rpenmanparker 

It's not like the groups they sell so cheap (e.g. Merlin) come pre-boxed. They put them together after you select your specifics like crank length, cassette design, etc. I don't want the group brake calipers or crank. I wonder if I were to buy a partial group, say derailleurs, levers, and cassette if I could work out a price lower than the sum of the individual part prices. The alternative would be to buy the whole group and unload what I didn't want on ebay. What a pain, although if I could sell the unwanted parts for Merlin's individual part prices, my cost for the remaining parts that I keep would be even lower than the group price for them. That has some attraction.

dtrain

I doubt you can haggle/deal, but....

Ribble has 13% off right now (most items) that works on parts but not groupsets - so you could build a mini group that way.

What are you getting? Maybe someone here would split the order with you...committing to buy the calipers and cranks ahead of time? A friend and I nearly did that once on a bikes direct deal..we planned to go in together and split the wheels and groupset.

Igualmente

I know that Merlin does a gear kit (i.e. derailleurs, cables and brifters alone). eg Shimano Ultegra 6700 STI Gear Kit | Merlin Cycles

They also do bundle deals (eg 6800 brifters + FD + RD) which yield some savings.

rms13

I think you just buy what's on their site like any place else. I got a ultegra 6700 crankset a few months ago from merlin for $120 which was in retail packaging. They also sell a lot more than groups

chasm54

If you are asking whether they'll negotiate a price on (say) the brifters, derailleurs and cassette that is lower than the price of those individual items, I'd say that would be very unlikely. You're much more likely to have success if you shop around and wait until individual parts are discounted, which they are quite frequently. The alternative you suggest - namely wait until a whole group is heavily discounted - is also viable. The 105 group I bought from Merlin last year was so cheap I regret not having bought two and stored one for the future.

Jiggle

Why don't you just *ask* them?

dtrain

I got two 5800 groups from Ribble. Quickly sold one at a nice profit. The other goes on this spring or next.

rpenmanparker 

Wut? I could do that? Actually there is a problem. I don't speak Brit.

Seriously, Come on. For someone who isn't really serious about this anyway, doing it this way is loads more fun.

Jiggle

Let me give you a crash course in Brit: tosser, limey, bloody, wanker, git, ace, arse over tit, blinkered.

How to talk to a British woman:


Now you're prepared.

Lazyass

A retail store isn't like a car dealership. Companies that make products have a minimum price a retailer is not allowed to go under, otherwise they can be banned from selling those products. If Ribble sells Campy shifters too low to hook a few customers up Campy can cease doing business with them because it hurts their other dealers. Do you haggle the price of a gallon of milk at the grocery store?

SundayNiagara

In the US it's called, MAP - Minimum Advertized Price.

raisinberry777

Actually, this practice is illegal in the UK under the Competitions Act.

How it flies in America is beyond me.

Jiggle

There is a minimum price they can advertise. They can sell it for whatever they want.

Yes, you can haggle the price of anything as long as you're talking to the owner (or someone authorized to make price decisions) and not some lackey. It helps to have bargaining positions such as cash or a competitor advertising a lower price.

rpenmanparker 

Actually it's called the Fair Trade Price in the US. But the UK retailers are already selling dirt cheap. I would just be asking them to match their group discounts on individual parts when puchased as a "mini" group.

rpenmanparker 

During the Great Depression the control of price by the manufacturer was exempted fron the Sherman Anti Trust Act to protect small mom and pop retailers.

Lazyass

Yes, I managed a motorcycle shop that sold parts and gear from all the major companies. If I sold a customer a Shoei RF-1200 helmet or a Yoshimura full exhaust for less than what we were allowed to sell it for then those companies could have put us on probation or dropped us. I've seen it happen. Usually the result of an employee giving in to the "can I get a discount" question that I heard 100 freaking times a day. Or they were behind on their sales goal and just wanted the sale or commission which is actually stealing. Every time I was asked that I would just want to walk away from the guy, it was so annoying. I was in a Performance bike shop and talked to a couple of guys working there and we swapped stories. They deal with the same crap. Never again in my life will I ever work in any type of retail or customer service job.

rpenmanparker 

During the Great Depression the control of price by the manufacturer was exempted fron the Sherman Anti Trust Act to protect small mom and pop retailers.

Lazyass

Incorrect. Sure, a manager can tell an employee to go ahead and ring something up with a discount, that's easy, but that doesn't make them right.

Jiggle

MAP agreements must be popular, because I've almost never seen resale price maintenance since it became legal in the US. Oakley sunglasses are sold via RPM in brick and mortar retail outlets, but those same retailers blow them out online regularly. So it's not like I've never been able to get a discount on an item I wanted to pay less than RRP for.

SundayNiagara

+1

SundayNiagara

Fair Trade pricing in the US ended about 40 years ago.

rpenmanparker 

I may be wrong about this. Write ups about it like on Wikipedia are very confusing. The sense I got was that the state-by-state statutory protection for fair trade pricing ended like you say. I can't figure out whether fair trade pricing is actually ILLEGAL in the US at this time or not. Best I can figure is that the exception to the Sherman act is still in force meaning that a manufacturer cannot be prosecuted for cutting off a distributor or seller for undercutting the MSRP. I know that certain products are definitely marketed as if fair trade restrictions are allowed. When a department store runs an across-the-board sale, there are always "exceptions" in the fine print that aren't discounted. Those are the fair trade items. The manufacturer won't allow the discounting. Wish I could think of some specific examples right now.

SundayNiagara

Certain suppliers won't allow stores to advertise their products below retail. However, a consumer can still get a discount by simply asking for it while a sale is going on. I know, I've done it.