Rapha, nice but a bit pricey?

TBH I always felt the sample sales were a little bit below the brand :|

They'd be much better setting up some of fake ebay accounts and shifting it that way.

Or maybe it was all just an elaborate marketing ploy to make people who could afford the product, but thought it was over priced, realise how amazing it is and pay full RRP.

Think where the sample sales were. East London.
A slight reduction in prices is a small sacrifice for shifting stock and creating brand buzz/awareness.
These things are great to drive traffic to the website and help brand profiling.

Sample sales always make sense to me, as long as there are samples to sell/old stock to shift. They don't make the brand look cheap - they just create hype