Question on pricing for audio cables you guys have seen?

[Lex]

Consider this in house research for my cable company-

Many of you get out more, and see more than I do, heck, we don't even have a higher end store in Knoxville now. :-(, so I'll ask, have any of you noticed a general trend of higher end cable price increases, it's ok to list specifics here, if the thread gets to cable brandish, I'll just banish it to the trash heap when we are done.

I'm just trying to figure out if the materials price wars I am raging, are being experienced at the retail shop too... I expect that they are, just curious about a bit of input from the faithful here.

I'm looking at increases that could wind up going as high as 25-50.00 a pair of silver high end cables, possibly. Just connectors alone are going to eat half that cost with silver. It's harsh!

[zmanbands]

Price of lead.

Not silver, but my friend is a lead bullet pistol maker. In the past say 18 months the price of lead has trippled AND it is very hard to get in the USA anywhere. He is packing it in after decades in the business.

[Lex]

It is true it's the entire metals market is on end. Copper went through the roof last year, and did impact bulk wire prices. Mostly, I've absorbed some hits already, but as a company, I cannot continue to absorb hits. You ordered from me at the right time, as Kingcats are getting hit hard on connector costs.

[twitch54]

Doug, Good morning, you know since I got my KingCats from you last fall I have not really paid close attention to the 'Cable marketplace'. There is so much 'Over Priced' stuff out there that a $50-100 increase on a four figure pair of cables goes unnoticed !!

[JonMarsh]

I'd expect most connector prices to be going up due to the price of copper- we see this even for our power semiconductor packages.

Haven't really been looking at retail cable prices, though- haven't been in a retail shop in years.

Cardas Crosslink SP bulk has gone up to $6.75 per foot, (I use it for internal speaker cabinet wiring), which is about double three years ago. I expect copper is driving that increase.

[David Meek]

Metal prices are climbing Doug. Copper, silver, you name it. As a business, you have to accomodate those "internal" cost increases until they become so substantial that you have to bump your prices to keep your company solvent. Many of us have benefitted over the years from your excellent pricing as compared to your competitors. If you finally have to increase your prices to compensate for the increases you have to absorb to build the cables, well, that's just a realistic business practice.

You've got a good product at very reasonable prices - especially compared to those "boutique" names! Don't sweat a price increase to stay in business.

[Glen B]

Doug,
This is a bit off-topic but since you're doing "research," I have noticed an increase in the popularity of single crystal/OCC copper and silver. Just something that may be worth looking into.

Glen

[Pookie007]

Working as an electrical engineer, I have seen copper prices go through the roof over the past 12 - 18 months (they actually dropped a little the past 4 months), but they are still significantly higher then they were 18 months ago. When we buy cable as a commodity item, you pay the daily price. When I buy prepackaged assemblies, they typically have a retail price that changes once a year. I have been updating my cables over the last year and I haven't seen any of the box stores raise their price on the 2006 cables as the year progressed but the equivalent 2007 cables were a little more expensive.

I think the difference is, the cables the big stores are selling this year, were ordered and prices locked-in last year. There is no reason for them to try and adjust the price for the daily market changes. This would be too much labor just to process and track the changes. If they sell the cables, they make their expected markup and are happy.

I think this is a different business model than Catcables. When you order a custom set of cables today, you shouldn't expect last years copper or silver prices. You haven't fronted the money, so you shouldn't expect to benefit from someone else's financial commitment. I ordered and paid for my custom cables last month, so that is the pricing I expected to receive. I still think with an adjustment for material costs, the Catcables will still be the best value in cables. The pricing I got on my speaker cables was about 1/2 what it would have cost from the mass produced equivalent.

[AptosJeff]

Well I don't know about retail, but the price of bulk ofhc copper and other good high vacuum metals has gone up a lot in the last year. We make 100kV and up vacuum tubes for xray imaging, and besides copper, other materials we use like monel 404, certain copper-nickel alloys, even vacuum quality glass have become expensive and difficult to find. We don't care so much about the price, just availability and quality. But we have to find alternatives, and I know many others are having the same problem.

All I can suggest is maybe when the bigger users have switched to something else, copper will come down. Anyway, hope you can keep the business successful, these forums are helpful and a lot of fun.

[bleeding ears]

In Oztralia (Australia) there is currently a big resources boom (according to 60 minutes program).

Apparently China is buying up our metals particularly iron ore in huge quantaties, in fact we cannot keep up with demand.

Could be a world wide occurrence, price = demand ???

I assume copper and silver would also be highly sought after as well ?

Pete

[LikeCoiledSteel]

I work in the marine industry and have seen OEM copper cables of all types increase substantially. With usual price increases once a year, for the last 2 years I have seen price changes 3-4 times a year. The price of oil has also not helped. While these increases are unfortunate, they can be overcome by great marketing and branding.
Steel

[Russ L]

I haven't seen cables go up in price here in Canada but I think its because we still have old stock in the stores. Resource price increases are an effect of a booming economy here in Canada and around the world. China is buying alot of metal from Canada as well. Local businesses must pay more to get a share of the metal supply. When production is expanded maybe the price will drop a bit but I wouldn't hold my breath. Guess I better get those new interconnects and speaker wire before the prices go up. Regards, Russ

[Alaric]

Given the recent media coverage of China's quality control (HAH!) issues , their market may drop off for awhile. We can only hope.