[quote=terry.sc;37556]Shops over here are usually struggling to make money, they aren't ripping anyone off. Based on those prices if you take off the VAT in the UK then factor in rent, rates and staff wages (US minimum wages work out at £2.60 per hour at the moment) you would probably find the US shops are paying the same trade price as the UK shops for the kit but they will actually be making a bigger profit even though the retail prices are much less.
Yes, profit margins for the distributors can easily be cut, dropping all driver sponsorship and discounting and not bothering with customer support would reduce their outgoings easily. A bit difficult to cut down on the rent, rates, utilities, wages and taxes.
Tamiya can be commended, they discount the prices in Europe so it means it costs roughly the same to buy them in the UK as it does from Japan.[/quote]
O.k. so it's time to come clean now as Terry's bought up the subject of Tamiya, whilst I try and support our LHS who in return give me fair trade in prices on cars & equipment I'm upgrading, I don't buy everything from there. The main reason for that being that my son & I run Tamiya's in TC class.
I'm not sure where Terry's getting his figures from or even where he's getting his supply of Tamiya kits from? Our LHS hasn't stocked anything above a TT01 for years as they say they can't buy them at a cost which would make them competitive with the other manufacturers, they didn't even stock a TB02.
The last I heard the crappy, crappy U.K. distributor for Tamiya didn't even bring in the TRF415's & the TB Evo IV's & V's, the latter of which we run. At the time we bought our Evo V's Fusion Hobbies we're advertising them at £399.00
we bought ours from a very well known RC store in Japan for £195.00 each which included shipping and several spares such as wishbones, body posts, bumpers etc.
Clearly I may have lost touch as I as I havn't bought a Tamiya kit in the U.K. for years just the odd spare part from U.K. suppliers when desperate.
As far as I can see Tamiya, and their U.K. distributor, do little to nothing for those wanting to run their cars in the U.K..
