Scanner Prices

[cbro298]

Why is it that you can buy a RS PRO-197 for 300.00 but you have to pay 400.00 + for a PSR-600.Its the same scanner.Is this just a marketing scheme?

 

[n5ims]

Why is a gallon of milk $0.99 at some stores, "on sale" at other stores for $2.69, and at other stores it's $3.79 (all of these are store brand nothing special gallons of milk with current dates). Retailers price their products based on what folks will pay that will maximize their total profits.

Some stores run sales to drive folks into their stores or web sites (such as the current RS sale on their version of the scanner) where the sale price may be due to a special deal from the manufacturer (if you buy 1000 cases we'll drop the unit cost by $150) or due to an over-stock situation (purchasing sent orders for an item more than once by mistake or for a larger quantity than they really wanted and can't change or cancel the order). They may also have decided to drop the price to near (or at times even below) their cost to drive customers to their store in hopes that they'll buy more than just that one item.

Retailers may also have contracted to order a certain number of items from the manufacturer to get certain discounts (reduced price per unit, lower or free shipping, etc.) and sales over the contract period didn't match predictions so they're forced to order a large number near the contract's end date to make up the difference, forcing them to have more of those items then they would normally stock so they have a sale to reduce the inventory to prevent renting additional space to keep them in a warehouse.

 

[Viper43]

Why is it that you can buy a RS PRO-197 for 300.00 but you have to pay 400.00 + for a PSR-600.Its the same scanner.Is this just a marketing scheme?

A lot of things go into priceing anything, R&D, licensing, patents and not just "parts". GRE makes their bottom line off the quantity sales to RS who buys a specific number of units so GRE's costs are covered on those units for the above costs plus profit margin. GRE's own units cost more because they directly compete with Uniden (and vice versa) and again they are covering the above costs plus their profit margin, same for Uniden. Add into that the market and what it will tolerate and you get the end costs that we pay. Just like anything else you buy... well, except gas which is just a plain scam ripping EVERYONE off.....

 

[fmon]

Reduce the difference to 68 bucks . 600 comes with programming cable 197 does not.

 

[Xray]

I just bought a HP1 and a BCD396XT at nearly $500 a pop.
At first I was thinking I paid way too much, but on thinking back, most of the new top of the line scanners have historically been around the $500 mark.
I think I paid about that for my AOR1000 decades ago, back then it was the only handheld that would receive the military aviation bad, so I had to have it.
I paid more than that for my Alinco DJX-2000 just 5 years ago ,,, So all in all, even though high, scanner prices have stayed fairly consistent over the years.
Yeah, wait a year and they drop in price, as the next big thing comes along, but you gotta make a move sometime, and just pony up and pay.

I don't consider RS scanners precisely because they don't cover military aviation.

 

[hill]

Xray,

Both the Pro-106 and Pro-197 cover military aviation.

Larry

 

[Oldglide]

Please explain

All of the above are excellent explanations regarding pricing issues. I would like to understand based on the above comments why the new GRE PSR-310 with a retail of $199.99 is already selling for between $160 and $170?

 

[n8zcc]

Reduce the difference to 68 bucks . 600 comes with programming cable 197 does not.

68 for the programming cable? I paid $17 and some change at a Shack store. If you buy the programming cable at the same time as the radio, they are half price.

 

[n5ims]

All of the above are excellent explanations regarding pricing issues. I would like to understand based on the above comments why the new GRE PSR-310 with a retail of $199.99 is already selling for between $160 and $170?

How about this for something similar. You go into a new car dealer and find a new car. Do you pay sticker price or try to talk them down to a lower price (while they, of course, attempt to add the spray coatings, extended warranty, etc. to try to add to the cost)?

While most scanner dealers don't allow similar price discussions, they understand that selling for MSRP does little to make them stand out over the others when shopping and lower the price, which can easily be seen as an advantage. If web site A is selling it for $10 off MSRP and my site can sell it for $11 off and still make money (possibly even more if I'm able to sell more of them at a profit due to my lower price) than why shouldn't I have the lower price?

One issue though is that some makers do not allow the public posting of any price lower than MSRP for their dealers. This makes price comparison a bit more difficult. Folks have been able to do things such as "coupon codes", "instant rebates", or simply forcing you to click the "Buy this now" button to see their real price (with the option to cancel the selection afterwards) to get around this limitation.

 

[CoolCat]

All of the above are excellent explanations regarding pricing issues. I would like to understand based on the above comments why the new GRE PSR-310 with a retail of $199.99 is already selling for between $160 and $170?

...or $154

The "retail of $199.99" is just the MSRP. The manufacturer's suggested retail price is almost always substantially higher than actual market price (this way it looks like you're getting it for much cheaper than it's worth, but the truth is it's only worth what they're selling it for).

Why is it so cheap? Basically because is just a "plain jane" trunking scanner by today's standards. I'm sure it does it's job very well, but there is nothing special about it at all to mandate a higher price (hell, even my 6 year old BC246T puts it to shame).

 

[PFalconflyer]

68 for the programming cable? I paid $17 and some change at a Shack store. If you buy the programming cable at the same time as the radio, they are half price.

He wasn't saying the cable was $68. He said reduce the difference to $68 (from $100) - Thus, he has the cable price at $32. That's about what I paid for mine a year or two ago (I know they can sometimes be bought cheaper).