grey/gray

[Lee Sankey]

A few years ago I took leave of the piano biz and owned and operated a large
computer retail store near San Antoniio, TX . I was a franchised and a legal
IBM dealer. During that period dealers who were not so authorized would
obtain IBM products illegitamately and resell them. These were refered to as
"Grey market PCs " because of the grey color of the IBM PC box. As far as I
know this is the origin of the term "grey market".  Incidentally, it was IBM
who created the grey market by forcing its legitimate dealers to buy more
product than they could sell through their retail efforts and so  forced us
to sell them to unauthorized resellers (like Dell computer). I believe that
IBM consequently sold as much product through these channels as through the
authorized dealers and all along they would tell us that they were opposed
to the grey market were making efforts to stop it.

A little trivia FWIW

Lee Sankey
San Diego

----- Original Message -----
From: "Clyde Hollinger" <cedel@supernet.com>
To: <dave@davispiano.com>; "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2003 4:25 AM
Subject: Re: grey/gray


> Dave and all,
>
> I don't recall anyone addressing a question that's been in my mind
> recently.  If other piano companies can build pianos in Japan, China,
> Korea, etc. that do well in the United States, why doesn't Yamaha?  We
> know they can; they build some pianos designed for the western
> hemisphere.  Why not build *all* of them that way?  Other companies do,
> don't they?
>
> Don't get me wrong; I like Yamaha, and I am currently helping a local
> school district buy a number of them.  But unless I'm missing something,
> I wonder if there's an unspoken reason why the Yamaha company takes the
> position it does regarding their used pianos being shipped in from the
> eastern hemisphere.  Is it "the bottom line"?
>
> To digress a little, have any of you serviced any decades-old Knight
> verticals that have printed on the underside of the lid, "made for the
> American climate" or something like that?  My experience is that,
> although that may have been the intent, they are characterized by poorly
> working actions, sluggish keys, keytops coming loose, etc.  My spirits
> droop each time I see another one.  And they are certainly not
> service-friendly, in my opinion.
>
> Trivia on "grey" versus "gray" -- In an American-printed dictionary
> (copyright 1995) I looked up the word "grey."  There is no definition
> given, just the word "gray."  I looked that up and found thirteen
> definitions, many more if you count various combinations with the word
> in it.  "Grey" is not exactly incorrect, though.  But with this
> information I will usually use "gray," although I actually prefer the
> other spelling.  Now isn't that fascinating to learn on a gray Saturday
> morning?!  :-)
>
> Regards,
> Clyde Hollinger, RPT
> Lititz, PA, USA
>
> Dave Davis wrote:
>
> > Problem #1.  Yamaha says there is a problem and denies support.
>
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