Local And OS Pricing.

[Glort]

I touched on this the other day in another thread but had another reminder of it today.

I was recently looking for some parts and the pricing discrepancy's between local and OS sellers were amazing.

The best local price I could find on GP's was $20 ea. Got a set from OS which arrived in 8 days and cost $30.40 delivered.

A clutch here best I can find is $525. OS price delivered is $230

Belt tensioner here is $240+, os, 160 del.

I was talking to a mate earlier this morning who also had a similar story.

He wanted the Lettering for his $100K range Rover sport. Price here, $250 each end. Got the same GENUINE kits from OS for $29 + 12 postage for the tailgate AND the bonnet.

Like he said, buying localy is all good and well but how the Fk can you justify a difference between $500 and $41 for the exact same product??

He also mentioned brake rotors that were $700 a corner here that he got shipped over for under $300 for the SETand the seller was freaking at the $120 postage. My mate said he couldn't stop laughing.

He said when they arrived and he took them to his mechanic, he said they were a good long established brand ( couldn't remember which one) and he didn't believe my mate got them so cheap till he showed him the receipt.

Now while I realise there is a differences between an online and retail/ commercial setup but geez louise!, if someone can make money at the prices they are selling stuff for and the buyer can pay the most expensive shipping rate being individual items compared to bulk containers etc, why the hell is there such a massive Difference???

It extends to other things like electronics especially. And while some ignorants think that Chinese especially is ALL crap, my experience has been totally different. Sure there is a lot of crap but there is also a lot of stuff that is the equal or better than the original or made locally.

I know with stuff I have bought, even industrial stationary engines, I'd pay MORE for the Chinese stuff than some of the original because in copying the original, the Chinese have designed some of the faults and weaknesses out and ended up with a better product you can clearly see the difference in.

And then of course we have the tossers like Gerbil Harvey that is the most exy retailer out there bleating that 10% TAX makes a difference when they are about 50% dearer than any local let alone OS retailer. I suspect that guys position is so stupid his bleatings are really more about getting some ink in the paper on a slow news day and landing some interviews in the hope of free advertising.

What sort of price differences have other people found between local and OS suppliers?

[Ray!]

Funny you should mention this, as I was think about just this today. I'm waiting on a USB charger for my Nokia Bluetooth GPS which uses the 2mm charging pin and there's a USB cable available that has a 2mm pin designed to charge compatible Nokia devices. In Australia, that cable costs from $20-$80 (that's not a mistake) depending on who is selling it (not including postage). I ordered the same item from Hong Kong for $1.00 including postage. If the Australian sellers had been more reasonable about the price of this item, I may have bought it locally.

I don't care what some say about overheads etc, some prices are a blatant rip off. And the thing is, some local retailers get the same products, from the same places, and just inflate the price because they can. The Cree torches I bought are a classic example, Jaycar was selling exactly the same ones for $30 each, when I could get half a dozen or more from China for the same price, including delivery.

Cheers

Ray

[Foo]

When my wife and I were doing t-shirts with our business we could land a heat press $800 less than buying here in Aus and the same with mug presses.

Foo

[Glort]

Was looking at Ebay last night for camera accessories. Quite bewildering range of useful stuff they have now and a lot I didn't know was even available..

One thing that stood uot even there was the difference in the products listed from China or Hong Kong and the SAME Thing Being offered by Oz sellers.

I bought a Flash battery pack for $25 Delivered when the cheapest one from a local supplier was $79 + postage.

I also got a timer grip for $47 with 2 extra Batteries and a remote for $47 with postage, nearest local guy was over $100 with NO batteries or remote PLUS postage.

In this case I'm sitting on my arse right in front of the computer so wether I buy from Who flung Dung or Aussie Wayne, I still get the SAME made in china product delivered to my front door. The difference is I have so much more left on my card to buy more things I can actually use ( like a set of TTL remote triggers or a wireless Monitor so I can see what the camera does from 100M away and trigger it. or a calibrator for my monitors and printers) if I buy from OS.

Now, all I need to do is find a china supplier for the 24-105 and 17-40 L series lenses I want.

If I can find someone, I'll put down for a 400 2.8L as well. I'll take a couple of 1Dx's as well.

No, actually I'll get 10 of the buggers and -I'll- resell them for a killing here!

[Ray!]

I just wanted to relate how really good our Chinese/Hong Kong eBay retailers can be. It was over a month since I put in the order for the Nokia USB power cable and still hadn't received it, so I emailed the seller and asked if he knew what might be going on. They were very apologetic that it hadn't arrived and said they would refund the purchase price and asked that if it did arrive, would I make the payment. I said of course I would honour the agreement and the following day they refunded the $1. As things would always have it, the cable arrived the next day, so I let them know, gave a good review and reversed the payment on PayPal. I find the honesty and trust quite amazing, and not for a moment did I contemplate just keeping the cable for free.

Cheers

Ray

[Glort]

It amazes me how these people can do things like a cable for $1. Take away costs and you would have to be selling 100K of the things a day to make it worthwhile. I know about volume but there has to be some worthwhile margin as well and I can't see how anyone can make that for an item they sell for a buck.

I bought some backdrops and a stand this week. The 6x3m backdrop I won for $11 odd and $4.36 postage. The last one I bought here off a Chinese supplier was 80 bux. I got another one tonight in a different colour with a couple of 9ft stands and a crossbar for $15 and $6 something post.

Also got a diesel Compression tester for $14 delivered. Got a 70PSI pump for the Mrs Car's water injection For $16 delivered.

A mate of mine bought a bit of camera gear off a Chinese supplier about a year ago. He waited 30 days and it hadn't arrived so he sent an email telling them and the reply came back they would send another. About a week later, they both arrived at the same time. Mate contacted seller to say they had arrived and he would keep both, how to pay for the 2nd one? They came back and said keep the second one, sorry for the long shipping delay, we hope you buy from us again.

Pretty clever move really.

He's bought a pile of stuff from them since even when they are a bit more exy than other suppliers.

Trust goes a long way.

[BigGQWesty]

Well I got to say my locals are way overpriced...

Rear disc rotors.. Rang around and there ranging from $80-110 Each... That's stock.. eBay has pairs for that price, in Queensland..

[oncedisturbed]

Been looking riding pants etc for my cruiser, in the US $80 and over here $250+ for the sames ones hence to say i order from OS

[Glort]

I saw on the news the other night there is an investigation into why people in Oz are bing charged a lot more for electronics, software and apps etc.

Like all these investigations, watch it add up to a great big fat Zilch.

Just like every single Fuel price enquiry they have. They come up with excuses that are complete and utter insults to a persons intelligence but the gubbermint departments probably on a backhander for election campaigns etc accept the nonsense and the gouging continues.

This will be no different and I will have no problem buying OS and stuff the greedy barstools here.

[oncedisturbed]

This is true, will be interesting to see if the legislation goes ahead to apply GST to any O/S purchase.

What a head case to police that

[Glort]

This is true, will be interesting to see if the legislation goes ahead to apply GST to any O/S purchase.

I have looked into the actual reports and reccomendations on this beyond the media Hype.

I can't see it happening for a very long time if ever.

The report done by I forget who now reccomended it be looked at but the Tax department have also looked at it and don't want to know.

I forget all the numbers now but the amount of stuff coming in is huge and the logistics of going through all the parcels, working out the tax, sending or making bills/ invoices etc just isn't worth their time by a country mile.

They would need a lot of staff and with a lot of staff they would need a lot of space. They would need a lot of equipment such as computers for a start and they would have to put in place a website or something to pay the tax. I would also think the goods would have to be warehoused till the tax was paid and the items would have to be able to be catalogued and retrieved when required. They would have to be transported or couriers and Post services dealt with.

That's a lot of trouble and expense to collect $2-3 for a CD, flash card, torch or other small item. Yeah they might make something back on a camera or a play station but as it stands the most they could get is $99 for an item and I'm guessing the majority of stuff might be under $100 value so $10 for the tax department.

People like the media and Gerbil Hardly are making a lot of fuss but I would reckon the tax department just wouldn't want to know at all and probably wishing everyone would shut up about it.

If it was viable for them you can bet they would have been on to that long before a lot of other things were put into place and a lot more unpopular.

Much better money to be made in putting someone on catching tax cheats that they could be getting tens to Hundreds of thousands for on one case with out all the overhead and complication they would face with the OS imports.

I don't reckon they will change the $1000 threshold unless they raise it. They would have done their numbers to see what was worthwhile for them when they set the limit in the first place. As the amount of OS goods increases they would need to spend more to police them and the cost of that certainly won't get less, it will just go up . Based on that I reckon it's more likely the limit will go up to $1500 rather than own to $100 or anything else.

[oncedisturbed]

This is true and a lot of sellers would stop sales to Oz. its people like Harvey's that shut down little corner stores now having a whinge as paybacks a beach

[Glort]

I very much doubt if Hardly Reasonable's business is effected 1% by online. they are 2 totally different markets.

One is for people who are not price conscious and don't do their homework, want it now and I'd say often didn't know what they wanted.

On top of this, if you think about what hardly sells, it would only be a small percentage of their stock lines anyway. I don't think there would be too many people buying a Lounge suite, a Dishwasher or even a laptop from an OS supplier. It would really apply mainly to small electronics which is one department of their store and only a small component of what they have anyway.

OTOH, I seen online as more for the price savy whom have done their homework and know exactly what they want and are prepared to wait whatever time is required for the item to arrive.

More I think about it the more I reckon it was just some some media beat up to try and get some free public awareness going.

Pity it actually bit him in the arse more than it did him any good.