Editing The Pen Addict 396/transcript (section)

== Pre-Orders and Price Changes ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. A lot of sites have pre-orders up. So, what are they going to do? They've, they're still paying less. They're not losing money. They've accepted orders for $64 up until today. Today, the price is $80.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, but are they going to be able to honor those?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Interesting.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, because they, because they were only following, their retailers are only following the rules set forth by the distributor. The distributor is only following the rules set forth by the manufacturer.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, but it seems peculiar to me that it's like, but we're going to follow that rule from today. Like, why not then say you, you can't sell this pen for this price?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, they did, and then they gave them, but since they had already allowed a pre-sell. Right. Like, so. Yeah, yeah. This is, I'm not putting anything on the distributor, which is luxury brands in the US.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' On everyone's part, pretty fair, right? That they've said. Yeah, totally. We've changed our minds on this, but you can still honor your purchases. I actually think, I wouldn't have expected that. I would have kind of been like, well, no one told you to do it. You decided to do that, so now it's on you. That's how I would have imagined that going. Right, where they're like, well, you decided to do pre-orders. We didn't tell you to do that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, this is all agreed on beforehand, right? The retailer cannot post a pre-sale date that is ahead of whatever the distributor has provided as that resale date and time. And with that provision, they've also provided the price. And at the time, it was priced like every other Platinum at 20% off MSRP. Well, now Platinum says that has to change. The biggest argument in this is it's this single pen, right? Change them all or don't change them all. Why is this one different? But no one's making more money except the retailers, which is fine. I would rather the retailers make the most money, to be perfectly honest, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I wouldn't be surprised if this is a test on Platinum's part. They are aware that this pen should, in theory, be pretty popular. So why don't we see if we can charge MSRP for it? And if we do, then we're going to enforce that across our entire product line.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's something I agree with completely. I think Platinum is placing a bet based on the pre-orders for this pen that it's going to do exceptionally well, no matter what they sell it for. So I think they're placing a bet. Screw it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let's make the most money we can make out of this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But again, they're not making the money.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It is not changing their bottom line.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. This is very confusing, isn't it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, I guess then if you're a retailer...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Platinum originally sold the pens to the distributor based on whatever percentage of the MSRP.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's not changing how much money Platinum makes. As best as I understand this. And I could be wrong. I don't think I'm wrong in this case. Anyway.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This pen, man. This pen is a hot mess in the best way possible.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is like a visionary scribble pen, but with a good pen. Right. Right? Which is the funniest thing about it. It's like there's all this weirdness and drama over what ostensibly seems to be like a good product.