Celestron's new EdgeHD Optics scopes

[citivolus (Ric)]

I used to import and sell torches which were manufactured in the Guangdong province of China. Not only was my shipping cost significantly less than it was for the US distributors, but I would consistently get new product a week or so ahead of my overseas competition. I got the European orders because I would have the product first, and because my overhead was lower and I could undersell the US distributors.

There is simply no fathomable, defendable reason for the price structure being as bloated as it is in comparison to their competition. They keep acting like they are operating in a vacuum, which they are not.

Regards,
Eric

[netwolf]

I am not an importer, but i would think keep prices lower would create more of a market. Instead of using the reason that Australia is too small a market. They should consider perhaps it is the higer prices that makes it a smaller market. A range of Nexstar SE starting from say 500$ to 1200$ (as they re in the US) would be create plenty of interest. From Schools to parents wanting to give there kids some alternative to all the other "entertainement" options.

If you make it unafordable then you only have yourself to blame for a low volume market. Its a catch 22. We dont have enough customers, we should not buy to many, we have to make it really expensive to cover costs and make a nice profit, no body wants to buy them, we dont have enough customers............

Also if they are comming direct from China, consider how much of our Large appliances and electronics also come from there. But you dont see a 2-4x price diffrence (excluding the currency conversion factors) between a Fridge or big TV sold in Aus and in the US.

[coldspace]

I run an Air conditioning buisiness and the price of large AC units in this country has more than halved in the last few years due to more competitive pricing therefore increasing market sales by 500%.

These systems can weigh upto 100Kgs for a 8KW Kelvinator that comes in 2 large boxes that you could fit 2 11 inch telescopes in with room too spare, and these are delivered to my buisiness via 2 middle men from China for $900 bucks so the transport cost from China must not be too expensive so theres no excuse for these scopes to be the price they are.

I agree with Fahim in that if we made some of the scopes with goto tech more affordable to the wider community more people would be prepared to give this wonderfull hobby a try and then more might then progress to higher end gear then these companies would get their market increase.
Its like when Meade brought out the ETX range in the states they must of sold heaps of them then alot of people would then progress onto the higher end gear after they wet their feet.

Someone told me but I don't know how true it is," they sell more Astronomy gear in the state of California in a month than the whole of Australia does in a year."

So these large manufactures need to keep prices in check around the world if they want to grow their markets for the long term.

Regards Matt.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Got that right there, Matt. If the prices where as high in California as they are here, they'd probably only sell about the same numbers of scopes and equipment, or maybe a little more, than what they do here. Big advantage for California is that it has 2x our population, so the market is larger.

That alone, should tell the twits out here that if they lowered their prices, they'd get more sales...maybe not quite California sized but a substantial increase, nevertheless.

[DavidU (Dave)]

In my industry (music equipment) one store in LA sells more per year than ALL of Australia. This will give you an idea how small we really are.

[Kal (Andrew)]

Since Celestron are ignorant to our complaints, I have sent off an email to their parent company who bought them out, Synta (Skywatcher)

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by DavidU

In my industry (music equipment) one store in LA sells more per year than ALL of Australia. This will give you an idea how small we really are.

What makes me wonder, David, given that California has only double the number of people as Oz has (I imagine that LA store sells statewide and/or nationwide), is what's the turnover in goods, in terms of numbers of pieces of equipment not just in cash terms. When you think about it, they must be going through a vast number of items per year. Where is all the older equipment going, apart from 2nd hand sales??. I'd hate to see what's inhabiting the garbage dumps over there. There must be mountains of what would otherwise be perfectly good items being thrown away...just because it's not the latest and shiniest piece of gear!!!. This must also go for telescopes as well...a telescope that's looked after is going to last a very long time...if not a lifetime. Unless people over there own 30 or more telescopes a piece, there's got to be a lot that are just being junked!!!.

That's more than just consumerism....that's a blatant waste!!!!

[netwolf]

I did not know of a link between York Optical and Extravision. Bu it is interesting that Bintel and Andrews and others are not listed on the Celestron.com.au page.

Also does anyone know who is importing Skywatcher/Synta gear? I wonder why they can not bring in the Celestron gear.

[renormalised (Carl)]

That's what you call burning the candle at both ends. Having your cake and eating it too. You wouldn't expect to have Bintel and Andrews listed on a competitors affiliated website.

That'd seem like being overly fair to the "enemy".

[AlexN]

I paid a very good price for my C11 brand new in september last year, however after the aussie dollar fell, the prices sky-rocketed! The jump was nearly $2300 when the dollar fell from 97c US to the dollar down to low 70c to the dollar mark.. That was fairly unbelievable... But for Celestron to think that people are going to pay between ~$16000 (andrews) and $~19000 (Bintel) for a 14" SCT, then I think they are horribly mistaken, and will learn this in the not to distant future... Think about it... A Celestron 14" "flat field" SCT, for roughly the same price as a Planewave 12.5" CDK? I hardly think so...

Their products are good. I wont argue against the products. Its the pricing... A CGE Pro mount sound nice to begin with, but when you find out what it will cost in australia, I would much rather pay the marginally higher price for the Astro Physics AP900GTO...

[mick pinner]

apart from the mark up and shipping adding to the final cost lets for one minute have a look at the hardware itself, and this is not just directed at Celestron but all mass produced OTA's.
l am not going for one minute pretend that l know what it takes in research and man hours to develop the particular optical configuration of some scopes but l would assume that by now computer simulation and experience would have it down to a fairly quick process, if this is correct then the subsequent mass production would make this a reasonably cheap part of the scope building process.
having had experience with manufacturing in many different areas inc CNC machining and extruding methods l can tell you that there is nothing in any given telescope excluding optics that is worth anything at all when made on a large scale.
we are classed as a specialist market and are paying "regrettably" accordingly.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by AlexN

... But for Celestron to think that people are going to pay between ~$16000 (andrews) and $~19000 (Bintel) for a 14" SCT, then I think they are horribly mistaken, and will learn this in the not to distant future... Think about it... A Celestron 14" "flat field" SCT, for roughly the same price as a Planewave 12.5" CDK? I hardly think so...

Totally agree. Don't even have to look as far as a DK design: a 10" GSO RCOS clone will do nicely too. They (celestron that is) seriously need to re-think what they're doing IMHO unless I'm missing something here...

[rider]

Originally Posted by Kal

Since Celestron are ignorant to our complaints, I have sent off an email to their parent company who bought them out, Synta (Skywatcher)

Hey Kal, did you get a reply?

[Kal (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by rider

Hey Kal, did you get a reply?

No, I didn't get a reply. In the email I suggested they consolidate their distribution channel in Australia (they use tasco to distribute skywatcher in Australia, and they don't spike the prices)

[renormalised (Carl)]

Well since it seems both ends of the stick here are (appearing to be ) ignoring our emails, I'd suggest we vote with our wallets and go elsewhere. Just don't bother buying any Celestron equipment. Even though we're a small market, they'll still get the message.

[netwolf]

I have had no response either from the info@sheldon email address. Very disapointing.

[Visionoz (Bill)]

Originally Posted by Visionoz

I don't think that it cost extra overheads to Celestron or any other manufacturer to have to supply the Oz distributor any more than one in the USA - it follows that it is the sole Oz distributor's discretion/decision to price it the way their business costs them to hold inventory, resell to the dealers, provide warranty (and hopefully not their luxury cars, holidays & perks etc).

How they can justify putting a RRP like what is currently in the market place defies "good" business-sense and customer goodwill and it would only be to their ultimate detriment and also to Celestron's market share as a consequence

Cheers
Bill

Need more be said??

Now that Celestron has confirmed that it is the local Oz distributor that puts its own mark-ups and RRP pricings for the products - that has proven what I had suspected all along!

Like I said before in another post, if any one purchases a Celestron at such ridiculous price levels than one must indeed be moon-drunk!!

Cheers
Bill

[netwolf]

Bill indeed, Celestron in there response to me and Kal went as far as to say they make very little if any profit on these, and there goal is to get ther product to international customers. But they belive the best way to do that is to leave it to the local distributor to control local pricing based on there "costs".

To me this says we have selected our distributor its there problem to fix your problems so deal with there pricing. We dont make any money on it so its not our problem.


Regards
Fahim

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

Interesting attitude to their business.

[Visionoz (Bill)]

Fahim

IMHO Celestron is not strictly to be blamed for the ridiculous pricings put out by the Oz distributor - their fault is that they have made a monumental error in judgement (in the business sense) by choosing the "wrong" corporation to handle their products for them in Australia which Celestron will learn to their detriment when their Oz distributor has a poor sales track record because folks like us would not willingly submit to being "robbed" blind!!

Either this new distributor is totally a "rookie" in this trade or they feel too cosy and comfortable from the fact that they can call their shots here because they have the protection of the restrictive trade clause which prevent dealers like OPT from selling abroad from the USA and therefore we cannot self-import such goods and have no choice

I remember well a sales seminar quite a while ago when the speaker mentioned the demerits of the well-known analogy of getting a 100% of 0 as opposed to the merits of gaining even 1% of something x by the quantity!

Hopefully the Oz distributor wakes up to the fact that we are not glassy-eyed folks after all

My 2cents

Cheers
Bill