A.R.S.E.

Im not really sure if this fits in this subforum but it seems the right place to put this.

Ive used the forums as a knowledge resource before and im hoping someone here works for a gaming or any kind of store that sells xbox 360's to give me an idea of how much you can negotiate reasonably for a new xbox 360.

Im looking at getting one to get simbins race pro when it comes out in feb, and also a couple of games already available that ive been interested in for some time.

I understand there are significant mark ups on products but at times some products are very restricted in there ability to be reduced. Rather then take a salespersons word for it and get screwed over i would rather know myself what my limit is and set them a price where i still make a good saving but allows them a profit at the same time.

I am interested in the xbox 360 Pro at minimum.

If anyone has a second hand one in good condition i am also willing to purchase that.

Speed and I used to own a game shop over here in Perth, we've been out of it for over 4 years now, but I expect very little has changed with respect to prices. Consoles at rec retail had about 5% profit margin (which is pretty crappy in the first place) the trouble was that nobody used to sell them for rec retail. To compete with the likes of Kmart, Harvey Norman, EB etc - we were lucky to make $5 on a console. We had to match price to make the sale and hope the customer would buy games and accessories (which also had pretty poor profit margin - but better than consoles). Most of the major retailers have them on special regularly - I'd expect they would be close to cost so I doubt you could negotiate any further discount. It probably doesn't hurt to ask - but I wouldn't expect much of a discount, if any. Then again, maybe things have changed...

That 5% is applied at the retailer. The actual companies (Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony) generally make a loss on the sale of the actual consoles (initially at least) and make it up in game and peripheral sales.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I noticed that the only deals you see are manufacturer based ones which are applied at all the different retailers but i was still hoping that there would have been a margin left over. Obviously its a very competitive business.

Ill just have to go for that basic package deal of the xbox 360 with a single game of your choice. Not interested in the multi game packs as the choice of games is not open and the ones that are included arent what im exactly after lol.

Still if anyone has a relatively young xbox 360 they want to move on i would be happy to consider it.

make sure you factor in xbox live into your cost equation if you plan to play online ( ithink a one month trial is thrown in)

Dunno the difference with the 360 pro's or whatever, but in the boxing day sales Big W was doing xbox 360's with 2 games for $260. Thought that was pretty awesome. I would of bought one if not for already having a PS3 & Wii. I don't need another console..lol

Shit 5% is a very low profit margin... not that long ago a local bridal shop lodged a claim for theft of stock. The settlement was based on purchase price, once we received the purchase invoices we worked out that their profit margin was up to 600%.