...now that I'm a telescope retailer myself, I know how hard it is to keep everyone happy with prices.
Today I had someone ask me about why a A$79 for a Telrad is a 100% markup when it is listed on Amazon for US$40.
I replied that other retailers have the same price as we do, and we have Australian warranty, and very fast (overnight) shipping when we have it in stock, or you can drop by and pick it up same day. Told him the sums don't add up and he gets into a hissy fit about astro retailers overcharging everyone.
Sorry, but Amazon don't ship to Australia. In my experience Amazon sellers will charge a lot of shipping because Australia is a long way from the US; a freight forwarder will have a base charge of about $30-$40, not including the shipping charge, which brings your Telrad to $70 excluding the shipping charge itself--USD.
Your LAS (I'm coning a new acronym now Local Astronomy Shop) has to pay landlords, bills, and gasp! a living wage. And they need to charge you GST 10% which goes back to the ATO.
Where are these people pulling their figures from?! Do they even do elementary school maths?
OK, maybe people complaining about us and Bintel prices being a little high is not that bad...
...but don't get me started on people complaining to us about Astro Pete's prices and please please can we beat those prices?!
How bout no?
If you complain about our prices, fine--because some of our overheads are more expensive, but I can't help you make the entire industry stoop to that level and we certainly do not do price collusion because that is illegal and we're not in the business of ripping customers off!!
Seriously! Where do these people come from? Running a business in this economy is different from running one overseas!
Margins in this business are very small compared to things like clothing and food.