How much will you pay for an exotic cartridge....


I noticed on another forum that there is an interesting point brought up by a US distributor/dealer about his perception that one of his potential customers bought a top end cartridge ( that he reps) from an off-shore dealer/source...and how he intends to try and stop the practice of ’grey market’ sales. ( At least for the lines that he carries).
This gent seems to believe that because he signed some paperwork somewhere that may ( or may not) give him exclusive rights to distribute the gear in the US, that he has the right to try and prevent anyone abroad from selling to US customers! To that, he wants to have the manufacturer try and enforce his right to do the above. Now, one could ask, what’s the issue with this, right? And here’s the rub, the dear distributor is adding over $8K to this product for the simple task of ordering and having shipped a cartridge from Japan ( Yes, i know the shipping of such a large and heavy item is expensive...and the dealer has to stand by the product...whatever that means when we are talking of a cartridge!) The profit motive is high here, and the opportunity to fleece some of the US consumers is also...so i get that, but to come on an open forum and complain about the practice that one of his potential customers did such a thing....is an interesting marketing tactic, IMO.
So, my question is this..how much will you pay for that exotic cartridge to insure that you are buying it from a "legit" US rep, and not from a grey market...or in this case out of area dealer....what’s fair to you...a few $$s- or the sky’s the limit??
daveyf

Showing 7 responses by vortrex

This is about the Etsuro Gold cartridge which is $21k USD retail through the USA dealer. It’s about $8500 USD less (retail pricing) through a legit Europe or Japan dealer for someone living in the US.





@daveyf you sound like the perfect customer for a real estate agent.  There is a reason they are still in business in 2020.


@chakster no I do not own an Etsuro Gold.  Just pointing out what a scam dealers are, especially in the USA.

Like I said, I was merely pointing out that it is easy to buy direct from Japan IF the manufacturer allows it.  There are no language or payment issues as you pointed out.  My comments had nothing to do with whether they had USA distribution or not.

I don't believe the cartridges in Japan are more expensive.  You can see the retail pricing online if you search Japanese sites.

Most audio dealers are like most car dealers or real estate agents. Completely useless and the buyer knows more than they do. Long gone are the days where an “expert” is needed to tell you about the product. Today’s audio buyer spends far more time researching than a dealer does.  If manufacturers offered buy direct I imagine 99% of the people would do that, even without the huge discount.  Why have two other parties (distributor/dealer) in the middle when you could work with one?  These dealers today aren’t maintaining store fronts or doing advertising. They send an email to someone when you want a product and that’s their “hard work”. I’ve asked dealers in the past about products they represent and they’ve never even heard it!

You missed the IF in my post. 
I’m very confident the Japanese could deal with USA buyers direct. I do that with one manufacturer now and the service is impeccable. 
@chakster no secret, it’s Audio Tekne. I’m just making the point that it’s possible to buy direct from the Japanese without logistical issues. You will likely get far better service than any other dealer, which has been my experience.  No PayPal, money is wired at a fixed low cost. English is not an issue. How do you think USA distributors are dealing with Japanese manufacturers?  You think they can read and write Japanese?