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This has been a problem with Celestron gear for a long time.
Having worked both for and with a few USA and A based companies over the years, I can tell you there's someone along the food chain making a stack of dough on each unit sold.
I think you'll find Celestron head office is aware of prices here and in Europe.
I'd also put money on that fact that the person in the "International Department" at Celestron who looks after ROW (Rest of World) markets is
a. Very junior
b. Has been fed excuses by their distributors as to why the RRP is so high in their territories around the world and is using these as a rationale to management to explain why sales outside of America is not worth perusing harder.
c. Maybe is so concerned about crumbling North America sales that what's going on here is simply not on their radar.
d. Combination of some or all of the above.
Yes, there are expenses associated with doing business in Oz that don't have the same impact stateside. Retail and distribution margins tend to be higher than in North America. But I fail to see how these markups can be reasonable even taking these into account. Beside, when you have only one distributor and you're selling to enthusiasts, you can pretty well charge what you want.
I remember a few years ago when the first NexStar 11 came out I looked at buying one as an upgrade to my NexStar 5. OptCorp had them at USD$2999. The local RRP was $7999. Even taking into account the exchange rate back then, I could have flown to LA, spend a cuppla days cruising around, purchased the NS11 over the counter, carried it back with me, paid the baggage costs and taxes and still had change left over.
Funnily enough, I didn't end up doing that. I certainly didn’t buy one from York Optical either
(Although now, the current CPC 1100 keeps making goo goo eyes at me...)
The issue of warranty for grey imports is of course always the big bogeyman. Whether you should have to pay an extra 25% just to have a local warranty is a moot point.
Earl
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