut off the dump valve ball and you're DIR, less expensively.

 

[WJL]

As far as I can tell, the only ones benefitting from FTP are EE and 5thD because competition is impossible.

The Chicago School of Economics disagrees with you. They will argue that it is more likely that manufacturers of higher-end or speciality products can provide the best over-all benefit to the consumer through resale price maintenance. The manufacturer wants its products sold by qualified, competent distributors who will provide premium pre-sale and after-sale service to the consumer. To ensure that these distributors will be motivated to sell your high-priced product, the manufacturer will assure the distributors that a consumer will not be able to buy the same product from a priice-cutting distributor who has not made the same investment. That way consumers get serviced by knowledgable distributors before and after the sale.

This ties in with the eternal LDS vs. mail order debate. There is a definite cost to the LDS from people who go into the shop to learn all about a product they are interested in, then order the product from a cheaper mail order source. In this circumstance, the shop essentially paid for part of the mail-order source's costs of sale, and got nothing for it. This discourages the LDS from offering products that are easily available elsewhere at a significant discount. So if you want a shop to carry your merchandise, you may want to impose some form of resale price maintenance. The products then will end up in the hands of consumers at the fairest over-all price.

The economists also note that competitive pressures will prevent a manufacturer from imposing resale prices that are too high. If the prices are too high, consumers will buy a competitive product. You can see this process happening with Halcyon. Just in the last couple of years, rivals like Oxycheq have seen the opportunity to make money selling comparable products below Halcyon's prices. Halcyon has been forced to pay attention to these competitors and come out with new and improved products in order to maintain its market share. It may be forced to lower its prices as well if enough competitors offer superior products at lower prices.

Anyways, even if you disagree with the necessity for resale price maintenance, and I generally do, there are reasonable arguments to support it.