Wow, now that is a good price indeed. Given what a nice boat the Rendezvous is, I'd probably try to snatch it up. Somebody will be able to bring it your way sooner or later, too, if you ask kindly.. the canoeing community usually likes to help and some people travel a lot.
Cheers,
Jan
ps. regarding competition, you have to factor in other things than just price. Competition by price is self-destructive for any industry, go figure.. the canoeing industry is way too small for this to work for a long time. Value on the other hand can be created in many ways, some of which are chances to demo boats, good after sales service, repair handling and all that stuff.. even the quality of the information provided for free on the website is a factor. Isn't it nice that for once, if you want to shop for something you don't have to just look for the smallest (appearing) price but can focus on why you want to choose a certain retailer instead? What a nice thing to have. i don't think we should get rid of that just to possibly save an amount of money we spend for gas on each day trip.
For everything else, there's the used market! You can have it all, including fierce buyer competition to snatch up the best opportunities before everyone else has.. I have done it, it's definitely possible, and if it#s possible for WW boats (my thing) then it sure is for the 100-fold number of flatwater boats - easy in comparison.
