Brian: Without having this veer off too much from Frank's point...the circumstances are a bit more parallel than you may know from my brief mention.
We make the same exact cart in a different color, with their name (rather than our brand name) on it, add $0.35 worth of bungees to their unit.....and even use a slightly higher payload capacity on their product over ours.
As the liability for our products with our name on it is our own (so we rate very conservatively), when we sell to another as private label they take ownership of liability for it (so it is their choice to rate it slightly less conservatively than us). The company (actually 'companies' as we make it for a couple this way) is a Materials Handling specialist.
It's about as thinly veiled ruse as Lexicon is using to disguise the OPPO underneath, as I see it. That is to say, you're getting a fine product nonetheless....you simply pay more from one channel of distribution than another...a la my other example of the Clearaudio Talismann and Denon DL103R phono cartridges.
John
John:
I can't agree. You are selling an undisguised cart. I am sure that they are great carts, but I doubt that the reseller is touting
their research, innovation, and manufacturing in the cart. Also, the cart is the same cart that can be purchased elsewhere, even with a different name. The cart isn't disguised to look like
their proprietary product.
The exact same teak furniture that sells at COSTCO for 159.00 sells at Front Gate for 799.00 (or something like that). When COSTCO sells the teak furniture, the name plate is the same as the name plate as the product sold by Front Gate. There is not any attempt to disguise the product. There isn't any deception. People think that COSTCO is cheaper. That is why they shop there.
Staples sells copy paper, and I always assumed that the bought it from a paper company. I suspect that Staples doesn't have its own paper mills. But it is only paper. I am relying on Staples to find a good product and sell it to me at a similar or even lower price.
Buying a Lexicon is different, IMO. This is expensive, supposedly high-end stuff. I assume that Lexicon's customers thought that they were paying for a Lexicon-specific design. The BD-30 is merely an Oppo in disguise. They disguised the player. That is deception. If you saw someone that you knew in disguise, except at a costume party, etc., wouldn't you be suspicious?
