SDS200 Seriously Discounted At Amazon

[henrybravo]

I just pulled the trigger on this deal, $550 from Police Scanner Outlet (Bearcat Warehouse). Previous discussions on this site seem to indicate this seller is fine.

Buying SDS 100 from seller on Amazon?

Does anyone know if "Police Scanner Outlet" is an authorized Uniden seller? I'd like to purchase from Amazon to take advantage of zero interest financing and the seller says they are an authorized seller; just wanted to verify first... Thanks.

forums.radioreference.com

SDS100/SDS200: - Bearcat Warehouse?

I will soon be purchasing an SDS100. I want to by locally from Zip Scanners and have heard many good things about them. But, Bearcat Warehouse offers an extra 1 year warranty for $25.00 and are the only dealer, as far as I can see to do so. Is it worth it? I guess I'm looking for opinions if...

forums.radioreference.com

Heed @iMONITOR's advice above and check who you're buying from. At the time of this post, 2 sellers are offering it for $550:
2ndChanceSales (94% rating / 388 reviews)
Police Scanner Outlet (98% rating / 209 reviews)

 

[bberns22]

Weird that they appear to compete with themselves but then again not really.

View attachment 90700

Again. Amazon is making up the difference for Bearcat Warehouse. Amazon frequently sells items below cost (or subsides merchants for the loss). There are several reasons for this:

1. Drive top line revenue (stock price incentive) and future growth
2. Induce new or renewal Prime Memberships (stock price incentive and margin / profit)
3. Machine learning algorithms predict incremental sales and profitability based on similar customers who have purchased that item( or similar) in the past.

Amazon’s gross margin is only 5.9%. Profitability is not their near term objective, they want to grow market share as fast as possible.

 

[iMONITOR]

Again. Amazon is making up the difference for Bearcat Warehouse. Amazon frequently sells items below cost (or subsides merchants for the loss). There are several reasons for this:

1. Drive top line revenue (stock price incentive) and future growth
2. Induce new or renewal Prime Memberships (stock price incentive and margin / profit)
3. Machine learning algorithms predict incremental sales and profitability based on similar customers who have purchased that item( or similar) in the past.

Amazon’s gross margin is only 5.9%. Profitability is not their near term objective, they want to grow market share as fast as possible.

I wonder how any of them are getting around Uniden's price fixing? It's been explained that the minimum selling price has been mandated by Uniden as part of their dealership agreement.

 

[fxdscon]

This was a while ago, but it explained Uniden's policy on pricing:

Uniden exercises no control over what dealers sell the scanners for. We set a price to our distributors, and express what we think the street retail price will be, but they are free to sell for any price they want.

From:

Ebay sale of a uniden bcd536hp

OMG New Uniden BCD536HP P 25 Phase II TDMA Digital Scanner Fire PD EMS Ham EOC | eBay Please help me understand who got there hands on one of theses?????

forums.radioreference.com

.

 

[bberns22]

Had a response but it is clear from fxdscon post that there is no agreement to sell at a given price..

 

[iMONITOR]

This was a while ago, but it explained Uniden's policy on pricing:



From:

Ebay sale of a uniden bcd536hp

OMG New Uniden BCD536HP P 25 Phase II TDMA Digital Scanner Fire PD EMS Ham EOC | eBay Please help me understand who got there hands on one of theses?????

forums.radioreference.com

.

Then why is it than all the normal dealers sell most all the current scanners at fixed prices? I recall when a few Ebay sellers claimed they were spanked by Uniden for unauthorized discounting. IE: SDS100 $649 and SDS200 $699.

 

[bberns22]

Then why is it than all the normal dealers sell most all the current scanners at fixed prices? I recall when a few Ebay sellers claimed they were spanked by Uniden for unauthorized discounting. IE: SDS100 $649 and SDS200 $699.

Very likely a very thin margin at the retail level, not much to discount an profit. Electronics historically have slim margins, Best Buy’s profits come from accessories like cables, power cords etc....

 

[bberns22]

For those Interested

Uniden Distributors

7 Distributors & Vendors, 1 Locations associated to Uniden

sourceesb.com

 

[GlobalNorth]

Uniden can sanction small specialty retailers, but when it comes to Amazon, Uniden is not in the driver's seat.

 

[newsnick175]

I pulled the trigger, arriving on Thursday.

 

[K7MFC]

Wow, I might have to get one...

 

[fxdscon]

Uniden can sanction small specialty retailers,

I wonder how much of that is actually done in light of Uniden publicly stating that they exercise no control over what dealers sell the scanners for.

.

 

[GlobalNorth]

"Authorized dealer status" gets revoked all the time among manufacturers/distributors and retailers.

I worked for an outdoor retailer once upon a time and they carried a very popular brand of eyewear that was limited in distribution. We sold new stock at MSRP, but the store had a policy of selling display/try-on glasses as used every quarter since they would occasionally get dropped, handled roughly, etc.

The national distributor found out and yanked the account immediately. It took months for they established another retailer in that state and customers needing accessories/repairs were not happy. Of course, when the fashion trend died off, they came back to resell to us and we had no interest.

Of course, some unscrupulous retailers are scamming both the customers and the manufacturer/distributor at the same time.

I suspect Uniden may have little control here, but Uniden America has a huge "say".

 

[fxdscon]

"Authorized dealer status" gets revoked all the time among manufacturers/distributors and retailers.

100% agreed, I have also seen that happen many times... but Uniden has also stated that they do not have any "authorized" dealer program.

.

 

[Medic10mda]

Had ordered and was able to cancel. Weird that I couldn’t just request a cancelation since it didn’t ship. That option wasn’t available for this order. I had to go through customer service and send an email request, which was honored. This is the ASIN # B07NGJGMS1 that came up on my cancelation email back From the seller. Looks like maybe a Canadian # , but not sure.

 

[bberns22]

Had ordered and was able to cancel. Weird that I couldn’t just request a cancelation since it didn’t ship. That option wasn’t available for this order. I had to go through customer service and send an email request, which was honored. This is the ASIN # B07NGJGMS1 that came up on my cancelation email back From the seller. Looks like maybe a Canadian # , but not sure.

SOP for items not shipped by Amazon.

 

[03msc]

This was a while ago, but it explained Uniden's policy on pricing:



From:

Ebay sale of a uniden bcd536hp

OMG New Uniden BCD536HP P 25 Phase II TDMA Digital Scanner Fire PD EMS Ham EOC | eBay Please help me understand who got there hands on one of theses?????

forums.radioreference.com

.

I know that was from Paul but I also know he has mentioned that they have an MAP. We also know of a case where a seller on eBay was forced to raise their listing price due to eBay offering a discount code which brought the price well below the MAP.

The seller even came on and showed the notice he received from Uniden.

So, regardless of what was said in that post we’ve also seen proof of the opposite.

 

[fxdscon]

I know that was from Paul but I also know he has mentioned that they have an MAP. We also know of a case where a seller on eBay was forced to raise their listing price due to eBay offering a discount code which brought the price well below the MAP.

The seller even came on and showed the notice he received from Uniden.

So, regardless of what was said in that post we’ve also seen proof of the opposite.

The mystery deepens with even more opposites... I guess we just don't know what Uniden's actual strategy or pricing policy is. This was also in a reply to questions about an eBay sale.

We did not force him (and legally cannot force anyone) to change the price.

From:

eBay coupons vs Uniden

I was just getting ready to order my 2nd SDS100 from you on Ebay until the price changed to $749.... Well that not going to happen now! but good luck with it. Post #200 on page 10 in this thread provides some insight on why the price was changed.

forums.radioreference.com

.

 

[03msc]

The mystery deepens with even more opposites... I guess we just don't know what Uniden's actual strategy or pricing policy is. This was also in a reply to questions about an eBay sale.



From:

eBay coupons vs Uniden

I was just getting ready to order my 2nd SDS100 from you on Ebay until the price changed to $749.... Well that not going to happen now! but good luck with it. Post #200 on page 10 in this thread provides some insight on why the price was changed.

forums.radioreference.com

.

You left the part of Paul’s post where he mentions their MAP policy.

IIRC, the seller said he was contacted by Uniden and said he’d lose his dealer status if he didn’t increase the price back to MAP.

Paul was great but I do think there were times he was not totally honest or completely forthcoming with us publicly, which business wise is understandable. This was one such time.

 

[twotoejoe]

Sucks for me. I just received my 200 about 2 weeks ago. And I bought it from Bearcat Warehouse!

I've been having reception problems with the 200 I bought a couple of weeks ago. Sat it beside my 536, both programmed the same, and the 200 was missing some transmissions. I pulled the trigger and bought a 200 last night just to be able to set them side by side and see if it's just the radio or if something is wrong with by original 200. I'll probably return one of them.