Australian Dollar

[allan gould]

Now that the AUD is beginning to recover and is at 80cents to the USD, why are the prices here not beginning to fall in line? Or are we paying for the goods that companies paid a low AUD for ?
It will be interesting to see when prices fall. Chinese manufacturers were dropping their prices to maintain output but this was not reflected in AUD prices - they went up.
I'm beginning to think we wear the short stick continually as far as pricing goes.

[dannat (Daniel)]

they probably paid for stock when dollar is low - its probably also a bit of recovering margin from when the dollar really went pear shaped & they may have absorbed a small amount (i sound like a company justifying something..sorry)

[Peter Ward]

The $A is *extremely* (perhaps pathetically is a better description) volatile and has changed more in a week, than many US manufacturer wholesale margins. No doubt many Oz dealers have stock paid for at the best forex rate they could get at the time.

In so far as Chinese suppliers go, some now price their goods in Euro's.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Personally, I've found retailers are quite an opportunistic lot - when the dollar plunged, they increased their retail prices and used it as an excuse. Despite the fact that they bought their stock when the dollar was at a high. It's profiteering, no 2 doubts about it. I'm sure others, with retail affiliations will disagree with me (or those who simply run their own business for profit). No matter what happens, in a market that is left unregulated, business will screw the consumers. It's just a simple fact of life (but a bad one).

Dave

[marki]

Good time to buy over seas though as I doubt the $ will go much higher for a while.

Mark

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by dpastern

Personally, I've found retailers are quite an opportunistic lot - when the dollar plunged, they increased their retail prices and used it as an excuse.

You, the buyer, hold the ultimate power in your choice to buy or not, and from whom.

The AUD has appreciated quite rapidly from about 65c just two months ago.
Any retailer currently holding stock purchased from China probably paid at around that level. If you want to take advantage of current rates you would have to import the goods yourself and be control of the timing of payment.

Click here for AUD/USD forex chart

[Jules76 (Julian)]

I was reading a small newspaper article the other day, and it said that analysts were predicting the Australian Dollar could reach close to parity (dollar for dollar) by the end of the year. This was apparently because investors saw the Australian ecomony to be riding the world economic crisis a lot better than the US, therefore they were investing more in the Aussie Dollar.

Whatever happens I'm loving it at the moment. I've got an item on backorder with a US retailer which I did when it was 75c. If it keeps going up at this rate, I might have to chuck something else on the order with the money I've saved.

[stephenb (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by dpastern

Personally, I've found retailers are quite an opportunistic lot - when the dollar plunged, they increased their retail prices and used it as an excuse. Despite the fact that they bought their stock when the dollar was at a high. It's profiteering, no 2 doubts about it. I'm sure others, with retail affiliations will disagree with me (or those who simply run their own business for profit). No matter what happens, in a market that is left unregulated, business will screw the consumers. It's just a simple fact of life (but a bad one).

Dave

I agree in part, but I have noticed BinTel have been reducing prices on some items in recent months, as the Aussie Dollar has been improving. For example the range of Meade SCT's have dropped after hitting a high earlier this year.

I do not agree with your line "when the dollar plunged, they increased their retail prices and used it as an excuse". If the Aussie dollar dropped of course their imported products are going to rise, why wouldn't they?

You simply vote with your wallet, or when you ring the business for a price or quote, and it's too high, tell them, politely. You comments may just filter through to the management, who might just listen.

Don't get me wrong I wish all astro gear was half the price it was but they are in the business of making money, not giving away telescope gear. There are bills to be paid and staff to pay.

I choose to support local businesses as much as possible and only buy overseas if I cannot get the item locally. I do not expect many to agree with me however.

This is a worn out arguement anyway and pops up on many forums with the utmost regularity.

[mick pinner]

it's a good thing it comes up regularly, it shows the retailers we are watching.

[stephenb (Stephen)]

I'm sure they are always reading the local forums, it would be in their best interests, but also those who were also amateurs would probably be here anyway, I guess.

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Originally Posted by allan gould

Now that the AUD is beginning to recover and is at 80cents to the USD

You have me to thank for that.

I spent my (and my wife's) stimulus money on US gear and obviously the economic boost has lead to increased confidence in the US money markets which led directly to an greater propensity for US companies to enter into foreign trade deals and thereby lessening the effects of the inflated US$ brought on by the transitory fiscal protectionism.

I think so anyway.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Stephen,

as an example - goods bought on 01/07/08 - at peak Aussie dollar. Retailer has already imported the goods, and they have a dollar value in Australia roughly equivalent to the currency exchange rate and profit margin on top of it. I saw plenty of retailers pumping up prices on items that were *already* in stock, before the dollar crashed. If memory serves me correct, the CDK planewave @ Bintel was AU 14K pre crash, within a week of the crash, it was suddenly 17k! I stand by my words - profiteering.

True, I can vote with my wallet, and did.

Dave

Originally Posted by redesford

I agree in part, but I have noticed BinTel have been reducing prices on some items in recent months, as the Aussie Dollar has been improving. For example the range of Meade SCT's have dropped after hitting a high earlier this year.

I do not agree with your line "when the dollar plunged, they increased their retail prices and used it as an excuse". If the Aussie dollar dropped of course their imported products are going to rise, why wouldn't they?

You simply vote with your wallet, or when you ring the business for a price or quote, and it's too high, tell them, politely. You comments may just filter through to the management, who might just listen.

Don't get me wrong I wish all astro gear was half the price it was but they are in the business of making money, not giving away telescope gear. There are bills to be paid and staff to pay.

I choose to support local businesses as much as possible and only buy overseas if I cannot get the item locally. I do not expect many to agree with me however.

This is a worn out arguement anyway and pops up on many forums with the utmost regularity.

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by Astrojunk

You have me to thank for that.

Nah, thank me, I've never bought a General Motors vehicle in my life... look what happened to them.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by AstroJunk

You have me to thank for that.

I spent my (and my wife's) stimulus money on US gear and obviously the economic boost has lead to increased confidence in the US money markets which led directly to an greater propensity for US companies to enter into foreign trade deals and thereby lessening the effects of the inflated US$ brought on by the transitory fiscal protectionism.

I think so anyway.

I honestly believe that it is unwise to rely on one currency as a central pin to world economic stability. That is fraught with danger. This isn't the first time the US dollar has had issues (and brought the rest of the world's economy downwards), and it won't be the last. The US government is an incredibly irresponsible spender. Trillions of dollars on an unneeded war in Iraq, when there's half a million homeless? You have got to be kidding me. Their medical system and welfare system is close to collapse too. The US is a "I only care about me, screw you" society, and that is unhealthy imho. It fosters greed, and it fosters uncaring attitudes about your fellow humans, something which I believe leads to a downward spiral in social behaviour.

Sadly, the Australian dollar is so tightly linked to the US dollar that it places Australia in a high risk zone. I'd personally like to see us become less dependant on the US - for our own long term good.

Dave

[TrevorW]

I have no qualms about businesses profiteering, I mean thats what they are in business too do.

Ripping people off with outrageous markups I do

Retailers be warned although we are a smaller market don't treat us like fools or we will be doing more buying overseas at your expense.

As demonstrated by the North Chinese APO which people have been importing direct for under $1000 AUD and certain retailers have been trying to sell similar scopes for around $3000

[PCH (Paul)]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

I have no qualms about businesses profiteering, I mean thats what they are in business too do.

Ripping people off with outrageous markups I do

Retailers be warned although we are a smaller market don't treat us like fools or we will be doing more buying overseas at your expense.

As demonstrated by the North Chinese APO which people have been importing direct for under $1000 AUD and certain retailers have been trying to sell similar scopes for around $3000

Yeah, but that doesn't mean these retailers are copping two grand profit Trevor. Their landed cost would probably allow them a reasonable margin I'd imagine - otherwise there's not much point them doing it. But if buying from Gilman direct allows such a saving, then we'd also be daft not to take it up. The WO-direct pricing in the other thread ('are these prices for real?') is very very reasonable compared to Aussie retailers. I'd imagine they'll be taking a few sales also.

Cheers

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by dpastern

I saw plenty of retailers pumping up prices on items that were *already* in stock, before the dollar crashed. If memory serves me correct, the CDK planewave @ Bintel was AU 14K pre crash, within a week of the crash, it was suddenly 17k! I stand by my words - profiteering.

In their defence that doesnt sound like a stock item, and would be ordered in on request.

If it was a stock item like a bread and butter chinese scope or televue eyepiece you would have a point.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Starkler

In their defence that doesnt sound like a stock item, and would be ordered in on request.

If it was a stock item like a bread and butter chinese scope or televue eyepiece you would have a point.

That is a very good point. I didn't consider that when using it as an example. Of course, maybe it is a stock item, but probably not, given the cost and low sales average I suspect. Very good point, thanks.

Dave

[Hagar (Doug)]

Call it profiteering call it what ever you like. In Australia while Astronomy equipment is not easily imported because of cost of customs, GST and delivery we will always suffer from a market based pricing structure. That is if the market can be reasonably expected to purchase at a price that will be the price. Competition within this retail sector is quite small and the turn over is also quite small compared to other retail sectors, so we can always expect to pay some premium for the luxury of being able to purchase locally and don't forget being provided with a local warranty. Depending on the item purchased, this can be worth quite a bit.
Don't be too harsh on retailers, they are only trying to make a living in an area where the scope for sales is very limitted.

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

I have no qualms about businesses profiteering, I mean thats what they are in business too do.

Ripping people off with outrageous markups I do

Retailers be warned although we are a smaller market don't treat us like fools or we will be doing more buying overseas at your expense.

As demonstrated by the North Chinese APO which people have been importing direct for under $1000 AUD and certain retailers have been trying to sell similar scopes for around $3000

firstly i challenge you to provide the evidence that any $1000 AUD chinese scope is being sold for $3000 they were at last email I got being bought in US dollars (which depending on what extras you choose would go just over the $1000 US mark, then add Shipping etc and transaction fee charges. Ok lets look at the scenario:

For the typical $1000 US dollar the AUD was getting over the past few months

0.60 AUD $1666.67
0.65 AUD $1538.46
0.70 AUD $1428.57
0.75 AUD $1333.33
0.80 AUD $1250.00
0.85 AUD $1176.47

Now I paid for my scope $1234 USD all up when the AUD was 0.94 which made it $1312.76 delivered for my 127ED. Wasn’t I lucky! Other retailers had this scope in stock, but I took the risk knowing there really is no warranty and no guarantees so it was a 1300 dollar gamble. Retailers were offering warranty and slightly different scopes (not by much but there were slight variations). I chose to take the risk. They took a risk getting stock in and have to cover their costs, import duties and taxes. I got mine through without tax problems or import duty problems. Lets just get a clear picture-------RISK V’s Warranty and Service. These were duly weighed up in the decision process.

I have also just recently bought a Ha clip in filter from an Australian retailer, they really tried to lower their price to match what was on offer overseas but they couldn’t really match it fully. I bought it anyway from them, in the full knowledge that they had it in stock NOW which means they would have bought it when the AUD was lower, and if something was wrong they will look after it. So while they are not perfect they do try to come to the party.

So get the facts straight before broad siding Australian Astro retailers and making unsubstantiated sweeping statements. After all it’s a free market out there if your not happy bying from Aussie retailers then buy direct from OS. It’s your money, and you can only value the item and determine if it is worth it or not.