bookcase3

If you think this decision by the Supreme Court was bad, take a look at the others they've handed down over the past couple of weeks. There are worse ones.

tonka65

most companys will exclude walmart, They can not afford to piss them off they could be out of biz over night.

and like everything else there will be loopholes.

C_Fletch

Yea, I do not see this effecting the price of the $1 to $3 DVDs at the pawn shops or used DVD/CD places.

I'm just guessing though.

Wallet Boy

This article is written from a TV pricing perspective, but the decision really applies to all goods. I can't tell if and when this is going to hurt the consumer, or if certain deals will continue to be struck in order to sell products much lower than the MSRP.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/court062807.htm

DVD Josh

There's already a thread about this. I don't think it's going to have any effect. Retailers will always have loss leaders to push higher profit margin items.

Peep

Uh, no, that's not at all what the Supreme Court said. The Supreme Court said that it is not unlawful for a manufactor to set a "minimum price" on an item.

Wallet Boy

Whoops! Sorry, couldn't find it the first time - mods, please close if necessary.

Peep

You can just delete it yourself if you want.

Jericho

That's not really true either. The Supreme Court is saying that it might not be unlawful to set minimum prices. Before it was always unlawful. Now it hits the rule of reason test, which is as confusing as anything I've seen in law.

Peep

[icon]rabbit being cut in half[/icon]

BKenn01

If you read some of the courts opinions on it, they made some sense. I doubt this will effect dvd sales. It will make it more difficult to find deals on premium products like Ipods, etc. But these companies have already been strongarming retailers to keep the prices up. Many of these companies with high demand products even have Wal-Mart over a barrel.

What is not talked about is the ebay effect. Ebay has been a big influence on this. Manufactureres and main stream retailers want to end the bottom feeding that dilutes their products and pricing.

Peep

Speaking of iPods, I've never seen an iPod go on sale. How does Apple keep the price up? I'm assuming it has something to do with a minimum price, because I sometimes see them packaged with other items (that end up costing little extra).

bloopbleep

actually the $5 dollar dvd and other cheap dvds at Walmart made dvds a bottom feeder product more than ebay ever did.why buy a dvd on ebay when u can get a brand new one at Walmart for 5 bucks.I will be the first to predict WALMART will have $5 dollar blu-ray and hddvds in less than 3 years.

ignition

Apparently you've never heard of the rule against perpetuities (property law). Judges actually sometimes "forgive" lawyers for being unprepared in trial because of its complexities.

Jericho

Oh, I'm familiar with rule against perpetuities. Actually came up in a case I have. That makes sense. The Rule of Reason in antitrust law just seems to carve out exceptions from exceptions. It's like there's no precedent for anything.

Jericho

I think the idea is that if someone puts an iPod for sale, then Apple stops supplying them with iPods. Either price it at what they say or don't get any at all.

Spiral Staircase

Amazon frequently has ipods on sale. They are currently 10% off.

Celpacius

god, i hope not. i dont want to have to pay $40 for a Criterion.

BKenn01

Sorry, I wasnt really just referring to DVD. Pretty much everything on ebay is bottom feeding. A lot of distributors will refuse to sell to ebayers.

Yes, Apple even controls Wal-Marts pricing. They will cut you off. They are actually ran a little cheaper than MSRP, but their is usually a minimum price that they can be sold for.

forumsmy

And stores have ways to give you "discounts" as without lowering the product price.

Like with iPods, since people seem to be using it as an example, Fry's, etc. all have them for MSRP $349, $249, etc. BUT with it you get an FM transmitter, carryng case, dock, Gift Card, etc.

Sold the product for the "have-to" price, so the company can get them there if they want to give some freebies.

I hope it does not come to this for DVD's. I do not think the studios will push it even if they can by law, because the public would probably revolt and not buy and then the studios would really have to DEEP discount their prices to win everyone back.

IMHO.

BKenn01

I dont think the studios care about this issue like Apple. Think about it their brand is protected by the quality of the product. If you want to buy season 5 of the x-files, you dont decide to buy Gunsmoke season 1. It is not the same thing.

But a Plasma tv is competing with another plasma tv. And nobody wants to be known as the cheap crappy product. That is why they protect their brandsl.

digitalG

If this does happen this will encourage people to pirate, then pay retail prices.

TheKing

I bought my iPod on sale at Fry's Electronics. $142 for a typically $149 2 gig Nano.

They put them on sale often, other times they bundle cases or accessories with the iPod for the full iPod price.

BKenn01

Yes, but you dont see the deep loss leader pricing with ipod.

Most of what is in Wal-Mart recently dropped to 2 for $10 bin is surplus, overstock and clearance. The studios sell it to them dirt cheap.

dczyz

First off I agree it will hit consumer pricing, and this was a horrible decision of the Court. But actually the Wal-Mart bargain bin maybe our biggest help – almost any manufacturer that sells through Wal-Mart can not afford to loose that chain for moving units.

As long as Wal-Mart continues to hit price – and not try to support MSRP pricing that will help out.

Focusing on DVD’s by themselves – I know in the Dallas Fort Worth market only Wal-Mart & Fry’s have put pressure on pricing. Most Best Buy and Circuit Cities stay close to msrp’s.