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To quote a saying from the sharemarket – the market is never wrong – that is if people are paying that price, then that is what the price is.
Of course products are different because the source of purchase is open.
My thoughts:
Why worry about the $250 – you say he is selling to budding magicians, you say you are selling to people who have booked parties with you. These are two different markets and therefore have two different price points. You see this all the time. Same product, (maybe slightly different packaging) but very different price points.
Don’t play price silly buggers. otherwise you will be like a dog chasing its tail – focused on the wrong thing.
Potentiall set up a landing page with very similar content, so you will be there in the SERPs and the market will soon find you…
Is his mark-up unethical – no. The market is smart enough to decide if the price is too high and if he can convince people of the value, then they are happy to pay it. If not, they ‘walk’ away.
The world is full of products with a 2, 3, 4 up to 700% markup.