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Just Wondering,Why no Fisher forum on Treasure Depot?

Any company has the right to not sell in a situation involving a crime.
What I am talking about is Policy set by a corporate board. But also in certain circumstances Policy made by a corporate board may become criminal.
 
The courts have ruled consistently that it is what is BEST FOR THE PUBLIC INTEREST. Can you imagine if "Big Oil" here in the US [not counting OPECS CARTEL-MONOPOLY] were allowed to to meet secretly, or overtly, and say, "Tomorrow Gas at the Pumps goes for $10 a gallon." I'd be ready to hang somebody-hell, I already am. There is a refinery 1 mile from my house and gas here is $3.39/gal.
If a dealer is willing to conduct business by making less per sale and getting by on volume, he should be able to.
To answer someone else's question, NO, I am not a dealer. But I have talked to enough dealers on the Whites situation that are so angryed, that Whites are not even listed on their web sites. As to Fisher, If some of the dealers want to jockey around a little on prices in hopes of getting your business, why not. Yet as things stand with all dealers at the same price, when Kellyco gets through throwing in all their little goodies, everyone else is still at a disadvantage, unless they can afford to match Kellys on all the freebies.
BOTTOM LINE: The factories are always going to get their money. But let the small dealers have a chance to compete and in the long run maybe WE, the endusers might come out ahead also. One thing about the cheapest price from the biggest dealer, no matter how close you hold your detector to the phone trying to get help in figureing out how it works, IT WON'T BE CLOSE ENOUGH.
 
I agree with what you are saying for the most part. Once a dealer has bought and paid for his stock, what he sells it for should be HIS business, not the manufacturers. There are ALOT of dealers out there who feel the same way, believe me. And there are some who will "sweeten their deals" beyond factory restrictions if you just look around and ask. Rules are one thing......Reality is another.

As far as the freebies that are given away with detectors, 95% of them are absolute junk that has little use or doesn't last long enough to be useful for long. Dealers pay pennies for this China-made crap and then claim their "Accessory Packages" are worth hundreds of dollars. Kellyco is the worst.
 
Are right on the money. It's a sad situation. The mfg's and distributors are the only ones making out, while the small dealer takes it in the shorts because of the restrictions placed on them. There are certain dealers that the mfg's and distributors "look the other way" with. I think more dealers should conduct their business as they want, not how they are told. What kind of a business do you have when you aren't the decision maker? You become just a puppet for the mfg's and distributors. That's why they allow so many to become dealers. It's more like the dealer is being a field hand for them, rather than an independent businessman. More of these small dealers should conduct their business the way they want, even if it means using clandestine methods to sell for what they want to sell for. The problem with that is, there are too many "rats", and most of them are other cutthroat dealers, that would ruin it for them. Look what happened to Al, and a couple of others.

OldeTymer
 
You know, I was just thinking of Al Jones while reading your post. Tesoro screwed him over big time IMO, and lost one of the best dealers they ever had in the process. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot !

If a man buys and pays for a product from the manufacturer, it then belongs to him. PERIOD ! He should be free to sell it at whatever price he wants to sell it at.

It's just this kind of collective price-fixing in this industry that will eventually ruin this industries better manufacturers and their wares. They all need to wake up before we are left with nothing but China-Crap off the shelves of the local Wal Mart stores. True "free-market" pricing is not rocket science....it's common sense and basic economics that the big boys can't seem to grasp.

Ever wonder why there is a bigger and better market in USED detectors than in new ones ? Look at all of the machines that sell and trade on the forums daily. I doubt that dealers come close to matching that in new machine sales. But in the second-hand market, the manufacturers have no pricing control. You buy and sell at your own level, not theirs. I once received a call from a manufacturer because I advertaised one of their machines on the classifieds as new in the box (it was) with blank warranty card. He told me who he was, and asked me for the serial number of the machine. I refused to tell him, because it wasn't any of his damn business. He then told me "We can't have any of this", referring to my offering a new machine with blank warranty after it had moved through the regular retail selling channels. I told him it was MY MACHINE and I would damn sure sell it for what I wanted to sell it for, or give it away if I wanted to. He told me he wouldn't honor the warranty then. "The warranty to WHICH MACHINE ?" I asked him. :) He just hung up the phone. This gent was power-hungry to the point of absolute arrogance.

Ralph
 
This is something that has needed airing for a long time. We have anything but a free market system. Lets say an ID EDGE sells for $599.95-EVERYWHERE. So how does a dealer get an advantage; the biggest dealer buys masses of extras including electronic pin-pointers and include them 'FREE' with the detector. But the small dealers can't get the bulk rate price because he buys less, and he can't knock off $$$ for fear of losing his franchise. So in actuality, this largest mail order company is selling the EDGE for below the official Fisher bottom dollar price, with all the goodies. And they can inflate the hell out of all the official freebies, making you think you are getting more. But there is an anomaly. Say you buy a detector over $250, you get the $175 pinpointer free, which normally sells for about $69, and get this-the postage on the detector is free, but the post & handling on the free pinpointer is $14.95.
So I could have gotten my EDGE from this largest of all dealers with a bunch of goodies, but I bought from Ron at Dixie Detectors because there is no nicer guy and if something is wrong, he will fix it, like yesterday!
And Ron really can give you technical help-he actually learns what he sells.
 
I remember one dealer that tried to give out a coupon with each new detector sold that was worth about the same value as all the cheapo goodies that were being included at the time. The coupon would be good for any accessory item the customer wanted, other than an accessory from the manufacturer of the detector, in case they already had the $.50 trash apron, $5 vinyl carry bag, $2 headphones and $1 digger that all had a "retail value" of $159. All the other dealers that were offering all that junk complained, and he got "fired" for being so innovative. Why, that was heresy to really offer the customer something of value. This industry has turned into a joke, as far as the business side of it goes. It makes me sick. :puke:

Let's not dwell on this any longer. It's just not worth it, and it gets us upset. Let's concentrate on metal detecting, and the wonderful finds we're going to make next time out, or the great new detectors to choose from. Yeah, I know they aren't really new, just a rehash of the same old technology, but it's fun examining them.

OldeTymer
 
Ron @ Dixie and Brian @ Southern are two of the best, and I've dealt with both in the past. I think alot of times even the good dealers take some of the "corporate heat" when customers just don't understand the dealership requirements and selling restrictions. Still, the manufacturers ALWAYS get their price up front, so the price restrictions seem more a matter of "control" than anything logical. Free-pricing competition would seem to be alot more desirable than a stagnated hobby industry. If it weren't for the occasional new model releases, sales would be in a world of hurt. Like all markets, the number of machines to the number of buyers eventually gets to the point of saturation, and guess who is usually left holding the bag with unsaleable stocks of new machines. It's not likely the manufacturer ! Is that possibly the REAL reason for the price restriction requirements.....more small dealers = more stock sold that the manufacturer doesn't have to worry about when the market for a particular model tanks ? Sometimes you have to wonder.
 
And, I agree with you about the problems they face. Too often, the Mfgrs act like they only need KellyCo. I haven't bought anything from KellyCo in years, and I don't see where I ever will again. They get preferred treatment from the Mfgrs and they don't deserve it. The small dealers are the ones who promote this great hobby, not KellyCo. They can keep their junk!
 
.....we all order a new machine, we should ask the dealer to give us next-day COD delivery instead of the freebies. That would be a good trade-off to me, and save him having to buy and stock all the junk freebies or me having to fill another closet with the crap ! ;)
 
.......who promotes bogus "Long-Range-Locators" and tries to sell them for hundreds to thousands of dollars apiece while keeping a straight face is nothing but BAD NEWS to this hobby of ours. Anyone who ever asks me about such a company is advised to look elsewhere, with a few GOOD suggested referrences.
 
Next day service cost them actual money,and depending on how far you live and the weight it might be $15 or $20 EXTRA. The IRONIC thing is that these companies could write the entire amount off on their taxes as a business expense[promotion]but that's money up front immediately. And don't think the BIG GUY in Florida does not take full advantage of the [promotional] tax write-off on all those freebies-HELL, they make money off of us on that too, tax wise.
Did you catch the other sly ploy they use. For any detector over $250 they give you a "4-way" electronic pin-pointer which they say has a retail of $179-$189[which they sell on a everyday basis for $69], all you do is pay the shipping and handling charge of $14.95[probably weighs 12 ounces, yet your detector with headphones and packing material is in the area of 8++ pounds easily, but it is shipped for free. I'm surprised the IRS does not come knocking on our doors for the "unreported" income value of all the freebies.
I wish some former Minelab dealers would come forward with all the games that company has been playing with its dealers. When they started out in the US, it was local sales only, then before you could blink your eyes, suddenly Kelly was the only officially authorized mail order dealer. Boy they started losing dealers left and right. Things got bad enough, farther down the road that TY Brook stopped dealing their machines, and there is not a more knowledgeable or nicer guy around than Ty.
My former hunting partner the late Jim Carnahan was a small dealer, and of course it was impossible for him to compete with Kelly or Clevengers
on a purely dollar basis. But he told people that if they bought from him he would spend as much time as they felt they needed in order to learn their detector. "Well, what If I buy mail order, will you still help me?" His answer: "Absolutely, for $25 an hour 1 hour minimum per session." As I stated before, no matter how close you hold your detector to the phone for help from your mail order dealer[especially if you are a novice]-you can't hold it close enough.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THESE SMALL DEALERS WHATEVER THE LOWBALL PRICE THEY CHARGE, STILL HAVE TO MAKE A PROFIT. LET THE MARKET SET THE PRICE, THAT'S THE AMERICAN WAY.
AS an aside, TY has copies of detecting magazines going from today to back to the ' 70s. You want to see what was state of the art back then, when BFOs were a viable alternative, it's enlightening. They are .75 each, 10 magazines minimum. These things are COLLECTIBLE, and darn sure worth more than .75 cents!
 
A day came when Whites Board of Directors made a decision that there would be no more mail order of Whites Detectors, EXCEPT BY ONE DEALERSHIP KELLYCO. I think it does not take much imagination who instigated this shenanigan, only I can't figure out why Whites fell for it. All of a sudden all other Whites dealers who were conducting business as normal, and had a sizable number of detectors in inventory, found they could not sell them except as direct sales out of their stores. I suspect that some people not only stopped selling Whites, but went out of business. And many of those dealers who continue to carry Whites not only do not list the price of Whites detectors on their web site, they DO NOT LIST WHITES [PERIOD].I'd bet a $1 against a donut hole that Whites sales are down since this strategy was implemented.
Now I have a MYSTERY for you. What is a Prism? Kellyco does not even list it, so has it already been discontinued? Was it made in the US for this market, or the UK for the European Market?
 
The only problem with this agreement is that it is null and void as it violates both state and federal law. But that has never stopped anyone from doing something like this before, and it will continue until someone gets fed up.
 
You are 101% RIGHT about rules made to be broken. Consider the facts that all these detectors cross state lines and puts the ICC among others directly into the fray. I can't wait fot the first dealer to tell some maker to shove it, then dare them to yank his dealership. There is GOLD to be found, and a detector is not needed-hell, when those SHARKS smell blood, they will take it on a contingency basis.
 
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