Greatest markup ever?

[Anton Gijsen]

Oh, I forgot to add, IIRC it costs about £5-6 a can.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Thats what freeplay marketing said to Trevor Baylis.

[Anton Gijsen]

Oh dear, If I'd have actually read the article I linked to I'd know it was a massive £7.95 a bottle!

[nightjar]

Recycling companies sell whatever they can to be remanufactured, as it makes it easier for them to achieve the targets set under the EU waste directives.

Colin Bignell

[Andy]

The next worst markup I have seen must have been for mobile phone cases and PHFs.

These cost mext to nothing to make and supply - even back in the early days of mobiles when volume demand was lower.

But these items were seen as some sort of super premium thing and they were charged to the public at suitably super premium prices!

All the dealers back then were in cahoots with one another on this one. They resolutely stuck to the same sort of ripp-off price as one another. Or maybe it was the wholesalers who was ripping the actual dealers off? Well, the end effect was for the poor punter to pay a lot and get a rather little.

[Andy]

I didn't get the feeling they were bankrupt stock. A card of very cheap button cells has been available for a long time both in the UK and in the US. The reason they are not popular is probably because people feel it isn't worth putting one in because the cells will last a very short time or perhaps the cells will leak. I guess there might be a bit of truth in both those worries.

[Andy]

Do your sums again. I think you may have slipped a decimal place or two!

It is a 500% markup if he sells only one cell out of the 16 (or maybe

20) as I originally explained.

If he goes on to sell only half his cells at £2.99 each then he gets approx £24. The 8 cells cost £0.50.

So at the halfway point he has a markup well over 4,000%. Cor!

[Zak]

Off topic: When did Opal Fruits become called Star-somethings?

[Andy]

A few years ago there was a multi-filter system on the market for restaurants which filtered ordinary tap water so the restuarant could then sell it as premium water.

I think the law was fussy about the exact terms used to describe such water but the law still allowed it to be called some very misleading nonsense.

The cost of tap water is next to nothing (even allowing for all sorts of overheads) but the cost to the diner is, I would guess, be something like a couple of quid.

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

Anton Gijsen typed

Where there's muck, there's brass...

[Paul G]

In message , Helen Deborah Vecht writes

Ah. I should have specified my borough, as it's definitely a guilty to the above. Glad to hear that other boroughs do have their act together.

[Anton Gijsen]

And those in the know, or who could be bothered to shop around, went to their local market stall and got them at a half-reasonable price.

[Mark]

The cheap batteries may be of poorer quality. I've bought batteries from discount stores on occasions and have found a much higher rate of dead ones.

I think they buy up stock with a short lifespan at a knock down price too. If you buy a battery from a 'good' store it will have a "use-by" date several years in the future. Batteries from discount stores often have a date only a few months in the future.

Mark

[Joe Smith]

You seem to be suggesting that there is never suc a thing as over priced, or gouging, or unwarranted markup.

A typical retail markup is in the order of 50%. Some items more and some items less. Even if we allow 100 to 300% markup for fancy items (ie those which are time limited by fashionable trends) then markups of thousands of percent are amazing and, dare I say it, almost "unebelievable".

A true market would reduce such a profit differential but clearly there is either a lack of consumer knowledge if they're prepared to pay such ridiculuous prices or very limited consumer choice of outlets and prices.

Yup, the poster is right. It's unbelievable. Such venality.

[John Cartmell]

I once approached our local 'stately home & garden' and offered to design and make a board game (hand made) specifically for them to be sold in their shop. They wanted a markup of 140%. That was their 'standard'.

[Waka Bamm]

What you say has a lot of logic to it but I have found that some of the better cells on the £1 card to be quite good (some are crapped out). I don't see much evidence of any "use by" date on these £1 cards although there may be something purely fictional stamped somewhere.

They are usually alkaline button cells and not silver oxide so they do not always power some types of equipment.

Silver oxide has a slightly higher nominal voltage and will keep its voltage right to the very end, whereas the voltage of alkaline cells decreases in a much more gradual way as the cell gets used up and this may not suit some devices. The theoretical shelf life of both types is usually very good and in the order of a year or two.

I run my digital thermometers off these cheapo cells. And also run those poorly designed devices which need four buttons cells all stacked together (eg my voice recording pen). If I didn't put cheapo batteries in that sort of device then I would very quickly spend more on full price batteries than the device is worth!

I have even put cheapo cell sinto a watch where the effort of opening and replacing and closing the watch make it annoying if the cells packs up in 3 months. But I have been pleasantly surprised - altho my expectation was not set very high to start with! :-)

[Mary Fisher]

Yes.

[Mary Fisher]

My local recycling centre in Leeds has such a disposal facility. It's not on the doorstep but it's possible to save such oddities until there are enough to make a journey.

It's no problem.

It's also convenient that the scrapyard is next door to the recycling centre so if you can be bothered (we can) to separate different metals you can come away with cash in hand.

We're dealing with the third generation of scrap merchants!

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Ah - a southern expression :-)

In Yorkshire we say, "Where there's muck there's money." It's alliterative.

Mary

[Andy]

I think one should also make some allowance for the fact that one is paying for the premises: - tables, chairs, lighting, cleaning (er, well), nice friendly staff (huh?) and all that sort of stuff.