[mic_m (Michael)]

Originally Posted by davewaldo

I just spoke to someone at Andrews (might have been Lee?) and he says his prices will be similar or a bit less than the "other blokes" for the Meade scopes. But that Andrews will be including a 2 year warranty. Sounds like an interesting time ahead

Hmmm… the current prices for Meade equipment appear to be quite steep. I’m a reflector person so I will use reflectors in my example to demonstrate my point. The LB16s cost between A$2599 and A$3000 in Australia which is very high when compared to the US price of US$1849; A$2100. The implied exchange rate from the lowest LB16 price is A$1 = US$0.71 (1849/2599). This would suggest that these telescopes were bought by distributers some time ago. Given these scopes sell in the US for US$1849 (A$2100), and are shipped all the way from Taiwan to the US and include a built in profit margin at that price, I don’t see why Meade telescopes here should cost so much more (unless there is an intermediary inflating the price). Given the AUD is strong and has been for some time, one would expect much lower prices from current stock shipments.

I would have expected Andrews’s prices to be better than “a bit less” than others. Take the following examples. The 12” GSO dob in the US is priced at US$799 (A$908), Andrews pricing for that scope is A$899. In the US the pricing for the Sky-Watcher 12” collapsible dob is US$995 (A$1131), Andrews pricing is A$1199. These are very fair prices; they match up with what those in other parts of the world are paying. Given the price of the Lightbridge 16 is US$1849 (A$2100), and assuming Andrews pricing of Meade products is comparable to their pricing of GSO and SW, I would have guessed that this might mean a LB16 at around A$2200. At that price, dealing with its large size and spending a bit of time and money fixing up its problematic primary cell may well have been worth it!