Aimpoint red dots- Fair trade items?

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cheygriz

cheygriz

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I looked at at 8 sites on the net last night for an Aimpoint comp ML3. ALL of them were $450 plus or minus $5.:eek:

I thought the old anti-American, anti competitive practice of "fair trade" had been outlawed. What gives"":confused:

anybody know what's going on???
 
I'm fairly certain Aimpoint has their retailers sign a MAP agreement. Now, whether MAP constitutes price maintenance by itself is up for debate. But that's a discussion for another forum.
 
AIMPOINT 5000 XD

I HAVE AN AIMPOINT 5000 XD, IT'S A 2X SCOPE FOR SALE. I'D TAKE $250.00 FOR IT. IT'S LIKE NEW.

IT'S ABOUT 3 YEARS OLD BUT I ONLY USED IT ONE YEAR. I BOUGHT IT FOR A NO. 1 RUGER 45-70 FOR HOG AND BEAR HUNTING. I GAVE OVER $500.00 FOR THIS SCOPE.

A LOT OF RED DOT SCOPES REQUIRE THAT YOU CENTER THE RED DOT BUT AIMPOINT SCOPES ONLY REQUIRE THAT THE RED DOT BE ON TARGET. IN OTHER WORDS THE DOT CAN BE ANYWHERE IN THE SCOPE AS LONG AS IT'S ON TARGET. IN OTHER WORDS IT'S PARALLAX FREE.
 
I was looking at the Comp ML3 mostly because of the 50,000 hour battery life, and the extensive military field useage in the "sand box" that has proved it's ruggedness and durability.

But if they have gone to some kind of anti-competitive "fair trade" policy, I'll buy something else.

I believe in competition, and if their company tries to stifle it, they won't get a penny of my money!:fire:
 
AIMPOINT 5000 XD

I HAVE AN AIMPOINT 5000 XD, IT'S A 2X SCOPE FOR SALE. I'D TAKE $250.00 FOR IT. IT'S LIKE NEW.

IT'S ABOUT 3 YEARS OLD BUT I ONLY USED IT ONE YEAR. I BOUGHT IT FOR A NO. 1 RUGER 45-70 FOR HOG AND BEAR HUNTING. I GAVE OVER $500.00 FOR THIS SCOPE.

A LOT OF RED DOT SCOPES REQUIRE THAT YOU CENTER THE RED DOT BUT AIMPOINT SCOPES ONLY REQUIRE THAT THE RED DOT BE ON TARGET. IN OTHER WORDS THE DOT CAN BE ANYWHERE IN THE SCOPE AS LONG AS IT'S ON TARGET. IN OTHER WORDS IT'S PARALLAX FREE.
 
IF $250.00 AIN'T COMPETION THEN THEY WON'T GET ANY. NO BATTERY LASTS THAT LONG. MINE HAS 3-4 EXTRAS.
 
$250's a good price for an Aimpoint ... you should post it down in the Trading Post ... I bet it'd go pretty quick.



Fair trade? Isn't that where 3rd world sweatshop folk get paid based on US Union wages? :scrutiny:
 
It's MAP. Let's little guys do business with the big guys. Apparently you didn't contact any of those dealers, as MAP and what they can sell tehm for are often 2 different prices.
 
Allright I will admit my vast ignorance.

What is MAP ( and no I do not mean a piece of paper with the picture of terrain on it)

NukemJim
 
MAP Minimum Advertised Pricing.

Its what some manufacturers use to keep people from undercutting their fellow distributors and "devaluing" their product.


The company I work for is a Garmin dealer. We will lose our ability to call ourselves a Garmin dealer if we advertise prices lower than a certain amount for their products (what is most frustrating is that since we don't get the volume discounts that the big distributors like REI get them for, our MAP is actually higher than REIs ... and their MAP is actually LOWER than our COST!).
 
There's actually a case before the Supreme Court addressing this very issue right now. I don't have a link, but it involved high end fashion accessories. I think I saw the article in the USA Today within the last couple days.
 
There's actually a case before the Supreme Court addressing this very issue right now. I don't have a link, but it involved high end fashion accessories. I think I saw the article in the USA Today within the last couple days.
Click to expand...
__________________

I hope you'r right. It sounds like this "MAP" thing is about as anti-competitive, and anti American as the old communistic "fair trade" was.
 
Anti-competitive? Anti-American?

Contracts are anti-american now? That's insane.

I am company ABC; you are shop owner XYZ.

My stuff is popular, so you want to sell it. I agree to sell you my stuff at a certain price, provided that you agree to a contract. This contract stipulates the minimum price at which you may advertise the product for sale. If you don't like it, don't stock my freaking product.

I don't really understand what the motivation for MAP agreements is (I know Games Workshop used to do it, which is why I stopped giving a crap about Warhammer 40k when I saw a squad of ten soldiers going for fifty five freaking dollars), but if you don't like it, nobody's got a gun to your head forcing you to stock Aimpoints.

~GnSx
 
isn't fair trade more directed at companies who make the same thing agreeing to a set price, not 1 company making whoever sells their 1 product charge a set price?
 
It's also possible, it seems to me, that those companies are all selling at about the same price because they all paid about the same cost, and are competing online for business. Just a thought.
 
The old "Fair Trade" policies were an agreement between a manufacturer that no retailer could sell their product below a minimum "floor" price.
Browning weas one of the worst offenders, and I wouldn't buy a Browning until they rescinded this policy.

The whole concept behind this policy was to prevent competition. IOW, the big store that bought hundreds and hundreds of Brownings per week, and got good prices from Browning, could not pass on those savings to consumers. This was dome to protect the "mom n pop" types who charged FULL MSRP .

IMHO, free, unrestricted "dog eat dog" competition greatly benefits the consumer, and is very much the American way. For that reason, I have decided that I will not buy an Aimpoint, as long as they cling to this protectionist, anti competitive policy.

Thanks to all of you for your responces. I guess now I'll start writing to my congress-critters, asking to have this anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-consumer practice outlawed.
 
I also, don't see what the big deal is if Aimpoint wants to specify a MAP. It isn't the government doing it; it is AIMPOINT. If the *government* says that AIMPOINTS have to sell for $XXX, *that* is un-American. If AIMPOINT says that AIMPOINTS have to sell for XXX, that is *very* American, and is just them protecting their brand. If enough people don't like it, they won't sell any AIMPOINTS, and other products will prevail from natrual selection in the capitalist environment.

There are plenty of ways to get around the MAP.

-"Call for pricing, too low to list!!"
-Buy used
-Buy the AIMPOINT in a package with a mount from LaRue. They might not be able to advertize an AIMPOINT by itself for a certain amount, but they can throw in their $140 mount for $50 if you buy an AIMPOINT at the same time.

Once more, if the government tells AIMPOINT that they can not regulate the price of their product, that is what is un-American.
 
Also, it isn't the sale price, but the advertised price. I can't name the number of times I go to an online store, and they have "TOO LOW TO LIST" "add item to cart to see price". In the end, you still get the discounted rate, it just takes you a couple seconds longer to shop around.
 
I know Games Workshop used to do it, which is why I stopped giving a crap about Warhammer 40k when I saw a squad of ten soldiers going for fifty five freaking dollars
Click to expand...

Sorry going off topic here (from guns) but on topic for the MAP crap.

I used to work in a gaming store that sold Games Workshop stuff. There is (or was) an exact 100% markup from wholesale to retail MAP on GW stuff. That 10 soldier pack (that used to cost $12.95) wholesales for $6.48. Then GW says you have to advertise it at $12.95.

For a while GW didn't have a MAP so a store could sell for $6.49 and get that one penny profit. Obviously stores didn't sell that low but would frequently price at $9.99. 10 soldiers for 10 bucks. Or even split the packs and sell each soldier individually for $1.10.

Then GW said the price tag had to be the MSRP of $12.95, but GW allowed retail stores to give a 10 or 20% discount for "members" of a gaming club (the store). Bringing the price down to $10.36.

Finally GW said no more discounts, the MAP was $12.95. So stores themselves started raising the price slightly so they could still discount their favorite customers. 20% up, 10/20% down. $15.54 (15.99 rounded up).

You could field a decent 1000pt 40k army for around $100 before all this started. Now a 1000pt army runs about $250 if your lucky. Cost to manufacture has not gone up and there is not any funky taxes I know of on GW games.

It's all greed from GW and the retailers combined each trying to out-greed the other and causing prices to go up instead of down.
 
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