Reasonable Discount

[cypher]

I am going down to my local lathe supply store this weekend to buy myself a Jet 1642 EVS (1.5hp). The store is having a dealer day and are supposed to offer good discounts. I have seen this lathe as low as $1599 during a christmas sale. What do you all thinks is a resaonable dicsount to ask/look for? of course i want to pay as little as possible, but don't want to get laughed out of the store.

 

[Joyce Baldauf]

I got mine from ToolNut out of New York. They gave me a price of $1699 and free shipping. At the time Jet was offering a $200.00 rebate. If the machine is at you local store, it seems to me that $1499.00 would not be an unreasonable starting point from which to begin negotiations.

Good luck, I love mine and I know you'll have many happy turning hours on yours.

 

[Rick H]

Lathe Price

My guess would be whatever price they are asking. To try to get them to make a better deal would be like asking you to quit your job and come to work for them at minimum wage. There is not a lot of markup in most tools, if you think they are asking too much just go someplace else to buy it. The dealers need to make some profit to be able to meet expenses so they can stay in business. I feel they give the best price they can afford when the price it originally.
Myself I will pay more from a local dealer so I have a place to go to if I have any problems with the tool. Plus I want that local dealer there so I can buy other things from them. I would rather deal with my local dealer than trying to deal with some company across the country that I may have never heard of before. They have my money and could care less many times if I have a problem. Mostly they may tell me to go direct to the manufacure and try to get the problem solved there.

 

[KEW]

On March 3rd, Woodcraft had their 10% off sale. With a retail price of $1699, that made the price $1530. After that, there is a current rebate for $100. So the effective price is $1430. That is about as good of a price as I have ever seen (I believe Jet dropped the retail price by $100 and decreased the rebate for $200 to $100 - so not much net change there).
At the same time I appreciate what Rick is saying, and like to support local businesses. I'd probably ask for a $1600 sales price (before rebate)and buy any chuck inserts and a couple of tools, etc. from them.