Don't put words in my mouth. I don't personally know anybody that would do a wedding for $100.00. I don't know anybody that will. Isn't doing such a gig make you a profit? How much profit could you make off of doing a wedding for $100.00? If you're lucky $20.00. Also what about the wear and tear on your vehicle to get your gear there and the wear and tear on your body moving the equipment?
No one put words in your mouth - you said it. Just because you don't know anyone that would cover an event for $100, doesn't mean there's no one that would. Have you figured out your cost to perform? If not, how can you decipher what the profit on this event is? That said, your operational cost is yours alone and someone elses cost is completely different.
Now to be fair he did say he would do it for $600.00. That's not too bad. At least for that price he is making somewhat a decent profit. My guess is that he asked how much she was looking to spend to see if she was close to his price and then maybe he might have lowered his price a bit or matched her price. At the price she told him I would simply keep on walking and wish her the best on who she gets. There's no way I could see him educating er on why she should look at booking him for his price to do the wedding. I got a 2 TB one for under $100.00 too. What's your point? My point is that the place that I have my music stored on cost as much as what she wants to pay to book a DJ to do her wedding.
Again, you have no idea what the profit is without knowing operational cost.
As for the drive, you said yours cost more than $100 - now it costs under $100? WTF!? My point is that your price is yours alone.
Also think of it this way. How many times have I gotten beaten up on here for doing gigs for a cheap price? Haven't I been told if I keep doing gigs for such a cheap price that nobody will take me seriously and I won't be able to advance? So noe I'm getting told to just do the gig for such a low price just to say I'm working. No way in hell I will do someones wedding for $200.00. That's not my ego talking. That's just my business sense talking. I'd rather find something else I like to do then do a wedding for that price. Another DJ can do what they want. That's on them. I'm not that desperate or hard up for work. Only thing $200.00 will do for me is get my cellphone bill paid which it's already paid without doing a gig.
We're not talking about someone elses price. No one said that YOU should do the show for a cheap price just to be working. On the other hand, what good is having high prices if no one is hiring you? You can only charge what the market / customer is willing to pay .. and what they believe you are worth. Raising your prices means nothing if there are no customers buying.
If this other DJ was on here, I'm sure he would get educated by those of us here. Stop worrying about other people - you cannot control them. Worry about your business and how to get more work. Do you have a business plan yet? Have you gotten educated on / edited / cleaned up the offerings on your website? If the answer to these is no, how can you possibly continue to critique others when you can't follow through on the help that people have offered you?
Everyone will not be your customer and everyone is not educated as to how much a DJ costs. You could have the most expensive system in the world and get no shows. You could also have the cheapest system in the world and land some high paying shows. It's all in how you sell it. If $100 is all you need to get by, why bother charging more? As professionals, most of us are operating our businesses as we see fit - not everyone does that. To some, this is a hobby and nothing more - they may not need nor care about the money.
Your business is YOUR child and YOUR problem. No one else is looking out for YOUR business. What are you doing to raise and care for YOUR business?