Greetings to all--Just wondering when we might see the strength of the aussie dollars benefits start to filter down to us from local astronomy equipment suppliers?
Its all good and well to put up prices when the aus dollar falls and blame the price rise on weak currency, but the reverse is not so readily applied.
Alex.
No other imported goods have gone down, so I can't see it happening to just Astronomy gear. It depends on the price the importer paid at the time of import. But maybe a word to the salesman
I was recently thinking the same thing.
The Oz dollar is strong against the US dollar and the Japanese Yen at the moment and has been for a while.
I have noticed just yesterday that Bintel have dropped their TeleVue eyepiece prices even further. They realise that consumers will look overseas for purchases if the price in this country remains high for various products. Unfortunately no other companies that I am aware of has done this.
I am currently looking for a Pentax 10mm XW. In Japan, even with the postage cost and insurance and tax, I can save around $175 on 1 EP, & Vixen LVW's are around $180 in Japan, here they are $339. I haven't seen the Pentax dealers or the Vixen dealers drop the price,.....will they?? Maybe when they sell the old stock they have paid for before the dollar got strong and they receive new cheaper stock, how long will this take?, will the other dealers do the same as Bintel? Well done Bintel and TeleVue.
Let the end of the financial year filter out..it complicates things a little maybe.. if the dollar is up margins should be better that must flow down the line... there will be importers able to take advatage thru timeing others will not capitalise ..the prices will soon reflect who contracted efficiently and timely.....maybe
alex
but for those things you can't get locally..ordering o/s has us buying US dollars for the cheapest exchange I can remember.
make hay while the sun shines
I guess the quick solution is to buy directly OS yourself. Not much trouble these days, especially for small items like eyepieces. I had the misfortune to buy both of my current scopes 4 years ago when the AU$ was way down. A bitter pill when you think about the reduction now, but on the other hand, I guess I've had 4 years of pleasure from them. Tonight's news suggested that the AU$ will go even higher in coming months.
We are lucky... a few dollars wasted by poor timing..who cares... its a personal thing to get the best deal you can ..reasonable and sound virtue of conservation of ones resources...but the best deal is one that gets you out there..if you pay a premium get it back from the wonders you can entertain ... a few cents or a few dollars ... who cares...what you arrive at with a scope is priceless..if you see it different astronomy may not be for you.
Any night you miss for whatever reason is unfortunate in the extreme.
I measure my life expectancy by the number of nights I may have left at the scope..it is a privilege to travel as we can why worry about the price of a ticket.
alex
Just after I paid $999 for my 12" they went down to $799 for a while, but it didn't bother me coz I was too busy enjoying the view thru mine. I thought I would get annoyed at the price drop, but interestingly I didn't.
I have had many thousands of dollars worth of views thru it
. ( i want clear skies at duckadang)
