Buying plugins...

Hello...
Looking to purchase some new plug ins, and of course, I would like the lowest price.  Are there any advantages of buying through a giant like Sweetwater(who I have been very happy with), and other resellers (e.g, pluginboutique, discount plugins, audiodeluxe), or the actual company itself ???  Is it all about the $$$ ?  Not sure how important "support" or "customer support" would be when buying from a reseller..
 
Your thoughts?
Thanks!

Thanks Larry.. I did notice they had the lowest price... I imagine their hands are tied with certain plugin manufacturer's that dictate prices...

bokchoyboy
Thanks Larry.. I did notice they had the lowest price... I imagine their hands are tied with certain plugin manufacturer's that dictate prices...

Yes.  Certain Plugin Manufacturers don't allow you to discount the prices further
then their asking price or sale price...

Where you normally look first for some particular product? The official product site.
You already know what it is (since you are there) and if you are ready to pay without looking around, it is intuitive to show you the price which is as hi as possible.
 
Not ready to pay that price? Have not selected the product yet? That is resellers jobs. You can find the product about which you was unaware, and quick comparing the price difference with the official site.... Today only! For you! Do not miss it! And everyone is happy (you have the product, they have your money)
 
Not ready to pay discount price from resellers? May be you are ready to pay 50%... what about 30%? 10%!!!??? Just wait for announcement from Larry.
 
I mean marketing pure. Note special situation with music plug-ins:
* the market is relatively small.
* a software license cost nothing extra for producer (if you are ready to pay $1 and under no conditions you are ready to pay more, selling it to you for $1 is still profit). Sometimes giving it to you for free is still ok, as long as that does not reduce the number of customers which are ready to pay and such "advertisement" can convince you to buy something in the future.
* (well known) plug-in resellers are not like e-bay. You get exactly the same product with exactly the same support. I mean the product is not "gray", "second hand" nor with limited support, it is exactly the same. They have direct agreements with original producers and so they are official resellers.

Yes to all of the above... some sites just sell the plugins and don't give you a whole lot of info on compatibility, version, etc.  That's where it pays to do your homework...

Grem

bokchoyboy
 
That's where it pays to do your homework...

Always.  So be sure to check out the Deals forum.

Deals forum is the place to go first

Sweetwater will sometimes offer a better price if you ask them on the phone.  Sometimes...  And their support is good (which is in addition to that from the manufacturer).
 
That said, I also check at the sites mentioned already.  Price matters a lot for me, since I have a quite limited budget.  However, if the company making it has it for the same price, I might buy through them to support them, because many smaller companies probably don't make much profit in pro audio.
 
Also, when there are products you want and can wait, buying them at a conference like GearFest can get you better prices than you'll even find online.  (That's the only conference I've been to, but have got some incredible deals.)

Also don't forget Sonar has some great ones too. The px-64 has a great transient shaper. The bundled ones are often overlooked as well. Ok some are not full editions but they do the job in some cases.

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