I wonder your thoughts.

heres the official statement

"Gibson Guitar Corp. is one of many manufacturers and organizations in the Musical Instrument Industry that has been named a party to approximately 30 lawsuits that claim they conspired to artificially increase and fix the prices of musical instruments. These lawsuits stemmed from an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission that lasted several years and was not pursued by the FTC after they concluded the investigation.

The allegation that Gibson participated in any scheme to artificially inflate or fix prices is wholly without merit. Gibson strives to provide customers with the best musical instruments in the world and to build lifelong relationships with musicians who choose the Gibson brand.

Gibson believes in the American system of justice and believes that, through that system, the claims against Gibson will show to have no merit. Unfortunately, that process will undoubtedly result in high costs to many organizations that, like Gibson, strive to provide music lovers everywhere with quality instruments and aggressively compete on price. They provide true and accurate information to their consumers, and continue to innovate and provide great value in product offerings overall."


http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/N ... ment-0127/

_________________
-Fender 92' Telecaster unknown
- 2007 Gretsch 6118T
- Ibanez 02' AF85 Artcore hollowbody, modded
- Epiphone Firebird
- Line 6 Variaxe 300
- Squire strat (refinished)
- 2008 Fender Supersonic
- Fender Blues Junior (original)

I really dont understand how they can be tried for price fixing when they offer guitar at many price points?

Can someone explain that to me please.

_________________
No no and no

According to this Fender are up before the beak too.

http://www.bluegrassjournal.com/2010/01/27/gibson-guitar-corp-responds-to-price-fixing-allegations/

What kind of law tells you you cant sell your product at any price you choose?

I'm wholly against this. If private companies get forced to cut profits by a civil body, it wont do product quality any good at all.

How on earth can you accuse a business that sells items ranging from £100 to £10,000 of price fixing. This sounds like a nonsense lawsuit bought about by someone with their knickers in a twist because they cant afford what they want. Not that I'm implying that is the situation. It just smacks of it though.[/url]

_________________
No no and no

More likely by complaints by a company that can't compete.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

An example of price fixing would be Gibson telling a dealer they could not sell a particular model below a certain price. So if a dealer wanted to sell one at cost or 10% above cost to move inventory Gibson may threaten not to sell to them anymore. I have seen this in other product lines not related to music.

Not sure if this is the case with Gibson.

Typically the ex dealer would be the one making the complaint because Gibson would not sell to them anymore.

Thats what it sounds like to me, now im not here to say they did it or didnt, im just wondering what everyone else thinks of the situation.

_________________
-Fender 92' Telecaster unknown
- 2007 Gretsch 6118T
- Ibanez 02' AF85 Artcore hollowbody, modded
- Epiphone Firebird
- Line 6 Variaxe 300
- Squire strat (refinished)
- 2008 Fender Supersonic
- Fender Blues Junior (original)

Bingo! Harley Davidson did it to the Japanese motorcycle companies. They made them actually raise their prices and accused them of "dumping" or selling bikes for less money than they were really worth. In a way, that was actually price fixing on both ends.

The consumer will eventually dictate the prices. Did you notice now you can get an American made Strat and Tele for $799? There were lots other price drops too. The buying public has a hard time paying for food and rent. A higher priced guitar is a luxury. Eating, putting gas in the car and eating is a bit more important in this economy and it seems Fender may finally be listening.

The suit includes Fender, Gibson, Yamaha and was filed in Washigton DC and California. It says that the three along with Guitar Center and National retailers association had meeting together to agree upon price levels and strategy information. This is a violation of the Sherman antitrust act that ensuress the benefit of competition for consumers.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Well I think they have a bigger problem with the rosewood incident than this. Lets face the facts I really cant see how anyone can be told what price you have to sell your product. It is the companies job to hype and sell. This whole saga about the John Mayer Black one is the same thing, at first the price was to be in the 6K range and now with all the hype they are talking about it being closer to 10K. If someone wants to waste there money on that ugly looking guitar that I never even saw the guy play well thats there buisness. Take away the hype and spend 4 or 5K on a custom shop model of your own choosing and I bet,no I can guarantee it will blow it away. Because you are not paying for the hype or giving Mayer his cut.

Dunno about Fender but I know Gibson are particularly hard on shops here in the uk. They do make shops jump through hoops to sell the stuff. XX square foot of the shop set aside solely for Gibson goods. First buy of £xx,xxx of stock, sell it at £xx,xxx and get £xxx off your next purchase. When you sell that 2nd batch you've made your profit off the first.
Its rare to see both Gibson and Fender stocked in anything except a huge shop over here. Theres just not enough space.
I can see why a shop owner would have complained. I cant see that they've a leg to stand on though.

_________________
No no and no

'Zactly - this is the crux of it.

A manufacturer is allowed to sell their product for any price they like. If we don't like the price we don't buy the product.

What they are not allowed to do in most countries is conspire with other manufacturers to keep prices high. That is a cartel and it is illegal.

Whether it is true or not who knows? But that will be the case that is being made.

Cheers - C

Gibson's been like that forever. My understanding is they make you buy a certain amount of inventory. Some local shops can't afford to sell their guitars. Maybe one of the members who actually works in a music store knows exactly how it works. You either can afford a certain model guitar or you can't. That's what makes the "haves" and "have nots." I'm pretty much a "have not". I'd never pay thousands of dollars on a guitar even if I had the money.

I know a shop that dropped the gibson line, 'cause of, having to jump thru loops. Other than vintage gibs, he sells fender and others. I don't know if they tried to fix prices or not, I think people will just buy elsewhere, if they don't like, whats going on, or not buy at all. If you want to sell guitars $3000.+, thats fine. there are plenty of guitars under $1000. that are just as good, or better.

_________________
2012 American Vintage Telecaster 1958
09 Fender american deluxe strat.
97 Gibson les paul special P90's double-cut
65 Princeton reverb re-issue
2010 Guild Gad-F40e

You are correct as usual Ceri that's the case. Guitar center was mentioned prominently as to being included in this stuff.

_________________
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Anyone find it peculiar that in this months musiciansfriend catalog Fender is slashing prices bigtime?

American Standards down to 999
Fender Jaguar HH down to 499

and a new line of special americans for only 799

Does this have anything to do with the Gibson lawsuit? You tell me..

_________________
My lot:
2003 white/white Fender Strat mim
2007 natural ibanez af 105 hollow body
1991 ibanez 12 string acoustic
roland micro cube amp