Console pricing thread

[DuckThor Evil]

BlahDVD has little big planet for 17.99£. Due to pounds exchange rate it's nice to be a gamer who receives paycheck in euros

Thanks for the heads up, I was looking for this after I noticed that I can't get it through Amazon.uk. Great price and the order is placed!

 

[AntShaw]

According to Mr. Reeves, PS3 still sold at hardware loss, and for anyone expecting a price drop anytime soon, keep holding your breath!

Does that mean once you’ve broken even you will reduce the price of the hardware to stimulate more sales?
No, we are not going to go down in price on PS3 – neither are we going to go down in price on PS3 in spring time either. Absolutely not, whatever you might have heard to the contrary. Our strategy is very much value added.

http://www.mcvuk.com/interviews/394/Action-Station

 

[DrJay24]

Well they would be wise to say that no matter what. Why would they want people to not buy during the holidays at $400 just to hold out?

 

[obonicus]

According to Mr. Reeves, PS3 still sold at hardware loss, and for anyone expecting a price drop anytime soon, keep holding your breath!



http://www.mcvuk.com/interviews/394/Action-Station

I still wonder if it sells for a loss in Japan, or if it was selling for a loss before the yen took off.

 

[grandmaster]

All platform holders deny price cuts, hardware revisions etc practically to the day of launch and sometimes beyond. I've been trying to get a Jasper edition Xbox out of Microsoft and as far as the outside world is concerned, it doesn't exist. I remember Microsoft 'not commenting on rumour and speculation' about the Xbox 360 Arcade when pictures of the hardware and packaging were freely available online, and that line continued even when some retailers started to sell it early.

Bottom line is that sales drop off dramatically if a price-cut is announced but not yet implemented or if a current model is about to be replaced.

 

[eastmen]

All platform holders deny price cuts, hardware revisions etc practically to the day of launch and sometimes beyond. I've been trying to get a Jasper edition Xbox out of Microsoft and as far as the outside world is concerned, it doesn't exist. I remember Microsoft 'not commenting on rumour and speculation' about the Xbox 360 Arcade when pictures of the hardware and packaging were freely available online, and that line continued even when some retailers started to sell it early.

Bottom line is that sales drop off dramatically if a price-cut is announced but not yet implemented or if a current model is about to be replaced.

All companys will wait till the return polociys of stores is over with. So if its 90 days don't expect a price cut till 90 days after x mass in the states. If its before that they will get way to many people returning the systems or getting them priced matched and thus loosing as much money as they would have with a price drop in the holiday season.

If we get a price drop from sony before next fall it will be in the march time frame. I'm actually surprised that sony didn't push out Killzone 2 till the march time frame to drop the price with a high profile game. I guess they want to get a few people in at the higher point and perhaps offer a more expensive bundle.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Do returns really work like that over there? I thought the 90 day thing was on faulty goods, not whenever you want your money back. Otherwise it'd count as a free rental!

 

[eastmen]

Do returns really work like that over there? I thought the 90 day thing was on faulty goods, not whenever you want your money back. Otherwise it'd count as a free rental!

It depends on the store. Alot of places do the price match thing.

For instance if you bought a console from Nov till Christmass day you have to the 8th of january to return the item at bestbuy. Through out that time if any stores did a sale on a console you would get the diffrence plus 10% on the diffrence.

Circut city gives a 30 day price match policy and if you bought between Nov 2 and Dec 24th you have till January 31st to return.

Some places like Costco give you 90 days for whatever.

 

[DrJay24]

Costco does not represent retail in the US, using it's 90 days to say what Sony will or won't do is beyond ridiculous. It's used to be a lifetime return policy, does that mean there were never price cuts back then?

Many places like BB are 15 days, some are 30. Amazon used to have a great policy for price matching it's own price cuts, but they killed it in Sept.

 

[eastmen]

Costco does not represent retail in the US, using it's 90 days to say what Sony will or won't do is beyond ridiculous. It's used to be a lifetime return policy, does that mean there were never price cuts back then?

Many places like BB are 15 days, some are 30. Amazon used to have a great policy for price matching it's own price cuts, but they killed it in Sept.

I don't call Nov 2nd to january 8th a 15 day return policy.

I also didn't only list Costco now did I .

Please read my posts in the future before responding

 

[DrJay24]

I don't call Nov 2nd to january 8th a 15 day return policy.

I also didn't only list Costco now did I .

Please read my posts in the future before responding

I'm not sure how else to take what you said, if you want to clear up the following statement be my guest.

All companys will wait till the return polociys of stores is over with. So if its 90 days don't expect a price cut till 90 days after x mass in the states.

 

[eastmen]

I'm not sure how else to take what you said, if you want to clear up the following statement be my guest.

Its very simple

All companys will wait till the return polociys of stores is over with. So if its 90 days don't expect a price cut till 90 days after x mass in the states.

See how easy it is when you read through someones post ?

PC richards offers a 40 day price match in store

http://www.pcrichard.com/custserv/content.jsp?pageName=LowPriceGuarantee

6th ave is 30 days

http://www.6ave.com/shop/usertpl.aspx?fle=faq.htm#policy_procedure_q1

walmart offers up to a 90 day return policy , I don't know what consoles falls under though as its not stated so if i was in a postion where i bought at walmart i would complain and get the full 90 days as video game systems are not computer hardware or anything in the electronics section. But who knows if the store recipet says something diffrent

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=538459


So I mean really , do you want to continue argueing ?

 

[Brad Grenz]

The argument is that Sony doesn't make pricing decisions based on a hodgepodge of retail return policies, your own proclamations, notwithstanding. And given the frequency with which you demonstrate your own ignorance on such a wide range of subjects on this very forum, excuse us if we don't take a list of links to return policies as evidence for the timing of a price cut.

 

[eastmen]

The argument is that Sony doesn't make pricing decisions based on a hodgepodge of retail return policies, your own proclamations, notwithstanding. And given the frequency with which you demonstrate your own ignorance on such a wide range of subjects on this very forum, excuse us if we don't take a list of links to return policies as evidence for the timing of a price cut.

Oh no they don't ? Perhaps you should look at all retail price drops and tell me how many price drops through history have happend right after the holiday sales period the united states.

No one drops prices because of expanded return policys and the shear amount of sales in those periods of time. Do you really think any of these stores would be happy if a price drop happened during thier return or price match windows ? You know how much money that would cost bestbuy or walmart right after the holdiay season.

But of course you know best.

Perhaps before insulting others and calling them ignorant you should perhaps list your retail experiance and then tell us how a company like Walmart would react to having to price match an item with anywhere between $50 and a $100 right after the three highest months of the year sales for that product and then explain why sony would risk harming relationships with that company ?

 

[Brad Grenz]

You are the one making extraordinary claims here. The burden is on you to provide evidence. I spent 3 years in retail management, so perhaps the fact that store do have some forms of recourse with manufacturers in such cases is news to you. I can't imagine the long standing tradition of post holiday discounts and sales could possibly have missed your notice. Lucky for the retail industry, and unlucky for your theory, people don't rush en mass to have their gift purchases price adjusted after Christmas. Most people give a gift and that's it. They spent the money they budgeted and don't care about future pricing. Most people get a gift and that's it. They don't usually have the original receipt, nor would they really care about a price change since they didn't pay in the first place. To pretend like pricing strategies revolve around what would ultimately be a very tiny problem is absurd. There are far more important factors to consider when making those calls, like gaining momentum from a big software release, cost savings on the production end, boosting flagging sales in the lean time of the year, etc, etc, etc. No one at Nintendo, MS or Sony are sitting around worried about the tiny fraction of customers who might request a price adjustment.

Mod edit : That bit is for PM if you feel it needs to be said.

 

[eastmen]

Its very simple Brad. When Sony does a price drop and stores have pre-existing stock sony credits them the diffrence on the new systems. The stores would have to eat any returns or price matches in that period.

Why would a store continue to do busniess with sony when they are loosing money on a product they already only break even carrying.

You have yet to be able to show me one console that has had a post holiday price drop that is in return/price match time frame. You cite other electronics that operate diffrently. There are many electronics where the stores make hundreds of dollars off the item to begin with. Gamestop makes less than $15 off each system as does best buy and they sign contracts with the company.

Perhaps before you open your mouth and talk more you can tell me the crediting process on un sold merchindise at best buy. I can tell you as I worked there 2 years as an inventory manager.


I love your logic about people not caring about price drops or loosing receipts . Do you have numbers backing up your claim of most people ? Do you have any idata stating that its a tiny fraction of customers wanting a price adjustment ? The fact is that in the holiday period many people recieve gift reciepts which are kept for returns and price adjustments. Anyone in the states that have gone shoping post christmas will tlel you that hte lines for returns are as long as the lines for sales. Having worked at bestbuy / gamestop I can attest to the large amounts of returns / price matches (gamestop doesn't price match) that they do.

You worked 3 years in retail management . That is good i'm proud of you. I worked 2 years as a gamestop manager, 2 years as an assistant there , a year and a half as an assistant at blockbuster and 2 years as an inventory clerk at best buy (while they stlil had them) and one year as an inventory manager while i was at bestbuy. I believe they have since removed my postion or merged it with the head manager at the store. I don't know its been 5 years now.

 

[catisfit]

You have yet to be able to show me one console that has had a post holiday price drop that is in return/price match time frame.

I'm afraid you have to prove your theory that the return/price match thing is the reason for the lack of post-holiday price drops, not the other way around.

There are plenty of other plausible explanations for the lack of post-holiday price drops - to think of one off the top of my head: console inventories are low after the huge seasonal increase, so a price drop in that time could very well be untenable as there simply isn't the stock to gain any benefit from it.

If you want us to believe your theory over any other plausible one, the onus is on you to provide the evidence for it.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

If you want us to believe your theory over any other plausible one, the onus is on you to provide the evidence for it.

Anyone presenting a case ought to be supplying supporting material for their argument, unless they are arguing something already accepted as proven. In this case there is no recognised reason for postponed pricedrops. Every idea suggested is thus equally valid as being 'an idea', and to convince anyone your idea is right, evidence should be provided. Or, if there is none, present your idea and then people can agree or disagree. But certainly there's no rational debate to be had with 'this is my idea, and it's true unless you can prove me wrong'!

 

[catisfit]

Anyone presenting a case ought to be supplying supporting material for their argument, unless they are arguing something already accepted as proven. In this case there is no recognised reason for postponed pricedrops. Every idea suggested is thus equally valid as being 'an idea', and to convince anyone your idea is right, evidence should be provided. Or, if there is none, present your idea and then people can agree or disagree. But certainly there's no rational debate to be had with 'this is my idea, and it's true unless you can prove me wrong'!

Exactly. Using eastmen's argument that I quoted, unless someone can reveal a case where a console was cut in price in this timeframe, then any suggestion must also be as correct as his. It's logically unsound reasoning.

For example: They don't cut prices in January because they think it's too cold. Unless you can show me a console price cut that occurred in January, this must be true

 

[DrJay24]

Its very simple

True.

PC richards offers a 40 day price match in store

6th ave is 30 days

Never heard of them, how long did it take you to find these to try to help your point? Where is CC, BB, GS, Target, etc.?

walmart offers up to a 90 day return policy

It's 15 days now, just like Costco used to be infinity, but that was changed to 90 days. Maybe they changed it to 90 days so Sony and MS could do price cuts, considering infinity is a long time?

So I mean really , do you want to continue argueing ?

Just because you want something to be true, it doesn't make it so. Like others have said you cannot make a claim with zero evidence and expect people to believe you.