Cheapness and a sense of fairness

[forgotten_aria]

There is a thing I want. It was on sale for $160. It's currently available for $200. I still think it is worth $200, but 1) I feel annoyed that I was out of town for the sale, or I would have jumped on it 2) the store¹ has bought up most of the competition years ago (but pretends it didn't) and in so doing has made a notable degradation in deals. 3) they have a "rewards club" where, in their FAQ, they explain they will gleefully sell your information.

Now I still want the thing, but I am so far not getting the thing because I'm just plain annoyed and mistrustful of the store (not that I haven't bought many things from there in the past.) Am I just being silly?

As far as I can't tell no one else sells the thing. It's on amazon and ebay, but it's being sold by one of the branches of the store.

¹ guitar center bought musician's friend, music123, Lyons Music, woodwinds and brass, Giardinelli and a few other sites, but still pretends they are different.

EDIT: People have started to review it and the package is missing two things in the photo without any indication that they are not included. I'm glad I didn't get it.

Comments

[kelkyag]

Being annoyed seems pretty reasonable. I don't mind variable prices based on legitimately variable availability (seasonal produce, for instance), but arbitrary sales to yank customer strings annoy me. Mistrustful ... well, yeah. There are companies that exist so that their owners can do the thing they love and share it with others while also making some money. Those can be trustworthy. This isn't one of those; it sounds like it's been happily eating up all the companies like that it can find in its space so that it can enjoy the profits of a monopoly. The only thing to trust there is that they want to part you from your money efficiently. :(

Now you know that $160 is a plausible price from them for the item you want. It'll probably come around at that price again, but whether that's a once a month or a once a decade thing I couldn't tell you. Is having it now vs. waiting and paying attention to their prices for however long and not being annoyed by overpaying worth your $40, or your time and energy? (Or possibly stalking ebay & other sites for the occasional second-hand one that might become available?)

[forgotten_aria]

I think the monopoly annoys me much more than the price. But I think I've talked myself into almost the exact same item from a different company with fewer add-ons, but I think I have most of the add-ons already anyway.

[kelkyag]

That sounds like a better solution. Yay!