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When I recently went through the effort of buying a C1400 with CGE mount I confronted one retailer here. They dropped the price by 1500 immediately. That to my mind says a lot about how much profit is actually being made on astronomy products.
It is false economy to suggest that our market is smaller and requires higher prices. In fact from a market perspective the prices should be lower. Lower prices encourage greater market participation and more entrances into the market from the buyer. This means volume to the seller and the seller is still in a better position than before. Astronomy is more accessible to the public.
Added to the above, is that even if the price is dictated by other factors, the wholesale price should remain the same. This is because of the FTA with the US (Hahaha that is funny) and the no selling outside of the US or UK suggests that there is some sort of market collusion on prices. Surely a retailer in the US is getting products like a C1400 for around 4000 US from Celestron. They sell it to the public for 6100, fair margin and some profit to boot. Australian retailers are not paying 8000 Au for the product to sell it at 11500. They should be buying the product for around the same price wholesale and then have added costs like import, GST and freight. Clearly the figures do not add up. Besides Celestron would be trying to encourage market participation and drop the price in a market where participation is low. The local market then pays the relief to support the strategy. The same thing happens here. You don't really think a Holden cost 54000 to build do you? When it is being sold in the UK or US for a fraction of that price.
No ladies and Gentlemen we are being ripped off and retailers in this country know it. Sure we get a warrantee and good service, but I don't think that is worth the inflated cost.
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