Why is it so expensive compared to overseas?

Seems to be greedy distributors as much as anything. I know my LBS owner
quite well. A few years ago I asked him to price a Cateye Stadium 3 for me,
after telling him that I could get it for $NZ850 from Burkes Cycles in NZ
(that was about $A650 at the time). He called back and told me that his buy
price from the Australian distributor was several hundred dollars more than
what it would cost me from NZ.

As for clothing, Assos clothing is pretty well priced here
(www.assos.com.au). I have a brother in Switzerland, and asked him to price
a couple of Assos items over there. There wasn't much difference to the
Australian price, so I bought here. But I agree that for a lot of items the
Australian price is pretty outrageous. I can buy Shimano cassettes mail
order from the US for about half what they cost me here.

Nick

"The Doctor" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi all,

There has been some discussion about supporting the
LBS but why is it that clothing and helmets (as well as
other things) are so expensive compared to overseas?

The Doctor.

Nick Payne said:

Seems to be greedy distributors as much as anything.

I'll put a word in for distributors;

1) economy of scale.
If I can spread shipping/courier/etc over 100 items, then I have less
mark up, but obviously it is more if I can only sell 10.

2) rate of sales. I had this problem with books. A few items, the
initial order of 10 would sell fast and we would re-order. For many
items, it took a few years to sell the titles.

In defense of the retail outlets here, most people online compare
overseas Mailorder firms with our shopfront retail outlets. Apart from
the obvious difference between shopfront & online retailers in rent
/employee disparities & actually holding stock on the floor rather than
ordering from the wholesaler when ordered. If you actually visit a real
life bike shop in some of these countries like the UK you will have a
nasty shock like a basic bike service for 30 pounds etc & the parts
prices are nothing flash either.
Apart from the obvious economies of scales with Australia's miniscule
cycling population , you will find that many of the big brand equipment
here in Australia is locked into sole distributorships whereas in Europe
the grey import is alive & well where a shop in one country can purchase
from a middle-man in another country without threat of legal action which
is NOT the case here .
Plus alot of original equipment unpackaged (OEM) product is sold retail
throughout the Internet which although frowned upon by the manufacturers
isn't exactly stomped on either .
All well & good to accuse the bike shops here of exorbitant pricing if
there is a level playing field but you have to compare apples with
apples.
In some defense of the distributors, they have to carry inventory,pay
import duty & GST, carry spare parts , magazine advertising is expensive,
liability insurance, rent , wages & super , warranty issues (even the
unwarranted ones).......etc.

On the subject of warranties I notice people buying digital cameras on
the Net from overseas & then expecting local warranty are being turned
away , it appears Worldwide Warranty means an American going overseas can
expect quick warranty work Worldwide but a camera brought in from
overseas cannot that was in one of the large computer publications last
month.

Plus if as earlier in the thread the guys at ASSOS here in Oz are
offering a better deal than Switzerland then they are giving you a good
deal :
Clothing imports have 25% duty plus 10% GST on goods & freight!

But if you want another brand of pro clothing drop us a line 🙂

Steve @ IDEAL

Terry Collins said:

Nick Payne said:

Seems to be greedy distributors as much as anything.

I'll put a word in for distributors;

1) economy of scale.
If I can spread shipping/courier/etc over 100 items, then I have less
mark up, but obviously it is more if I can only sell 10.

2) rate of sales. I had this problem with books. A few items, the
initial order of 10 would sell fast and we would re-order. For many
items, it took a few years to sell the titles.

The Doctor said:

Hi all,

There has been some discussion about supporting the
LBS but why is it that clothing and helmets (as well as
other things) are so expensive compared to overseas?

The Doctor.

the prices are usually good, the freight is usually unbelieveably expensive. Sometimes that brings the actual cost to above local price. For example, I wanted to buy a jersey from Canada - $80 jersey, $60 shipping. The other reason is that exported items (from OS) are usually GST free and you can usually miss paying it here.

"ProfTournesol" <[email hidden]>
wrote in message
news:[email hidden]

[...]

Quoted message said:

the prices are usually good, the freight is usually unbelieveably
expensive. Sometimes that brings the actual cost to above local price.
For example, I wanted to buy a jersey from Canada - $80 jersey, $60
shipping. The other reason is that exported items (from OS) are
usually GST free and you can usually miss paying it here.

I noticed that too. Canada Post is stupidly expensive compared to USPS.
You might as well get it by courier if you're going to get anything from
Canada.

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

"The Doctor" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

There has been some discussion about supporting the
LBS but why is it that clothing and helmets (as well as
other things) are so expensive compared to overseas?

I priced some common items in Europe during April and
found that in stores (not mail order outlets) prices were
mostly quite similar or more $$ than the Aussie prices.
I will admit to only going into shops I saw, so these are
likely to be the larger, more expensive ones, but they
didn't seem much different to Aussie stores at all.
In fact, if you aren't paying retail at a local store the
European stores all worked out more expensive..
Just my observation. Will not hold true for everything.

hippy