Quote:
Originally Posted by Carno
Smarter strategy for the European distributors would be to not ask ridiculous prices for the products.
So many shops and esp. the LHS here ask ridiculous prices for the kits.
If you order something from Asia and can save like €50 or more even when charged with import taxes and shipping you start wondering where those €50 come from.
I understand people have to make a living. but if you can save 50 euro on an amount of 250.
Found a German webshop that asks decent prices for kits though. Was looking at the TB-03R kit to replace my old TA-03 and compared the prices with Hong kong and including 19% tax the price was nearly identical.
Classic example was the old Dutch distributor that sold the Volac ESC (rebadged Sphere TC€240) for €350  |
The unfortunate fact is that within the EU distributors have to cope with things like the following:
- VAT (about 15-25% depending on the country)
- High shipping costs from Asia (think 20-30%!) if you want it delivered within a reasonable timeframe. These costs are constantly rising as well...
- constantly changing Yen exchange rate which is today @ 122 when it was @ ~165 under 2 years ago (do your maths and you notice a 35% change - has Japanese products you buy risen 35% in 2 years?)
- high costs for employing people
- etc.
Those are the unfortunate facts. Still, if the customer can buy the same product considerably cheaper from Asia and have it at his home within a week, of course he will! So European distributors and shops naturally have to try to compete with Asia, USA AND Europe today. But the distributor is not there to lose money. If that's what's demanded to sell cars then he will in the long term most probably stop selling that car before it makes his company go bankrupt. So we end up with a situation where there is no distributor selling that car.
Just a somewhat simplified example to show it's a more complex situation than most think. Of course some chose to sell the cars with very little or no profit just because they're Tamiya fanatics
