Price Difference

[Disco-Dave]

Sorry if this is a waste of a post but its shocking the price difference in lights from a uk website to a usa website the reason i have posted is because ill be purchasing a few lights on wednesday ( Tiablo Ace G & Jetbeam m1x ) Was looking at the Ace g there on a website called inovatech or something, £159 thats a little bit under $300 but on 4sevens its only $149 lol wot a difference, i think the extra wait as im in scotland is worth the price difference there.

Any1 know y the price is double from the .co.uk websites to the .com websites ?

Same with the fenix l2t that should be here anytime soon maybe hopefully today lol tht was about £10 cheaper from 1 website to another.

 

[big vin]

Just do not forget that you will have to pay for customs over the value of the package.

 

[Disco-Dave]

Im daft haha i dont even know wot that means but ive already payed for the l2t its been shipped and it worked out about £12 cheaper wich is roughly $20 give or take

 

[cloggy]

Customs will charge 15% VAT which is roughly £13.50 on a $149.00 item but more annoyingly the Post Office charge an £8.00 handling fee so you will be paying an extra £21.50. A lot of extra cash, in this case its still worth paying but I have ceased to import lower value items because although I don't mind paying VAT I object to the excessive Post Office charge.

 

[outersquare]

time to vote out your politicians..

 

[Disco-Dave]

Im slightly confused now lol, Ill explain my situation incase ive confused any1 else,

I live in scotland & the recent price checks ive done on the 2 lights i mentioned along with alot of other lights ive looked at above are alot more expensive if not double the price from websites ending with .co.uk which im guessing is a uk based company to the websites ending in .com

All the lights ive orderd have been from .com sites and ive never payed extra charges before theyve all worked out cheaper than the uk based companys.

The sites ive orderd from do free shipping also.

 

[berry580]

This belong in the General Flashlight or The Cafe section.

The price difference possibly driven up by high living costs, therefore need for higher margins?

 

[ducat]

The price difference is because we PUT UP with vastly inflated prices in this country. Every time I open my wallet in this country I KNOW I'm going to get ripped off.
Buy from overseas, I've NEVER had to pay excess postage or customs fees.:twothumbs

 

[Disco-Dave]

yep thats what i mean always do buy from overseas always have lol, Its just suprising some of the price differences like double the price in the uk to what it is overseas for some lights.

 

[yellow]

thats how it worked for the shops (in recent years):
just take what they have to pay and make it a *2 at least.
If someone notices, tell something of "charges" and "taxes" and ...
... as long as this works, why change?


good that ordering anywhere in the world is possible now

 

[Scourie]

It can get expensive to import items into the UK. A lot depends on the size of the package and whether the shipping label gives a package value. Along with the VAT and PO/parcelfarce costs, import duty may also have to be paid!

Rob

 

[berry580]

BOOOOOOO............. protectionists!!!

 

[Rod911]

As I mentioned in another thread, we have a similar situation here in Australia. Here, local stores can cost more than twice at much as their international brethren even after you convert them both to the same currency!

I think the reason why those of live outside of the US pay more of their lights is pretty simple - supply and demand. From an Australian perspective, I don't think the local demand here is high enough to justify the local suppliers/distributors to purchase their lights in bulk, therefore, negating any sort of cost savings that could be passed onto the consumer. Having said that, the suppliers/distributors could have also purchased said goods whilst the AU$ was much weaker against the US$ (it is much stronger now compared to a couple of months ago), and they're still keeping prices up so they don't make a loss.

As vudoo reminded me in the aforementioned thread, sometimes, people are willing to purchase their lights with a local for warranty purposes. Personally, I try to find a seller that is both reasonably priced and have a good returns/warranty policy whether they are international or locally based. If I do need a light fixed and sent off, I have plenty of spares lying around to take its place.

 

[Niconical]

The price difference is because we PUT UP with vastly inflated prices in this country. Every time I open my wallet in this country I KNOW I'm going to get ripped off.
Buy from overseas, I've NEVER had to pay excess postage or customs fees.:twothumbs

Just a shot in the dark, but do you think maybe the price difference could be something to do with you buying items that are more readily available in another country? Here's a shocker for you, I buy many items of all types from the UK, regular online stores and ebay, because they're cheaper than anywhere else in Europe. However, I don't think that it's a big price fixing conspiracy, instead I am aware that the things I am buying are more readily available in the UK, thus they are cheaper. Keeping it flashlight relevant I just got 2 GP chargers and some batts. I didn't get them myself as I couldn't find a UK seller to send to me, so I got someone to buy them, have them sent to him (in UK), then forward to me, and I added some extra for his trouble, and it was still cheaper than an online seller in Spain that I actually buy from quite regularly. Oh, and GP chargers aren't even made in the UK, they just happen to be more readily available, so imported in greater quantities, so are cheaper. My local online place that I could have ordered from, they're not ripping me off, they're just selling at a price, pure and simple. They have plenty of other chargers which are cheaper as they sell them in greater numbers, but they weren't the ones I wanted.

My personal favorite flashlight, Surefire, are a lot more expensive locally than mail order from another country, but I don't feel the need to complain that I am being ripped off, I just acknowledge things such as supply, demand, import cost, taxes, and the biggest one of all....., personal choice.

So, if flashlight X is half the price at fenix-store (or anywhere else) compared to your local dealer, then don't buy locally, but don't fill the internet with your pains and woes of being "ripped off" as there are many other items that are far cheaper in the UK than anywhere else in Europe. Alternatively you could adopt the admirable and impressive attitude that many American members have and actually support your own economy rather than complaining about those in other countries.