rep prices

[kitersoze]

hey all,

i just got done reading kenberg's/tvt's amazing story about the guangzhou watch market.

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showto...mp;#entry568485

it is an absolute must read. and it brought up a question i've kinda had for a while. now as a noob who's learning proper procedure, i "search"ed and searched and didn't come up with anything answering my question so here i go placing it into general discussion.

does the rep market, specifically our sellers here, do biz like street markets or corp. chain stores? i've been to asia many times and every time i go into the street markets for anything, price negotiations are fully expected. you're almost a dufus if you don't and just take their initial price offers. but at the same time, i don't go into 'target', 'best buy', or any other chain store and start negotiating prices.

so what's the etiquette or rule of thumb? having done biz in asia, i already knew rep mark-up's may be pretty darn high, but after reading kenberg's thread, it seemed i needed to clear this up in my mind. it's business: i want the seller to make a profit he can be happy with, but i also don't want to be a complete fool...

[offshore]

Not going to answer your question...I will leave that for others!

I do wish to point out that the tvt article you read, is in our knowledge base, and is a repost Ken made, of an article which is in fact a fair bit older.

From memory it originally came from TRC, and was also posted at RWG1.

So it dates back quite a bit earlier than the post date reflects......it may be as much as 4-5 years old now.

Just bear this in mind when you think about pricing....back then ETA reps could be had on the boards here, from as low as $100, and the median price was maybe $175, for ETA.

Also bear in mind that the "quality" of rep back then, in a lot of cases, was much lower than you see today. Hell, we used to get anal about spelling mistakes on the dial.....but even that was almost acceptable back then!

So just take these points into consideration in attempting to join all the dots!!

Offshore

[kitersoze]

Not going to answer your question...I will leave that for others!

I do wish to point out that the tvt article you read, is in our knowledge base, and is a repost Ken made, of an article which is in fact a fair bit older.

From memory it originally came from TRC, and was also posted at RWG1.

So it dates back quite a bit earlier than the post date reflects......it may be as much as 4-5 years old now.

Just bear this in mind when you think about pricing....back then ETA reps could be had on the boards here, from as low as $100, and the median price was maybe $175, for ETA.

Also bear in mind that the "quality" of rep back then, in a lot of cases, was much lower than you see today. Hell, we used to get anal about spelling mistakes on the dial.....but even that was almost acceptable back then!

So just take these points into consideration in attempting to join all the dots!!

Offshore

salient points, offshore, and i appreciate you elaborating on the timeframe of the thread; it of course might make quite a significant difference. even 2 years might make a difference in pricing and quality, which is part of what i was inquiring about, i guess.

if the market has produced the prices as the market will bear, then they will reflect it. i was just wondering what the rule of thumb or etiquette was regarding rep sellers and their buyers. is negotiating common/expected (as with many asian vendors) or will it be looked upon the same as if i wandered into a shopping mall and started doing that. just a noob trying to learn to conduct himself well, but intelligently, in his purchases. thanks.