ProBikeKit.com - Awesome

[Carl Brewer]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 13:16:10 +1000, sinus
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>byron27 Wrote:
>> Please Boycott Bicycling Australia as a result cause they dont represent
>> you, they represent the trough that feeds them.
>Apart from being trite, brief and containing reviews that have no more
>information than the manufacturer web site (their trough). The readers
>letters contains the only content with journalistic integrity.
>
>Thank God for Ride Cycling Review.

Ride's just as bad, but has prettier pictures.

 

[Carl Brewer]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 12:51:30 +1000, byron27
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>[email protected] Wrote:
>> > Have a read of the letter that was sent to BikePro from Bicycling Aus
>> -
>> > http://tinyurl.com/5p9fw That sums up the state of things in the
>> local
>> > industry..
>>
>> So was bikepro too cheap or too expensive?
>bikepro is cheap relative to other LBS in Australia but expensive in
>regards to probikekit et al.
>
>Bike shops cant legally buy stuff from probike and then sell it cause
>then it is parallel importation or the like. So they are getting
>screwed too. The crazy thing is i can buy STi levers cheaper overseas
>than my LBS can get wholesale from Shimano Australia.

Is it actually illegal? I didn't think it was? I was pretty sure
that you can parallel import. Wasn't the whole ACCC
DVD zone thing revolving around this?
The local agents don't like
it (oddly enough!) but they can't actually stop you.
Or at least, that's my understanding.

Also, once you own something, as long as it's a legal
product, you can do whatever you like with it, which includes
sell it. Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
sale" are making idle threats.

That's my understanding anyway.

 

[Carl Brewer]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 12:51:30 +1000, byron27
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>[email protected] Wrote:
>> > Have a read of the letter that was sent to BikePro from Bicycling Aus
>> -
>> > http://tinyurl.com/5p9fw That sums up the state of things in the
>> local
>> > industry..
>>
>> So was bikepro too cheap or too expensive?
>bikepro is cheap relative to other LBS in Australia but expensive in
>regards to probikekit et al.
>
>Bike shops cant legally buy stuff from probike and then sell it cause
>then it is parallel importation or the like. So they are getting
>screwed too. The crazy thing is i can buy STi levers cheaper overseas
>than my LBS can get wholesale from Shimano Australia.

Is it actually illegal? I didn't think it was? I was pretty sure
that you can parallel import. Wasn't the whole ACCC
DVD zone thing revolving around this?
The local agents don't like
it (oddly enough!) but they can't actually stop you.
Or at least, that's my understanding.

Also, once you own something, as long as it's a legal
product, you can do whatever you like with it, which includes
sell it. Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
sale" are making idle threats.

That's my understanding anyway.

 

[Carl Brewer]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 12:51:30 +1000, byron27
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>[email protected] Wrote:
>> > Have a read of the letter that was sent to BikePro from Bicycling Aus
>> -
>> > http://tinyurl.com/5p9fw That sums up the state of things in the
>> local
>> > industry..
>>
>> So was bikepro too cheap or too expensive?
>bikepro is cheap relative to other LBS in Australia but expensive in
>regards to probikekit et al.
>
>Bike shops cant legally buy stuff from probike and then sell it cause
>then it is parallel importation or the like. So they are getting
>screwed too. The crazy thing is i can buy STi levers cheaper overseas
>than my LBS can get wholesale from Shimano Australia.

Is it actually illegal? I didn't think it was? I was pretty sure
that you can parallel import. Wasn't the whole ACCC
DVD zone thing revolving around this?
The local agents don't like
it (oddly enough!) but they can't actually stop you.
Or at least, that's my understanding.

Also, once you own something, as long as it's a legal
product, you can do whatever you like with it, which includes
sell it. Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
sale" are making idle threats.

That's my understanding anyway.

 

[byron27]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 12:51:30 +1000, byron27
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>[email protected] Wrote:
>> > Have a read of the letter that was sent to BikePro from Bicycling Aus
>> -
>> > http://tinyurl.com/5p9fw That sums up the state of things in the
>> local
>> > industry..
>>
>> So was bikepro too cheap or too expensive?
>bikepro is cheap relative to other LBS in Australia but expensive in
>regards to probikekit et al.
>
>Bike shops cant legally buy stuff from probike and then sell it cause
>then it is parallel importation or the like. So they are getting
>screwed too. The crazy thing is i can buy STi levers cheaper overseas
>than my LBS can get wholesale from Shimano Australia.

Is it actually illegal? I didn't think it was? I was pretty sure
that you can parallel import. Wasn't the whole ACCC
DVD zone thing revolving around this?
The local agents don't like
it (oddly enough!) but they can't actually stop you.
Or at least, that's my understanding.

Also, once you own something, as long as it's a legal
product, you can do whatever you like with it, which includes
sell it. Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
sale" are making idle threats.

That's my understanding anyway.

so its more to do with puffing up of the chests to protect their interests than anything else??

mmmmm maybes its time to become a consultant cycling goods broker, finding the best deals for small LBS for a small fee.

 

[alison_b]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 11:55:26 +1000, alison_b
<[email protected]> wrote:


>Well, I suspect it may be at least in part the LBS. I shopped around
>for my new saddle before buying it from ProbikeKit. The cheapest
>option was over *twice* the price of ProbikeKit. The most expensive
>local option was over three times the price. Surely the stores would
>use the cheapest importing options? I mean, at this rate they could
>buy the saddles themselves from ProBikeKit and still make a decent
>return

Have you been to some of the ****^H^H^H^Hflash bike shops
in the city (Melb). When you go into SHM, you're paying
for a lot of rent and tinsel.

Smal LBS's do ok, but don't make a fortune. The markups are
big on some things, but they don't do big volume and you're
subsidising their expertise that they pretty-much give away.
It's much easier to sell stuff cheap when you can do JIT ordering and
have no storefront to pay for. I can see you an iRiver H320 for
$100 less than RRP because I don't need to make a heap on it
but if I had to have stock, spares, staff.... which also the
distributors have to have.

The alternative is Rays Bike City and K-mart for service. "no
thanks". It's funny that bike shops are one of the few
small retail businesses that aren't (yet) being eaten by chainstores.

But yes, stuff here is too expensive in a lot of cases, but remember
too that it's easy to buy stuff from an agent, much more work (and
risk) to source it yourself, especially if you're a small shop
with not much time to spare.

I go to the swanky stores to window shop occasionally, but if I'm going to buy something I will as 1st preference go to my LBS. As you say, their knowledge is included in their prices, and *when I can afford to* I am happy to pay for it. (My LBS, incidentally, was also the cheapest option after Probikekit for my saddle. But it wasn't an option with the budget to buy it from them; it was buy it cheaply, or not buy it at all.) My LBS has kept the whole family in bikes and gear for a good number of years now. The only times I buy from another store is if they don't have something and their sources don't supply it (rarely), or something has crapped itself on the way to work and I need to get it fixed to get home.

That said, it wasn't one of the swanky city shops that was selling the same saddle at three times the price, yes I understand that people have o/heads, and I don't expect people to work for peanuts. But, I find it hard to believe there is a big enough discrepancy in the o/heads to warrant the huge differences in prices ($120 or so difference from memory between two local suburban shops not that far apart from each other).

cheers,
Ali

 

[Kim Hawtin]

Tamyka Bell wrote:
> Yeah, it was Laura. From her vague, unrelated response, I got the
> impression that she was a NVI-PYT (not very intelligent, pretty young
> thing).

the word for that is; B.I.N.T.

cheers,

kim

 

[Kim Hawtin]

Tamyka Bell wrote:
> Yeah, it was Laura. From her vague, unrelated response, I got the
> impression that she was a NVI-PYT (not very intelligent, pretty young
> thing).

the word for that is; B.I.N.T.

cheers,

kim

 

[Kim Hawtin]

Tamyka Bell wrote:
> Yeah, it was Laura. From her vague, unrelated response, I got the
> impression that she was a NVI-PYT (not very intelligent, pretty young
> thing).

the word for that is; B.I.N.T.

cheers,

kim

 

[Parbs]

Carl wrote in message...

<snip>

> Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
> sale" are making idle threats.
>
Not necessarily, it is possible that the packs don't comply with the labelling regulations.

Parbs

 

[Parbs]

Carl wrote in message...

<snip>

> Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
> sale" are making idle threats.
>
Not necessarily, it is possible that the packs don't comply with the labelling regulations.

Parbs

 

[Parbs]

Carl wrote in message...

<snip>

> Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
> sale" are making idle threats.
>
Not necessarily, it is possible that the packs don't comply with the labelling regulations.

Parbs

 

[Kim Hawtin]

byron27 wrote:
> Carl Brewer Wrote:
>>Also, once you own something, as long as it's a legal
>>product, you can do whatever you like with it, which includes
>>sell it. Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
>>sale" are making idle threats.
>>
>>That's my understanding anyway.
>
> so its more to do with puffing up of the chests to protect their
> interests than anything else??
>
> mmmmm maybes its time to become a consultant cycling goods broker,
> finding the best deals for small LBS for a small fee.

there probably several middlemen... there are several markups...
GST makes bit of a diffenence, but ideally you pay that once anyway.
shipping in AU seems to add quite a lot to the shelf price of things in smaller shops.
in larger shops shipping costs can be really quite low as they shift a lot of stock from their suppliers regularly =)

anyhow, why can't i find hubs on this damn site?!?

theres no search on their site damn it!

i'm looking for the shimano hubgear types ...
can you fix a hubgear?

cheers,

kim

 

[Kim Hawtin]

byron27 wrote:
> Carl Brewer Wrote:
>>Also, once you own something, as long as it's a legal
>>product, you can do whatever you like with it, which includes
>>sell it. Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
>>sale" are making idle threats.
>>
>>That's my understanding anyway.
>
> so its more to do with puffing up of the chests to protect their
> interests than anything else??
>
> mmmmm maybes its time to become a consultant cycling goods broker,
> finding the best deals for small LBS for a small fee.

there probably several middlemen... there are several markups...
GST makes bit of a diffenence, but ideally you pay that once anyway.
shipping in AU seems to add quite a lot to the shelf price of things in smaller shops.
in larger shops shipping costs can be really quite low as they shift a lot of stock from their suppliers regularly =)

anyhow, why can't i find hubs on this damn site?!?

theres no search on their site damn it!

i'm looking for the shimano hubgear types ...
can you fix a hubgear?

cheers,

kim

 

[Kim Hawtin]

byron27 wrote:
> Carl Brewer Wrote:
>>Also, once you own something, as long as it's a legal
>>product, you can do whatever you like with it, which includes
>>sell it. Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
>>sale" are making idle threats.
>>
>>That's my understanding anyway.
>
> so its more to do with puffing up of the chests to protect their
> interests than anything else??
>
> mmmmm maybes its time to become a consultant cycling goods broker,
> finding the best deals for small LBS for a small fee.

there probably several middlemen... there are several markups...
GST makes bit of a diffenence, but ideally you pay that once anyway.
shipping in AU seems to add quite a lot to the shelf price of things in smaller shops.
in larger shops shipping costs can be really quite low as they shift a lot of stock from their suppliers regularly =)

anyhow, why can't i find hubs on this damn site?!?

theres no search on their site damn it!

i'm looking for the shimano hubgear types ...
can you fix a hubgear?

cheers,

kim

 

[Kim]

Parbs wrote:
> Carl wrote in message...
> <snip>
> > Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
> > sale" are making idle threats.
> Not necessarily, it is possible that the packs don't comply with
> the labelling regulations.

in the UK what happens is many small retailers buy stock from spain or
portugal. they ship it in small quantities.

their landed wholesale price is less than half of the local wholesaler.
so you can buy softdrink, chocalate bars, etc for 30p in one shop and
then go 100 yards down the street and pay 80p for the same item, but
made/packaged in the UK ...

cheers,

kim

 

[Kim]

Parbs wrote:
> Carl wrote in message...
> <snip>
> > Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
> > sale" are making idle threats.
> Not necessarily, it is possible that the packs don't comply with
> the labelling regulations.

in the UK what happens is many small retailers buy stock from spain or
portugal. they ship it in small quantities.

their landed wholesale price is less than half of the local wholesaler.
so you can buy softdrink, chocalate bars, etc for 30p in one shop and
then go 100 yards down the street and pay 80p for the same item, but
made/packaged in the UK ...

cheers,

kim

 

[Kim]

Parbs wrote:
> Carl wrote in message...
> <snip>
> > Those cans of soft drink that say "not for individual
> > sale" are making idle threats.
> Not necessarily, it is possible that the packs don't comply with
> the labelling regulations.

in the UK what happens is many small retailers buy stock from spain or
portugal. they ship it in small quantities.

their landed wholesale price is less than half of the local wholesaler.
so you can buy softdrink, chocalate bars, etc for 30p in one shop and
then go 100 yards down the street and pay 80p for the same item, but
made/packaged in the UK ...

cheers,

kim

 

[Bruce Dickson]

What I find funny with the whole ProBikeKit thing is the huge amount of
stuff on ebay that people have obviously bought from PBK and sell for a
huge markup but still less than LBS prices. What I find even funnier is
that people buy it.

Bruce.

 

[Bruce Dickson]

What I find funny with the whole ProBikeKit thing is the huge amount of
stuff on ebay that people have obviously bought from PBK and sell for a
huge markup but still less than LBS prices. What I find even funnier is
that people buy it.

Bruce.