Quote:
Originally Posted by Belfaborac
Where watches are concerned, grey market sales are in any case a phenomenon entirely of the manufacturers' own making. Many, or most, "high end" manufacturers demand that a shop or dealer buy a minimum amount of watches, regardless of its ability to sell that number. Hence the only way for a small independent watch shop to be able to carry, say, Breitling watches, is to buy the minimum amount, keep the ones it thinks it can sell and sell the others on to a grey market dealer at cost or a minimal profit.
Pardon the OT.
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That is exactly what used to happen in the 80's PC market; the vendors wanted to prop up the "perceived value" of their products so they wanted to limit sales to the "right" dealers. But the "right" dealers, Computerland, etc, couldn't keep up with the mail order vendors so they had to slip the excess inventory out the back door to the very Mail Order guys that were squeezing them in the first place.
Not OT, BTW, that is the core case being argued: can manufacturers keep people from reselling what they buy. So far, all precedent says yes. But there is no precedent for *imports*, hence the case running through now. And the case is *only* about Gray Market imports so there is no real threat of The First Sale Doctrine being overturned.