SP is going to raise ion prices

How much are they going to raise the price?

boomer

[vikingshadow]

Hmmm, I've heard this for awhile now, and like always, I have an observation on this, LOL! I realize my opinion could be totally off mark as well.

I think that when SP released the Ion, they pretty much had the "mid level" in their pocket. Their only competitor was the T1, which had a reputation as being a pain from time to time. They started pretty expensive too, if I remember right. Somewhere around 400.00. Along comes the "it performs as well as any high end gun, but at a much lower price" crowd, which REALLY hacked a lot of the "high end" gun owners. Through the months, the overall "noob" mentality of the gun owner, as stated by those owning "higher end" guns, and high sales to new players made it possible to slowly lower the MAP. Then, throw in all the aftermarket parts to go with it, SP was making a killing on the gun.

Introduce 2007 and sales of the Rail, Mini, LCD Limited Wrath, Lasoya Promaster, and that other new one, dang - slips my mind, but it starts with a "D", suddnely dominating the market that SP owned and all these guns going for around $400.00, and whammo! People are scooping these new guns up like crazy, sales of the Ion starts to MAJORLY slow down (I'm guessing here, of course. I have no idea what the Ion sales are.) Now, assuming sales have slowed down, and the mentality of the gun is not improving (rather, the mentality directed TOWARDS owners of said gun, which would drive would be buyers away) perhaps SP thinks they can move back into that price range, they can clean up that image.

Let's face it, a lot of people equate quality to price, and a LOT of people are stuck on image, and the image of the Ion is LOW! In fact, people are referring to the Rail as the new Ion - not because of it's ability, but because of the attitudes of many of the new owners....SP may be wanting the overall mentality of the gun to be a bit higher - plus it should help with the Epiphany thing as well...so raising the price may be a sneaky way of improving part of that damaged image.

All just a theory of course, but it makes perfect sense to me!

tl;dr for those unable to read on a 5th grade level: Ion image bad. Was selling for low price. SP wants better image. New 400.00 market of guns coming out. SP wants control again and hopes to slip in on the new market by subtlely raising prices. Hope to improve overall image by raising price.

[durrell]

I wonder if that means dealer pricing is going up as well..

[DRAGON]

Yes, dealer price is going up. Do you think they would just raise the MAP and not dealer? Who sells at MAP unless they are legitimate anyways? -

[Oscum Guy]

guy at the local proshop said that the price to make them is higher now.

i dont see why because they made it carelessly and milled it like crap.

[08Lud08]

The rise is only $25 so I don't think its gonna make much of a difference.

[durrell]

Originally Posted by DRAGON

Yes, dealer price is going up. Do you think they would just raise the MAP and not dealer? Who sells at MAP unless they are legitimate anyways? -

Not sure what you meant by that, but alright.

I've never seen many instances where a company actually raises the price of a gun after releasing it, but the dealer costs usually stay pretty constant because there is such a large gap between wholesale and MAP.

[DRAGON]

I meant as far as purchasing online. Most people are looking for the lowest price possible and that's where the illegitimate dealers come in. they'll sell $10 above their price just to make a sale. Then the big businesses like AV buy tons of products and get them for less yet. The poor guy in the middle can't compete with either of them. I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. Buy a marker wholesale from Kingman for the same price AV's selling it for retail lol(just a fictitious example) -

[durrell]

Originally Posted by DRAGON

I meant as far as purchasing online. Most people are looking for the lowest price possible and that's where the illegitimate dealers come in. they'll sell $10 above their price just to make a sale. Then the big businesses like AV buy tons of products and get them for less yet. The poor guy in the middle can't compete with either of them. I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. Buy a marker wholesale from Kingman for the same price AV's selling it for retail lol(just a fictitious example) -

You're exactly right about the middle guy, I'm living proof of that..lol. PBN is the worst place ever for MAP problems, but they've fixed it a little bit since they made MAP violations a bannable offense. I remember when I was trying to sell 06 Borgs on PBN and kai was selling his Borgs with a free lifetime warranty, although the MAP policy from MacDev said nothing could be packaged with them including warranties. When he (or someone close to the distributor) found out I was selling them with free shipping (because I was unaware that was a MAP violation at the time) he reported me to the Borg distributor and I got a call threatening to cancel my wholesale contract with them. Needless to say, I ripped up their contract and never did business with that distributor because basically they allowed the person who was selling more guns to violate the policy while the small guy got in trouble for it.

[DRAGON]

Just imagine being a shop owner with all that overhead -