GSO RC 8" - Price war?

[Moon]

It's been interesting watching the online price of this OTA recently. It's heading in the right direction - down!

Come on Andrews, it's your turn to drop the price again! :P

I hope the same thing happens when the 10" arrives....

[toryglen-boy]

what prices have you found?


:scared:

[Moon]

1995 at http://www.atscope.com.au/gsorcscope.html

Too bad Celestron prices don't work like this.

[trick]

and it comes with two dovetail mounting rails + the dovetail finder mount.

[[1ponders]]

How's the new Aussie dollar comparison going to effect things? I can't see them staying at that price for long. ;)

[Peter Ward]

You mean down or up? About two days ago according to he Sydney Morning Herald, financial analysts are of the opinion the $A is in for a sharp correction down...hence import prices to go up :(

[Gama]

They couldnt have a good opinion when a 2 minute egg would be ready..:shrug:

Theo

[Peter Ward]

:lol: Some truth there to be sure. Sadly the Aussie has a history of tumbling 10% in a matter of days...The fall from 0.97 to 0.68 being more
spectacular than most.

[renormalised]

Just goes to show how stupid it was to float it in the first place...means your currency is just left to blow in the economic wind and to the vagaries of the markets. Not a good way to run a stable economy, in my opinion.

[g__day]

Only the captial markets are so huge (trillions of fluid monies) that hedge funds can swamp any currency that is fixed at the wrong rate - happened to the pound (sterling) when just one large hedge fund called it with a $100 billion option - causing the exchequer of the exchange to de-value the pound by 10% in one day!

[Moon]

It had to happen:
Andrews new price: $1899.00

[toryglen-boy]

Now $1699

:P

[Moon]

Wow - that was a quick price drop...The home page still says $1899..

[pmrid]

Saw on CN last night that the American version sold as Astro-Tech is also now being sold with a Feather Touch focuser.
BY comparison, the original sold by Andrews had a GSO Crayford focuser that was a sloppy as a wet mop, wouldn't hold colimation/focus and a baffle tube that caused serious internal reflections - and have completely failed to resond to complaints from me about the scope. I've had to flock the baffles myself and fit a Feather Touch focuser to overcome the deficiencies in the scope. Thankfully the optics are good, just the way it's put together isn't. Perhaps the price reflects declining marketability because of the poor start.
Peter

[Peter Ward]

This is not true. Several factors are in play. A really strong $A right now, plus a dealer who has a well paying day job ;)

[TrevorW]

Its a bit disappointing that in the space of 3 months I could have saved $800 I beg to wonder how much markup thay had on the product in the first place ?????

[dpastern]

I think it's more plausible that the Aussie dollar is the main culprit here...of course, market pressures are forcing the scope's cost down as well. Competition is good. It's why I dislike having one main distributor, who jury rigs pricing (usually), cos there's no competition.

Dave

[netwolf]

Just got a call from my mate ATS now have this at 1625AUD. Wow!
Wish i had the money.

Is there a FL diffrence in these scopes with the new baffels? Is Andrews also selling the exact same unit as ATS?
I have seen some comments made about a diffrent FL for the scopes with new baffels, to reduce reflection issues.

[allan gould]

Peter
A quick question, will you be offering the 10"RC when it becomes available?
Thanks
Allan

[Peter Ward]

Alan, there have been significant production delays, and while I'd be interested, I'd want to test one first, to be convinced the larger aperture with dielectric coatings can be made with the same quality as the 8inch.

The 10 also will come with Losmandy type D series plates...which are
not directly compatible with Vixen/Synta mounts. The box is too big to go via the postal service (ie higher delivery cost) and given the margins, I doubt there will be anywhere near as much discounting as the 8".

[Peter Ward]

No. The ATS version comes with both V and D series adapter plates. Materials and optics should however be the same.

[allan gould]

Peter
Thanks for the clear and concise reply. Makes sense to me and the the only problem is the 8" is sorely tempting:D

[AlexN]

Geez... Somebody call me when the 8" is available for $1k :) haha!

[rat156]

Shame I bought mine last week when the price was $374 higher, would have meant I would feel better about having to upgrade the focuser...

Oh well that's the price you pay for having it now, rather than when the next shipment arrives. Frankly, I would have rather saved the 18%.

Cheers
Stuart

[Moon]

Andrews has dropped again - it's now: $1,599 (http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-content-section-10-guansheng.htm)

[Octane]

Peter,

It's now over to you.

Let's see if we can crack the $999 barrier. :rofl:

Regards,
Humayun

[Peter Ward]

Nah...ATS sell them with two plates for $50 more...unless the $A does something quite spectacular that's about it for now.

[DavidU]

Whats happening with the 10" RC's ? Has Pete got hold of one yet ?

[JethroB76]

Thats an unusual comment given in another thread you're probably going to force another business to supply an item which was listed with a price that was a pretty obvious typo..

[toryglen-boy]

While i cant speak for Dave, i know the thread in question, not only was it a typo, but an absolutely obvious one, i think Dave tried to buy it at the price out of sheer curiousity and comedy value.

I dont think anyone who read that thread actually thought the purchase woudl go through.

;)

[JethroB76]

Seemed to be a lot of talk about consumer law for a joke


;)

[DavidU]

You got it.

[toryglen-boy]

I hear you, but at the end of the day, i am guessing thats all it was


:)

[Moon]

I agree - start another thread guys!

Getting back on topic, I just noticed the 8RC is USD $1,395 from Astronomics (about $1,620 AUD)

Andrews currently have it listed for $1599 and ATS for $1,650.
Is this a world first - a cheaper price here than in the US?

I'm looking forward to seeing a 'GSO RC 10" Price war' thread sometime soon....

[Peter Ward]

Suggest you refresh your web browser....

[TrevorW]

I hope you joking because regardless of the $$ a drop of $900 in the space of 3 months is highway robbery and i won't be buying from them again

Peter how about some accessories

[Peter Ward]

Arrgh...! Don't mention the clutch!!! :sadeyes: (Car *still* in shop)

[Paul Haese]

Brett I was one of the first few that bought the GSO from Andrews when people and they know who they are were saying these telescopes were defective or at best trouble. Andrews told me I could have it at a money back guarantee.

A significant reason why we are discussing this telescope and its sale now is based in a large part on the images and the review I did earlier this year. I paid a lot more than what is being asked for now and people are suggesting that something is wrong.

Peter saw the images I was producing and obviously saw that there was potential in this telescope. He is offering a slightly better deal than I got and that is a good thing.

Be thankful that some of us took a huge risk so that you all could feel comfortable about buying this telescope even at these excellent prices. Consider that a 120mm Eon refractor made by Synta is $3800 at another retailer, now that is over priced given the type of telescope involved.

I hope that my point is clear. :)

[mick pinner]

Be thankful that some of us took a huge risk so that you all could feel comfortable about buying this telescope even at these excellent prices.

people are actually lucky they did not buy that particular scope given the problems associated with it and hence the changes made to the later releases. l don't quite understand the risk you took given that you state you had a money back guarantee.
why people continue to buy products that have obvious faults and then go to the trouble to rectify them themselves astounds me, you would not do it with any other purchase, why do it with astro products?

[Paul Haese]

Mick that is a bit dramatic. Only two small problems. A small baffle issue and a focusor that was not quite tight enough with heavy imaging gear. The baffle only showed rings on two Galaxies I tested it on. The third galaxy was Centaurus A and it showed no problems. When imaging nebula it worked fine.

As for the focusor; well I have changed out heaps of them in the past. the only focusor on a scope that I found good was on my TSA102.

Not that dramatic really. Not like the optics were defective or the tube did not hold collimation. Only really minor defects.

[TrevorW]

Nothing wrong with the scope (in general) just screwed on the price is the only thing I've got to complain about

[Octane]

You were an early adopter.

Early adopters always get shafted, no matter what you're purchasing.

The fact that it may be just 3 months ago, is irrelevant.

Regards,
Humayun

[iceman]

Woah I hadn't read this thread for a while.

I have deleted about 20 posts from this thread because the way certain vendors were being discussed or "bashed" was clearly not appropriate, especially given one of them was a vendor himself.

I think to give people time to cool down, and the fact that prices are now back at whatever "normal" level is, I'll lock this thread since it's gone off-topic with optical/photographic theory anyway. I'll move those posts to a new thread for people that want to continue that discussion.

[iceman]

New thread has been created for the continuing discussions about the optical/photographic theory of RC's, Newt's and CCD's.

All previous posts related to that from this thread have been moved there:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=50007