Mountain Biking - Price Point??

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View Full Version : Price Point??


DylanTremblay
09-29-05, 07:06 PM
Have any of you guys ever bought something off of price point? Or hear of anyone buying something off it? If so are they reliable and does anyone know if its canadian dollars or us dollars? Thanks!


drumbum
09-29-05, 07:08 PM
I bought a pair of gloves from them over the summer. Shipping was fast, and the price was great with coupons (search google for them). I'd recommend them.

santiago
09-29-05, 07:16 PM
The prices are in US dollars. I find them to be the most Canadian friendly of the grey market US online vendors. They ship using USPS so this means you only have to pay GST (and PST if you're in a non-Alberta province) plus a $5 Canada Post handling fee.

I have bought quite a bit from PricePoint and would do so in the future but only if I needed to buy a largeish order (100+).


ankush
09-29-05, 08:11 PM
lemme ask you a question, (i used to own a business before i moved here so i am interested), what do you mean gray market? i mean where i come from every market is gray market and the more prosperous ones is the black market. there is hardly any white money in india. heh. but anyway, this is the second time i have seen someboy refer to these american/canadian companies as being of the gray market. that strikes me as being very strange because, hell, you are talking of america. the land of all the daddies. big daddy george bush with a steel d*ck. so it seems off. like, wow, a gray market operating so openly in AMERICA? where i come from gray market means where things are cheaper, not entirely legal. not criminally illegal like the black market, but still punishable by a fine. you know what i mean? there are different areas of law and the gray market is more a civil suit than a criminal one.. etc etc. but the goods sold in a gray market are either stolen wholly, or stolen patents, or goods on which certain taxes have not been paid, goods that have been smuggled illegaly (but whose smuggling doesnt have consequencs that lead to a prison term) etc etc. stuff like that. so, like, what do you mean by pricepoint being gray market? (of course the terms gray and black market, atleast as far as i know have not been explicitly defined by the courts or any acts but well, the difference between them is obvious in everyday working ..)

nav
09-29-05, 09:13 PM
Gray market, as I'm accustomed to hearing it (here in the US), is used to mean non-"Authorized Resellers". Basically, the whole authorized reseller scam is publicly an attempt to ensure quality control with all of the companies a brand gets associated with on its way to the customer. In practice, it's most often an attempt at price fixing in a not-so-illegal way, "list our product for this price or we'll take away your authorized reseller title and stop selling it to you". So, the so-called gray market vendors either buy the product from an authorized reseller (possibly at a very slight mark-up) and then generally resell at a very thin profit margin (unlike the authorized resellerss) or actually buy it from the manufacturer off the books (generally, with the same thin profit margin). Some times, the reason the gray market vendors are able to pick up the product like they do is because it's being discontinued, but not always.

Yeah, I'm a little bitter about the whole thing :p, but I'm a home audio/video junky. All the home audio/video companies are out to overcharge you or take away your warranty for no reason.

Oh, and I just ordered something from Price Point (my crank for my half-of-a-mountain-bike I'm working on completing). Their operators (when I called) were wholly unhelpful, but the price is right. As long as it gets here, I don't care :).

Brian
09-29-05, 09:44 PM
I've ordered heaps of stuff from them. They're prices are low enough that I can resell most things here and make a profit, even after shipping. Sette is their house brand, and a lot of it is made in the same factories as some good name brand stuff. I've been a customer for about 4-5 years now, with no complaints.

xenochimera
09-29-05, 10:06 PM
my schools team is sponsored by them so i guess they are reliable.

santiago
09-29-05, 10:10 PM
What Nav said - I believe the stories that are told that these grey market Internet shops will close down are LBS are stories told by national/local distributors who have territorial rights to sell a product and pretty much assumes/hopes that he has no competition - hence the ability to fix/set a price.

The PricePoint guys likely pick up excess product from the overseas factories (China, Taiwan, etc.) bypassing the entire middlemen bunch and makes their money by selling on low margins but with high volume.

Do I think grey market is wrong? No, I actually want to see the LBSes buy from the same suppliers and I think we're at a tipping point where this will be more feasible to do at lower quantities.

Brian
09-29-05, 10:21 PM
Pricepoint buys direct from manufacturers, as do other online sellers. Your LBS buys from a distributor like QBP or JB Imports. The difference is in the markup.

Guest
09-29-05, 10:22 PM
I don't know if they deal with Canada, but I bought my park tool kit off them, plus my park tool stand and some schweet cycling sandals. Each of these purchases were done at different points over the past two years, and I never had problems. They are very reliable and trustworthy.

Koffee

Raiyn
09-29-05, 10:39 PM
Price Point has been extremely good to me.

Brian
09-29-05, 10:40 PM
Koffee, did you get the Sette SPD sandals?

FearTheHizzo
09-29-05, 11:33 PM
I ordered my azonic aframes off pricepoint the transaction went through without a hitch. Shipped the same day i ordered em couldn't of gone better.

Too Rass Goat
09-30-05, 05:10 AM
Good company, fast shipping (unlike Performance). US dollars on the site.

LowCel
09-30-05, 05:30 AM
I've ordered from them quite a few times as well and never had a problem. I have never needed to make a return though. However I have heard from quite a few people who have done returns trouble free. The only thing you need to watch for is warranty. A lot of the companies will not warranty components bought from pricepoint or similar retailers.

Peek the Geek
09-30-05, 03:52 PM
I've used them many times with much success. In fact, I just recently bought a pair of Hutchinson Fusion Long Distance tires from them that were far cheaper than I saw anywhere else (I saved about $30).

The only problem I had was when they were selling their house brand undershirts 2 for 1. On each shirt the armhole on one side was at least twice as big as the armhole on the opposite side. Looked pretty dorky, but they're undershirts, so I didn't sweat it too much.

Get it? Sweat it?

Man, I'm a tool.

Raiyn
09-30-05, 04:41 PM
II have never needed to make a return though. However I have heard from quite a few people who have done returns trouble free.
I have. I misordered a set of wheels (don't remember how) and they swapped them out no problem. They even covered the return shipping even though it was my fault