Digby,
Our website is quite specific, and says "price subject to $A to $US".
If you'd actually inquired you with ATS you would have discovered with the current stratospheric $A, our G-11 Gemini price is $4850.00 inc GST.
GST is levied on goods+shipping. There is also about a $64 customs entry and secuity fee, and if you use one off customs broker about $120 in brokerage.
ATS also keeps spares in stock and does repairs and EPROM upgrades in Sydney. It is not up to me to say whether someone will find a less than 10% local service premium worthwhile, but many do.
I have known Scott Losmandy for 20 years now, travel to California virtually every month of the year and am very much aware of his cost, concerns and operation.
You may be surprised to know setting up the HGM operation in Oz had been looked at over a decade ago. The Oz tax, wages, lack of third party suppliers/processors, equipment, transport and materials costs simply made it a joke. Retailers have the same if not similar hurdles.
I am curious as to discover what makes you so well informed to consider this as piffle?
Quote:
Originally Posted by digby dart
As for "The cost of operating a business (wages, taxes, outgoings) in Oz is higher than in the USA"... piffle. Distributors are not making the stuff, just reselling it.
Australian Astronomers are likely being denied easy access to better USA made equipment. They often make do with cheap Chinese equipment.
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