George wrote:
"Charlie Self" wrote in message
oups.com...

The reason you took a long time to understand "replacement cost" as a
charge from dealers is because it is utter bull****. I bought a
briefcase the other day, and paid for it based on what the seller had
paid, not on what the seller is GOING to pay for his next bit of stock.
Once he gets the new stock in, the then raises prices.


You charge people for work in your shop based on purchase price of the
lumber, then go out and get replacement stock? You're a saint.

You are not exactly making a statement there. I charge for what I am
using, or plan to use, based on current costs. I cannot charge for
replacement costs, because I don't know if they'll be higher or
lower...obviously, with gasoline in recent years, higher is the trend,
but that's not true of everything, yet. The higher cost of transport
and our totally asinine transport system has to catch up, sooner or
later, with sooner being my bet.

But the fact remains, if I drive around town to see what others are
charging for what I already have on hand before pricing something to a
customer, then I'm putting myself in a strange position. I KNOW what I
paid for it. I KNOW how much I need. I do NOT know what replacement
cost will be.

As an incidental point, I didn't notice a damned one of these dealers
knocking off a nickel or a dime when they could tell that tanker load
prices were dropping a few months ago. Nope. They waited until the new
product was in the tank before dropping the price. Funny thing. I
figure it is a similar deal with raising prices.

If it isn't, it's no wonder no one respects businesspeople anymore.