Author: John Timm
Date: 23:13:59 10/30/98
Go up one level in this thread
On October 30, 1998 at 05:55:25, Ed Schröder wrote:
>I assume everything I say will not be good enough so I will make it short.
>About prices...
>
>#1. Every date you pick for a price drop is never good for people who just
>bought. The price had to fall (no choice, see below) so the sooner the
>better meaning less victims of the price drop.
>
>#2. It was our intention to sell Rebel10 for the normal price you are used
>to pay since years despite the fact there was a tendency to lower prices
>for chess software.
>
>#3. We were unhappily surprised by the lowering of prices by two major
>companies Mindscape and ChessBase. More over we saw this price drop
>being advertised in all chess magazines at Rebel10's release time next
>to our advertisement of $119.95.
>
....
>
>- Ed Schroder -
>Author of REBEL10
I support your decision even if the
majority does not.
When Isaw that major whining had broken out on CCC about the
price drop, my first reaction was that CCC had been largely taken over by aliens
from a parallel universe where, unlike Earth: (a) any commercial purchase
entitles you to be treated as if you were the "best friend" of the seller, and
(b) products never decrease in price due to market conditions. Certainly, in
that parallel universe, computer prices don't regularly drop 25-40% (for the
same functionality) every 6 months, nor do airlines use computers to price
tickets according to what the market will bear at any given hour of any given
day, nor (readers can easily fill in the next 10,000 examples).
On second thought, musing about aliens is hardly
necessary since complaining about price changes that don't even apply to the
complainer is as old as human nature. There is even a story in the Bible that is
more or less directly on point (it isn't necessary to accord the Bible any
religious significance to think that some of the parables display extraordinary
insight into human nature). In the parable of the vineyard, the proprietor of
the vineyard hires workers for the entire day for one shekel (a unit of money).
The proprietor also hires workers as needed for the rest of the day at noon and
3PM, at a fair price to be agreed on later. When it's time to pay up, the
proprietor pays each worker a shekel, regardless of how long the worker labored.
Naturally, those who worked the entire day complain loudly. The proprietor
chides them gently, asking "Did you not receive everything for which you
bargained?"
Good parables work on many different religious
and secular levels simultaneously (and this parable is one of the absolute
best). Sometimes, if you listen carefully enough, a parable might even be about
chess software pricing.
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