Price differences, UK and Germany

Sorry, there's no real point to this post other than for me to have a
grumble.

I want a B&M Toplight for my rear rack (4D Permanent model). I've just
been checking online prices and I find that the lamp is 18 euros in
Germany, about 12 quid, but double that here in the UK at £24.

The light is exactly what I need for mounting on the Taifun, but
really, I'm going to have a hard job ignoring the fact that someone
somewhere is shafting me with that kind of price difference.

Bah.

"Bob"
--

Email address is spam trapped, to reply directly remove the beverage.

Mark Thompson wrote:
>>I want a B&M Toplight for my rear rack (4D Permanent model). I've just
>>been checking online prices and I find that the lamp is 18 euros in
>>Germany, about 12 quid, but double that here in the UK at £24.
>
>
> Buy it over internet from Germany?

I second that: always check out Ebay first for anything like that. You
can find some great prices on _new_ products, much lower than even the
German retail price.

EFR
Ile de France

Call me Bob wrote:
> Sorry, there's no real point to this post other than for me to have a
> grumble.
>
> I want a B&M Toplight for my rear rack (4D Permanent model). I've just
> been checking online prices and I find that the lamp is 18 euros in
> Germany, about 12 quid, but double that here in the UK at £24.
>
> The light is exactly what I need for mounting on the Taifun, but
> really, I'm going to have a hard job ignoring the fact that someone
> somewhere is shafting me with that kind of price difference.
>

No need to be shafted, this is a free market and you can buy from
whomever you wish. Order it from Roseversand for 18 euro plus postage
and it'll be in your hands in days.
http://www.roseversand.de/output/controller.aspx?cid=156&detail=10&detail2=3474

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

Tony Raven wrote:
> Call me Bob wrote:
>
>> Sorry, there's no real point to this post other than for me to have a
>> grumble.
>>
>> I want a B&M Toplight for my rear rack (4D Permanent model). I've just
>> been checking online prices and I find that the lamp is 18 euros in
>> Germany, about 12 quid, but double that here in the UK at £24.
>>
>> The light is exactly what I need for mounting on the Taifun, but
>> really, I'm going to have a hard job ignoring the fact that someone
>> somewhere is shafting me with that kind of price difference.
>>
>
> No need to be shafted, this is a free market and you can buy from
> whomever you wish. Order it from Roseversand for 18 euro plus postage
> and it'll be in your hands in days.
> http://www.roseversand.de/output/controller.aspx?cid=156&detail=10&detail2=3474

Or Bike24.net/.com (even cheaper, but might be different model?):

http://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=7;page=3;ID=8bf4b4dfd8f96660ea75a8cc52ef90f1


UK is free shipping for orders over 250eur, and 6euro for smaller
orders. And I think German VAT is only 16% not 17.5%, which helps very
slightly.
--
AndyM.

in message <[email protected]>, Call me Bob
('[email protected]') wrote:

> I want a B&M Toplight for my rear rack (4D Permanent model). I've just
> been checking online prices and I find that the lamp is 18 euros in
> Germany, about 12 quid, but double that here in the UK at £24.
>
> The light is exactly what I need for mounting on the Taifun, but
> really, I'm going to have a hard job ignoring the fact that someone
> somewhere is shafting me with that kind of price difference.

This is a Common Market. Buy from a supplier in Germany.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
; ... of course nothing said here will be taken notice of by
; the W3C. The official place to be ignored is on www-style or
; www-html. -- George Lund

On Sun, 14 May 2006 16:58:25 +0100, Tony Raven <[email protected]>
wrote:

>> I want a B&M Toplight for my rear rack (4D Permanent model). I've just
>> been checking online prices and I find that the lamp is 18 euros in
>> Germany, about 12 quid, but double that here in the UK at £24.

>No need to be shafted, this is a free market and you can buy from
>whomever you wish. Order it from Roseversand for 18 euro plus postage
>and it'll be in your hands in days.
>http://www.roseversand.de/output/controller.aspx?cid=156&detail=10&detail2=3474

Yes, thanks, I did see it at Roseversand, that's where I got the 18
euro price from. Unfortunately they (not unreasonably) charge a
further 12 euros for postage to the UK, which just about eats up the
saving. It would be worthwhile if I was ordering some other bits as
well (me looks with lust at the SON hubs) but I'm only after the new
lamp atm.

"Bob"
--

Email address is spam trapped, to reply directly remove the beverage.

On Sun, 14 May 2006 17:26:42 +0100, Simon Brooke
<[email protected]> wrote:


>> I want a B&M Toplight for my rear rack (4D Permanent model). I've just
>> been checking online prices and I find that the lamp is 18 euros in
>> Germany, about 12 quid, but double that here in the UK at £24.

>This is a Common Market. Buy from a supplier in Germany.

This is the problem, it doesn't feel very "common" to me in this
instance. That terms implies to me some kind of equality, a level
playing field that seems absent here.

I've emailed AMBA who import the B&M stuff into the UK and asked them
how they account for the doubling of the price.

"Bob"
--

Email address is spam trapped, to reply directly remove the beverage.

On Sun, 14 May 2006 17:43:59 +0200, Elisa Francesca Roselli
<[email protected]> wrote:


>I second that: always check out Ebay first for anything like that. You
>can find some great prices on _new_ products, much lower than even the
>German retail price.

I did check Ebay, but none are listed here in the UK (nor appear in a
search for already sold items).

I expect some of the price difference will be because of the different
type of market for bicycle lighting which exists in Germany and the
UK. These units are much less common here than in their home market,
hence a lower turnover and higher price (and their scarcity on ebay).

"Bob"
--

Email address is spam trapped, to reply directly remove the beverage.

Call me Bob wrote:
> On Sun, 14 May 2006 17:26:42 +0100, Simon Brooke
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>> I want a B&M Toplight for my rear rack (4D Permanent model). I've
>>> just been checking online prices and I find that the lamp is 18
>>> euros in Germany, about 12 quid, but double that here in the UK at
>>> £24.
>
>> This is a Common Market. Buy from a supplier in Germany.
>
> This is the problem, it doesn't feel very "common" to me in this
> instance. That terms implies to me some kind of equality, a level
> playing field that seems absent here.
>
> I've emailed AMBA who import the B&M stuff into the UK and asked them
> how they account for the doubling of the price.

How about, at a guess....

In Germany, shop buys from B&M.

In UK, AMBA buy from B&M. Shop buys from AMBA. Both AMBA and shop need to
make a profit.


The online German supplier appears to be a discounter, so one should compare
with equivalents in the UK. One UK online source has the lamp at £21. So,
rough and ready guess at how the prices could be split up between different
places:
German shop = £10.30 +VAT at 16%
UK shop = 17.90 +VAT at 17.5%
Assume retail margin of 80% operated by discounting shops
German shop pays: 5.72
UK shop pays: 9.95
Difference = £4.20, which covers a 75% margin at the importer/distributor.
Probably enough to keep their business running.

The above is a guess, I've no inside information on the businesses above.


- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/