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Costs and why?

Deano7

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Naz

Naz

Posted
Posted

You can get a PST from Hong Kong for about half the price in the UK, but what happens if you have a problem?

naz

You buy another new one and your only down the same as if you bought one here. :D

Kaptain klevtsov

8) :lol:

naz

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cygnusx1

cygnusx1

Posted
Posted

You can get a PST from Hong Kong for about half the price in the UK, but what happens if you have a problem?

naz

IMO if you look after your equip properly, unlike electronics, its very unlikely to fail, and should last for decades with proper use and care.

Just make sure its good qualkity to start with :lol:

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Ant

Ant

Posted
Posted

You can get a PST from Hong Kong for about half the price in the UK, but what happens if you have a problem?

naz

IMO if you look after your equip properly, unlike electronics, its very unlikely to fail, and should last for decades with proper use and care.

Just make sure its good qualkity to start with :lol:

My boss went to Thailand and bought me a 300D as an Xmas bonus - this was half the price it was in the UK, and he got extras thrown in for free.

I do take care of my items. But after about 9 months the remote control sensor in the camera went wrong. I did not have an international warranty. Lucky for me (and I still do not know why) but the canon specialist repaired it under warranty. I was lucky.

You have two choices

1) Buy from the UK,

2) Buy from states / HK and pay freight, insurance, duty, tax AND take a risk that in the first year there are no problems.

CELESTRON / MEADE / WHOEVER are not going to give you a rebate just because you want one.

End of Story

Ant

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cygnusx1

cygnusx1

Posted
Posted

Just make sure its good qualkity to start with :lol:

Please enlighten me.

Just how do you do that before seeing the goods in person??

I know how i would do it I'm just curios as to how you would do that...

Simple, only buy reputed well known brands, and do research b4hand!

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Jamie

Jamie

Posted
Posted

I would have thought that the person (or dealer) selling ANY goods would be

one of the biggest deciding factors.

The brand would be researched (obviously) the brand you choose should automatically decide the quality of the product (unless it comes from a disreputable dealer/seller)

Not quite as easy as you made out. (If you are doing the buying bit for the first time)

At this moment you are using the best resource at your disposal SGL 8)

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russ

russ

Posted
Posted

Dean,

I've never understood why we in the UK can't be party to all the special deals they run in the US. I like the Orion USA stuff and their website is full of special offers, reductions and rebates but none of it is applicable here in the UK. WHY?

It's worth noting that although the prices look good on the new stuff by the time it arrives here it's usually no more than £10-20 less. Definitely not worth the effort.

As an example I need a replacement focuser for my newt. The Antares is the best value one around. Costs £99 in this country and £60 in the US. Looks a big saving at first. But then you add delivery (£15), tax (£12) and handling (£8) and suddendly things don't look so rosy. A total saving of £5 on the UK price.

Taking your scope as another example:

$1399 from Telescopes.com in the US or £1099 here from Dhinds. Looks over priced at first but a quick check on the sums:

$1399 + $180 + $330 = $1910

Approx £900-£950 from the States (if you could find someone to ship)

A saving of £150-£200. But both FLO and DHinds do 10% discount on the £1099.

So a final saving of £40-£90 plus a ton of trouble if things go wrong.

Russ

Russ

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themos

themos

Posted
Posted

Rus, what you say applies to stuff "Made in USA", no? If something is made in China, there's no technical reason for (significantly) different prices except the standard economic reason of "what the market will bear", which is kind of no reason at all!

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GazOC

GazOC

Posted
Posted

Rus, what you say applies to stuff "Made in USA", no? If something is made in China, there's no technical reason for (significantly) different prices except the standard economic reason of "what the market will bear", which is kind of no reason at all!

Its a great reason...if you're Celestron/Meade... :D

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Deano7

Deano7

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1) Buy from the UK,

2) Buy from states / HK and pay freight, insurance, duty, tax AND take a risk that in the first year there are no problems.

CELESTRON / MEADE / WHOEVER are not going to give you a rebate just because you want one.

End of Story

Ant

Unbelievable! I am not expecting a rebate just "because I want one!" Celestron or whoever sell a product which costs a certain amount to make, if they can ship it from the same country (China) to any place in the world, and then sell that product for nearly half the price and STILL make a profit then why are we paying nearly double the price? Surely that is NOT fair?

Then to not be allowed a rebate at least when others are is just another annoyance. I am sure there are plenty of Celestron customers here in the UK who deserve an incentive to show of loyalty to a brand, perhaps for purchasing their second scope.

I think this is obviously an issue looking at the replies so far. But just for the record, I totally agree that judging by the additional costs to import it makes more sense to buy from a reputable dealer in this country. It doesn't make it easier to swallow tho!

Regards Dean

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Whippy

Whippy

Posted
Posted

Dean, I think you're missing the point. We are a small, rainy island in North West Europe with a population that's 20% of the size of America's. When you buy goods in bulk, quite often there are 'price breaks' ie: if you buy 10 units you may pay £100 for each one, but of you buy 50 you might only pay £90 and so on.

If you work to the theory that there's roughly the same amount of people per 1000 that are into stargazing then the market in America is five times the size of the UK's and hence are able to buy 5 times the amount of stock and have better price breaks. Also factor in that Celestron are an American company (I know Synta bought them out but for all intents..), and various other bits and pieces like importation taxes, the weak dollar etc etc, that's why prices in the US appear to be 'cheap'. Hence my previous post about scopes being MORE expensive in a smaller country like New Zealand.

Another example would be that Baader products are more expensive in the US than in the EU. Why? Because they're a German company and EU countries get more favourable importation duty rates than American ones. It doesn't matter that some of their lines are produced in Taiwan or wherever.

It's economics, and there's nothing that Adam Hinds can do about it. You can shout all you like and ask importers to explain themselves (why ask a retailer to explain Cygnusx1?) but importing specialist goods into a small market like the UK, you're going to pay a premium and that's that.

Tony..

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FLO

FLO

Posted
Posted

A comment from FLO or David Hind's would be in order.

As a dealer/reseller, other than to be competitive, FLO has absolutely no control over the UK prices of Celestron. In fact, when you factor in SGL discount (from prices that are already competitive), FLO is doing more than any other UK dealer to make Celestron affordable. HTH.

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cygnusx1

cygnusx1

Posted
Posted

A comment from FLO or David Hind's would be in order.

Why ???

Kai are you being purposefuly obtuse? I think so.

There are legitimate questions being asked by members as to why the rebates are not being passed on to the UK public.

Surely, those in the know-how would be the best source to clear up or explain

1. The considerate additonal cost of astro equip here in the Uk relative to US / Far East

2. Why the rebate scheme is not available to us.

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Deano7

Deano7

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Well, if nothing else, it has raised some debate and some "theories" on answers. This is afterall were frorums can be useful and people can give their own "opinions" on the question that was raised.

Thankyou for all the replies.

point 2 that cygnus raises I still totally agree with though, the rebate scheme should be offered to all, it's one thing to pay out of one hand, but I would prefer not to pay out of the other too! A customer to Celestron should be the same which ever country they are from should it not?

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Jamie

Jamie

Posted
Posted

I still totally agree with though, the rebate scheme should be offered to all,

I agree with that statement too guys.

Its just that i don't think its right to directly ask Steve or Adam why you don't get it here

when they have no knowledge in these matters.

I tell you what Kevin/Dean, Why don't you write a letter to Celestron/Meade/Vixen or any other manufacturer that you think gives a better deal abroad than over here.

Can you guys please let me know how you get on and what their reply to you is?

Thanks in advance...

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Kaptain Klevtsov

Kaptain Klevtsov

Posted
Posted

OK guys, here's my take on this.

Steve, David any any other reseller of equipment (me included) buy stuff and sell it to a third party (that could be you for example).

Each of us buy for what we can get the stuff for and sell it as cheaply as a) we need to, to stay in business, and :D as much as we can get away with, to maximise the profits. That's what's called business. As the astro goods market is developed in the UK, nobody can get away with selling kit for a great deal more than they pay for it because there is competition. Life's tough that way for resellers, get the margin wrong and you either sell nowt and go bust, or sell loads and go bust, its that simple. Nobody has yet suggested that any UK dealer is ripping anybody off, and I know that it isn't the case, because they would be charging more than the others. They are not, unless you count the pennies.

Some things that might be true though. The US giants "could have" a deal with the manufacturers whereby the US$ price was fixed for some agreed term, and the US guys are getting stuff really really cheap as the dollar is weak. For the manufacturers to make money, they could (ought to) have a clause whereby the UK, or European prices were based on the Euro, or not even fixed, that way they could still get a realistic price for their stuff and stay in business. This would mean that shipments to European dealers of US companies pay a different rate to the US for the same kit. The idea behind the fixed exchange rate would be so that dealers in each country could have a stable cost price to base their own ricing on. When the dollar goes weak, it appears that something has gone wrong. It hasn't, that's just the way it works. The manufacturer would be fed up if the US customer base (who get the stuff cheaper) sold stuff on to the Euro dealers who, according to the contract, should be paying more in the currency of the manufacturer.

Business is complicated when you have to factor in exchange rates and the devil is in the detail of the contract. None of us here are privy to the contract, so we can't discuss it other than to speculate, but the above is not atypical of international trading.

Sorry for the lesson / rant.

Kaptain Klevtsov

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