Price stability in America?

[jferreir]

Out of boredom, I was browsing audiogon and stumbled upon a classified ad for the P3ESR. The seller is 'Sound Science', presumably an authorized dealer, operating out of Castle Rock, CO. Within the ad, they claimed the following:

Only a few pair [of the P3ESR] in Rosewood available left in the US... I have learned that the next batch of P3 ESR coming into the USA will cost more, the price is going up by at least $200 a pair maybe more.

Can anyone substantiate the above claims? If true, do they apply to Canada as well? What about other Harbeth models? I suspect that this is nothing more than a cheap marketing gimmick, but I'm curious nonetheless. I have already purchased my own pair of the P3ESR from a reputable dealer, but this information might be useful for other potential buyers.

You can view the full ad here.

[John Geisen]

I spoke with the US distributor on Saturday and he never mentioned a price increase. Normally we are given some sort of notice so I'd be surprised.

John

[A.S.]

I've checked this with Harbeth USA. There has been no discussion about and no plan to increase pricing from Harbeth UK to Harbeth USA nor from Harbeth USA to the Harbeth USA retail chain. Of course, there are dollar/GB pound fluctuations which may have small effect.

As at today, the back-end of the Harbeth UK order book is the end of November 2010. We can accept new orders for delivery after then. We are confirming all those orders at the current prices. Almost all distributors have planned orders in the pipeline between now and the end of November, which makes day to day production planning extremely efficient. Being able to count, to the pair, what we need to make and when, almost the hour, nine months into the future gives us considerable bargaining power with our suppliers so we should be able to hold down prices for the foreseeable future. We are in an completely unique commercial position in the audio industry.

As I mentioned recently, we have politely declined to add any more counties to our 40+ global network at this time. We must concentrate on serving those with orders already committed.