Price disparity

[xandersears]

Apologies if I'm being dense here, but I was just browsing around and found this item with digital and analogue 6 channel controllers on it, going for over £120. Fair enough.

But then I found this on Thomann - what can possibly account for the £130 difference between prices??

Do the pricey ones have advanced features I'm missing? Will the Stairville fall apart in days?

[Ynot]

As with ALL things in life, you get what you pay for. I suspect that the Zero 88 unit will be a better built, more robust option.

However, bear in mind that with SOME suppliers the price advertised isn't always the price you might pay...........

[Gerry]

Do the pricey ones have advanced features I'm missing? Will the Stairville fall apart in days?

Same features/ functionality on both.

I have one of the Stairville ones, seems robust and well built.

It comes with a 3 year warranty from Thomann.

Cheers

Gerry

[adamharman]

I've got one of each and both seem solid and reliable.

 

One major factor is production costs.

The stairville (also badged as various other budget brands) is mass produced in China where labour costs are very low and they don't seem too worried about health+safety, environmental issues etc which all cost money.....

Zero88 is UK built so labour costs are much higher, and complying with all the various legislation costs a lot as well. I'd also guess that product isn't one of their best sellers so the cost of setting up for production is probably relatively high per unit.

 

And as Ynot says, some suppliers do quote an extortionate list price but can be much more reasonable if you negotiate with them. I find the same thing in my day job when I buy materials from a certain national builders merchant with green lorries, I get anywhere from 35% to 70% discount and they're still making a profit on that!

 

Thomann are a "pile it high, sell it cheap" type operation so they rely on a lot of sales at a small profit to make their money. That said, their prices do seem to have crept up recently and I've seen a lot of the same products for the same or less money in the UK so it's worth shopping around.

[paulears]

I think I understand where the "don't care about safety" comes from, but in this particular case, I find it a little difficult to think it's justified. It's a wall wart powered device, so the only real safety issue comes from this device - and being honest, Chinese wall warts are almost universal on all kinds of major brands.

 

The product has CE mark - and although I do believe a huge amount of CE marks are just screen print in what they stand for, Thomann take the responsibility for their products, offer money back or long warranty, so everyone needs to take this level of support as the base level. The Zero 88 product does indeed do the same things, and perhaps we should take the view that the £150 price is the kind of price a device like this should really be selling for? The margin Thomann make, by virtue of scale works for them. If Zero 88 sell just a few, then perhaps compared with thousands sold by Thomann everyone is happy. Thomann, as a supplier are not on for many organisations who need to source within the UK - and if this works to Zero 88s advantage then I've no issues with it.

 

In this case (pun intended) we have a circuit board that appears to be the same one found in many products.

 

Thomann's scale of purchasing means it's cheap. I really like one of their audio products and found the factory making it and enquired. Price, simply excellent - minimum order quantity was 5000, at just over 80 USD, payable up front, before they even make them for you. Oh well.

[ramdram]

I believe the H&S issue referred to their workforce. If some outfits don't "waste" money on safe equipment/working practices/staff wages, (R&D?) then the price can become much lower cf UK products, say. We all know this.

 

That's one of the probs with compliance with H&S dictats...it can cost a lot of cash and some folk on this forum probably know from first hand experience, or know a man who has...been "complianced" out of a position. Sort of protect the worker...but not his job.

[Junior8]

It's simple Xander it's all about price and value which have absolutely no direct correlation.

 

Take this case. I have no doubt that of the two the Zero88 version is probably better made certainly a tad more robust. But these little desks have always been very expensive for what they are, and although the Pulsar is cheaper it's in the same bracket. I suspect £27 is closer to the value of both than £155. It's simply that Zero 88 have decided to charge £155 - its a commercial decision. After all they can turn out a 12/24 Juggler for just over £400 which is a bargain in comparison! In the old days Strand used to supply lanterns to Furse for them to badge as theirs. Furse then used these to win contracts in the educational sector against Strand - on price. Again a commercial decision.

 

However I would say this. One thing has changed during my increasingly long life. When I was a child if you paid more for something you usually ended up with something better. If the price was twice as high it didn't mean it was twice as good but it would be noticeably higher quality or perform better. That is no longer invariably the case.