A couple more comments - the sellers who think that selling pianos and electronic keyboards is similar are missing the boat. Pianos, or most other acoustic instruments, are durable goods - with periodic maintenance, they will sound as well or better 30 years from now as they sound today. They can be repaired by any knowledgeable person with the minimum of tools. The same can not be said about electronic keyboards - these have built-in obsolescence, and after 10 years you probably won't find the parts needed to fix even a simple malfunction with an electronic component. Even if parts were available, the software issues can not be fixed unless the fixer has access to and is familiar with the code inside the instrument. In other words, after a few years your electronic instrument becomes worthless. I can justify spending copious amounts of money on something that will last a lifetime, but not on something that will need to be replaced in a few years, because it only has that many years of life built into it.

Of course, the electronic keyboards cost money to produce, and do more things than a real piano. But other than for a few people who gig and make a living with the arranger kbs, high-end electronic instruments are much harder to justify buying.

This is especially true since most keyboards today fall short of the users' wishes and needs. Just look at today's announcement by Roland - The e80 is a 49 lb behemoth, e50/60 look better, but no vocal harmonizer - why? Roland is not the only one - in fact their E80/G70 are in direct competition with Korg. Same features, same shortcomings.

In fact, with the harmonizer, the E50/60 could be in direct competition with PSR 3000, which appeals to the the pros and amateurs alike. If they had only learned to listen...

But back to the issue of pricing - in my experience, many small stores in my area had pricing that was downright ridiculous. I mentioned how they quoted me a price of $7000 for the Technics KN5000, whose dealer invoice was less than $2000 - that is a far cry from the 3% or 10% margin. Knowing that other people paid around $3000 for it (still a pretty decent profit for the dealers), I felt seriously cheated.

While I sympathize with the honest, hardworking dealers need to turn a profit, perhaps the multi-tiered, multi-level sales organizations need revamping - e.g. eliminate the middleman. Look at Roland USA - all they do is make bad marketing decisions, and cause delays in bringing Roland products to the US markets. Why don't the dealers deal with the manufacturers directly? This should be easy in the arranger market, where there are only a few suppliers out there, and with the lower prices/higher margins, and everyone would benefit.

Regards,
Alex