Hax Planx wrote:
if you buy Veritas tools retail, they will cost a lot more
than at the LV web site. I have found the prices to vary wildly.
L-N
is selling their tools on their web site at retail prices, presumably
so
that dealers like Woodcraft will continue to stock them. If you
could
get it direct from L-N for a much lower price, dealers wouldn't be
happy. You could say the same thing applies to LV, but I haven't in
fact ever seen their planes sold retail. I suggested to a shop owner

just the other day that he should carry Veritas planes and he said he

couldn't get them. Moreover, I WON'T be buying any more Veritas
tools
retail, because I know now I can get them much cheaper from LV.

Sigh. You're paying retail at the LV site. What you aren't paying is
extra mark up often (usually?) added by other retailers. Items sold
through Rockler and others are sold at wholesale to the retailer, which
then adds its own mark-up, whatever that might be (as high as possible
consistent with sales possibilities). The price LV charges on-site is
their retail price. If other retailers feel a need to charge more,
that's their business, but it is NOT because LV is offering cost
cutting on-site.

You cannot buy Veritas planes from other retailers, if my memory serves
from a conversation with Rob Lee a few years ago, because they can't
offer a decent wholesale-retail price spread on them and still make a
profit, thus all LV planes are sold through LV only. Selling this way
is part of an effort LV makes to provide a top notch plane at a below
top-notch price. My experience with several of their planes indicates
they are succeeding with the top notch plane part.