Celestron's new EdgeHD Optics scopes - Page 3

Kal (Andrew) · #41 21-07-2009, 06:33 PM

Funny, I got the exact same "cut and paste" response from Celestron as well after I emailed them. My subsequent email, however, was far blunter than yours

Carolina · #42 30-07-2009, 11:03 PM

An iceinspace member has asked me to come over and take a look at this thread and suggest what can be done about getting around the high Australian prices. It would be possible to use my service (www.priceusa.com.au) to import from the USA. The shipping could be high (hard for me to say without an indication of the actual volume and weight), but it should not be a problem to ship. With the A$ up over 80 cents it should be quite a bit cheaper.

Carolina

marki · #43 31-07-2009, 12:21 AM

In all honesty I do not know why anyone would bother with these scopes. Buy a standard SCT and stick a nextgen on it and away you go. Being an SCT you can still use the hyperstar and spend your money on other things like a decent mount and camera. If this is how they want to play let the brand die in oz. We have far too many better options to bother with these.

Mark

rider · #44 31-07-2009, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Visionoz

Hi All

My understanding is that the new Aus & NZ distributor is Sheldon & Hammond (Extra-Vision the previous one was given the boot about 2/3 months ago!)

Oh good, A demtel-like kitchen accessory supplier!

Yes viewers, and if you ring in the next hour you get not only the complimentary 6 steak knives, but also the free combination bottle opener and Red dot finder!

toc (Tim) · #45 01-08-2009, 12:52 PM

Im struggling to understand why they (either the distributor, or Celestron themselves) would price the scopes this way.

Surely no one in the country would even consider a scope that is so massively overpriced? Will they even sell one scope?

renormalised (Carl) · #46 01-08-2009, 01:01 PM

That's what we're trying to figure out...why Celestron would allow their scopes to be priced out of the market, here.

seeker372011 (Narayan) · #47 01-08-2009, 03:28 PM

Maybe instead of writing to Celestron, it would be worth writing to the real owner, Synta

we dont have ridiculous pricing for skywatcher why should we for a stablemate?

matt · #48 01-08-2009, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seeker372011

we dont have ridiculous pricing for skywatcher why should we for a stablemate?

Indeed

Found (Peter) · #49 01-08-2009, 05:29 PM

I can see dust being a problem with these from sitting at the distributors and retailers shelves for to long.

Maybe at the prices they are asking for them, they should be individually date of manufacture stamped (like a cars compliance plate) so when you purchase one, you know it not getting some dust collecting old stock that although it is not used it is really not new anymore and your not paying the retailer to help him out.

Has anybody noticed the economic times we live in. If they want our hard earned, then they have to come to the party or face extinction like any other business. The choice to purchase or not is with you the purchaser not the distributor or retailer that is what in the end will influence their pricing.

digby dart · #50 01-08-2009, 05:46 PM

With a new importer for Celestron I may get interested in astronomy again, providing I don’t find myself being ripped off by insultingly ambitious pricing and restrictive international trade practices.

I seem to recall that the previous importer Extravision was owned by York Optical. Is that true? Surely not.

“Extravision Australia, part of York Optical, has agreed…” was obviously a misprint by the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard web site.

netwolf · #51 01-08-2009, 11:06 PM

I was going to forward the 'new' distributor my emails to and from celestron, but there seems to be no email address on there page. Will give them a call on Monday. Only fair i guess to let them have there say.

Kal (Andrew) · #52 02-08-2009, 09:25 AM

Fahim,

You will find all the information you need at www.celestron.com.au

Interestingly if you lookup the owner of that url, you get this information

If you lookup the ABN of the registrant of that url, you get this information

So my question now is, what is the conection between sheldon & hammond and york optical?

renormalised (Carl) · #53 02-08-2009, 09:49 AM

That would be interesting to discover.

citivolus (Ric) · #54 02-08-2009, 03:13 PM

The simple answer is that celestron.com.au has been registered to York for some time. York and Extravision used to be, if I am getting this correct, owned by the same person.

I suspect that you will see the domain end up getting transferred to Sheldon & Hammond, however they are not known for their web sites so they may not press the issue unless it is brought up by one of their customers.

Regards,
Eric

toc (Tim) · #55 02-08-2009, 04:12 PM

well, Im a fan of Celestron products, but I certainly wont be buying any more Celestron products unless they re-think their policies. Im sure they are shaking in their boots, but it makes me feel better anyway

Personally I think they have lost the plot.

netwolf · #56 02-08-2009, 05:03 PM

Thanks Kal, I have emailed them. And asked for them to comment. I hope that as the new distributor they might listen to the community and take action to correct this situation or enlighten us to the reason for it. If i understood the response from Celestron correctly, they have indicated its the distribution end that factors in the higher price. Perhaps the new distributor can do it better.

Regards
Fahim

gazza83 (Gary) · #57 02-08-2009, 05:25 PM

Hi,

Andrews prices are a bit of an improvement (I quote)

NEW!

EdgeHD OTAsEdgeHD OTAs have an aplanatic Schmidt system (designed to reduce coma) which provides an astrograph quality flat field which is around three times flatter than most Schmidt-Cassegrain designs and is significantly flatter than competitor's coma-free designs...
EdgeHD 800 8"...A$3495
EdgeHD 925 9.25"...A$4999
EdgeHD 1100 11"...A$7995
EdgeHD 1400 14"...A$16,995
Available soon

Actually my other hobby which is racing RC cars shows huge markups here which is why nearly everyone I know buys from US/Asian hobby shops (of course the weight and price scale of RC parts is vastly less that scopes - but warranty is also a big issue there).

Fahim, good luck in your endeavours to make the local distributer see some sense!

Cheers

citivolus (Ric) · #58 02-08-2009, 05:50 PM

I talked to Sirius about these scopes a week or so ago, and their price at the time for the 11" was in excess of 8K. I bought my 12" LX200-ACF for about 5400 from an Australian vendor, so there is a fairly sizeable gap most likely caused by distributor (S&H) markup.

It is one of those situations that my wife and I look at and say, if the distributor sold it for 50% less mark-up they would sell four times the number of scopes? After all, who would buy Skywatcher if an ED80 was $1500?

Regards,
Eric

netwolf · #59 02-08-2009, 07:17 PM

Eric, whats more absurd is that the Skywatcher is also made by Synta if i am not mistaken. Yet your Eq6 mount is not as marked up as a CG5 or CGEM or CGE Pro.

As i said before i highly dought that Synta would send a scope or mount to USA and then have it shipped to Australia. So where does the diffrence come from?

A CG5 costs almost as much as a EQ6. Why would you bother selling the Cg5?

Unless this is changed I would think that many customers are just going to vote with there pockets and go Meade or Skywatcher or something better. It does not make marketing sense. And in this ecconomic climate customers should think twice before paying double, or triple US prices. Our dollar is 83cents but this does not seem to affect Celestron pricing.

A Nexstar SE scope like the 8" fully manufactured in China can be shipped to USA and sold for 1199 (optcorp) yet it costs 2799 (cheapest i could find in Aus at Andrews). Does it cost more to ship to Aus from China then to the USA?

And why dont we see some hard hitting articles on this in our Magazines. Instead we see glosy adds and flowery reviews. Which might be good for the US readers but not so for us.

DavidU (Dave) · #60 02-08-2009, 08:59 PM

Most companys I deal with who have asian manufacturers ship direct from asia. Some of the products I get are cheaper here than in the US & UK because the shipping from asia to AU is cheaper. I hope Celestron do the same.
However, when australian distributors place orders from multi national companys it equates to 1-2% of the worlds consumer turnover.
I have seen an Australian distributor trying to place an order and get laughed at and the US sales guy walked straight out of the room.
Like it or not AU is a light weight when it comes to our populations consumerism.