[AJD] JD Manual scans on CD

[Dean VP]

Robert/Ron:

I agree, but there is always the difficulty of perception. What may be
determined as "fair and reasonable" by the manufacturer, due to costs the
consumer may not be aware of, vs what the consumer deems "fair and
reasonable" could be far apart. This is what makes the subject so stinking
messy. 

In my experience this shows up the most often where there is significant
tooling costs involved and/or significant one time engineering costs
involved.  A product may look like a $0.10 item but there has to be $0.30
per part added to it to cover tooling and engineering amortization. CD's are
an example of a very high engineering cost for the content and a very low
COG for the actual CD itself and also low cost to burn copies.

It's kind of like in my example of Ron's fictitious training program. Ron
may have spent $100,000 of borrowed money to put his materials together.
Part of the charges for his training classes would include paying off that
debt. If it were copied illegally, the second party wouldn't need to charge
to cover the debt amortization. That is partially what Copyright and/or
Patent Law helps protect against. 

The Harbor Freight example is a good one. I think this could fall into the
classification of "Situational Ethics" or being "Hypocritical". I suspect
most of Harbor Freight tools are "knockoffs" and are probably made of less
quality raw materials. I guess I justify buying HF tools because if I want a
good lifetime higher usage tool I typically will buy an American high
quality tool.  However, if I need a one-time or very low usage tool, I'll
try to find the lowest cost one that will work for that limited requirement.
I don't know what classification that puts me into!  :-)

The example that just totally violates this whole theory is the 1/2"
Craftsman Torque Wrench that I paid $99.00 for with a lifetime warranty,
that Sears no longer honors, and sells the new ones with a 90 day warranty
vs the $9.99 HF Torque wrench that has a lifetime warranty as of this date.
This comparison just doesn't compute with me. 

Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

I'm a walking storeroom of facts..... I've just lost the key to the
storeroom door 


www.deerelegacy.com

http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: antique-johndeere-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:antique-johndeere-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
Robert M. Massengale
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 11:34 AM
To: Antique John Deere mailinglist
Subject: RE: [AJD] JD Manual scans on CD

Ron -

I will play on your team... any time, any place.  I said it before and will
say it again, 
fair and reasonable is a pretty good guideline for pricing & profit.

Mike
Robert M. Massengale
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624

> Dean,
>  This medium does not lend itself well to these types of discussions. 
>  So 
> it probably needs to stop.  It gets too confusing.
>  I understand what you are saying.  I have been there-done that. 
>  Labor, 
> sales, management, owner, employee, employer, and I even worked for
> the damned government at one time.  I have been self employed since
> 1978.  The only way you can control the price of widjits is to be the
> only source of widjits.  Monopoly.  That won't fly in a capitalist
> society.  You have to offer something superior at a fair price.  Or at
> least priced fairly.  I know you shop at Harbor Freight.  Those are
> mostly knock-offs.  But they may be priced fairly.  Or they may be
> overpriced junk.  They will seek whatever level is proper.  So will
> intellectual property.  Patent and copywrite laws are there to protect
> the owners.  They do need enforcing.  However, I don't feel the need
> to "turn someone in".  I would though, if I thought it was hurting my
> pocketbook.  Human nature.
>    Somehow we got to discussing those db1293 cd's instead of the
>    scanned 
> manuals.  Copying those for resale IS not legal.  The contents of that
> cd are still being made available from Deere as I take it.  Just on
> individual cd's instead of all on one.  Runs the cost up.  Selling
> copies of something no longer made available in any form?  I probably
> would have no problem with that.
>  I think you are right on the money with these statements:
> 
> However, there is one mistake that JD is making in my opinion. That is
> their pricing structure allows plenty of room for less than honorable
> competitors.
> 
>  and
> 
> What I believe JD has forgotten is that they have long ago received a
> payback on their original investment so their Cost of Goods and
> amortization of engineering costs have been returned many times over.
> If JD wanted to they could block out any future competition. With
> predatory low prices and it still would be profitable for them. Any
> time a company has an unreasonably high price on their product they
> are just creating an umbrella for lower cost alternatives. They have
> created the artificial environment and are now having to live with it.
> 
>  Okay.  Back to discussing John Deere TRACTORS and equipment.
> 
> Ron Cook
> Salix, IA
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Antique-johndeere mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/antique-johndeere
> 
> 


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