The Lasershowparts Laserwave reintroduction sale. Prices slashed for 48 hours!!!!

[KevSki]

My Two pence worth....

No fanning of any potential flames intended !

The "Price War" comment is a direct reflection of the very American day-after-Thanksgiving "Black Friday" price-reduction craziness that is so prevalent in all our stores today (so crazy, in fact, that I'm not leaving the house today unless I have to - me and the dog are "hunkering down and laying low"!!).

Well what happens in the states does not necessarily mean it's good for the rest of us!!! As we now know to our cost... no mortgages, unemployment etc?? sound familiar

The reduction in laser prices between the vendors, whether coincidental or not, could be opening up some build / upgrade opportunities for us hobbiest projector builders that might not have happened otherwise.

I fancy what's happened here is a BIT of a 'Cock up' (understatement!)....

I shall explain...
I am in the market for a 100/150mw blue....I can now buy this at cut down VERY VERY low price...GREAT me thinks...so I can buy off what appears to be 'one' agent, recently back selling laser wave products ...excellent for me...CRAP for the other agents who were not 'IN' on the low price offer.
BUT I'm alright coz I got my cheap laser!!!! Aren't I ??

Hopefully, the prices will ultimately benefit everyone, seller and buyer alike, and the price reductions will be seen as friendly competition, not some attempt to "corner the market".

Just my $ .02 worth....

Well following on from above....'never to be seen again ' price may be right ...the other agents GO BROKE coz they cant compete... so where is my support coming from if the laser goes pop???

Maybe the supplier goes BROKE for selling gear tooo cheap and lets face it nobody will want to pay full price for Lasers again!

So it's seems to me ....going for £1's worth now...

1. Striking up a deal to a new / ex supplier is a SNUB in the face to the existing agents, as THEY should have been cut the same deal????shouldn't they????? Dont the new supplier also sell CNI's gear also??? DOUBLE SNUB
2. For fairness and equity ALL the agents should then have the opportunity to agree a 'cut price ' weeekend if that what was wanted/needed....instead ....we got a mess
3. For one agent to then go selling 'global' especially on PL undermines your co-agents....THIS says a lot to me.....
SO i wont be taking you up on your VERY generous offer... WE all want sumthin for nothin and we ALSO want high pay / wages...well it cant happen...we go BROKE...mmmm world recession I think it's called.

Foolish as they may seem....I cannot bring myself to BUY a laser from an Agent who will deliberatley undercut undermine and show total DIS respect for others so some might say ...well thats business...
....I say BULL***T...
.... Id rather buy my laser from an agent I can Trust and hope they will still be around to SUPPORT me WHEN I need them.

Rant over
Kev

[Jem]

Hmmm... I am struggling to articulate into meaningful words what I was trying to say, so I thought it better to delete the post altogether.

Jem

[Stuka]

KevSki - Dude -
(And anyone else that feels they need to "quote & rant") -

I'm just a hobbiest with bills to pay, just like most of the other folks on this forum! Again, as I stated, and you quoted, my comments were intended to show appreciation for a short-lived price break that was available to ALL of us, not just us folks in the states. You're quoting the wrong person, fellow - if you have a beef with the pricing, take it up with the sellers, and don't use me as an example!!

Geez, amazing how a 48-hour sale got all out of whack - talk about good intentions gone bad!!

For what it's worth -

I am speaking ONLY as a hobbiest who is trying to make the most of a VERY expensive hobby, like most everyone else here. I am absolutely NOT "in the loop" on any business dealings, arrangements, or communications between ANY of the sellers that have been involved in this unfortunate fiasco of the last couple of days, nor do I even begin to know any of the hoops that the resellers have to go through to import and resale the lasers, regardless of brand.

I DO know, from PM's since this all started, and dealing with just ebout every vendor involved in some fashion over the last year, that the original intent of the "Black Friday" sales was to give us hobbiests a very brief price breaK, NOTHING MORE! What started as a quick sales event for US laser hobbiests, tied to the post-holiday sales going on just about everywhere in the US, was picked up and extended by a globally-known dealer and ultimately, by Bridge, the actual supplier, to ALL VENDORS. Again, though I'm not in the loop to know for sure, I really doubt if there was ANY intent from anyone involved to "shaft" another vendor or put someone out of business. LaserShowParts was in a position to possibly extend the "48-hour" price to someone at a later date who couldn't afford it this weekend - is that a bad thing?

I have personnaly dealt directly with Bridge, Max, Marc, and Dave, and have always been given a HUGE amount of support and assistance from all of them, whether a sale was involved or not. On a similar note, though I have never purchased from Rob (and was actually going to be involved in some project testing with him until my job situation changed), I have always been given a LOT of support from him as well. Also, ALL of the vendors I have dealt with STAND BEHIND THE PRODUCTS THEY SALE 100%, so I have no doubt about "where the support is coming from if the lasers go pop"!

Personally, I think everyone who has gotten their feathers ruffled over this just needs to chill and let the 48-hour sale run its course. I feel confident that NONE of the vendors will lose any of their well-established customers because of this (maybe some ungrateful noobie customers, but if that's the approach they take, who needs that customer!!) I'm willing to bet that thanks to the fiasco that brewed up, none of us will see another "sales event" opportunity like this happening again anytime soon.

Price increase - that's now my $ .10 worth.

[gottaluvlasers]

this has been handled privately and should no longer (IMO) be discussed between members at each others throats.

As randy said, YOU guys are the customers and YOU have an opportunity to make out here. whether it is from me, from rob, from dave or from any other LW distributor. i try (as does rob and everyone else who is in this business) to treat our customers well. and of course we try to treat the PL members even a little better.

my grief and anger is known by the parties involved and i spoke my peace. there should be no need for anyone to NOT take advantage of this sale. (obviously if you are in the market and can afford it).

my one and only request is for you all to realize that this is INDEED a "ONE TIME ONLY" event. these prices CAN NOT and WILL NOT be honored AFTER this little sale.

Now lets all buy some lasers, shoot some beams, and drink some beer!!!

-Marc

[Stuka]

...

Now lets all buy some lasers, shoot some beams, and drink some beer!!!

-Marc

Sounds like a potentially dangerous combination....

I'm in!!

[KevSki]

Stuka....I've taken my chill pill didnt set out to offend...

I used your quotes coz i think your reaction to 'the sale' is very understandable, the cheap deals on offer may be too good to be true for the long term good ...for us all....fewer quality products (and manufacturers) in the end.

I too am a hobbyist also with bills to pay ....

....But, I wanna trust who I choose to spend my hard earned cash with...and I wanna know they will be around to support me continue to learn and enjoy THIS hobby more and more! and I dont think what has happened with this 'sale' helped here...thats all

Kev

[Stuka]

No offense taken!

For what it's worth (again ) -

Had the "sale" opportunity come from anyone other than the well-established, well-trusted vendors involved, I wouldn't have come anywhere NEAR trusting and thinking about buying from the particular reseller!
(Didn't buy from anyone, as tempting as it was to upgrade the blue - it's that whole "Waiting to start a new job right after the holidays" thing )

In this case, everyone involved has been a senior, well-respected member of the Photon Lexicon communiity for a LONG time, and are well known both regionally and in some cases, globally, for their customer service and fair pricing. As I said previously, I'm not in the loop on the business dealings between them - nor do I have any desire to be!. As Marc just mentioned, I believe they are sorting out any busineess-related "issues" amongst themselves.

HOPEFULLY - it's back to "business as usual" pretty quick! I, for one, intend to keep dealing with my established vendors just as I always have!

And Max, if you're reading this -

While feathers got ruffled, and I have no doubt that some pretty serious business-related e-mail exchanges took place, I really DO believe you had the best intentions in starting the "Black Friday" sales event. Thank-you for your good intentions, AND for taking the beatings that probably came because of it!

[Pitts]

I basically agree with Randy on this subject..

Not wishing to fuel any fire in the above debate as such, I think we should possibly all brace ourselves for some "funny" things in the selling game with not only lasers.

With the world wide economic situation, manufacturers and dealers are going to be finding it tougher to make a living.

This may show up as various sales and "specials" but in the end its only the various people trying to sell their product.

The comment that these prices will not be repeated may be an unrealistic assumption as the economic collar tightens (as predicted) arrangements can go out the window very fast indeed.

If you look at Laser Wave, CNI, Viasho and others they are all feeding from the same very small pond. They will all have to do whatever it takes in their opinion to survive.

I have dealt with all of these guys and found them all good both dealers and manufacturers.

Let's hope the world economic situation returns to some sanity. When it does I am guessing so will the laser sellers. (not saying laser sellers are insane by the way)

Cheers

Ray

[buffo]

Hi Ray;

I'd like to expand upon a point you mentioned - namely the way currencies have been fluctuating now that just about everyone's economy is headed for the toilet.

These currency fluctuations are making it very hard to compare prices among vendors. As an example, the Australian dollar has just taken a real nose dive relative to the US dollar. Things from LaserShowParts.com are cheaper now than they were back in August, despite the fact that they've had a price increase! This assumes that you're buying in US dollars, of course.

Contrast that with the prices for the same lasers that are offered by Marc at CTLasers or Max at DIYlasers, and you'll see that their prices are slightly higher. This is not because Dave and Aijii are trying to undercut other distributors, or because Marc and Max are out to screw people over. Rather, it's due to the complex value relationship between the Chinese Yuan, the US dollar, and Australian dollar.

These value relationships are going to change more frequently and more violently in the coming months as each country comes to grips with the global downturn. This may also create some attractive opportunities to pick up laser-related gear for unheard of prices. By all means, people should take advantage of this! The prices may never be this low again. (Wish I didn't have all these medical bills coming in, or I'd be all over some of these deals...)

As for the specific instance of the Black Friday sales, I don't really want to get into that. We don't know what the terms of the Laser Wave dealer contract specify, nor do we have dealer cost pricing information. It appears the matter has been settled in any event.

But I will caution people to remember that price inequities *will* occur. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy something from another continent, just because of favorable currency exchange rates. (Like the 19 inch touchscreen that I recently bought from the UK... Sure, shipping was a killer, but I still saved nearly $200 over the best price I could find here in the States!)

Adam

[Jem]

It's also worth remembering that when you import something into the UK there is both import duty and Value Added Tax to add on to the cost of the product.