Australian gear price explosion

Man I noticed this too but it’s great for my pledge to stay away from tempting but ultimately redundant (for me) hardware such as Samplers, monosynths and modular.

What I’m most worried about is the future of some of these businesses. I live in Melbourne and frequent places like Store DJ and Found sound and I’m very curious to see what the niche physical retail world looks like when the dust has settled. I’m lucky enough to be essential (or is it expendable??) right now but I don’t see a lot of purchasing power amongst the general populace for the next few years, most of my mates are on their arse atm with no end in sight

I just pulled the trigger on the m:s from bettermusic in Canberra - all because of coming across this forum and post this afternoon…! Looking forward to getting stuck in to my first Elektron product!

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Soundseasy has it for 579aud
It was 549 @ launch

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Is this because markets don’t have confidence in the Aussie stimulus package? Quite different from 2008 when the government quite successfully isolated Australia from the worst of the global recession.

A bad time to buy (for sure) but a good time to be thankful for what you have.

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It’s price gouging, double and triple mark ups from the exchange rate excuse. The writing is on the wall for some of these companies as nobody will pay some of those hefty prices.

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The price gouging is ridiculous. StoreDJ taking advantage of the sudden stimulus package splurges. Happy I impulse bought the M:C at the start of the pandemic for $529. Sold my M:S at a loss but at least someone out in isolation gets to have fun.

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Seeing accusations here and other places of price gouging. How about running a few numbers to see how the system actually works?


Initial scenario:

Selling 100 units at 100 each = 10,000
2000 Fixed expenses (eg rent for a retail space, insurance etc)
70 per unit purchase price = 7,000 total

Profit margin = 1,000 (which will likely contribute to paying employees and reinvesting in the business).

New scenario: Imagine the dollar is crashing, suppliers/manufacturers/logistics/etc have raised their prices and there is a shortage of stock from suppliers

Purchase price increases to 90
We can only get 60 units at the moment
Fixed expenses still at 2000

How much do we need to sell stock to cover expenses?

Total expenses = purchase + fixed = (60 x 90) + 2000 = 7,400
Sell price to break even = 7400/60 = 123.33

Or if we need to maintain original margin of 1000,

Sell price = (7400+1000)/60 = 140


Still look like price gouging?

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If the company was relying on 1 product to break even your argument makes sense however stores such as storedj sell many products with often fluctuating unit availability. I accept price increases from distributors but manufacturers are still selling products at steady prices overseas. Either way, these price hikes will push the price out of reach of many people only putting further stress on the retailer. I suspect it is the importer - distributor placing the pressure on the retailer as some brands are only seeing small rises such as Roland, whereas others are going through the roof. For the end customer it is price gouging when items increase so much over a short space of time they become unaffordable. Who is responsible is open to conjecture.

Yes that was a very simplistic model - you can treat it as one product but it could also represent the average for multiple product lines. (Unless you’re keen to see a significantly more complex model?)

Been talking to a few people working in these stores of late - and they are actually beginning to experience supply shortages across multiple product lines now and are expecting things to get worse. Prices and availability will of course fluctuate, but these changes that retailers need to account for are not regular fluctuations.

Manufacturers may not have increased their prices (yet), but transport/logistics companies absolutely have done so.

Last of all, we may be differing on our definitions of price gouging. You appear to have defined it as sharply raising prices to the point of being unaffordable where as I would define it as an unfair price raise (I don’t see luxury items priced to be unaffordable as unfair). So in this case, I am trying to show that there are entirely fair reasons for such price hikes, even if it makes these products unaffordable.

Don’t really want to keep bickering about this, just want people to think about multiple factors that can and will effect prices; and it seems less than cool to start accusing retailers of greed without considering the alternatives.

Or maybe they really are just greedy S.O.Bs - only seems fair that I should also consider that alternative.

Edit: I should also add that it’s quite possible that overseas retailers haven’t needed to adjust prices yet due to reasons but if they do it might be significantly less noticeable due to their much larger market.

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Something else to think about is storedj has invested a significant amount of money into growing their business in the past few years and need to recoup these costs despite the economic downturn.

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Try these guys…$549 until end of April.

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I can find other suppliers still at the $550.00AUD price, but for how long? My guess is as soon as competition has to restock prices will also jump.

I don’t think storeDJ are gouging at all, prices would be governed by national distributors…(usually innovative music or CMI in OZ)… the AUD $ is pretty low right now…it’s just a response to that and not some greedy grab. They wouldn’t want to raise prices with the volume they need to turn over.

They are opening a new Perth store so Mannys/Store DJ are not on the bones of thier arse by any means…it’s just adjusting the business model to suite the fluctuating dollar value. And it would be inline with distributors price rulling…

I’m sure they realise the value of good service for the best price, and wouldn’t shoot themselves in the foot by becoming more expensive than the competition for greed in uncertain times…they would know more than anyone that…

The market is always right…even when it’s wrong. And all they are doing is buying for $1 and selling for $1.6 usually so its a VOLUME game for them…

To stay a major player, pay staff and for real estate, and more importantly keep market share, they have to…MOVE UNITS!!! and to do so means 2 main things…

  1. Best Price…or close enough
  2. Good service…or close enough

This is just the beginning and as others have implied, we will see this effect many areas in many industries.

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F*** me!
I can still return my 1010 Blackbox.
For a $650 profit :gem: :gem: :gem:

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low and behold - the M:S has gone up $150 over night to $699. Timing.

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Indeed. Just now these are example (sale) prices at djcity:

Rythm mkII- 2899 (compared to 3699 in the OP)
DN- 1099 (Compared to 1749)

Jeesh, I’m almost tempted by the DN, wish I hadn’t looked!

Also: Moog one at 20K!! Ridiculous!
Even the ‘behs’ are going up.
I’m still seeing the 303 clone at $270 and yet is listed as pre-order.
Meantime, I’m seeing reasonable secondhand prices : OT mk1 $900, A4 mk1 $800-900.

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Mullums the place to be. Recently, stayed up in main arm rd near the mountainous areas. Enjoy the new house!

I’m a bit worried about gentrification, though.

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I paid $2500 for my Rytm last year before it went up the first time to $2899
$1200 cheaper than current price… Huge difference
don’t think anyone will be buying one for a while

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Yup…buy my kid thier first car or myself drum machine?

With the extremely cheap flights I could fly to Europe and buy one, and still have some change…just sayin…

I think they are unobtainium atm…lucky to have one…

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At least you would have a new toy to play with in your return hotel quarantine.

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