On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 07:13:49 -0000, Rich Andrews wrote:
While it certainly isn't ethical to sell something to someone at
overinflated prices, it is legal to a point. Where people usually end up
in trouble is product liability, warranty, and a host of other well
defined legal issues. Things can get quite ugly if someone incurs a loss
that was directly or even indirectly related to the product sold.
Manufacturing an item has a number of issues associated with it and
certain laws do not apply to kits which is why they are sold as kits. It
isn't so much about money. Now if he claims to have a MSRP of $1600.00,
he will have to have proof that the MSRP is $1600.00 else face the
consequences. Many a person has gone to jail for making claims about a
product that could not be proven or were fictional. One could say that he
is not manufacturing something, but the truth of the matter is, according
to law, he is.

MSRP is "Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price". He could say the MSRP
is $428,500 if he wanted to. There's no law in the world against that.
Of course, to actually sell any, the price would have to be so heavily
discounted that the MSRP would be useless.

As far as the ethics involved, what's "overinflated"? Wouldn't you say
pet rocks at *any* price are overinflated? Yet a lot of people bought
them and were quite happy with their purchase. Where's the ethical
breach? If I make a widget, the actual cost I incur has *nothing* to do
with the perceived value... if they cost me $3 to make and people line
up to buy them at $100 each, how is that unethical? If it was, I would
have some recourse if my widgets cost $20 to make and people were only
willing to pay $8.

An objects "value" is defined by the marketplace. Anything else will
not work, and has been proven not to work time and again throughout
history.

--
************************************************** **********************
* John Oliver http://www.john-oliver.net/ *
* "For the wages of spam is death!" http://www.spamcon.org/legalfund/ *
************************************************** **********************


-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =-----