Nomad said:
I went to the counter to pay and the girl huffed (in a nice way) and said I can't believe this transaction, she said she called the manager and asked him if they were really going to honor that price and he said yes! She said she explained to him it was a $160 dollar loss. I am sort of in awe, I fell in a pile of black plastic gold, never thought they would honor that price, can't figure which I am more floored about, actually getting one or the price. I took a bunch of pics and I will post them tomorrow, getting up @ 5:30am, working, and driving to get it I am beat. Truthfully though... I am going to go play with it! Life is good.
They did not lose $160. So do not feel bad for them. I just checked some pricing and it looks to me, they made a profit of about 29 percent over their cost, selling it at $339. Had they sold it at the price of $499 they would have made a 90 percent gain over their cost. You were quoted a price in December that was based on the supply and demand at the time. Their cost has not gone up, but the demand has, and thus an increase in the MSRP. It appears you dealt with someone that honored their price rather than try and make a much bigger profit. Kudos to them! Although, they would not be heart broken had you said that you did not want it, as they would have sold it at the higher supply and demand current price.
What we have here is a supply and demand situation. The demand for the product apparently has increased, thus the MSRP or what someone can sell it at has increased. Even Kel-Tec's own web site says the MSRP is $409. So my guess is they place a higher price and take a lower offer of $450 or some other agreed amount for newer sales.
Just like the KSG that I want. Kel-Tec says MSRP is near $1200. They sell for $1,500 or more because of demand. But the wholesale price is well under even the $1,200 MSRP on the Kel-Tec website. Problem is they are very hard to find, thus all the price differences.
It reminds me also of a girl I used to work with. When the Chrysler PT Cruiser first came out she had to have one. There was limited supply and a fairly high demand. I think she paid 2-3,000 over the sticker price to get one. For a PT Cruiser?
I think you got a fair price and they made money. And it appears they dealt with you honestly and fairly. People that get gouged many times find out they got gouged, then they never do business there again.
I also saw on another forum that when Feinstein submitted her weapons bill back after the Ct shooting, the KSG was on banned gun list. Kel-Tec raised their wholesale prices immediately for that gun and they said it was to help recoup R+D cost since the gun might be banned. They said when and if the ban/weapons bill did not pass they would lower their cost back to its original wholesale cost. We know the bill never got passed and it appears they have gone back to regular wholesale pricing. The Sub-2000 might have been on the list as well as a high capacity, not sure. I think anything over 10 round mags were targeted.