Calling all NANOG'ers - idea for national hardware price quote registry

Richard A Steenbergen ras at e-gerbil.net
Sat Sep 17 00:13:43 UTC 2005


On Fri, Sep 16, 2005 at 04:46:32PM -0700, Matt Ghali wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 16 Sep 2005, Marshall Eubanks wrote:
>   
>   Am I the only one who feels that an NDA, even an NDA with a vendor, is an
>   agreement that should be honored ? 
>   
> 
> I agree as well. It amuses me to no end that this fellow is posting 
> from his work account at "onelegal.com".  

Not to mention the fact that his "group effort" would just result in 
higher prices for everyone. Successful vendors are not stupid, they have 
managed to grasp a concept that has eluded the networking industry for 
quite some time: Profit.

Yes everyone loves it when their vendor takes them out to dinner, or out 
for a night on the town, but at the end of the day who do you think pays 
for it? You do. If you think your vendor is your friend in this industry, 
your wallet is in for a bad time. Your vendor is your mortal enemy who you 
just get to act friendly with, nothing more.

There is a profit margin which must be maintained, and that means the 
vendors will excercise the time tested art of maximum extraction and 
pricing at what the market will bear. Your good deal is funded by someone 
else's bad deal, where a couple of bottles of wine made them pay $20mil 
too much.

You have to remember, these are not a mass market consumer style products, 
where a retailer buys at a wholesale price and sells at a retail price. 
You aren't going to help push prices down by collecting data about who is 
selling it for the cheapest. Even if you managed to successfully violate 
every NDA on the planet and show everyone what everyone else is paying, it 
will not change the bottom line profits which must be made. Every time you 
see someone who paid more than you did (especially if they are your 
competitor), you should rejoice, because they just funded your better 
deal.

And if you have any doubt about who has and who hasn't mastered the art of 
maximum extraction in the name of profit, compare:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=CSCO

vs

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=LVLT

-- 
Richard A Steenbergen <ras at e-gerbil.net>       http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)



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