New Zu Mission cable

I don't get that. Why after launching a new brand a few months ago with great fanfare do they now have B-stock at 75% off? Also the Event line, which seems to have been launched guerilla-style and is better than Mission, also has B-stock at 75% off? Weird marketing strategy.

Speaking with the guys at Zu, none of the B-stock cables are returns or anything, but if an RCA barel has a scratch or a small snag in tech flex or minutely shorter lead, etc. it will be considered B-stock. I have one pair of their ICs and, aside from the conspicuous "B" designation, it looks perfect to me.

As for the Events, the whole line isn't even out yet--just the PCs and LCs. I have no idea what they'll do to promote them when they rest of the cabling comes out next year, but it was mentioned to me that 2011 would be a dry year as far as promos.

My suspicion is that the marketing strategy is one geared towards mass exposure at loss leader pricing. Its probably not profitable now, but they're creating a lot of excitement and internet buzz (deservedly so) around their products and professional reviewers haven't even chimed in yet.

I'm interested to see how well the company does next year and how the market adjusts to them actually observing retail pricing. I for one am rooting for them.

With Zu's current deals on the Mission cable line I'm beginning to wonder if I got a deal at all. I participated in the early promotion back in September and yes I have been enjoying the Mission SCs I purchased. I really felt though that I got a good deal all around since I thought I got the cables @ 50% off. Now it seems that with the promotional pricing being around for longer than the initial period and this 75% B-stock deal I got great sounding speaker cables with really no money savings. I guess that is what I get for being naive and falling for the marketing hype. Oh well I was fooled this time around. I do love the sound of the Mission SCs in my system but will take Zu's pricing with a grain of salt going fwd.

12-20-10: Jedinite24
With Zu's current deals on the Mission cable line I'm beginning to wonder if I got a deal at all. I participated in the early promotion back in September and yes I have been enjoying the Mission SCs I purchased. I really felt though that I got a good deal all around since I thought I got the cables @ 50% off.

You can drive yourself crazy trying to get the best single-opportunity price on every purchase in your life, or enjoy some great-performing cables at a better price than the competition. I paid on the high end (about $50-70 higher than average) when I won my pair of Libtec SCs last May. Some people got 'em cheaper and then came the Missions.

But still, for under $300 I got some KILLER cables with an excellent warranty, they sound marvelous in my system, elevated the level of resolution significantly, and I'm not going to let $50 one way or another ruin the experience. In the overall scheme of things, the extra $50 doesn't matter a bit.

So now you've got your choice of prices: 50% off new Event, 65% off new Mission, or 75% B-stock on either. JOhnnyb53 has a point, but this bizarre fluctuation in prices and sales over the last few months is confusing to say the least. I can see Jedi's point of view -- with this type of pricing, who will ever buy at retail? What exactly is retail? This type of all over the map promotions, to me, seems to devalue their own cable.

I for one am not that happy, considering the first half-price promo back in September was supposedly 'limited time only', which apparently means 'until your 60 day trial is up and we decide to sell them for 65% off'. There was also no mention of the Event line, which I may have held out for, considering they are now 50% off. But perhaps come February those will be on sale for 65% off.

I think there is a legitimate resaon for us early adopters to gripe, and be wary.