As much as I hate to resurrect a contentious issue (since the last discussion here ended in name-calling), I think this is such an important and frightening concept that all of us here to have projectors and like to resell them as a private party (under MAP!) to fund new purchases should know about it:

Companies Claim Right to Interfere with eBay Auctions for Charging Too Little (http://pubcit.typepad.com/clpblog/2007/07/leegin-and-ebay.html)

These are silly lawsuits.

Thousands of suits are filed every day. Just because you file a suit does not mean that it has merit.

I've said it before. Manufacturers have always had the means to crack down on discounters. ALWAYS.

Both cases address sellers selling new merchandise rather than the reselling of merchandise. That being the case I don't think it impacts anyone selling his or her used projector.

Well lets say I wanted to sell my RS-1. Is that considered "new" merchandise? Couldn't a reseller then get around the issue by simply "selling" a new product to a front company and then buying back what is now used stock (but never opened)?

I want to believe that manufacturers will not abuse this law, I really do, but reality dictates that we assume the worst. I only hope that we will not be seeing takedown requests here at AVS for someone selling their "new" (used but they didn't like it) Epson 1080 or RS-1 as a private party under MAP.

I don't want to make a big deal out of it... just an warning. Please lets not get into a name-calling debate. :)

Charles I got the samething out of reading the article. In fact, the cosmetic lawsuit talked about that if the ebay seller bought the items at a flea market and resold them on ebay...that would be fine. Even though our projectors in most cases were purchased new from a retailer, we are using them, then selling the projector as used. To me selling one's private used projector is a kissing cousin to aquiring a second hand market (flea market) projector and turning around & selling it.

Ron

It's legal for a consumer to resell anything he has purchased for anything he wants. The Supreme Court case had nothing to do with that.

That's all I am going to say.

"Couldn't a reseller then get around the issue by simply "selling" a new product to a front company and then buying back what is now used stock (but never opened)?"

Happens everyday... called everything from "Transhipping" on down to "Graying"

Well lets say I wanted to sell my RS-1. Is that considered "new" merchandise? Couldn't a reseller then get around the issue by simply "selling" a new product to a front company and then buying back what is now used stock (but never opened)?To my mind new constitutes being sold for the first time (in most cases to the consumer). Now manufacturers often attempt to control the market by only honoring the warranty for the original purchaser.

Gray market items are of course are being sold to unauthorized sellers via distributors and dealers and then often sold for a discounted price lower than an authorized dealer can sell at for a variety of reasons. This is what they are attempting to control and personally I don’t have any issues with it as if I’m not happy with their price I won’t buy it.

I see them wanting to enforce who can sell their product to the consumer. By only making it available to authorized dealers and only allowing the dealer to sell to the consumer. If that breaks down then they want to go after the gray market dealer who debatably may be hurting the manufacturer and consumer.

Once the product becomes used all bets are off and I don’t think we have much to worry about at this point in time.

Wow. Ubsurd......

Cliff

No. It isn't ubsurb! But I'll discuss it with you in person 2 weeks from now. :) Remember the famous Dwin line about their then coming new projector? Two more weeks.

Remember the famous Dwin line about their then coming new projector? Two more weeks.Wasn't that Optoma?

Could be Optima also. But Dwin did the two more weels thing for one of their DLP projectors for at least 4 months. Probably longer. The sales guy, i believe a Jeff, was responsible for it. Became a big joke, the 2 weeks thing not the projector which ultimately shipped, around AVS forum for a long time.