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Retail?

When listing an item's new retail, should the price be the current retail, or the price of the item at the time it was purchased? If you know someone bought an item for $2,500, it is 3 years old, and the say the current price is $3,300 and are asking $2,200 - is this appropriate and honest or somewhat not?
pubul57

Showing 2 responses by jdoris

jdoris
972 posts
 
I don't trade much, so I don't really have a dog in this fight, but I would say *current* retail. When evaluating the price of a potential purchase, it seems like the most salient comparison is what I would presently have to pay new, not what I could have paid in the past (and no longer can). If the retail price increased gradually over a period of years, the asking price should reflect age; if there is a sudden large increase (Manley?) the seller got lucky, and that's life.

IMHO, of course.

John
jdoris
972 posts
 
I'm with Bill and Al here; given that people have chimed in on both sides here, we seem to have something of a "philosophical difference," not a clear cut case of dishonesty or misrepresentation.

I don't agree with Bill that MSRP is irrelevant (assuming it reflects to some degree the going rate for a new piece): I think it gives some guidance as to what a reasonable asking price would be. To take an extreme case, surely it's not irrelevant in evaluating an asking price of 2000 that the current MSRP is 1000.

In the end, of course, it's up to the negotiating parties to decide what they can live with, MSRP notwithstanding.
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