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Updated on: 12 Sep 2013, 02:54
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Difficulty:

45% (medium)

Question Stats:

66% (01:47) correct 34% (01:31) wrong based on 919 sessions

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A furniture dealer purchased a desk for $150 and then set the selling price equal to the purchase price plus a markup that was 40% of the selling price. If the dealer sold the desk at the selling price, what was the amount of the dealer's gross profit from the purchase and the sale of the desk? A.$40
B. $60 C.$80
D. $90 E.$100

Originally posted by udribat on 13 Oct 2008, 20:02.
Last edited by Bunuel on 12 Sep 2013, 02:54, edited 1 time in total.
Renamed the topic, edited the question and added the OA.
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Re: A furniture dealer purchased a desk for $150 and then set th [#permalink] ### Show Tags 12 Sep 2013, 02:58 1 22 udribat wrote: A furniture dealer purchased a desk for$150 and then set the selling price equal to the purchase price plus a markup that was 40% of the selling price. If the dealer sold the desk at the selling price, what was the amount of the dealer's gross profit from the purchase and the sale of the desk?

A. $40 B.$60
C. $80 D.$90
E. $100 Similar questions to practice: a-shop-purchased-a-pair-of-sunglasses-for-120-and-was-139958.html a-photography-dealer-ordered-60-model-x-cameras-to-be-sold-132077.html a-merchant-purchased-a-jacket-for-60-and-then-determined-104375.html a-retailer-bought-a-shirt-at-wholesale-and-marked-it-up-130759.html a-dress-is-marked-up-16-2-3-to-a-final-price-of-140-what-155046.html _________________ ##### Most Helpful Community Reply Manager Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 207 Re: Simple but still having trouble :( [#permalink] ### Show Tags 13 Oct 2008, 20:50 12 8 udribat wrote: A furniture dealer purchased a desk for$150 and then set the selling price to the purchase price plus markup that was 40 percent of the selling price. If the dealer sold the desk at the selling price, what was the amount of the dealer's gross profit from the purchase and the sale of the desk?

1) $40 2)$60
3) $80 4)$90

### Show Tags

27 Jul 2012, 18:41
1
1
Selling Price = S

S = 150 + .40S

S = 250

Profit = 250 - 150 = 100
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19 Oct 2014, 21:39
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angelfire213 wrote:
hi all.

I love math but hate GMAT math.
Anyway, I'm getting confused with the terminology in this question. If the markup is 40% is that not the same thing as the profit? ie. isn't the markup the difference between the selling price and the cost?

I might be missing something basic here. With this thinking, I just had selling price = to 140% of cost and got the answer wrong. I've seen how people solve it but I just don't understand the business or visual part of it.... HELP!

PS - Why am I asking these types of questions 2 weeks before my exam

No, mark up is the difference between cost price and list price (or tag price or marked price). The list price may be different from selling price if the store offers a discount.

Look at it from the store's perspective. It buys a shirt at $100 and marks it up by 50% i.e. writes$150 as the list price on the shirt. The shirt doesn't sell for a month after which the store has a sale of 10% on everything. Someone buys the shirt during the sale at this 10% discount i.e. 150 - 10% of 150 = $135. So the selling price of the shirt is$135. So here, mark up was 50% but profit was 35%.

Anyway, in this question, there is no discount but the mark up is given as 40% of the selling price. So it is not 40% of $150 but instead, 40% of Selling price which is obtained by adding mark up to$150.

So if selling price is S,
150 + 40% of S = S
S = 250

Profit = 100 which is calculated on cost price in % terms. So 100/150 * 100 = 66.67% is profit.
Note that usually mark up is also calculated on cost price and hence mark up percentage would be 100/150 = 66.7% - i.e. same as profit% since there is no discount in this case. This question just gives you mark up on selling price and hence you need to do suitable modifications.
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14 Jul 2015, 18:35
CP = $150. SP =$150 + 40%(SP)

So, (0.6) (SP) = $150 SP =$150/0.6 = $250. So, GP = SP-CP =$250-$150 =$100. Ans (E).
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Re: A furniture dealer purchased a desk for $150 and then set th [#permalink] ### Show Tags 27 Nov 2015, 09:25 Purchase price =$150
Selling Price = SP

SP = 150 + 0.4SP
0.6SP = 150
SP = 250

GP = 250-150

GP = $100 Answer: E Board of Directors Status: QA & VA Forum Moderator Joined: 11 Jun 2011 Posts: 4860 Location: India GPA: 3.5 WE: Business Development (Commercial Banking) Re: A furniture dealer purchased a desk for$150 and then set th  [#permalink]

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30 Nov 2015, 10:10
Bunuel wrote:
Abhishek009 wrote:
Dondarrion wrote:
Abhishek009,

Can you repost the image? I am getting the red x.

Thanks!

Here you go sir -

Images you post are not visible at all.

Very sorry for the issue , reposting as attachment -
Attachments

Untitled.png [ 3.71 KiB | Viewed 27895 times ]

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Re: A furniture dealer purchased a desk for $150 and then set th [#permalink] ### Show Tags 04 Feb 2017, 03:24 udribat wrote: A furniture dealer purchased a desk for$150 and then set the selling price equal to the purchase price plus a markup that was 40% of the selling price. If the dealer sold the desk at the selling price, what was the amount of the dealer's gross profit from the purchase and the sale of the desk?

A. $40 B.$60
C. $80 D.$90
E. $100 PP + 40%SP = SP PP + 4/10 * SP = SP 6SP = 1500 SP =25o Senior Manager Joined: 08 Dec 2015 Posts: 282 GMAT 1: 600 Q44 V27 I am getting crazy with this. please help... [#permalink] ### Show Tags 24 Feb 2017, 09:53 A furniture dealer purchased a desk for$150 and then set the selling price equal to the purchase price plus a markup that was 40% of the selling price. If the dealer sold the desk at the selling price, what was the amount of the dealer's gross profit from the purchase and the sale of the desk?

A. $40 B.$60
C. $80 D.$90
E. $100 my solution: $$150(1+\frac{x}{100})=S$$ S is selling price. X is the markup. also $$x=\frac{4}{10}S$$ substitute: $$150(1+\frac{4s}{10/100})=S$$ $$150+\frac{6s}{10}=S$$ $$1500+6S=10S$$ Selling price = 375. WHY is this wrong????? The logic seems perfect, yet its wrong, omg what is going on here..... Manhattan Prep Instructor Joined: 04 Dec 2015 Posts: 870 GMAT 1: 790 Q51 V49 GRE 1: Q170 V170 Re: A furniture dealer purchased a desk for$150 and then set th  [#permalink]

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24 Feb 2017, 15:39
2
iliavko wrote:
A furniture dealer purchased a desk for $150 and then set the selling price equal to the purchase price plus a markup that was 40% of the selling price. If the dealer sold the desk at the selling price, what was the amount of the dealer's gross profit from the purchase and the sale of the desk? A.$40
B. $60 C.$80
D. $90 E.$100

my solution:

$$150(1+\frac{x}{100})=S$$ S is selling price. X is the markup.

also $$x=\frac{4}{10}S$$

substitute: $$150(1+\frac{4s}{10/100})=S$$
$$150+\frac{6s}{10}=S$$
$$1500+6S=10S$$

Selling price = 375.

WHY is this wrong????? The logic seems perfect, yet its wrong, omg what is going on here.....

Your solution would be correct if the 'markup' were given as a percentage markup (i.e. if it said something like 'a markup of 40%' or 'a 40% markup'.) However, in this problem, you're given the dollar amount of the markup. Sure, they describe it to you in terms of percents, but '40 percent of the selling price' refers to a dollar amount, not a percentage value. In your equation, you're dividing it by 100, which indicates that you thought of it as a percentage markup.

selling price = 150 + 4/10(selling price)

That is, the selling price starts at 150, and then is increased by a dollar amount equal to 40 percent of the selling price.
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01 Jan 2018, 11:40
Here is how I do it.
Selling Price = S

S = 150 + .40S

S = 250

Profit = 250 - 150 = 100

I hope it's right.
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Re: A furniture dealer purchased a desk for $150 and then set th [#permalink] ### Show Tags 04 Aug 2019, 09:15 Top Contributor udribat wrote: A furniture dealer purchased a desk for$150 and then set the selling price equal to the purchase price plus a markup that was 40% of the selling price. If the dealer sold the desk at the selling price, what was the amount of the dealer's gross profit from the purchase and the sale of the desk?

A. $40 B.$60
C. $80 D.$90
E. $100 Let S = the selling price The dealer ... set the selling price equal to purchasing price ($150) plus a markup that was 40% of selling price.
So, the markup = 0.4S
In other words: S = 150 + 0.4S
Subtract 0.4S from both sides to get: 0.6S = 150
Solve: S = 250
In other words, the selling price was $250 What was the dealer's gross profit from the purchase and the sale of the desk? The profit =$250 - $150 =$100

Cheers,
Brent
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