Bubble Magus Pricing

[Aqua-Digital]

Just an FYI Ron, BM shut down supply of Fish street to stop them under selling their product line into the North American market.

You will find it very hard now to source BM from within China directly unless it is old stock, BM have shut everything down to protect their product brand from devaluation.

I have provided a very compelling reason wy BM is now more expensive. BM wants it accessable to all, not the few. If they want to set a price they feel the product is worth irrelevant whether you feel it is justified based on a very blinkered view and not looking at long term growth of a company, then this is up to them.

Lets put it another way, we imported nearly $20K of bubble magus in April, we sold all of it, and so did dealers, I think that is enough proof the price is set fairly at a price people think the product is worth, if not, simply put, we would be stuck with a whole lot of kit.

So the product sells well at this price, clients love the product, build quality and support, so I fail to see the problem other than the select few as always looking for a rock bottom bargain with no care what so ever of long term effects this sort of thing has on the survivability of our hobbies dealers

Go get a BM bucket shipped direct from china "if you could even source one" and then let me know what they would charge you in shipping. OOPs I have the answer here $48 direct to your door just for the shipping!

Not exactly $25 bucket anymore eh!

As i said above, the product sells at these very reasonable prices and if you had not sen what they were being sold for direct before, then we would not be having this discussion, and in 6 months from now when the masses have access to the product and many new lines have been introduced, providing the client is happy, which seems they are, whjy should a factory bend to the few that just want "that deal"

Lets all bow down to Walmart and Ebay and look at what they have done to the global economy, wahoo mega cheap prices, suppliers struggling to stay in business to keep up with consumer greed for far reduced MAP prices way below product worth, and where will we all be in 10 years? Sourcing out of China direct to appease the few that dont see past their own view point and dont care who suffers down the supply chain.

Sad world we live in it really is.

Accept a product price or dont buy it, move on. Debating it here is changing nothing and certianly does not change any market strategy when we are stretched already to meet consumer demand.

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

Just an FYI Ron, BM shut down supply of Fish street to stop them under selling their product line into the North American market.

So why did they do that? Was there some outside influence Some posts on Reef Central suggest that somebody influenced BM to raise the MAP in North America. They seemed happy selling at the previous price before you came on the scene.

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

You will find it very hard now to source BM from within China directly unless it is old stock, BM have shut everything down to protect their product brand from devaluation.

Honestly, what the heck does that even mean? Protect the brand from devaluation? Whatever. They make it. It costs them a certain amount to make it. They add a reasonable margin on their production costs and that sets the wholesale price which in turn sets the retail price. That's the way it works before the greed of middle men etc get in the way. They were obviously happy selling at the price they were before "exclusive" distributors stepped in. Did it devalue the brand when fish-street was selling at price X? How exactly? They made sales to North America, Bubble Magus increased their sales because product was now going out of China and word started to spread that Bubble Magus was decent stuff at an attractive price. I doubt they were losing money or sitting there wishing that they had priced them higher? They made a product and sold it at what they thought was a reasonable price. End of story at that point.

Now you step in as the exclusive distributor for Canada and low and behold, they are underpriced which devalues the brand and the prices need to jump up drastically? Give us a break. Do you think we're stupid?

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

I have provided a very compelling reason wy BM is now more expensive. BM wants it accessable to all, not the few. If they want to set a price they feel the product is worth irrelevant whether you feel it is justified based on a very blinkered view and not looking at long term growth of a company, then this is up to them.

No you haven't. How does greater accessibility mean higher prices? You make these statements that have no basis in logic and do not make business sense. As I stated above, they have a manufacturing costs and then they set a mark up based on that cost. So what you are saying is they raised their wholesale prices? They are now charging much more for their product then they used to? That doesn't make sense unless the production costs have gone up drastically or they are spending a ton of money on R&D for new products. If anything, producing in higher volumes to meet the demand in new markets should drive per unit production costs down. Or did somebody tell them they could price them higher in North America so let's go for it?

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

Lets put it another way, we imported nearly $20K of bubble magus in April, we sold all of it, and so did dealers, I think that is enough proof the price is set fairly at a price people think the product is worth, if not, simply put, we would be stuck with a whole lot of kit.

Well bully for you. I guess you found lots of people who don't know any better or are sheep and don't want to question things. I feel sorry for this hobby because to many product are overpriced. You can argue otherwise but that's the truth. Slap "For Aquarium Use" on a product and the price goes way up compared to the same thing for another use.

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

So the product sells well at this price, clients love the product, build quality and support, so I fail to see the problem other than the select few as always looking for a rock bottom bargain with no care what so ever of long term effects this sort of thing has on the survivability of our hobbies dealers

It's not about a rock bottom price. It's about a reasonable price given the actual manufacturing and wholesale costs of the item in question. As I said, I am more then happy to pay reasonable premiums on things. Our argument thus becomes "what is reasonable?" So our hobby will only survive if we allow greedy people to overcharge us for products without question? Traditionally Canadians are passive and just accept that we pay more for things. But not all of us want to accept that and more and more people are starting to look beyond our fine Canadian tradition of screwing the consumer. That's why both my wife's car and my car were purchased south of the border saving thousands of dollars. More and more people are shopping on the internet outside of Canada because we want value for our dollar. It will catch up with you eventually.

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

Go get a BM bucket shipped direct from china "if you could even source one" and then let me know what they would charge you in shipping. OOPs I have the answer here $48 direct to your door just for the shipping!

Not exactly $25 bucket anymore eh!

Well by your numbers in a previous post that $25 bucket should cost no more than $51 here. And that is assuming you are paying Bubble Magus $25 for it wholesale which I doubt. So where does the extra 50% markup come from? You throw out all sorts of catch phrases and rhetoric but no numbers or facts to back it up.

So, did Bubble Magus drastically raise their wholesale prices thus causing the big increase in prices here from your first "estimates" and compared to overseas prices? Yes or No? Your original estimated price for a BM180CS was $349. Now it is $499. That's a big difference of 43% higher then your estimates which were only going to change based on small currency fluctuations and shipping costs. So you must have come up with those original estimates based on what Bubble Magus said they were going to charge you for their product? So I ask again, did Bubble Magus drastically raise the wholesale price? Yes or No?

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

As i said above, the product sells at these very reasonable prices and if you had not sen what they were being sold for direct before, then we would not be having this discussion, and in 6 months from now when the masses have access to the product and many new lines have been introduced, providing the client is happy, which seems they are, whjy should a factory bend to the few that just want "that deal"

Again, did Bubble Magus raise their wholesale prices? If so why? Who influenced them to do so? Is your factory cost on a dosing bucket $25? Is your factory cost on a BM-180CS skimmer $305? Those are the retail prices in China so are Bubble Magus selling at a lower cost to Chinese dealers then to their North American distributors? If so then you could do the market a huge favour by negotiating lower prices. As I stated several times this would make Bubble Magus more competitive, sales go up quite a bit and profits increase due to higher volumes. Everybody wins. I am still not convinced that your costs are that much higher.

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

Lets all bow down to Walmart and Ebay and look at what they have done to the global economy, wahoo mega cheap prices, suppliers struggling to stay in business to keep up with consumer greed for far reduced MAP prices way below product worth, and where will we all be in 10 years? Sourcing out of China direct to appease the few that dont see past their own view point and dont care who suffers down the supply chain.

Sad world we live in it really is.

Accept a product price or dont buy it, move on. Debating it here is changing nothing and certianly does not change any market strategy when we are stretched already to meet consumer demand.

Yes, we should bow down to Walmart and eBay for offering us alternatives to overpriced products when we live in a country were we are overtaxed and many products are overpriced. We frequently go shopping for groceries across the border because the prices are so much lower. For example, dairy products are half the price a mere 15 to 20 minute drive south. We are overcharged for to much in this country and it makes me sad and makes us less able to compete on a global scale.

The state of the global economy has nothing to do with Walmart and eBay and everything to do with greedy banks and stock traders etc. And really, almost everything we buy is now made in China or has alot of Chinese made parts in it. That's the reality because if we had to manufacture alot of products at North American or European labour rates few of us would be able to afford them. if you don't like Chinese sourced product why are you selling Bubble Magus? Why is a Chinese made skimmer priced the same as non Chinese skimmers if that is the way to save money? I'm glad you are struggling to meet consumer demand and are happy ripping people off because you have given me no reason to believe that is not what you are doing.

Oh, and you're pi$$ing match with Ian just makes you look petty. Look out Ian, Aqua Digital is going to tell on you

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by Ron99

if you don't like Chinese sourced product why are you selling Bubble Magus?

It's only the dosers he doesn't like. Can't figure out why though =)

Take a scroll-see:

http://glassbox-design.com/2009/bubb...umps-roll-out/