Supply and demand—CPAP machine prices

I'm presently in Canada.

Resmed CPAPs such as the ResMed AirSense™ 10 AutoSet™ CPAP Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier are currently being sold at CPAP.com for $1245 USD whilst in Canada at many online CPAP stores, the same CPAP is selling as low as $1215 Canadian. Of course, availability may be an issue due to the current "crisis" with Respironincs.

Traditionally, buying from CPAP.com was always significantly cheaper even when taking into account the exchange rate which is currently above 30% for cash. Plus, in Canada, Resmed machines carry at three (3) year warranty versus the two-year warranty in the US. I'm leaving out the extra shipping costs to ship to Canada to keep things simple. I know Canadians who have purchased from CPAP.com in the past live near US border towns so they just make a quick day trip to the US and pick up their parcel at the many mail/parcel redirect services.

Let the flaming/trolling begin, lol.

Are you aware that ResMed price fixes??? Meaning they make sellers like cpap.com sign a contract and only advertise and sell ResMed products (any of their products) at a price that ResMed says they can offer the product for.

Cpap.com (or any other online retailer who has signed contracts to buy wholesale from ResMed) has to abide by ResMed's price dictates or else they risk losing their contracts.

Part of the same contract is cpap.com can't ship any ResMed products outside the US. That's why people travel across the border to a PO Box to get a ResMed product they buy from cpap.com.
Cpap.com simply can't ship any ResMed product outside the US. FWIW...Respironics has the same restriction now but ResMed has had it for several years now.

If cpap.com changes a price for any ResMed product....either up or down....ResMed is behind it. When they have a "sale"...ResMed is behind it for any ResMed products.

And has ResMed decided to increase the price on the AirSense 10 machines due to supply and demand???....you bet your sweet ass they have.
It's called capitalism. Supply and demand rules.

Wouldn't surprise me one bit that ResMed has also increased the wholesale price that cpap.com has to pay for those AirSense 10 machines.

So I don't know who your main beef is with here and what or who you wanted to bitch about but you need to know some little known facts about how ResMed works their online retailers before you want to stir up a stink pot of bitching.

ResMed forces retailers to sign contracts with various restrictions that they want met...or else the retailer risks losing the ability to buy wholesale from ResMed.

Respironics does the same thing, as do most other medical equipment companies.
Prices reflect availability as well as the costs of R&D and production.
IMO, Resmed is well worth the difference.
It's your health--shut up and write the check.

Why are increased prices during a shortage a good thing?

1. They provide incentives for suppliers to increase output helping to end the shortage. The higher prices may allow the suppliers to temporarily use more expensive alternate inputs to their processes. The higher prices may allow the suppliers to work overtime, add shifts and/or open new lines or facilities.

2. The higher prices provide incentives to reduce consumer demand. For example, some consumers who were thinking to buy a newer CPAP, may delay their purchase until prices reach a lower equilibrium. This is readily seen in gasoline shortages. Consumers curtail or postpone unnecessary trips due to increased prices. This helps ensure that people who need gasoline to commute to their work or use in their businesses have an adequate supply.

There are other reasons, but you should get the idea by now.

Market-based pricing is the worst system except for all the others.