Place your orders........

With a name like "Garcia" what do expect?

I dig those new North sails with the bright swirly colours...too bad they're not made by Ezzy, otherwise I'd buy one!

rrd most pleasing to the eye - as per usual.

I don't know how they don't break their ankles etc.

trebuchet said...

Can't wait! All this new gear will be SO much cheaper with our strong Aussie Dollar...

You would hope, but unfortunately it means the us dollar is weaker. Which means some of the materials etc. which are purchase in USD cost more! And the relation between the Euro and AUD is pretty much the same, so not much difference there. At the end of the day it all pretty much evens out in the end and costs what it costs. But where you will find a cost difference is a lot of factories are raising their prices, so I wouldn't get your heart set on cheaper gear, it will most likely be more expensive. We haven't received all our pricing yet, but it is pretty clear there are going to be some increases in price across the board.

JB

You would hope, but unfortunately it means the us dollar is weaker. Which means some of the materials etc. which are purchase in USD cost more! And the relation between the Euro and AUD is pretty much the same, so not much difference there. At the end of the day it all pretty much evens out in the end and costs what it costs.

So how come a board is about US$1400 (approx AU$1600) when bought in US vs. $2400 when bought in Australia? I know it's due to the strength of the Ozzie dollar but the question remains who pockets the difference... and AU$ 800 is a big difference in my book.

I will have a new mistral twin fin here soon for your demo pleasure. As soon as they arrive we will let you know, and anyone interested is free to try it. Should also have the starboard evil twin soon to try.
cheers
Jez
2ndwind 08 9317 2916

elmo said...

Cost of Goods
Plus
Freight
Multiply that by
Import Duty
Then multiply that by
Any other Tax (luxury goods?)
Then Multiply that by
Shop Mark up
Then Multiply the whole lot by
GST

• The building you just walked into costs money to rent(or buy)


• The people you talk to all have to be paid



• The stock you just rubbed yourself up against has to be paid for upon receipt by the shop. Don't forget everything in that shop apart from shop fixtures is stock. It gets really scary when you get down to s/s nuts bolts and screws levels.


• What stock the shop has on the shelf at Tax return time has a value on it and subsequently the store gets taxed for that as well.


• There is the insurance on the whole shebang, plus possible liability insurance.


• The accountants have to be paid, unless the shop owner has so much spare time they can do it themselves, else the ATO IRS will get them.


• Bank interest has to be paid


• Then after all that the shop owner would like to make a little profit

As I've never seen a shop owner running in a limo, I'm assuming they don't make a huge amount of money on the kit.

Apart from the additional freight to Australia, all of those things are also true of the shop in the US.. which still leaves the original question!

TAXES, Elmo, TAXES. Unless you are a Taxee driver...

oh and let's bless the fact that parallels imports have been made legal due to the efforts of the ACCC.

Mobydisc said...
No one is stopping you or anyone else from buying stuff overseas and bringing it into Australia yourself. People do it all the time with digital projectors, witness websites like pricejapan.

This is true, i have just ordered a snow board, bindings and boots from the US for $411 Aus, where the boots alone cost me $65 and they're retailing in Sydney for $299!* I had to pay for postage $110 aus for the lot, but that's INCLUDED in the $411.

Major problem is I've never seen this stuff in the flesh and I just hope I got the right size boots - if not they'll go on Ebay where I should be easily able to recover costs.

*this isn't the best example because the US is obviously at the end of it's 2007/8 ski season and there are 70% off sales... but i'm still stoked!

bc said...

I dont think you could say sailboard retailers make a high margin, at full retail on a board there might be $400-$500 in it but most shops offer discounts of to regular customers even a 10 percent discount will mean you might only make $200 to $300 on a $2000 board . compared to alot of industries that work on 80 to 100% mark up. Thenm you.ve got trades which really can burden the shops as more than their profit can be sitting on the rack in the form of a trade.

Thats really the point I want to make. Most windsurfer retailers probably don't do it for the money but because they enjoy the sport and want to be part of the industry. The only way they will make decent money is to markup their prices a fair bit. When you take into account warranty replacements, discounts, upkeep, marketing, wages, GST, insurance, rent etc etc etc, it would be hard make a decent profit.

Back on topic, the new gear looks good. However it seems to be fashion lead. One sailor starts using twinzers and everyone starts making them. I would have thought a good thruster would be the go for wavesailing anyway.

You forgot beer