Interesting Maggie Discount Purchase Opportunity (1 Viewer)

[Doug_B]

OK, here's the deal.
I was visiting a dealer's shop out of my area. I've been there before doing some auditioning. The dealer that has been supporting me is a good guy. Appears to be in his late 50's and enjoys helping customers demo systems in the store. Can easily BS with him, talking about any subject. There is absolutely no sales pressure from him. He also recognizes that I am "found" business, since I live outside the store's traditional marketing area. Thus, he has already quoted me prices for a couple of 5 ch speaker systems with a discount > 20%. I am still undecided on what I'm going to get.
I stopped by the store recently as I was in the area. Among other things, I mentioned that I was interested in the Maggie 3.6s, with which he is very familiar, but his store does not support. Towards the end of my visit, he offered to obtain the Maggies at a good discount for me through a distributor contact of his (I don't know the exact discount yet). If you don't know, Magnepan has this "sell at retail" strategy with their dealers, claiming the dealers don't get a big profit by selling retail (you can see such verbiage on their website).
Here's the catch: the dealer would have to purchase through the distributor himself, making him the customer of record for the purchase. The Maggies would be delivered to him, so that I would have to pick them up at his house (about 50 miles away?). Any in-warranty service would require me to take them to the dealer's house for him to deal with Magnepan (or via his distributor). Magnepan has a 5-year warranty (I believe) and doesn't appear to support transfer of warranty to a repurchaser.
I figure the worst case scenario is that if something goes wrong with the Maggies, I cannot get support from this dealer and would thus need to deal with repairs out of warranty. This situation would be identical to buying them used in the first place. Given that they'll actually be new, I should be in at least a good a position as someone who buys used (price comparison not possible yet). I will assume that I would minimally get initial support for any shipping damages to his place, as I'll check them out before leaving. Of course, I'd have to be careful on my trip home. If this dealer does give me any support I need beyond purchase, it would be even better. I do have more trust for him than any other dealer with which I've dealt.
Note that I'm still on the fence about purchasing Maggies. You can read about my constraints, concerns, etc., and others' feedback on this thread
I'm curious what other folks think of this arrangement, even though you don't know the dealer involved.
Thanks.
Doug
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"Today is a good day to die." ...Old Lodge Skins
[Edited last by Doug_B on November 06, 2001 at 01:17 PM]
[Edited last by Doug_B on November 06, 2001 at 01:21 PM]

 

[ling_w]

These salespeople that work in audio shops are always in for an opportunity. They probably get their friend who is a dealer to sell them a pair at cost plus some profit, and then sell it to you and pocket the difference. They might still make more than the commission they would have made if he was working in an authorized magnepan dealer.

 

[Doug_B]

Yea, I totally expect that there will be some $ made on each hop. Given there aren't many Maggie dealers, he may end up buying from one who supported one of my auditions (although he did use the term "distributor"). When's the next ethics class?
Doug
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"Today is a good day to die." ...Old Lodge Skins

 

[Jon_B]

These are increadibly large speakers. Are you willing to pack them up and transport them back to this guy if something goes wrong with them? A lot of the people who sell these speakers (used) won't even sell them to anyone outside the city they live in. It probably has more to do with shipping cost more than them worrying about damage occuring during moving them.
Anyhoo...something to consider.
Jon

 

[Matty B]

The Verbage on the Magnepan web site is a lie. There is ALWAYS mark up.

 

[ling_w]

There is always markup, but the fact that much of these markups are necessary for the audio store to stay in business. When was the last time a high end store expanded like Walmart? The fact is that they make enough just to stay in business.
Anyway, the big money now is in custom installs, where real markups are made on the labor costs vs what the laborers are actually paid.
Back to the topic, as you can see, used maggies seem to be advertised not far off retail price. Many people are probably advertising it for more than what they paid for, since the usually list the new price as the current price, instead of the MSRP of when they bought the speakers. You see people listing 1-2yr old 3.6R for $3600, which was roughly the price last year.
So if you could get a new one near the price of the used going price, then you are in a no-loss situation.
I don't think there are distributers for maggies. They all come straight from the factory to the audio store. It is probably one salesman selling to another salesman, with no involvement by the stores themselves.

 

[Joe Casey]

Doug,
Depending on where you are in Jersey, there's a dealer in the north and another right over the border in NY. But you probably knew this already.
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[Doug_B]

Are you willing to pack them up and transport them back to this guy if something goes wrong with them? A lot of the people who sell these speakers (used) won't even sell them to anyone outside the city they live in. It probably has more to do with shipping cost more than them worrying about damage occuring during moving them.

At least with the place in PA, we talked a bit about shipping. He would ship them to me, but I will be paying for it. OTOH, the transaction can be handled as interstate (would I need to actually order on the phone?), so I should be able to forego paying sales tax, which would more than offset shipping.
As far as returning to whomever to handle something going wrong, I'd have a decent trip whether I dealt with any of the authorized dealers or with this non-Maggie dealer who lives just west of the Delaware River. The difference would appear to be restricted to the initial receipt of the speakers.
Doug
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"Today is a good day to die." ...Old Lodge Skins

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Doug, you didn't stop and say hello?
I live just a few blocks from Audio Connection. I would always support them, you rarely find dealers like John.

 

[Joe Casey]

Monmouth? Hmmm......I'm close by. I'm using a pair of the 3.6's in a stereo-only system. Interested?
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