MPC REN - BLACK FRIDAY PRICE PREDICTIONS $$$$

thanks to mpc60III and simon for brining tear to my eye on this monday morning

I see nothing 'special' as far as more price drops for black friday... prices remain constant since last drop

Well I do see MusiciansFriend has 15% off storewide for today so that's 150 off so thats 150 of the 999. I guessed some 799 deals but see I was a little off

Didn't see any $499 Rens either.

I got the last one (at least of that lot) of $799 ones on Amazon. I got free shipping, no tax... so it was like getting it for $699 or so at Guitar Center.

I think the reason for the $799 price on those (same seller as on eBay) was they had damaged boxes. The box on mine was torn, and smashed in a few places. I bet the wholesaler got them from a warehouse that dropped a pallet or something. The Ren itself was pristine, there is a lot of foam between it and the sides of the box.

Anyway, I got it because I could tell that there was not going to be any black friday deals on it.....

evillmusic wrote:It will still be $999.99 at Guitar Center and major retailers....You may be able to get a 15% of coupon or something... I saw the GC ad for Black Friday and they dont have any samplers or Controllers in the ad... I don't see Akai doing another price drop this soon since it dropped it in October... ebay new lowest about 750.00...And to getting it for like 299 or even 499 wont happen unless it is used off of ebay and the person is really really hard up for money.

Yeah my crystal ball wasn't lying...LOL

$499 RENs won't happen until a) akai makes a hybrid mpc and the ren becomes the mid-level controller; or b) akai ends the development cycle and the ren goes on clearance.

I remember reading somewhere that the ren cost to sellers is around $599 now.

Eyalc wrote:I remember reading somewhere that the ren cost to sellers is around $599 now.

Street price of $999 suggests otherwise - there is very little mark up available on pro audio gear.

Where did you read this?

MPC-Tutor wrote:Street price of $999 suggests otherwise - there is very little mark up available on pro audio gear.

They are selling on eBay for $749.

SimonInAustralia wrote:

MPC-Tutor wrote:Street price of $999 suggests otherwise - there is very little mark up available on pro audio gear.

They are selling on eBay for $749.

I was referring to the big box shifter music retailers, $999 is typical.

If wholesale was 599, that would mean sites like Sweetwater would be marking up by 67%

But if smaller resellers can price them on eBay @ $749, they have to have some margin on them, and would have to include eBay and PayPal fees, so what is their buy price going to be, $650?, less?

Seems like it would be getting close to the $599 mentioned above, especially with price breaks for the quantities the national chains of box movers would buy in.

If the wholesale price is down to 599, you'd have to assume that all the box shifter sites at their 999 price must still be lumbered with the old stock purchased at the old wholesale pricing. That in itself doesn't ring true. Box shifters know the game and once they are aware there's an impending and large wholesale price drop looming they would be doing everything they can to shift this old stock quick so they can buy some new stock at the new prices.

Anyway, I'll ask around, see what I can find out.

The original priced was supposed to be $999 but some reading akai decided to make it $1299 I got my for free because i work with people who helped design the ren anyway

A little bit ago (before the price drop) I received an email from a "box shifter" (I like that term now, lol). I was supposed to receive an email with a price quote from them, but I believe I was added to this email accidentally, because there was a lot of talk about Akai pricing for these next gen products, and one of the attachments was an "official" Akai price list. I use quotes around "official", because although it looked official, I have no idea how current and / or relevant it really was. But in that email trail they mentioned that Akai gives them about $200 to play with, and that with price drops they would maintain their margin, which I believe to be about $170 or so (based on the "official" price list, and their advertised price).

I wasn't implying that the $599 has always been the case. But selling at $749 new, $599 is definitely reasonable now. And my whole point was that $499 is highly unlikely given that their price from Akai is higher than that. Unless they want to lose money.

But yes, I would assume that given the $749 price, Akai dropped their pricing accordingly.

599 for mpc ren is very underpriced $1000 is very reasonable for drum machine
midi controller, audio/midi interface, USB hub, with standalone software