How to ebayer's sell amps/subs brand new for half the price?

[d77543020 10+ year member]

alot of guys dont know you can buy a mastersheet of your car from crunchfield for 10.00

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Online selling means much lower overhead costs. But this also means much less support for the customer, which may or may not be an issue for you.

But if they are selling below dealer cost, that most likely points to other reasons like mentioned above (refurbs etc).

 

[genxx 10+ year member]

Think about this also. Amazon posted up the JBL MS-8 for sale for dealers cost. Dealers cost is around $449.00 plus around $10.00 in freight. Amazon sold them for $449.00 so how did Amazone make money. Hell JBL sold them directly to Amazon for rumor has for around $275.00-$300 each do to them whiling to buy so many. Production Cost vs. dealers cost is another issue. Dealers cost is many times double, triple, quadrople the production cost. Also distributors many times do not help anything. They buy in bulk and sale in bulk to dealers. There is only a few car audio companies left that do dealer direct sales. So now the manufacture, then distributor, then the dealer needs to make money in the end driving the cost up.

So manufactures pays $100, distributor pays $250, dealer pays $400, customer pays $650. Now days dealers are having to sell that $600 item at $500 to be competitive.

Most dealers are hurting now. The manufactures and distributors are making their money period. Many of the distributors if they are not moving product they sell it to places they are not suppose to like woofersect. Happened to Zapco several years ago, a distributor in Canada was pulled they were to return all product in stock to Zapco. Well they instead put it all over ebay and sold it off to unathorized places. Screwed thing is that they sold refurbs and broke amps as new on ebay ect. Have a friend that bought 4 off them broken from them, once hooked up all went DC and destroyed about $1000 in Dynaudio drivers. He had no real recourse other than paypal.

IMO as far as sales go in the car audio world things are out of control and one big mess.

 

[outsideshot23 10+ year member]

ebay is great for wire and install accessories and most audio even with out warranty if its new and you know what your doing installing.. but when you start spending over 100 a sub and over 200 for an amp i woulsd just as soon go to a legit dealer.. but i buy almost all of my accessories off of there

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

The internet is changing the market. Local B&M's need to shift away from retail sales, and more into installation and other labor-based aspects of the market. You cannot put the genie back into the bottle, but many manufacturers are trying to do exactly that to protect their distribution network, which is what's causing the 'mess'.

 

[genxx 10+ year member]

Very well said^^^^.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Very well said^^^^.

I know its a hardship for local shop owners, I feel for them... but the internet is changing a lot of markets. They will either adapt, or will not survive.

 

[Canaan 10+ year member]

Think about this also. Amazon posted up the JBL MS-8 for sale for dealers cost. Dealers cost is around $449.00 plus around $10.00 in freight. Amazon sold them for $449.00 so how did Amazone make money. Hell JBL sold them directly to Amazon for rumor has for around $275.00-$300 each do to them whiling to buy so many. Production Cost vs. dealers cost is another issue. Dealers cost is many times double, triple, quadrople the production cost. Also distributors many times do not help anything. They buy in bulk and sale in bulk to dealers. There is only a few car audio companies left that do dealer direct sales. So now the manufacture, then distributor, then the dealer needs to make money in the end driving the cost up.
So manufactures pays $100, distributor pays $250, dealer pays $400, customer pays $650. Now days dealers are having to sell that $600 item at $500 to be competitive.

Most dealers are hurting now. The manufactures and distributors are making their money period. Many of the distributors if they are not moving product they sell it to places they are not suppose to like woofersect. Happened to Zapco several years ago, a distributor in Canada was pulled they were to return all product in stock to Zapco. Well they instead put it all over ebay and sold it off to unathorized places. Screwed thing is that they sold refurbs and broke amps as new on ebay ect. Have a friend that bought 4 off them broken from them, once hooked up all went DC and destroyed about $1000 in Dynaudio drivers. He had no real recourse other than paypal.

IMO as far as sales go in the car audio world things are out of control and one big mess.

Nailed it.

Trans-shipping and drop-shipping are killing 12v.

Big manu's are not offering protection at all, they claim they are, but don't. Its a bunch of BS.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Its not killing the 12v industry, its killing the local retail 12v industry.

 

[dkdub 10+ year member]

I came up learning about car audio by actually being able to audition them at my local shop. The owner knew me by name, cut me deals on gear and all my warranty work was handled no questions asked. We tested products installed in my car before I ever bought them to see if they worked how I wanted them in my own car.

Sadly, that shop closed up as many many have over the past 15+years. Adaptation is one thing, but something is still lost nowadays. The internet is great for some things, but it leaves much to be desired in anything hands on, like car audio.

 

[bigbangtheory 5,000+ posts]

I buy most of my stuff online from cheaper sites, but most of the time it comes with a 1 year manufracture warranty.

I do also buy from Crutchfield when something is on sale. Hard pressed to find better CS and shipping than Crutchfield.

I agree with everything Audioholic mentioned. 12v locals are hurting big time round here...

 

[d77543020 10+ year member]

Think about this also. Amazon posted up the JBL MS-8 for sale for dealers cost. Dealers cost is around $449.00 plus around $10.00 in freight. Amazon sold them for $449.00 so how did Amazone make money. Hell JBL sold them directly to Amazon for rumor has for around $275.00-$300 each do to them whiling to buy so many. Production Cost vs. dealers cost is another issue. Dealers cost is many times double, triple, quadrople the production cost. Also distributors many times do not help anything. They buy in bulk and sale in bulk to dealers. There is only a few car audio companies left that do dealer direct sales. So now the manufacture, then distributor, then the dealer needs to make money in the end driving the cost up.
So manufactures pays $100, distributor pays $250, dealer pays $400, customer pays $650. Now days dealers are having to sell that $600 item at $500 to be competitive.

Most dealers are hurting now. The manufactures and distributors are making their money period. Many of the distributors if they are not moving product they sell it to places they are not suppose to like woofersect. Happened to Zapco several years ago, a distributor in Canada was pulled they were to return all product in stock to Zapco. Well they instead put it all over ebay and sold it off to unathorized places. Screwed thing is that they sold refurbs and broke amps as new on ebay ect. Have a friend that bought 4 off them broken from them, once hooked up all went DC and destroyed about $1000 in Dynaudio drivers. He had no real recourse other than paypal.

IMO as far as sales go in the car audio world things are out of control and one big mess.

thats the big problem right there so many manufacturers under cut there own dealers and that can cause them to go out of business ,pretty soon there will be no one to sell there stuff at retail where will they be then

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

I agree, that's the whole problem. When the manufactures and distributors undercut all the dealers, everyone suffers. The dealers can't compete on a profitable basis. Some people say, "who cares? I want the cheapest price!". Like other people were mentioning, customer service goes down. Warranty restrictions get put in place. If you are missing an item out of the box, chances are you're screwed by the manufacture and the seller usually won't help you. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

I've bought a few new items without issue. Every used or "BNIB" item I've bought has not been as described and some items weren't even the same one in pictures.

That's the big difference between being able to touch something before you buy it and getting stuck with it because you bought it online.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Another good thing about having a local 12v shop available. If you need wire, crimp connectors or other small items and don't want to wait for UPS, you don't have to. If no shops are left in a few years, you will be at the mercy of online stores to get all of your items and waiting for shipping. Nothing compares to being able to A/B test amps, speakers or decks. Reading reviews will never replace A/B testing imo!

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

It IS possible to control where product goes and make sure MAP is being followed... we've worked hard to do just that. It has been incredibly difficult to build a dealer oriented company through a recession and in a market flooded with cheap online gear... but we've managed to do it. IMO the large companies are addicted to volume and will cut a deal to anyone who calls and offers to buy large quantity.

Sundown is now sold on WoofersEtc -- guess what ? They follow our MAP guidelines. I met with them in person after CES and they started as a local retail shop. Very stand-up guys in my opinion and I'm more than happy to deal with them. If the manufacturer asks them to follow MAP they do it.

We are now working to expand into distributors. All of them are being monitored to make sure product stays in authorized channels at the correct advertised price. Obviously local shops can cut their clients a deal but we are very strict on the online front.

Yes this doesn't please everyone; especially online; as our product is "so expensive" -- or so I read 1000 times a day on the forums. I set out to create a business that not only pays my bills but can help to keep other professionals in business AND can reach people who don't read the forums. Yes, we started online but since our first products in 2006 dealers have been a part of the business and we built around them. Finally after all this time building our brand it is paying off as we are now widely recognized in the retail market; obviously not like JL, Kicker, and RF... but it's getting better every week.

That is my 2 cents for the day //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

Jacob, Thank you so much for running your company the way you currently do! It starts with the manufactures stepping up and realizing they can make more profit in the long run, if they keep everyone in business who supports them. A lot of other companies are more concerned with gross volume of sales than the net profit and net volume of dealer networks they support.

If a manufacture continues good customer support, providing competitive products at reasonable prices - word of mouth advertising will help the company go far. Best of all, word of mouth is free. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif