Thread: Tell 'em they're dreamin...

Let's look at this the other way around. Tools for Working Wood (New York) stocks Colen Clenton gear. Note I said stocks, not special order.

Rose She Oak Cutting Gauge US$249.95.

Price from HNT Gordon website A$276.00

The recent drop in the A$ against US$ has nothing to do with this. I know for a fact that these gauges were sent over during parity.

So how does TFFW achieve that, after paying freight? Magic? Not only are they not substantially more, they are CHEAPER!



Another case:
On the Liogier website you can purchase a 10" Cabinet Makers Rasp, grain #9, Sapphire coated for 103.61 Euros, or about A$143.90.
You can also purchase the same rasp here in Oz for a mere $248.44. See here. Do they stock the rasps in Oz? No, you have to place a special order which will take the same amount of time to arrive as purchasing one "the other way" for $127.75 including freight.

Anyone got an explanation, or care to defend that?

Originally Posted by pmcgee

I wonder if our reaction is related to the size of the item?

Some people here have imported chinese lathes or mills straight from a manufacturer or whatever overseas.
Think of the difficulties and costs involved in that venture vs going to Carbatec or H&F.

It is an extreme example because china is harder to buy from than the us, but it does bear on the discussion.

At the store you can kick the tyres of the demo model, get a guarantee and access to service, and be covered by our consumer laws. Importing you don't know what you're getting until it lands, there is communication with the sender, import and freight costs, delays ...

Paul

All well and good Paul, but you can do the same at a retailer in the other countries.

Originally Posted by BobL

Yep I agree. All of the above analyses make the assumption that the Aussie agents wholesale buy price is the same as the overseas sellers wholesale buy price whereas I know for certain that this is not the case for some items.
In one case involving chainsaws the wholesale price to the Aussie agent is just short of the pre-sales-tax RRP cost to the North American consumer.
This is precisely why you cannot by many items openly overseas and people use forwarding services.

You also need to remember that China sells a lot of stuff to America only marginally above Chinese cost purely because they cannot afford to lose such a large market, while everyone else pays higher prices to pay for the Chinese profit margin.
In contrast on a world scale, Australia is considered a successful economy with a tiny market, with a population that is used to paying high prices and agents that don't go into bat very hard for decent wholesale prices, so the wholesale prices that agents pay are thru the nose and then they mark up accordingly.

Hmmmm.....that's not been my experience Bob, and I've seen a wholesale pricelist or two. Wholesale has been wholesale, regardless of it being sent to Australia. Furthermore, the pricelists I have seen are specifically for handtools.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Let's look at this the other way around. Tools for Working Wood (New York) stocks Colen Clenton gear. Note I said stocks, not special order.
So how does TFFW achieve that, after paying freight? Magic? Not only are they not substantially more, they are CHEAPER!

The common factors between the OP post and this info would suggest that if your potential market is ~220 million, then you can sell at a lower margin than if it is ~20 million.

Plus stuff I don't know about ... business taxes US vs Oz ... cost of staff wages & rent US vs Oz ...

... entrepreneurial spirit?? ...

Cheers,
Paul

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

So, superbunny, I can sell you my spare for ...hmmmm...lemme see......5 bucks? They do more than draw circles (although I do choose not to carry it in my apron - I can wait another 2 seconds to open the draw) - why only just the other day I used it to poke through the coffee grinds in the blocked percolator. They can clean out the teeth of a needle file, and a myriad of other uses. Try that with one of those shiny red thingies!

Thanks, but I have mine on order and they come with a pointy thing that I can use as a scratch awl, and to unblock a percolator and clean my teeth and pop it away so it can't hurt me any more in is storage slot, so the shiny red thing wins again. And did I say drool over it each time I use it and take it to bed and have a picture of it on the wall.


SB

I should point out that I'm in no way suggesting that the Clenton stuff is dearer than it should be through the HNT site. They are not - Terry puts a "fair to all concerned" margin on, as he does with his Adria Saws imported from Canada. ($189 here or US$150 plus freight from Canada)

Originally Posted by Superbunny

Thanks, but I have mine on order and they come with a pointy thing that I can use as a scratch awl, and to unblock a percolator and clean my teeth and pop it away so it can't hurt me any more in is storage slot, so the shiny red thing wins again. And did I say drool over it each time I use it and take it to bed and have a picture of it on the wall.SB

There's, aaah, no answer to that. Have you considered doing some ridicuously detailed research on Saw Files? Might be just the therapy you need.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Paul, no retailer who stocks goods could survive on a 12.5% markup.

Brett

They are a manufacturer and a retailer. Manufacturers deal in volume so can accept a lesser margin. I am guessing as to their profit margin. Perhaps it is $10 (and not $5) at the wholesale level which would be $20 at retail, representing 33% and 66% mark up respectively. Unfortunately I don't know their margins as they have not sought fit to confide in me .

Bear in mind too that good jobs pay for bad jobs. Just to illustrate this you may remember the original Mini (the car not those skimpy little items of apparel that look like they would provoke a class action for sufferers from frostbite). British Leyland never made money from the mini despite that it would have been seen as one of the successful cars of the century: An icon even. They only made money on the larger vehicles. I know, look what happened to BL and for that matter the rest of the Pommie car industry .

I was attempting to illustrate that not everything is roses in the current economic climate. There are companies doing it tough particularly in the States, although I have to say this is a gut feeling which I cannot back up with statistics.

I am sure we would be able to find many exceptions to this as indeed you have done.

Now where did I put that compass? I'm sure it was here in 2003 ?

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

They are a manufacturer and a retailer.

Yes, understood Paul. The point I was making is that there are other retailers of WP gear within the USA, so they couldn't work on a 12.5% markup, which means that the wholesale price must be considerably lower. In fact I'd be very surprised indeed if the wholesale price on the item in question isn't 33% off or 50% on (whichever is the preferred way of looking at it).

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Hmmmm.....that's not been my experience Bob, and I've seen a wholesale pricelist or two. Wholesale has been wholesale, regardless of it being sent to Australia. Furthermore, the pricelists I have seen are specifically for handtools.

Wholesale price lists may be just that since we are not party to the final negotiations and payments between companies. Do you really believe Aldi, Walmart, Home Depot or Lowes pay according to a standard wholesale price list, somehow I doubt it. We (ie Aussies) buy from the list, the big dudes get the big deals - often below cost, just to get the deal in the hope or raising prices later

Originally Posted by BobL

Do you really believe Aldi, Walmart, Home Depot or Lowes pay according to a standard wholesale price list, somehow I doubt it. We (ie Aussies) buy from the list, the big dudes get the big deals - often below cost, just to get the deal in the hope or raising prices later

No, not for a moment. But I'm not talking megastores or chains - just a small retailer and a small manufacturers.

I never thought that drawing a circle could cause such intense discussion. Please...no one attempt to draw a parallelogram...it could get personal.

Craig.

I ordered one from the US website. $ 59 +/- delivered so not that bad.

I wonder what the rationale behind these single tool runs is.

Of course, the non-lightweights will be doing ...