"Purchasing Decision Scenario" Topic

The question is loaded heavily in favour of option 1 so I can only think that those voting 2 have had a bad experience with Amazon – or are just being contrary.

Yeah, not exactly a good poll, as it makes a lot of assumptions about a very specific situation that may not actually exist in reality.

Vendor 2 is a vendor for who you've never done business with, but they are the … sole distributor of Object X.

Just checking:
If Vendor 2 is the sole distributor,
then vendor 1 can not be an option,
is this not so?

I agree with the above statements.
All polls should have a vote button for 'not a valid question/poll' and or 'abstain' to indicate that one is not happy with the way the poll is formulated.

This is exactly how Real Life Polls are conducted.
Polls are hardly ever "scientific". Most are driving an agenda.

"It has been suggested that Skip BAyless on ESPN is a smug overrated twit.
Do you
A Completely agree
B Partially Agree
C I never watch ESPN"

That is how it's done, and I have no peoblem with that.

This Poll is not seeking some existential Truth in the Universe. It's asking who you would buy from, given THIS SCENARIO.

sheesh. Stop over-thinking things!

Unless one has had a bad, bad experience with Amazon (and I haven't and don't know one person who has) then this one's a gimme.

I agree with John. Lighten up and hit the Amazon button! You know you want to… 8)=

Amazon.

Anyway if you want to help the vendor make more money then buy from Amazon.
Why?

Well if you buy direct from the OEM he gets to make one sale for one unit.
When Amazon run out he will no doubt get an order from them for a hundred units or whatever his minimum order term is.

Same with many re-sellers.
For example:

I sell Total Battle Miniature stuff.
You could buy direct from them and give them a single sale.
Or you could buy the same item from me which will reduce my stock so that I end up placing an order with Total Battle Miniatures myself, however as I have to buy a minimum of £xxx from Total Battle Miniatures they will get more from me than they would from that one sale.
Buying direct is not always best for the OEM.

Michael.

Does vendor 2 have a shop I can visit and pick the item up from ? When I do that is the guy at the counter polite to me ? If I get it from Amazon will it be delivered to my door on a rainy day and not put under cover ?

Since the question seems to boil down to – all other things being equal would you prefer to pay 70% or 100% of list price for an item then I voted 1.

All polls should have a vote button for 'not a valid question/poll' and or 'abstain'

A voting button called abstain?
Really?

Existentialism aside (Sartre makes me feel sick anyway), this one's a bit of a no-brainer.

If I can walk in and look at the product from vendor X, then I will happily buy it at full price since I could actually see it and look at it. Otherwise, it is a dollars and cents decision. Amazon in that case.

If I can walk in and look at the product from vendor X, then I will happily buy it at full price since I could actually see it and look at it. Otherwise, it is a dollars and cents decision. Amazon in that case.

If I can walk in and look at the product from vendor X then I will happily pay 30% less for it on Amazon after actually seeing it and looking at it…

A: 30% off + free shipping VS B: full price + full shipping = A: every time in my world, unless I don't know about A: or your not being true to yourself..

In addition to what Angel Barracks said, if enough people go with option 2, Amazon will see no reason to continue carrying the product which will reduce exposure and eventually lead to lower sales.

Connard Sage said:

If I can walk in and look at the product from vendor X then I will happily pay 30% less for it on Amazon after actually seeing it and looking at it…

It's people like you and I who are killing bookshops all over the UK. And we're killing HMV as well :-)

I'm quite shameless at this and have been known take out my smartphone, look up Amazon prices (there's an App for that) and even order the item whilst actually inside vendor X.

But only in big chain stores – Waterstones, the now defunct Borders, HMV and Games Workshop. I wouldn't do it in my FLGS. But that doesn't exist anyway.

Quite so Derek.

Though I do still buy from Waterstones. I like bookshops, and, for good or ill, Waterstones are about the only bookshop in most towns.

I still buy from Waterstones as well, occasionally.

The pleasure of instant gratification can sometimes overcome a 10% discount on a cheap book. But never 25% on £25.00 GBP

And my local Waterstones is combined with an HMV and really not very good anyway.

It depends more on what 'X' happens to be.

So anyone know what miniatures I can buy from Amazon at 30% off?

You can find GW figures on Amazon – some of them at up to 30% off.

I would probably try Amazon. Altho I might try Vendor 2 to see what his service is like. Also it might help to keep him in business.

I would not do business with Amazon if it were free. They are one of the "Evil Entities" that are driving Brick and Morter businesses into bankruptcy and reducing our quality of life in this benighted 21st Century.

Goodbye Brick and Mortars and good riddance!

They are one of the "Evil Entities" that are driving Brick and Morter businesses into bankruptcy and reducing our quality of life in this benighted 21st Century.

If only they were allowing people that can't afford to run/own/rent shops to have a market share by working from home selling their stuff.

It's Vendor X's job to work out his sales channels and build a profitable business. It's mine to get his product as a good price. It's not like Amazon hired some factory to produce counterfeit knock-offs.

The one concession I make to Brick and Mortar is that if I discover a book on the shelf of the local independent I won't go home and order on-line just to save a couple of $. USD

As Lentulus said, if it is in a B&M that I visit I will tend to get it there to support them. Other wise it is a web order.

I will also support the B&M that is less expensive that another.

By the way, I used to frequently buy from Borders because they sent me coupons, and for books it was often a better deal than Amazon, on-line discount or not (especially as I tend to buy one-at-a-time, and one paperback or even hardback usually isn't enough to trigger free shipping). Now I buy from B&N for the same reasons.
But I will go with Amazon for large ticket items.

Note, however, that I am referring to Amazon proper, not Amazon's third-party vendors. I'm a bit more cautious about going that route. Amazon may be reliable, but "Fred's House O Junk" through Amazon may not be.

parzival wrote:

By the way, I used to frequently buy from Borders because they sent me coupons, and for books it was often a better deal than Amazon, on-line discount or not (especially as I tend to buy one-at-a-time, and one paperback or even hardback usually isn't enough to trigger free shipping).

They used to give you vouchers for signing up to their mailing list.

And more if you got a friend to sign up as well.

I never look at Amazon for miniatures.

Some background: this was aimed at publishers who felt it didn't pay to have their books available at Amazon, preferring to sell them directly at prices that are in my mind prohibitive.

My counter in the argument was that they would sell many more if they sold through Amazon and all that comes with that. This question was designed to see what a probable ratio of business would be by doing so.

It's not perfect , but at least there is evidence that books sold through Amazon versus books sold independently (as described above) would do so at a rate of 10:1.

The next question then is, what conditions must be present that makes the second model more profitable than the first? Well?

As to the charges that it's "loaded" doesn't' erase the tuth of it. If price and sevrvice matter to customers, its hardly unfair to bring those factors in. So, of course it's loaded. But that's the real choice that confronts us consumers. There's nothing fabricated or false about it. If I want a red bike, offering a blue one is hardly equitable or desirable.

Should have set it up this way: If you could get X from Amazon cheaper, while other company has X for full price S/H etc, but also has K(some object you wouldn't mind having) for sale/clearance/etc, what would you do?

First off I'll say this: If I'm buying online then I care ONLY about price plus shipping combined with reputation.

This is a pretty loaded scenario. The more realistic day-to-day scenario is between online and local and to me looks more like this:

I can by Object X from manufacturer (or brick and mortar store) for list price. I can also order it from Amazon or other (ebay, etc) for between 10 and 20 percent less. Usually I don't get free shipping, which means most of the discounted price is eaten up by shipping cost. Real numbers end up like this example:

Full price $35. USD Discount price $25 USD with $5 USD shipping. So in the wash I come out $5 USD ahead but wait a week for my item. Usually less than $5. USD I use $5 USD because it's my decision point, wherein if I can get more than $5 USD in difference savings I will buy online but if I get less than $5 USD in savings then I will go ahead and buy local (or have them order it).

Hi Flashman,

Just make sure you remember that this poll only shows that people prefer Amazon, given both options. It does not provide any information about whether customers would buy the product if it was only available on the publisher's page. It is quite possible that, despite a 10:1 preference for Amazon over publisher, there is an overwhelming preference for using the publisher's website over not making a purchase at all. So, Amazon might not be worth the lost revenue.

If a product comes from a large corporate producer -- Hasbro, GW, even Mongoose -- I'll get it from Amazon or someplace similar.

If it's a product made by someone I "know" and respect from interaction on these boards, such as Khurasan, Rebel Minis, GZG, I'll pay the extra to support the "cottage" businesses. I'm sure the loss of income to Amazon, et. al., is felt far more sharply by the smaller producers than the giants.