Australian Celestron CGE prices are outrageous

[digby dart]

I have been looking at getting a medium sized mount. The Losmandy G11 with Gemini or a Celestron CGE.

For Celestron prices it's hard to beat good ol' Lee. On the CGE mount and CGE telescope packages I guess his hands are tied by the distributor.

CGE Computerised German equatorial mount and tripod: $5799.00. In the USA its US$3000 - that's about $4385 Australian including air freight. Australians pay 32% extra.

Still the Losmandy suffers similar inflation.
Losmandy G11 with Gemini GOTO at Bin...: $5,495.00
In the USA its US$3195 - that's again about $4385 Australian including air freight. Australians pay 25% extra.

I can import the Losmandy direct.

The Celestron is difficult to import because of Celestrons' agreement with the Australian Distributor. I believe the distributor is ExtraVision in Queensland which is some how tied to York Optical. So much for the free trade agreement with the USA.

I hate paying a premium for stuff.

[citivolus (Ric)]

Yes, yes, so do I. I was originally going to go Vixen for my mount and scope, as there is no such agreement in place for them and you can get them for very good pricing. However, I wanted the extra capacity/robustness of the CGE mount, so I ended up going with that. I've never been impressed with the look of the G-11, despite the quality of their product, so I ruled that one out early on. The handbox is so 1985.

There are ways around the Celestron distribution agreement, but bear in mind they will leave you without an Australian warranty, so you'll need to ship it back to the USA if you need warranty work done. Purchasing a used mount is one way, but you will need to find a vendor who (a) has them and (b) will ship. If you do go with used, watch the age of the mount, as I gather that there have been some design modifications in the past few years.

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

I believe some of the earlier models had some problems with the legs not locking into position. For some research you may want to join:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CGE-TelescopesUNCENSORED/

I found this group after buying mine. The only problem I have found with mine is it is so heavy!

[rumples riot]

One of one, the legs still don't lock properly. With the C14 on and all the imaging gear plus counter weights the legs on my tripod still slip. A real pain I can tell you.

Digby, prices here are over inflated and that is for certain. You might try Matthew Lovell from Telescopes and Astronomy. He can be hard to contact, so keep ringing until you get him, but his prices are always cheaper than everyone else. You might find you will be paying about 700 less if you make the effort and get it through him.

[§AB]

basically the pricing of almost all telescopes/accessories in Australia makes me want to throw up

[Satchmo]

Originally Posted by §AB

basically the pricing of almost all telescopes/accessories in Australia makes me want to throw up

Charming

Please do it in *your own* lap, not someone elses

[Stephen65]

This is the exact reason I did not buy a Celestron scope when I was looking for a bigger reflector. I hate monopoly pricing and I refuse to be gouged. I should say I don't blame the Celestron retailers, their hands are tied by the prices the distributor sets.

I ended up buying a Tak scope that, at the time, was being sold here for almost exactly the same price as it retailed for in the US.

If you look around you can find equipment that is sold here at a fair price, alternatively, especially for smaller or less fragile items, you can order from overseas.

[Gama]

Why not send an email to head office Celestron and let them know how the pricing is preventing sales.

I remember way way back when SBIG was only thru York Optical.
I emailed my complaints at the pricing, and poor service to SBIG head office in USA. I got an email back from them soon after, and soon after that the distributer was changed. Seems I was not the only one complaining.
I still have that email from SBIG !.
The keyboard is mightier than the sword.

Theo.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Originally Posted by digby dart

.

I can import the Losmandy direct.

I hate paying a premium for stuff.

well go ahead and buy it.

[digby dart]

Thanks for the contact "rumples riot". I have spoken with Matt before and he is a very straight down the line type of fellow. I will give him a try again.

"Alchemy" I rather gathered that your witty comment was a ringing endorsement of your G11.

I guess both the CGE and G11 have their pros and cons. I was hoping the price would help me decide. That's when I was taken back by the disparity between the US and OZ pricing.

I may follow "Gamma"'s suggestion and write to both companies. A letter may do very little in the way of influence but it may make me feel better.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Originally Posted by digby dart

"Alchemy" I rather gathered that your witty comment was a ringing endorsement of your G11.

fantastic value, great mount, and........... you know you want one

[Zuts]

Originally Posted by Alchemy

fantastic value, great mount, and........... you know you want one

I know I want one

[Stephen65]

Why not send an email to head office Celestron and let them know how the pricing is preventing sales.

This is probably a good idea and something I have thought of doing before. The cynic in me wondered whether Celestron might deliberate prefer to have Australia as a small volume very high profit per item market, but its just as likely they don't know the effect the pricing is having on sales here.

[g__day (Matthew)]

Whilst the Celestron prices for retailers here has often been commented on, let me state once again a comment on the performance of this mount from the many things I had read about it when I was looking at it. In summary:

1. Its gears aren't quite as good as the Losmandy G11
2. Its design and lines allow alot less cable clutter than the G11 + Gemini
3. It can carry a bit more load than the G11
4. Its performance seems very variable - until you really tune it - more below

Looks great and is newer than the G11, but out of the box the older G11 is still ahead might be the summary. But there is more to it than that. This mount seems to undergo a transformation if and only if you do a Dr Clay style super-charge. By that I mean pointing and tracking improves by 200% - 300% after this service.

So out of the box this potentially better mount is hobbled by limited quality control is my take on what several international reviewers have said. Its a very decent mount, but it can be a whole lot better still - if and only if you can do tweaking that I only wish Celestron did (even if as a cost added extra) before it left their factory floor!

My 2 cents!

[Earl (Earl White)]

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

[Kal (Andrew)]

Getting shafted by practices like this certainly don't help the situation either.

[Suzy_A]

Not only Celestron.

A while ago I was after some Baader stuff, so I contacted them in Germany and was told to contact Extravison, who were (are?) their distributors in Australia.

The prices they gave me were quite astronomical (sorry) and they were very unhelpful and unfriendly. When I complained to Baader, they were even worse and told me that I was a lying, thieving so and so who was trying to do the poor people at Extravision out of their hard-earned luxury yacht. Well, maybe not in those exact words, but that's what they meant.

In the end I got a friend that was going to Europe to get me the stuff for about half the price of what it was in Australia.

[citivolus (Ric)]

Keeping to facts only as this is potentially inflamatory and borderline under site policy, Extravision is also the Australian Celestron importer.

[Stephen65]

It's not just astronomy gear either. There's a publisher in Canada of specialist books on aviation history (another interest of mine) from whom I used to order regulary, and directly.

Then they appointed an exclusive Australian distributor and told me I had to buy from them. Not only would that have made each of my orders take much longer (everything I ordered had to be reordered by the Australian distributor because they didnt keep stock on hand) but the Australian prices were more than double what I was paying to order the books internationally.

I protested to the Canadians but were told basically, too bad you must order from the exclusive distributor. So what I did was find a US bookshop that was happy to order and ship the books to me for the same price as I had formerly being paying.

Net result, instead of me buying direct from the publisher and them getting paid retail, now I buy the same books from a US bookshop, pay them retail instead and the publisher gets only wholesale from the bookshop. All because they were greedy.

Books don't need warranty support, so when it comes to complex things like telescopes I can see the sense in having local agents to provide warranty service, but whenever I see an exclusive agent appointed I start to wonder if that's going to result in monopoly profits being extracted from my wallet. The best arrangements seem to be manufacturers like WO who do not appoint sole agants and who still give you the option of ordering directly from the parent if you wish.

[Aidan Mc]

Hi All,

just to clarify a couple of points, unfortunately by the time shipping is paid, plus warehousing and insurance, staff, Australian shop rents and most importantly warranty issues, there is indeed somewhat of a lift on overseas prices. At York Optical we'd love to be able to make all gear cheaper, not just Celestron but to be able to offer the warranty service we must get our supplies through the Australian distributors.

York Optical and Extravision are not related - at least not anymore! York Optical was aquired by Astronomy Online a year ago and we decided to adopt the older of the two business names. The 'old York' was owned by the same folks who own Extravision.