Re: Curious
VirtualSamana said:
If the copy cat mic's were availible in the US and
delivered the same quality as the real thing
with low low prices
would you buy them?
Good question,
It would depend. I believe in letting someone reap the benefits of their invention. I think they should make their fortune if they invent a better mouse trap.
What really irks me though, is when a company gets leverage in a market, and proceeds to really gouge people on price.
I went into the floor business in the 80's. I maintained tile floors in big discount stores, department stores, and 24hr grocery stores. It was just when propane engine powered floor buffing machines were invented. These machines made everything before them obsolete.
Companies that were building these machines were getting patents on certain designs they were putting into their particular machines, and making it hard for anyone else to build them, thus cutting down on competition.
I got fed up and started building my own machines. I could build for $1,500 what it cost me $4,000 to buy, and that was in mid 1980's dollars. Plus my machines were superior. They were built like a tank, using steel where the commercial machines of the time were generally aluminum. And they did a much more efficient job of buffing, due to the intuitive designs of a colleague of mine, who was building his own machines as well.
You have to keep in mind too, that I wasn't mass producing these machines. Had I been, I could have built them much cheaper. In my opinion, these companies were gouging.
Was I violating any patents? No. I wasn't selling them. You can build anything you want, using anyone's patent, as long as you don't sell what you build.
The market is different today. There's more competition. But if I were to go buy a machine today, I would avoid at all cost the company that was gouging me 15 years ago.
So to answer your question, it would depend. Whether it be mics or anything else, it would depend first on whether or not they were being legally sold. If they weren't violating any laws and they were substantially cheaper with the same quality, I would buy them in a heart beat. If I felt I hadn't been gouged by the company that originally manufactured the product, and they were still in the same ball park price-wise, I would probably stick with the original.