On Tue, 16 Jan 2018 09:54:16 -0800 (PST),
trader_4 wrote:

> You;ve misinterpreted basic economics.

Naah. I took the class. I got an A. If it's "elastic", it follows the
supply and demand curve, where prices are set based purely on demand.

If it's not elastic, then all bets are off.

Marketing's job is to make things non elastic, and they do a great job of
that, given, for example, people seem to wait in long lines just to spend
twice as much on an iPhone as it's actually worth.

> There is a demand curve
> where demand is a function of price.

Assuming it's perfectly elastic.

> But that's a single curve for
> a certain product with it's defined specification. It does not
> imply that there is no relationship between the price of various
> different versions of that product that differ in specification
> and price.

Nobody said otherwise.
If there's something "different" (even the color for example), then it's
different.

What you seem to be discussing is the difference between a commodity (where
even the color is unimportant), and the opposite of a commodity:
<https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-opposite-of-the-word-commodity>

The curves are completely different in their elasticity.
A brake shoe "should" be a commodity (but might not be).

> For example, there is a demand curve for prime steak.
> There is a demand curve for choice steak and a demand curve for
> select steak.

Again, same concept as above.
Those are three different things because demand is different for them.
There could even be a curve for Australian versus British Prime Steak.

If it were a commodity, then the curve is more elastic than if it's not.

> They are separate curves and the prime steak curve
> is the higher price curve.

Nobody ever said the curves aren't different for different products.
They can even be different in different locales.
For example, whale steak may have a different curve in Japan than in India.

> Draw a chart and you'll have three
> curves, the prime curve being the highest.

Nobody ever said that each product has its own supply and demand curves.
If you consider a pink iPhone different than a black one, it can have a
different curve.

The Marketing people figure all this out for us and price accordingly to
get the best marginal utility out of us.

> What you're saying is
> there is no correlation between higher price between select steak
> and prime steak.

You inferred that. Incorrectly. Nobody said it but you.

> It wold be rare to find the better prime steak
> that sells at the price of a select steak, there is a direct
> correlation.

What we need to discuss is brake pads and shoes.

They would actually have different curves if they were different, or, more
to the point, if people *believed* they were different.

For example, if you thought an EE pad was **** (as I did), then it would be
worthless to you at any price, even at free. But if you thought an EE pad
could be as good as an FF pad at braking, then the curve is completely
different.

At the moment, the only logical conclusion anyone can scientifically make,
is that all pads we can buy the USA are 'about the same' (give or take)
because we have no way of telling them apart if we had both in our hands
(or on the web).

In the end, Clare did say pretty much to get any shoe that "says" it meets
OEM Quality - so that means all OEM Quality shoes should have the same
demand curve.

This is only enginering, logic, and economics.
No black art should be involved in buying brake pads and shoes.