09-16-2005, 05:11 PM
Evan Wrote:So next time you are shopping for something, and its on clearance, are you going to offer to pay full price just because thats the "set value" and the company put effort, and R&D into developing that product?
of course not, thats just not how commerce works. There is a reason why its on clearance, and to turn that product into cash, the seller must reduce the price. no different from this.
Your comparison isn't valid. The cost a retailer charges the public isn't the actual value of the product itself, it's the price the retailer is accepting in order to turn a profit. Even at clearance retailers are turning some profit I'm sure. The cost of a weekend's worth of driving with NASA is a set amount that is the same no matter who you are, the same no matter what season you're driving in, the same no matter how you're paying. Yes, NASA is still a business and has to turn a profit as well but it's not as if they are a retailer reselling the same product they have purchased themselves at a higher price in order to turn a profit. They rent the track, they pay for certain workers, they pay for accomodations, they pay for food, and they set the cost of entry in order to cover all that and also have something left over for themselves afterwards.
If this was a situation where the registration for a NASA event was handled by a 3rd party who marked up the cost of entry in order to turn a profit on top of the cost that they're actually sending to NASA for each entrant your comparison would work. It's not like the entry fee for a weekend at Summit is higher than it is for CMP, or gets lowered because there's still so many available slots two days before an event.
To answer your question though, hell no I wouldn't pay the original price if it was marked down to a clearance price. That's retail though, it's different from this situation. Along that same line, say the actual manufacturer of a product who sets the price they sell it for at the amount in order to keep afloat is selling something at clearance. I'm going to take that price as well, because if they're willing to accept less for something then that's their decision and I'm going to go with it.
As I said before what it boils down to for me is that I wouldn't accept less than the trade in value of the credits if I had any intention of using them myself in the near future.