Thread: what is the most overpriced tool?

Originally Posted by BobL

Toolin, sorry, but I fail to see any "news" in anything you said in your post. Having lived and worked in the USA for a number of years and visited many US states over 25 years, I have not experienced anything that could change my point of view. Besides, I don't recall saying anything about it being the evil empire, if anything it is IMHO the empire of the fat and the foolish. Don't worry Australia is not far behind.

Everyone takes away the memories they choose to. For the most part the memories expressed here are usually made with a deliberately negative slant and not even close to a true picture and that's the path you've chosen to take. You know full well that there are plenty of positive things about the US but you chosen to leave them out. I took it upon myself to give the other side of the coin. In the short time that I've been here I could go back to Canada and paint an incredibly negative picture if I chose to. But it would be so far from the truth because even though I've seen some seriously bad things take place there is far more good that happens. And as far as I'm concerned they have to be part of the picture regardless of how I feel.

This question of “overpriced” tools (or bananas, for that matter) is worth discussing, if only to bring out the varying perspectives that we each bring to the debate. One person’s overpriced is another person’s great investment.

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I am put in mind of a lesson I learned many years ago from a former boss. He pointed out that the normal way people look at pricing is wrong (his opinion). That there should be no connection between Price and Cost to Manufacture. The Price (capital P) should be determined by the market—i.e., what will the market bear? The Cost just is what it is. If it costs more to make than the market will bear, don’t make it. If it costs a dollar to make and the market will pay $100, sell it for $100. Many would say, if it costs $1 to make, add for overhead and a fair profit and sell it for $4.

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Methinks Festool, just for example, subscribe to the first theory—what the market will bear. If no one would pay AU$1200 for a Domino, they would lower the price. But lowering the price just in order to increase their volume would defeat the branding strategy that they have so carefully worked out—which is, “we are the quality leader and you must pay for it.” They have decided, based on what data I have no clue, that the Australian market will pay AU$1200 for it at a volume of sales Festool find acceptable. They decided the UK market would pay 500-600 Pounds. What they will determine the US price to be is as yet uncertain. But I think it has little to do with the cost to produce it so long as the margins are profitable and the brand position is preserved.

As for being fat and foolish—I resemble that remark!
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