Messrs. Rhodes & Shively—Gentlemen: I have entered your order for 100 “Blank” Bull-Dogs at $2.85, prices guaranteed. Please send on specifications. A combination is about to be formed among the manufacturers, and prices will advance to $3.25. Yours respectfully,
F.B. Combaway.
This was news to me, so I opened the letter I had just received from home and read to him:
“We have just got in a large lot of 'Blank' bull-dogs and you may cut prices to $2.65.”
“Well,” said he, “what the devil does this man mean by sending me such a letter?”
“He undoubtedly believed there was going to be an advance and booked you for 100 revolvers.”
“What is your price on cartridges?”
“Fifty-nine per cent.”
“There is another smart combination. The cartridge association puts my competitor in the A class and gives him 50 and 10 off, but we, who have to sell in the same town and to the same men, can only get 50. It's the most childish and sickly combination that I ever saw. Manufacturers seem to sit up nights to see what infernal fools they can make of themselves. Now I tell you there are only two classes of dealers—wholesalers and retailers. If a man is a wholesaler he should have wholesaler's prices, and if he isn't he shouldn't. But your smart Aleck manufacturers want to rate them, as Bradstreet does, and give 12 1/2 off to the A class, 10 off to B, 7 1/2 to C, 5 to D, and list to E.”
“But a man who buys 1,000 dozen axes ought to buy for less than he who buys but 100 dozen?”