Purchasing direct from ToupTek. Import Tax

[Shimrod]

On 11/07/2024 at 19:00, Stuart1971 said:

This is the first camera I have reviewed from them, and no it came direct from china and I had no fees at all,  also there is a UK stockist of the Touptek cameras, and there prices are good, £1170 for the OSC IMX571, here is there link, so any issues you just send back to them and not to China..👍🏻

https://www.microscopecameras.co.uk/astronomy-cameras

 

Interesting - the company (and website) are only a year old, but has been set up by the owner of Altair Astro and operates from the same buiilding - prices of the Touptek cameras I looked at were only slightly cheaper than the Altair equivalents - but effectively it is Altair competing against themselves.

[Stuart1971]

3 hours ago, Shimrod said:

Interesting - the company (and website) are only a year old, but has been set up by the owner of Altair Astro and operates from the same buiilding - prices of the Touptek cameras I looked at were only slightly cheaper than the Altair equivalents - but effectively it is Altair competing against themselves.

Hmmm, that is interesting as I spoke to them direct and asked them if they had anything to do with Altair and they did not answer, but I did have my suspicions…as a couple of weird things happened when I got my review camera from Touptek, it went to Altair instead of this company, and was sent to me from Altair, yet they told me they just were doing the guys at Microscopes international a favour, rather then sending it to them to then send onto me….so all very odd…🤔

I will investigate more…

Edited 3 hours ago by Stuart1971

[Stuart1971]

Yes you are correct they have the same directors and addresses…so are a part of Altair Astro, under another umbrella name of  Global Photonics Group LTD, which seems really strange, and why they would want it kept quiet too, when all the info is publicly available if you took the time to look…..🤔🤔

 

[StevieDvd]

In other industries it was quite common for a main brand to offer the same products under different names.  That way they get both the premium buyers and the lower priced customers as well.

 

[Stuart1971]

8 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

In other industries it was quite common for a main brand to offer the same products under different names.  That way they get both the premium buyers and the lower priced customers as well.

 

Well it isn’t the main brand, all the cameras from Altair Astro are made by Touptek, with there own AA brand name, now they are selling the original Touptek cameras too under the Touptek name, cheaper,  it makes not sense at all….they are undercutting themselves….🤔