First, we appreciate you (our customers). We appreciate you choosing us for your weighing needs and equipment. I wanted to mention that right off the bat because I don’t want this article to be misunderstood.
The past few weeks we have worked with several first time customers who made a purchase only to find out the item was not in stock. Now, this is something we always work to avoid but in today’s climate, with thousands of products available on our website, it’s pretty hard to not have some type of lead time issue occasionally. Even if the product is assumed to be “in stock”. Fact is, we can’t possibly stock everything and often the supplier(s) will sell out of something and we are not aware of that.
The out of stock issue is always going to be a factor. We hope to minimize it but it has always been a factor to some degree. However, we do try really hard to have multiple suppliers or equivalent items available. Most customers understand that we try our best to avoid this type of issue or provide alternative choices in a timely manner.
SAME SCALE WITH LESS CAPACITY COSTS THE SAME ?!?!
The real point of this article that I want to mention is the substitute product with a different capacity. We have had multiple customers question us this past month regarding a substitute product. The example refers to the CAS ED-30 counter top scale which at the time of this article is out of stock for around 2 months.
When we proposed substituting the ED-15 scale at the same cost, the potential customers did not understand how this item with a lower maximum capacity could possibly be the same price. In fact, one customer was pretty upset about how we could offer a product with less capacity at the same price.
This is the exact copy from the CAS 2022 Pricelist below:
ED-6LB ED-6 Multifunction Bench Scale, 6 lb capacity 13 lbs 265.00
ED-15LB ED-15 Multifunction Bench Scale, 15 lb capacity 13 lbs 265.00
ED-30LB ED-30 Multifunction Bench Scale, 30 lb capacity 13 lbs 265.00
ED-60LB ED-60 Multifunction Bench Scale, 60 lb capacity 13 lbs 265.00
So, as you can see, the price for all the ED series bench scales from CAS are the same price! I understand how some might look at that as a bad deal since technically, if you chose the ED-15 instead of the ED-30, you’re getting a scale with less capacity. However, you also have to look a little deeper and understand that you are also getting a scale with more readability. See below.
ORIGINAL ITEM
ED-30 0-15 x 0.005 lb/15-30 x 0.01 lb
PROPOSED REPLACEMENT
ED-15 0-6 x 0.002 lb/6-15 x 0.005 lb
As you can see from the numbers above… the ED-15 provides a more precise weighing experience than the ED-30 when you’re weighing items up to 6 pounds. From 6 pounds to 15 pounds it provides the same readability.
Now, if you need to weigh items that are above 15 pounds, then the ED-15 would not work for you. However, if you’re weighing items under 15 pounds, the ED-15 would provide the same or slightly more precise readings than the ED-30. In terms of weight graduations, the ED-30 provides 3000 divisions (30/.01 = 3000) The ED-15 provides 3000 divisions (15/.005 = 3000). That is why they are priced the same. The entire series is NTEP approved legal for trade at 3000 divisions, CoC# 09-072.
I hope this clears up some of the confusion regarding why a certain series of scales cost the same. To further confuse you, this pricing rule is not entirely true for every product line. There are some items that do cost more than others. The Brecknell B140 series of counting scales is one example where there is a small increase for each capacity. But generally speaking, if the scales are very similar in capacity and platform size, then they will usually be priced very close. Remember, it’s not just about max capacity. It’s also about the overall divisions or graduations of the scale.