What? Price Jumps, No Christmas Sales? AAAARGH!

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Hi All,

I was wondering, what with all the doom and gloom around, as well as the fact that most of my "window shopping" on the local Astronomy suppliers websites is becoming more and more depressing as all the prices have recently skyrocketed, as to where, if any, are the CHRISTMAS Sales for Astro gear?

Santa is gunna miss my house if I cant find my weapon of choice (read 12" collapsible Skywatcher dob) for less than a STAGGERING $1499?!?

I saw the 10 inch version for $899 which is a bit more reasonable, but this is making me lean towards the GSO ASDX super deluxe 12" for $999.

Its just the bulk I am worried about and the fact its not exactly what I was looking at buying. There is nothing like pulling the card out to buy a $900 scope and then find its jumped to $1500 bucks. DOH!!!

Missing the boat and watching the price jump is just SO depressing. And so TYPICAL of my luck.

Does anyone have any suggestions or perhaps some knowledge of an impending sale somewhere before I gaffer tape my Credit card to the bottom of my pool so as to avoid temptation and waste $600 over and above what the price was just a few months ago?

Alternatively, any other suggestions....please?

Chris

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

I would go for the "solid" tube 12" Dob.
I found collimation a chore with my old Dob - the`collapsible one with all that flexure might drive you mad!!!!
Doug

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Hmmm, thanks Doug, I have tried recently re-collimated my Crystal Ball to try and see into the future and decide whether I would eventually rip the tube off the dob and whack it on an Eq6 pro a la Iceman to give the dob longer lifespan etc. so this might be a better idea in the long run.

Few more fruity bits offered on the GS as opposed to the SW, however, the review of the Skywatcher 12 " in AS&T by Les Dalrymple a few months back still has my interest piqued, so to speak. However, the cheapest solid tube 12"SW dob I can find is Star Optics for $1199, unless anyone has found it elsewhere? (telescope shop has it for $1079 delivered- just found it)

Come on Mr Rudd, cough up that $3K for the kids I have so I can divert some funds to where its needed most, a new Telescope!

Priorities hey?

Chris

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Oooh, York Optical selling 12" SW980 for $999 too! catalogue out now.

Intrustin'

Chris

[xelasnave]

Go with Doug's advice... and $1000 aint too bad... do it for the kids.

alex

[g__day (Matthew)]

Bintel's selling Meade DSI - significantly less than two months ago - thanks to Meade taking hundreds off their prices!

[NeilW]

I'm in Adelaide and just bought a Skywatcher 8" dob from a local distributor for $449 marked down from $599...there is a Santa Clause after all

[NeilW]

....which would explain the amount of cloud cover we've had here in the last few days...

[Ian Robinson]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

Go with Doug's advice... and $1000 aint too bad... do it for the kids.

alex

My kid has never had $1000 spent on him for Xmas or his birthday. Never more than $300 combined by my wife and I. Even when I was working and on excellent money (a 6 figure annual salary).

More than that is way too much to spend on a child for presents.

[toc (Tim)]

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

My kid has never had $1000 spent on him for Xmas or his birthday. Never more than $300 combined by my wife and I. Even when I was working and on excellent money (a 6 figure annual salary).

More than that is way too much to spend on a child for presents.

Yep - and if you do lash out and spend more, they always expect you to do the same the next time. Its a vicious cycle of materialism at its most naked.

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Ha ha,

I think you might have missed Alex's tongue in cheek part of "do it for the kids". I wasnt going to spend $1000 on the kids, the idea was to use the $1000 per child given in the "stimulate the economy" bonus to "stimulate MY hobby" by buying ME a $1000 telescope.

Bugger the kids, they already have more than $3000 worth of games, PS2, XBOX, DS's and junk that have accumlated over years from birthdays, Christmas' and the like and for some silly reason, I have been feeling guilty about spending $1K large from MY taxes on ME for once.

Just a pity the freaking prices went up before the govt decided to shell some out.

Oh well, I probably wont get my hands on any of it anyway, more xbox games and battery powered toys to clutter up the garage after being used once I spose....

Chris

[Calibos (Keith)]

With the Strength of the Pound a few months ago before the current economic crisis, I always found that for me in Ireland, fellow eurozone member Germany were always cheaper for astro products than the UK.

So I could but dream of a Meade 16inch Lightbridge to replace my Orion XT12i at a price of 2400 euros in Germany. I assumed the price in the UK when the pound was converted to euros would be the same.

Well tickle me pink when the other day after hearing that the weakening pound might hit parity with the euro I re-examined UK Meade pricing. Well I'll be, Meade have a US and UK discounted price of GBP1075 till January when the price goes back up to GBP1499. Posted this on my regular Irish forum and another member posted back cursing me for tempting him. He was the same, ie. he assumed the price for a LB16 was still 2400 euros. But not only that, he had found that TelescopeHouse were doing a weekend discount of 10% bringing the price of an LB16 down to GBP968!! He begged his wife, got permission and ordered one before she could change her mind when she realised this probably meant lesss money spent on her this Christmas I only found this reply in my thread on Sunday at 11:41pm. I made a quick spur of the moment decision and just about got my order in before midnight!

I should have my new LB16 by the end of the week. So keith and John got our 16in Lightbridges for 1080 euros while Heinrich and Hans are still paying........2400 euros!! For you guys 1080 euros is AUD$2210. I believe Bintel are selling the LB16 for AUD$2995.

Happy Days!!

Gordon Brown and the weakening Pound........This Paddy salutes you!!

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

ahhhh may the luck of the irish be withheald. ;d