Surefires take a premium oversees

I feel better about the "high Cost" of my lights now.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...Sell_LogicX&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget

Unfortunately this seems to be the standard pricing in my country, for example I bought a L2 Lumamax about 2 years ago for 135€ shipping included while an Italian website sold it for 269€, the exact double! :shakehead
I keep asking myself what's their price for a Hellfighter

Edit

The website is mag-lite.it, now the L2 price has been lowered to 249€ :nana:, also they sell the x300 (that costs about 180€ shipped pretty much everywhere on the net) for 379€

High value items are usually more expensive in Europe, and more expensive still here in Italy. We tend to be a bit more backwater-ish than the rest of Europe, and this is the result.
I found a shop selling some Led Lenser products the other day, for about three times their market value.

The way to get around that is (obviously) to buy online from abroad, but then you strike another great problem of Italy: the sloth-like slowness of the postal service.

Tachikoma: I see I'm not the only one awake at night.

Fallingwater said:

... but then you strike another great problem of Italy: the sloth-like slowness of the postal service.

Click to expand...

Don't even let me think about it :thumbsdow

Fallingwater said:

The way to get around that is (obviously) to buy online from abroad, but then you strike another great problem of Italy: the sloth-like slowness of the postal service.

Click to expand...

I was going to ask why it's so slow but I guess that could be a very in depth explanation even if it could be diagnosed...

If I moved to Italy with my M6 in a suitcase, I could sell it and buy a mansion! oo:

The prices are high but i still buy SF products through their official dealer in my country, i pay 45$ for g2, which isn't much, and about 147$ for E2d,

The prices are really high here to, compared to the US! Some lights are double price!

I wonder if I can send my SureFire to the importer of SureFires here if I have any malfunctions with it? Or do I have to send it to the US?

I bought a Leatherman from the US, and got it repaired here at our importer of Leatherman.

Indeed. SF (and just about everything else from the US) is extremely expensive in Denmark too.
An M6 is around $795,-, an L1 is around $265,-, etc, etc.
It sounds insane, but add shipping, toll, toll-fee (yes, there is such a thing here too!) and 25% VAT and suddenly the prices are "understandable". (Not fair by a long shot, though!)
I know I should support our local dealers, but I admit I haven't bought a single SF in Denmark - ever!

+1, South Africa.

viva opticshq!


Italy, postal service...how long is it taking by USPS Global Priority or ordinary airmail parcel?

The Porcupine said:

Indeed. SF (and just about everything else from the US) is extremely expensive in Denmark too.
An M6 is around $795,-,

Click to expand...

It is about $700 here, depending on exchange rate. Including 14% VAT.

The Porcupine said:

25% VAT

Click to expand...

wow, 25%! Although at least your govts don't steal most of it like in this part of the world. It's been kept at 14% here for...more than 12 years, because increasing it is bad for the poor, food prices.

The Porcupine said:

I know I should support our local dealers, but I admit I haven't bought a single SF in Denmark - ever!

Click to expand...

No. I don't know. The way I look at it, it's a "global economy." I can sit at my desk, look at cpf, buy from dealers in USA and China, and pay via paypal or credit card. Or pay nearly twice the price, and about $8-$10 for local courier. And to pay I have to go to the bank to set up ATM account payment.

I hope that most of you guys in other countries understand that it's your own country that's doing it to you.
Historically, and generally, countries outside the US hit us quite hard with import fees which raises your prices considerably.
On the other hand, the US generally keeps our own import fees low because when we don't, other countries complain and create international ill will toward the US. The good part about that, though, is that I get to buy EU stuff reasonably cheap. :twothumbs
It's that situation that has resulted in so many jobs leaving the US and putting such a strain on our economy in the last few years.
That's not a complaint; just an observation.

It seems to me that your best bet might be to try to buy US made products direct from US dealers even if it means higher shipping costs and times.
Or smuggling. That would work. Although I'm not sure how many years hard labor a person would get for bringing in "contraband" such as a... flashlight. :naughty:

Zenster said:

<snip>
It seems to me that your best bet might be to try to buy US made products direct from US dealers even if it means higher shipping costs and times.
Or smuggling. That would work. Although I'm not sure how many years hard labor a person would get for bringing in "contraband" such as a... flashlight. :naughty:

Click to expand...

Well, the upside of that is I don't think there are too many dogs in airports sniffing for Surefires. So until some are trained to home in on the smell of anodized aluminum, you should be OK!

Italians are great at cooking, but they are not great at organizing things efficiently. Actually they suck very hard at that.
A well-running postal service requires efficiency and good organization.
You can probably figure it out yourself now.

There is a joke about this, by the way...

Heaven is an Italian cook, an English policeman, a German engineer, a French lover and everything organised by the Swiss.

Hell is an English cook, a German policeman, a French engineer, a Swiss lover and everything organised by the Italians.

*sigh* sad but true...

Zenster said:

I hope that most of you guys in other countries understand that it's your own country that's doing it to you.

Click to expand...

Oh, I have never doubted that for a minute. The various danish governments, no matter if they have been left or right leaning, have excelled in over-taxing us in just about every area they could think of.

It's not just the import taxes that raise the price of some stuff in Europe. one can easily see that the US selling price + shipping + duty + VAT is not = to the European selling price.
I think the main factor as to why some stuff is much more expensive in Europe than in the US is the actual price at which european dealers buy the products from the US mainly due to the small quantities bought.

One has to keep in mind that the US is a large country with a large population and for example SF lights are also very well known therefore SF sells XXXXXX amount of SF lights through their US distributors so their distributors buy their lights at $XX.
Denmark on the other hand is a smaller country with a smaller population and SF lights may not be very well known so Denmark sells XX amount of lights and the distributor in denmark buys the lights at $XXX simply because he buys in small quantities.

Heaven is an Italian cook, an English policeman, a German engineer, a French lover and everything organised by the Swiss.

Hell is an English cook, a German policeman, a French engineer, a Swiss lover and everything organised by the Italians.

Click to expand...

Thanks that made me laugh.

I was going so say that the exchange rate from the EU to the US bites but I just looked it up. I remember not so long ago it was €1 to $2. Today it's $1 to €1.48. That's the lowest I can remember.

I just may go shopping.

It is true here in the UK too. A Surefire A2 is $199 in the US, whereas it is £150 ($300) here in the UK even after shopping around. If you did no research, you could pay £199, which is $398 !!!

I actually emailed Surefire asking if they would deal direct, citing artificially inflated local prices as the reason. All I got was a stock email about exchange rates and the effect they have on their distributors. I was not particularly impressed.

Instead, the £150 went on a Lummi Raw Ti instead. I know, I know, completely different type of flashlight, but, being from the UK, I didn't have to worry about fluctuating exchange rates, import tax and handling charges.

Actually, I think I might have just got stung by importing something. Fenix-Store sent out my L0D-CE Q4 10 days ago and yet no sign of it. This is no fault of Fenix-Store, it has probably just been lost in the mail. First time anything of mine has gone missing in the mail.

MikeSalt said:

Instead, the £150 went on a Lummi Raw Ti instead.

Click to expand...

I bought an Orb silver that cost £156, at the time, or $260. What goes around, comes around.
P.S. I really like my Orb.