Telescope pricing

[speach (Simon)]

Can anyone explain why telescopes are twice the price they are here compared to the US. Has anyone bought from the US? If so what are the hassles of getting it here?

[Bassnut (Fred)]

This topic has been done to death, look for endless previous threads on it. Tedious.

[casstony]

Depends on the brand - GSO sells scopes at very reasonable prices here in Oz. At the other end of the spectrum Celestron seems not to care about this market and lets middle men jack the prices up to near double US prices.

In general it's ok to buy from the US if the item is relatively immune to malfunction and the item is less than AU$1000 to avoid gst and other costs. There is money to be saved from buying Celestron mounts/scope overseas but the risk is that it arrives broken or with electronic problems and there's no local warranty.

Another option is to buy Celestron (or other marked up brands) second hand since it depreciates rapidly here due to the high new prices.

[Renato1 (Renato)]

There are heaps of things one can get much cheaper in the USA - camera lenses, telescopes etc. Problem is, the vendors either say they don't ship overseas, or even if you have a US mailing address, they reject an Australian credit card.

But, as always there are ways around it. If you Google Shop the States, or US Address, you will find heaps of companies that give you a US address to ship to, and they will then forward the item to you. If the vendor doesn't accept your card, they'll buy the item for you and forward it on. Unfortunately, their fees vary, but are higher than they used to be. So it's only worth doing with expensive items.

In years gone by there used to be a group called "Shop the States" who would just charge you $5 plus standard postage for their service. They were great, but are no more.
Regards,
Renato

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Fred , ouch , the OP did not ask if this has been done to death , man Scheeez , what a grouch , please mate lighten up , this kind of negativity is only going to scare poor old 'Simon' away .. .
It's a legitimate question .

You don't have to participate , if its tedious to you .

Simon , the prices you see are in us$ , there is also as said , freight , gst , customs , internal post/couriers , and these all add up and in my humble opinion , buy from our local suppliers because , #1 you get good aftersales service and , #2 you are supporting them so they stay in buiseness and it would be a sad day if all Aussie astro suppliers shut up shop ,, sad , sad day indeed .
We had one close receintly here in Perth and it left a hole .

Buy local Simon , its not that much dearer in the long run .

Brian .

Originally Posted by Bassnut

This topic has been done to death, look for endless previous threads on it. Tedious.

[Shano592 (Shane)]

The local guys are also taking on repair and warranty costs. It would be an expensive round trip to return a goto scope to the US for warranty!

Then you may again run into the problem of them not wanting to ship it back here.

[Kunama]

1. They are cheaper there because of sheer volume of sales compared to Australia.
2. Yes
3. Of all the pitfalls, lack of warranty for repairs is the worst. The various threads have shown with monotonous regularity that there are quality control issues particularly with scopes originating from China that you will have to gamble on.
4. If you want NEW, buy locally and negotiate a better price with the retailer than that which they advertise, they are usually good for a deal.
I strongly believe the best bet is to buy higher spec gear (my personal preference is for scopes with pale green focusers, which seem to be especially well cared for) from the secondhand market locally. I have bought all but 2 of my scopes secondhand from IIS classifieds and and so far those that I have resold have sold for almost what I paid for them so I have not lost as I would have with new stuff.
The people I have bought from here have so far looked after their gear quite fastidiously, I have had no regrets with any of the purchases.

As an example:
I bought a brand new Takahashi FC76 Objective unit from the Aussie dealer A.E.C. (Claude Voarino) and had it delivered to my door in Canberra for about $275 less than it would have cost to buy from the USofA.

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Over the years, I have bought almost all my scopes from the USA. I have never had a problem, although they have all been refractors with the exception of a 10" Meade S/C. Refractors tend to be more robust, and are not so easily damaged by mishandling-still, I have never had anything damaged in shipping.
I find US dealers very good to deal with, and I have never had my credit card refused.
If the combined cost of your purchase and freight is under A$1000.00, you will pay no GST or customs clearance fees.
I do support local dealers by buying accessories from them, however.

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

The warranty repair piece is a crucial point, 25kg box from DHL to the US $700.

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Funnily, this exact question is asked in a letter in the month's edition of Bintel's "Night Sky" newsletter. Mike Smith gives a pretty comprehensive answer there (p2, May 2014, vol 347)

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by Amaranthus

Funnily, this exact question is asked in a letter in the month's edition of Bintel's "Night Sky" newsletter. Mike Smith gives a pretty comprehensive answer there (p2, May 2014, vol 347)

For reference http://www.bintel.com.au/Night-Sky.aspx

347 not posted yet

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Originally Posted by brian nordstrom

Fred , ouch , the OP did not ask if this has been done to death , man Scheeez , what a grouch , please mate lighten up , this kind of negativity is only going to scare poor old 'Simon' away .. .
It's a legitimate question .

You don't have to participate , if its tedious to you .

Simon , the prices you see are in us$ , there is also as said , freight , gst , customs , internal post/couriers , and these all add up and in my humble opinion , buy from our local suppliers because , #1 you get good aftersales service and , #2 you are supporting them so they stay in buiseness and it would be a sad day if all Aussie astro suppliers shut up shop ,, sad , sad day indeed .
We had one close receintly here in Perth and it left a hole .

Buy local Simon , its not that much dearer in the long run .

Brian .

OK, fair enough, sorry. Your right BTW, ive done both, local purchase wins generally except for exceptions that are obvious with a little homework.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by tlgerdes

[Issue] 347 not posted yet

For those who can't wait here is the text:

Hi Filomena,
As they say, it's not rocket science. First up, our prices must include GST (that's the law). In the USA sales tax varies from state to state, so advertisers don't show the tax. (You have to calculate it yourself). There are other reasons as well. Freight from the USA is quite substantial. Retailers in the USA rarely have to bother with after-sales-service or repairs. That's left to the distributors. It's also true that giant retail organizations can get volume discounts not available to small enterprises. 'Economies of scale' they call it. Whilst it may be initially cheaper to buy a telescope in the USA it may be 'false economy' to transport it back to Australia, pay the GST and shoulder the responsibility of potential service and repair costs yourself. Remember also that American warranties are valid in the USA, the country of sale - almost never in the country of use.
Mike

[Stardrifter_WA]

Originally Posted by brian nordstrom

We had one close receintly here in Perth and it left a hole .

Buy local Simon , its not that much dearer in the long run .

Brian .

Agreed Brian.

We have a distinct lack of competition in Australia now.

Unfortunately, the Australian market just isn't big enough, so we have no choice of dealers, particularly if they are the only place that stock it. I used to be loyal to local suppliers, but not any more, as they have become a little complacent, particularly now that BTOW has gone.

Half the stuff I want usually has to be ordered in anyway, so I just cut out the middleman and order direct. It almost always comes in cheaper, but then, if you can't get it locally, what do you do?

There are some risks, but I have been lucky in that I only have ever had to send something back once, but even with the extra freight, it was still much cheaper than the Australian supplier. Besides, all they did was take the order and have it dropped shipped, so in that one instance, I would have had to send it back east anyway, so it really wasn't much different in cost, or time.

I don't use Australian suppliers any more and haven't had any bother buying stuff from overseas, but the trick there, is to only deal with well known and reputable dealers, and to only buy well known and respected products. I have only had one other incident with viewfinder mounting rings bought from Stellarvue, but in that instance, I sent a picture showing the defect, and Vic Maris, just said bin it and he immediately sent another, by fast courier, which I got within a few days. I was impressed with Stellarvue service.

So, just because a company is overseas, doesn't mean you don't get good service.

However, the only thing that I will not buy from overseas is anything that has electronics, such as mounts, or anything large, as that would be a huge cost in freight to send back.

Cheers Pete

[ianB (Ian)]

Hi Simon,
Like you i was very unhappy about the price here compared to the USA, i wanted to buy a Celestron SE6 and looked into the possibility of buying from the US, i also contacted the Australian customs dept for info and advice, anyway to cut to the chase i decided, on balance, that it would be better for me to buy from a local dealer here in Australia.
Taking all things into account price wise it would save me some money to buy from the US ( but there are various additional costs as well ) but in saving money it would cost me the telescope warranty and on site service if required, also i was worried that the telescope may be damaged on the trip from the USA to here.

[speach (Simon)]

Yes I see these points, but it doesn't get over that I can get a certain scope for $2600 us then there is freight $400 ins incl. customs duty and gst $420 demurrage and aust freight $120 $3440 (for the purpose of the exercise all in $US) currency conversion $3886.04 aust. So a Aust selling price for the same scope of $6600-$7000 is an outrageous mark up about 60%. Most retailers work on 30=40% and the supermarkets 2%, so is it any wonder that the astro shops seem empty every time we go in there's only need for a couple of customers a day! Even if things went wrong with it, and there would be no guarantee on the fault, I would still be on top or even.

[bobson (Bob)]

Brian.

We had one close receintly here in Perth and it left a hole

Keith is back:
Telescope and Binocular World

http://www.skywatchertelescopes.com.au/

cheers

[casstony]

What scope are you after Simon? There may be alternative brands available here.

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by speach

Yes I see these points, but it doesn't get over that I can get a certain scope for $2600 us then there is freight $400 ins incl. customs duty and gst $420 demurrage and aust freight $120 $3440 (for the purpose of the exercise all in $US) currency conversion $3886.04 aust. So a Aust selling price for the same scope of $6600-$7000 is an outrageous mark up about 60%. Most retailers work on 30=40% and the supermarkets 2%, so is it any wonder that the astro shops seem empty every time we go in there's only need for a couple of customers a day! Even if things went wrong with it, and there would be no guarantee on the fault, I would still be on top or even.

Yep, and they sell 20 of them a year (because everyone is buying OS) ........... at $4000 profit each for a gross profit of $80000, out of that they have their operating costs (taxes, wages, rent, telephone, interest, electricity, insurance etc).

They are doing this out of the kindness of their heart.

[casstony]

Trevor, it's the high prices that cause people to look overseas.
If GSO can sell here at reasonable prices why can't Celestron?